It’s all about animation. Most likely you are familiar with flipbooks. A zoetrope uses similar fixed images seen in sequence each in a split second repeatedly, giving the illusion of motion. But the zoetrope uses a slotted cylinder with images on the inside. When looking through the slots, as the cylinder spins, the inner images seem to move. Here is a good visual explanation of a traditional zoetrope:
You can find more historical information here, but I am more interested how the zoetrope is used in sculpture. I remember seeing a zoetrope when I was very young. It wasn’t until resently that I became interested in making 4D sculptures with reference to a zoetrope. The following pictures are my very small 4 dimensional sculptures. After hanging them on trees, they spin in the wind; the small shapes with letters then move.
In this blog is a video of another piece I’ve made called DNA Prayer Wheel (look to the upper right). It’s a larger piece suspended by a string inside the box. When the viewer blows on the side, the piece winds up and spins. It was entered in the All-Student Juried Art Exhibition at Augsburg College in April of 2010. DNA Prayer Wheel was selected as 1st Place – Award of Excellence by jurors / artists Betsy Byers and Cecilia Ramón.
Now for a large zoetrope. The following is an installation in Venaria, Italy by Artem Limited from the UK. They made the BRAVIA-drome for Sony that was used for a Sony advertisement. It’s quite impressive:
Next are sculptural zoetropes. Dimensional zoetropes use strobe lights to create the illusion of motion. Peter Hudson is a master artist in the use of dimensional zoetropes. His "Deeper" was displayed at Burning Man in 2004. Here is a good look at it:
There are many more types of animations techniques such as phenakistoscopes, praxinoscope, zoopraxiscope, mutoscope, and flip books, but I hope you enjoyed seeing these zoetropes.
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