This presentation explores the “toy film” (omocha eiga) not as a marginal sub-genre of Japanese cinema, but as a critical site of media archaeology that reveals an alternative history of spectatorship. Drawing on rare materials preserved by the Omochaeiga Museum in Kyoto, the study investigates how early viewing devices shaped modes of viewing based on play (asobi), interruption, and tactile engagement, rather than passive immersion.

Rather than tracing moving-image culture only through projection history, this study examines how playful visual devices and toys shaped viewing practices in early cinema. Using a media-archaeological framework, I argue that toy films functioned as essential domestic tools for visual literacy, contributing to what I describe as a "tactile gaze" grounded in rhythm, repetition, and embodied interaction. In dialogue with the conference theme of Technology and Artificial Intelligence, toy film is here positioned as a form of "mechanical intelligence"; a human-scaled counterpoint to contemporary algorithmic media systems that emphasizes viewer agency over automated image flow.

By foregrounding material engagement, this research suggests that toy film offers a vital corrective to dominant narratives of cinematic development. This materialist approach challenges teleological accounts of media progress and proposes methodological insights for future film and media studies concerned with non-immersive, participatory, and post-screen forms of spectatorship.

Authors:
Damien Spiccia, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Australia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Damien Spiccia is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, at Edith Cowan University, in Perth, Australia.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damienspiccia/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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