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What Is In A Kiss?

A new multimedia installation in Raleigh looks at the intimacy of the kiss on public display.
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A new multimedia installation in Raleigh looks at the intimacy of the kiss on public display.

When Thomas Edison put the first kiss on film at his Black Maria studio in 1896, it was nothing short of scandalous. The 23-second, silent, black and white footage put the intimate on public display.

A new interactive multimedia project in Raleigh explores the intimacy of the kiss by inviting members of the public to have their kisses filmed in the same style as that first infamous lip-locking.

Raleigh's Flanders Gallery hosts the installation, Public Displays, on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 5 p.m.

Host Frank Stasio talks with three of the project's collaborators: North Carolina State University film professor Marsha Gordon; librarian and digital archivist Josephine McRobbie; and architect and visual artist Louis Cherry.

Take a look at the original video from 1896 below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUyTcpvTPu0

Below are some of the videos included in the installation:

Laura Lee was the managing editor of The State of Things until mid February 2017. Born and raised in Monroe, North Carolina, Laura returned to the Old North state in 2013 after several years in Washington, DC. She received her B.A. in political science and international studies from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2002 and her J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law in 2007.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
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