Zoetrope Day

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‘Our culture is experiencing a profound radiation of new species of media. The centralized, dinosaurian one-to-many media that roared and trampled through the 20th century are poorly adapted to the postmodern technological environment. The new media environment is aswarm with lumbering toothy digital mammals. It’s all lynxes here, and gophers there, plus big fat venomous webcrawlers, appearing in Pleistocene profusion.

‘Nothing gives me greater pleasure as a professional garage futurist than to ponder some weird new mutant medium and wonder how this squawking little monster is going to wriggle its way into the interstices between human beings. Still, there’s a difference between this pleasurable contemplation of the technological sublime and an actual coherent understanding of the life and death of media. We have no idea in hell what we are doing to ourselves with these new media technologies, and no consistent way even to discuss the subject. Something constructive ought to be done about this situation.

‘Plenty of wild wired promises are already being made for all the infant media. What we need is a somber, thoughtful, thorough, hype-free, even lugubrious book that honors the dead and resuscitates the spiritual ancestors of today’s mediated frenzy. A book to give its readership a deeper, paleontological perspective right in the dizzy midst of the digital revolution. We need a book about the failures of media, the collapses of media, the supercessions of media, the strangulations of media, a book detailing all the freakish and hideous media mistakes that we should know enough now not to repeat, a book about media that have died on the barbed wire of technological advance, media that didn’t make it, martyred media, dead media.

‘It’s a rather rare phenomenon for an established medium to die. If media make it past their Golden Vaporware stage, they usually expand wildly in their early days and then shrink back to some protective niche as they are challenged by later and more highly evolved competitors. Radio didn’t kill newspapers, TV didn’t kill radio or movies, video and cable didn’t kill broadcast network TV; they just all jostled around seeking a more perfect app.

‘But some media do, in fact, perish. Such as: the teleharmonium. The Edison wax cylinder. The stereopticon. The Panorama. Early 20th century electric searchlight spectacles. Morton Heilig’s early virtual reality. Telefon Hirmondo. The various species of magic lantern. The pneumatic transfer tubes that once riddled the underground of Chicago. Was the Antikythera Device a medium? Or take the zoetrope.’ — Bruce Sterling

 

 

‘The earliest zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the inventor Ting Huan. Ting Huan’s device, driven by convection, hung over a lamp and was called chao hua chich kuan (the pipe which makes fantasies appear). The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which translucent paper or mica panels hung. When the device was spun at the right speed, pictures painted on the panels would appear to move.

‘The modern zoetrope was invented in 1833 by British mathematician William George Horner. He called it the “daedalum”, most likely as a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus, though it was popularly referred to as “the wheel of the devil”. The daedalum failed to become popular until the 1860s, when it was patented by both English and American makers, including Milton Bradley. The American developer William F. Lincoln named his toy the “zoetrope”, meaning “wheel of life.” Almost simultaneously, similar inventions were made independently in Belgium by Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (the phenakistoscope) and in Austria by Simon von Stampfer (the stroboscope).

‘The zoetrope worked on the same principles as the phenakistiscope, but the pictures were drawn on a strip which could be set around the bottom third of a metal drum, with the slits now cut in the upper section of the drum.The drum was mounted on a spindle and spun; viewers looking through the slits would see the cartoon strip form a moving image. The faster the drum was spun, the smoother the animation appeared.’ — André Gaudreault

 

 

Mat Collishaw

‘Mat Collishaw’s interest in the Victorians is no coincidence: 19th century Britain viewed itself in the light of scientific progress and empirical soberness. An age inhabited by educated and prosaic people. In retrospect however, child prostitution, poverty, perversion and a collective blood-lust ran parallel to what was deemed an enlightened age. Collishaw references the Victorian period by simulating its elaborately decorative, romantic style, but he indirectly conjures up that society’s dark side, the corrupt underbelly so pertinent to the present day. He drags our darkest urges into the light – illustrating that humans will never overcome their baser instincts, regardless of aesthetic or scientific advancement.’ — Blain/Southern

 

Retchy

‘Retchy (aka Graeme Hawkins) is an animator, vj and sound designer based in Dundee, Scotland. He has worked on feature films (Sylvain Chomet’s Oscar nominated ‘The Illusionist’) and nationally broadcast TV adverts, and is now going freelance with his idiosyncratic, experimental approach to animation. He likes playing about with animation techniques, and is especially interested in the combination of old and new technologies and ideas, like hand drawn projection mapping and 3D Zoetropes.’ — retch.com

 

Aston Coles

‘Aston Coles is part of the independent art production body known as Planet Goatsucker, creators of art, film, and noise events. He plays an instrument called The Swamp Badger in the noise band Deaf Squab. “I am making machines which delineate movement in space. Specifically by animating my sculpture-making process. The machines are working models of the themselves. I find that mirrors are tools which propagate images of other things. Shadows are useful in the same way for looking at sculpture. These things are vision multipliers. My aim is to expand the parameters of the known world by the addition of new features.”‘ — Aston Coles

 

Jim Le Fevre

Watch here

‘For a few years I have been playing around with a nice little technique using a record player and a camera to create a different kind of Zoetrope. It is one of those things that is more pleasurable watching in real-life however Malcolm Goldie has edited some of the footage from our night at the last ever Heavy Pencil at the ICA in May. Although the evening went well, it really was a testing ground for some of Malcolm and I’s thoughts and it threw up promise and mistakes in equal measure. Malcolm has re-cut a track for this edit and in typical inspired fashion used only (mostly) a box of old 45s he got handed from a retiring wedding DJ for the samples.’ — Jim Le Fevre

 

John Edmark

‘Blooms are 3-D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. Unlike a 3D zoetrope, which animates a sequence of small changes to objects, a bloom animates as a single self-contained sculpture. The bloom’s animation effect is achieved by progressive rotations of the golden ratio, phi (ϕ), the same ratio that nature employs to generate the spiral patterns we see in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotational speed and strobe rate of the bloom are synchronized so that one flash occurs every time the bloom turns 137.5º (the angular version of phi).* Each bloom’s particular form and behavior is determined by a unique parametric seed I call a phi-nome (/fī nōm/).’ — John Edmark

 

Gregory Barsamian

‘A dream world often remains left to the realm of the unconscious, a separate world of its own. But Gregory Barsamian’s animated zoetrope sculptures bring this dream world into our waking perceptions. Rationality is left behind and we descend into a world of uncertainty. We enter the shadows, perceiving the fine line between real and imaginary. This dream world of Barsamian finds its inspiration from theories of the unconscious and its outlet in kinetic sculpture.’ — Kinetic Art Fair

 

Ernest Zacharevic

Ernest Zacharevic: For me animation as well as kinetic art is a media, which is capable of evoking the dialogue and interaction with its viewer and environment. The art of motion allows me to explore the shifting correlation of time and space. I try to redefine the boundaries between still and motion in my work. I intend to take animation out of its traditional dimensions and bring into confrontation with our everyday experience. The agency of my work comes from the combination of post-socialist upbringing in Lithuania and orthodox use of media mixed with ironic interpretations of the ongoing conflict between an individual and society. I never intend to represent the reality in my work; instead I attempt to absorb the surrounding I am living in and to express my personal relationship in the images I create.

 

Elliot Schultz

‘Inspired by the work of Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker, I aimed to guide my production process indirectly through the limitations afforded by alternative media. Their invention, the pin screen, was used as the sole medium in the production of six short films, and shaped the outcome of their work. In response, I have designed and embroidered animated sequences onto discs, similar to the Phenakistokope, Zoopraxiscope and Stamfer Disc layouts. This repurposing of media introduced strict parameters, namely spatial, tonal and temporal, and has greatly informed all stages of my process.’ — Elliot Schultz

 

Dan Hayhurst

‘Dan Hayhurst plays digital media devices, reel to reel tape recorder, sampler, effectron and walkman. Reuben Sutherland plays video zoetrope record deck. Psychophonotropic picture discs printed with intricate visual patterns animate when videoed, beaming looping fragments of surreal, luridly coloured imagery into eyeballs and brains at 25 frames per second – Victorian mechanical imaging technology combined with digital video.’ — tape box.co.uk

 

ACMI

‘ACMI’s zoetrope, tucked away in Screen World’s ‘Sensation’ area, is deceptively dull when it is still. It looks like a bizarre wedding cake, with hundreds of creatures and objects suspended on a circular, tiered structure. But when the music kicks in, the carousel starts to revolve and the strobe lights flash furiously. The magic begins! In a spectacular 3D optical illusion, the characters appear to come alive.’ — acme

 

Woohun Lee, Jinha Seong

‘The authors have turned the Zoetrope, initially an optical toy from the pre-cinema era, into a three-dimensional (3D) animation display. “Crystal Zoetrope” is a new visual medium involving a glass disc with numerous engraved objects that displays a sophisticated 3D animation. It can be built in small sizes and even be embedded in everyday objects or environments. Using this new visual medium, the authors produced the 3D animation “Sea of Stars” that portrays the life cycle of planets in the universe.’ — Leonardo Journal

 

Alexandre Dubosc

‘French animator Alexandre Dubosc specializes in ‘caketropes’ or 3D zoetropes, spinning animation machines, that look like chocolate cakes. Freequences, his July 2019 creation, explores the repetition of sound waves, vibrations, patterns, and musical instruments.’ — The Kid Should See This

 

Eric Dyer

‘Eric Dyer is an artist, experimental animator, and educator whose work has shown at such events as the Sundance Film Festival, exhibited at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art and the Venice Biennale. He currently uses spinning sculptures to create films and installations. He’s had music videos play on MTV, MTV Europe, The Box, and B.E.T. and animations aired on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and Fox International. “Copenhagen Cycles” is a fantastical, collaged bicycle tour through a zoetropic rendition of Denmarks capital. He uses sculptures, paper cut outs, and live footage to animate the hypnotizing ride.”‘ — barrabinfc

 

Fallon

‘Advertising agency Fallon built an enormous zoetrope in Venaria, a town near Turin in northern Italy. The zoetrope presents a series of still images of the footballer Kaká, which when rotated (at speeds up to 50km per hour) and viewed through small slits on the outside of the zoetrope, give the illusion of being animated. The purpose of the Bravia-drome is to show off Sony’s new Motionflow technology. MotionFlow allows BRAVIA televisions to insert transitional images into action sequences in order to increase smoothness at 240Hz that might otherwise be choppy.’ — Creative Review

 

Ghibli/Pixar

‘In 2005-ish Pixar created their own Toy Story-themed version of the famous Studio Ghibli Zoetrope in in the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. It toured many science museums and galleries around the world.’ — Zoetrope Development

 

Jackson Holmes

‘Jet Engine/Zoetrope by Jackson Holmes. University of Brighton, 66-68 Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 0JY. SHOW DATES: Friday 3rd June – Private View (tickets only), Saturday 4th June – 12 noon – 8pm, Sunday 5th June – 12 noon – 6pm, Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th June – 10am – 8pm, Thursday 9th June – 10am – 4pm’ — jacksonholmes.tumblr

 

Troika

‘DIGITAL ZOETROPE is an installation which Troika created for onedotzero when commissioned to design a custom installation and visual identity around the theme of the festival ‘Citystates’. Opting to make an installation and identity that integrate into each other, Troika created a modern DIGITAL ZOETROPE as the cornerstone of the identity, which celebrates both the heritage of motion arts as well as its digital present.’ — troikalondon

 

Tee Ken Ng

‘Starting with a fascination for effects and optical illusions, artist and animator Tee Ken Ng combines stop motion with the zoetrope technique of yesteryear to create these incredible animations. Using simple illustrations and acetate discs, he brings these videos to life.’ — Domestika

 

Akinori Goto

‘In 2015, a young media artist named Akinori Goto created a fascinating device called toki, meaning “time” in Japanese. Goto explained that it was “a media installation born from a combination of modern technologies:” the age-old zoetrope meets 3D printing technology. Goto captured the movement of a person walking and translated it into a data series, which was then turned into a repeating loop. The result was then fed into a 3D printer. That object was then placed on a rotating turntable and a light was projected onto it to isolate the different movements and….you know what, better to just watch the videos.’ — Spoon & Tamago

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p.s. Hey. Tomorrow morning I have to get up early and go to the prefecture to get my French residency visa — or I certainly hope it’s that simple. Since I have no clue how long that will take, I’m going to give the blog a little vacation tomorrow, but both it and I will be back as per regular on Friday. ** Dominik, Hi!!! You made it inside again! Hopefully the spell is broken. I think/hope the script will be finished at last this week. Yeah, the rest of this month is pretty packed with screenings — Brussels, Berlin, Palermo (although I’m not 100% sure if we’ll go for that one), and Amsterdam. How are you? What were you doing with reality during the blog blackout? Love doubling down on your hope with all his mighty might too, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, The Scottish team is called Hearts? How loveable. If an ignoramus’s hopes will contribute to their victory, consider me a good neighbor. ** Ewan Morrison, Hi, Ewan. Very good to make your acquaintance. My pleasure on the WWD front. I think I used to know about the strong experimental film scene in Glasgow, or I mean I remember reading about that. Is it possible for you to get some likeminded chums together and start organising some screenings? I was lucky to grow up in LA where there’s always been an experimental film scene and contingent, even back when I was a young teenager, and that basically helped make me as an artist and person. Your project of contributing new sound/music to Peter Tscherkassky’s films is very interesting indeed. Yes, I’d be very curious and interested to see what you’ve made, if you feel like sharing. The would be a boon. Thanks a lot for thinking of me re: that work. Is sound manipulation a main focus of your work/interest in general? It’s a pleasure to get to talk with you. ** Carsten, Hey. The shooting script of ‘RT’, which of course got consolidated during the shooting and editing, is/was 22,440 words/90 pages. The shoot was a month (27 days). Your film idea sounds of course quite interesting. Seems like it would be a lot easier to make than ‘RT’ was. Because of my upcoming traveling and the traveling of another club member, the next Zoom meeting won’t be for a few weeks. I’m picking the film for that meeting, and I haven’t decided what it will be yet. ** Hugo, Yeah, it’s going to be a flash of a Brussels visit, but oh well. You’re making Tomodachi Life sound a whole lot more interesting than I had imagined. My clone has a lot broader romantic tastes than I do, that’s for sure. Um, hm, put GG Allin in the game and see what happens? ** Adem Berbic, I haven’t watched ‘Skin’ yet, but I will watch/report. It might be interesting for you to see what you look like externally when you freak out assuming your freak out reads believably. Well, ‘Trash Humpers’. ** Steeqhen, I would definitely not recommend psychedelics if you’re feeling even slightly fragile. I only did them when I felt solid as a rock. So sorry about the bad doc. But you sound like you found a proper antidote. I don’t know that French killer. I think I’d stopped researching those guys pretty much by the 80s. Huh. ** HaRpEr //, Dixon had very interesting film tastes in addition to his filmmaking prowess, yes. ‘The Masturbator’s Heart’, yes, really good. Seeing that is what made us cast Ange in ‘RT’ even though his performance in ‘RT’ couldn’t be more completely different. I hope that some venue in somewhere in London will eventually want ‘RT’ because that just seems logical, but nothing yet. So strange. A film series in Leeds wants it, so it might show there first. I like Claire Rousay’s work too. She knows and likes my work? Wow, that’s wild. Knowing something like that is so mind-blowing. Thanks! ** voskat, Hi. Indeed. Okay, thanks for the heads up about Laura’s thwarted comment. I will go read it, of course. Anarcho-futurist era: that’s kind of music to my ears at least if I don’t think too thoroughly about it. Take care yourself, and thank you again. ** Okay. Your optional assignment for today and tomorrow is to think about the zoetrope if you feel so inclined. See you on Friday.