Final Conclusions and Future Directions for Reinventing Analogue in the Digital Era The diversity of analogue film formats makes it impractical to draw broad conclusions applicable to all. Therefore, our findings are specific to our experiences with 16mm black-and-white negatives, captured using vintage amateur or semi-professional spring-wound, noisy cameras. Our conclusions focus on two key areas: artistic expression and artistic education. The most important conclusion is that this particular analogue technology derives its power of artistic expression not from the perfection of reproducing reality, but from its imperfections. Elements such as flickering caused by frame instability, image grain, irregular frame rates, over- and underexposure, and various forms of physical or chemical damage to the film material all contribute to its unique aesthetic. Before the rise of digital technology, most users sought to achieve perfection in analogue imaging. However, digital technology has clearly surpassed analogue in this pursuit. As Susan Sontag observed, photography freed painting from the compulsion to imitate reality, as the mechanical reproduction of reality was more credible than 1 painting – even when photographs contained less visual information or detail. This liberation allowed painting to explore new forms of artistic expression, and similarly, analogue film can now embrace its imperfections as a source of creative potential. Similarly, we can say that digital film technology has assumed many of the tasks traditionally associated with analogue film, liberating analogue technology from the compulsion to imitate reality. This freedom allows analogue technology to explore new avenues of artistic expression, particularly those rooted in its inherent imperfections. These imperfections are more than just aesthetic, they not only hint at the archival nature of the footage but also capture its evocative qualities, reflecting memory and the imaginative process. Our visual imagination is neither perfect nor fully detailed – it is inherently selective. Through our inner vision, we perceive fragments of imagined reality, often discontinuous and incomplete. To express the subjective, imaginative nature of footage – whether reflecting the 1 Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. 70