ABSTRACT
At the end of the nineteenth century, photographers such as Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey conceived processes for the fragmentation of time. The techniques of these two photographers diverged appreciably. Filmmakers thus began relying on slow motion to capture the types of fleeting expressions that are ordinarily difficult to portray. Initiated by filmmakers, research on time manipulation was then continued by video artists. If slow-motion effects provide a simulacrum that approaches the way in which the brain functions to unravel situations of great complexity, they also offer anthropologists a method for analyzing ritual aspects that go beyond conventional narrative description. When the film returns to real time, the slow motion that preceded it seems to persist in the form of an afterglow. In their songs, Gypsy performers at times disrupt the meaning of the spoken lyrics and sing only in lalies, a series of meaningless sounds, indicating rejection of literal, formed lyrics.
