There is No Such Thing as a Dead Heat: Images as Evidence in Sport
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2024
1:30pm - 3:30pm
Lecture by:
Jonathan Finn
In the 1880s photographers began to promote the use of the camera to determine placing in sport, predicting there would never again be a tie or dead-heat. Such proclamations were based in the belief that the mechanically-produced image could solve the inadequacies of human vision and produce irrefutable visual evidence. Today, advanced photo-finish systems divide the second into 10,000ths yet ties and dead-heats remain common from local races to the Olympic Games. How can this be? This lecture offers a history of the photo-finish as both a technological and human problem. It explains why, despite more than a century of technological advancements, we are no closer in 2024 to eradicating the dead-heat than we were in the 1880s. And it also explains why we won’t stop trying.
About Jonathan Finn
Jonathan Finn
Dr. Jonathan Finn is Professor of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier. He is the author of Beyond the Finish Line: Images, Evidence, and the History of the Photo-Finish (McGill-Queen’s, 2020) and Capturing the Criminal Image: From Mugshot to Surveillance Society (Minnesota, 2009) and editor of Visual Communication and Culture: Images in Action (Oxford 2012). His current research project is funded by the SDr. Jonathan Finn is Professor of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier. He is the author of Beyond the Finish Line: Images, Evidence, and the History of the Photo-Finish (McGill-Queen’s, 2020) and Capturing the Criminal Image: From Mugshot to Surveillance Society (Minnesota, 2009) and editor of Visual Communication and Culture: Images in Action (Oxford 2012). His current research project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and is an examination of self-tracking in health and fitness with a focus on endurance sport.ocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and is an examination of self-tracking in health and fitness with a focus on endurance sport.