Since its introduction in 1976, the rhetoric surrounding Steadicam has emphasized the embodied nature of the technology. This article tests these claims against scholarly work on visual conventions as well as on embodiment and the related concept of Image Schemas as coined by Maarten Coëgnarts and Peter Kravanja. I will link both these approaches to the underlying idea of contingent human universals and how these undergird visual conventions. I will also turn to the field of evolutionary biology and epigenetic inheritance to add a (evolutionary) biological lens to these concepts. In doing so, I will argue for Steadicam's very special relationship with embodied camera movement and the specific new visual conventions it instigated.
David Vanden Bossche obtained a summa cum laude master's degree in art studies at the University of Ghent and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He wrote his master's thesis on documentary film and its influence on the early African cinema. His PhD study was devoted to the history of the Steadicam and its influence on film aesthetics, linking to the field of neurocinematics and interdisciplinary research from evolutionary biology and genetics. David has been a film critic for years and wrote articles for several printed and online publications and is currently editor-in-chief for the Enola online film magazine. dvandenbossc@wisc.edu; ORCID: