Zoetrope

A modern replica of a Victorian zoetrope

A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. The name Zoetrope was composed from the Greek root words ζωή zoe, "life" and τρόπος tropos, "turning".

The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion. From the late 19th century, devices working on similar principles have been developed, named analogously as linear zoetropes and 3D zoetropes, with traditional zoetropes referred to as "cylindrical zoetropes" if distinction is needed.

Invention

An earthenware bowl from Iran, over 5000 years old, could be considered a predecessor of the zoetrope. This bowl is decorated in a series of images portraying a goat jumping toward a tree and eating its leaves.^[1] Another device which one historian of Chinese technology called "a variety of zoetrope" was created around 100 BC by the inventor Ding Huan (丁緩),^[2] but the exact nature of that device, which is commonly misreported in derivative sources, and the historian's definition of "a variety of zoetrope" are both very unclear.^[3]

The basic drum-like form of the zoetrope was created in 1833^[4] or 1834 by British mathematician William George Horner, who was aware of the recently invented and closely related phenakistoscope disc.^[5] Horner's revolving drum had viewing slits between the pictures. He called it the "daedaleum" (sometimes misspelled "daedalum" or "daedatelum" and erroneously claimed to mean "the wheel of the devil"), a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus.^[5] The daedaleum failed to become popular until the 1860s, when a variant with the viewing slits on a level above the pictures, which allowed the use of easily replaceable continuous strips of images, was patented by both English and American makers, including Milton Bradley. The American inventor William F. Lincoln named his version the "zoetrope", meaning "wheel of life".^[6]

The zoetrope works on the same principle as the phenakistoscope but is more convenient and allows the animation to be viewed by several people at the same time. Instead of being radially arrayed on a disc, the sequence of pictures depicting phases of motion is on a paper strip. For viewing, this is placed against the inner surface of the lower part of an open-topped metal drum, the upper part of which is provided with a vertical viewing slit across from each picture. The drum, on a spindle base, is spun. Due to persistence of vision, viewers looking in through the passing slits see each picture on the strip seem to be suddenly replaced by the next in the sequence. The phi phenomenon is responsible for the illusion of animation. The faster the drum is spun, the smoother the animation appears.

The earliest projected moving images were displayed using a magic lantern zoetrope. This crude projection of moving images occurred as early as the 1860s.

The praxinoscope was an improvement on the zoetrope that became popular toward the end of the 19th century,^[7] displacing the zoetrope for practical uses; a magic lantern praxinoscope was demonstrated in the 1880s.

For displaying moving images, zoetropes were displaced by more advanced technology, notably film and later television. However, in the early 1970s, Sega used a mechanism similar to an ancient zoetrope in order to create electro-mechanical arcade games that would resemble later first-person video games.^[8]

Since the late 20th century, zoetropes have seen occasional use for artwork, entertainment, and other media use, notably as linear zoetropes on subway lines, and from the early 21st century some 3D zoetropes.

Linear zoetropes

A linear zoetrope consists of an opaque linear screen with thin vertical slits in it. Behind each slit is an image, often illuminated. A motion picture is seen by moving past the display.

Linear zoetropes have several differences compared to cylindrical zoetropes due to their different geometries. Linear zoetropes can have arbitrarily long animations and can cause images to appear wider than their actual sizes.

Subway zoetropes

United States

The Masstransiscope artwork

In September 1980, independent filmmaker Bill Brand installed a type of linear zoetrope he called the "Masstransiscope" in an unused subway platform at the former Myrtle Avenue station on the New York City Subway. It consists of a wall with 228 slits; behind each slit is a hand-painted panel, and riders of passing trains see a motion picture. After falling into a state of disrepair, the "Masstransiscope" was restored in late 2008.^[9] Since then, a variety of artists and advertisers have begun to use subway tunnel walls to produce a zoetrope effect when viewed from moving trains.

Joshua Spodek, as an astrophysics graduate student, conceived of and led the development of a class of linear zoetropes that saw the zoetrope's first commercial success in over a century. A display of his design debuted in September 2001 in the Atlanta subway system tunnel and showed an advertisement to riders moving past. The display is internally lit and nearly 980 feet (300 m) long, with an animation lasting around 20 seconds. His design soon appeared, both commercially and artistically, in subway systems around North America, Asia, and Europe.^[10]

In April 2006, the Washington Metro installed advertisement zoetropes between the Metro Center and Gallery Place subway stations.^[11] A similar advertisement was installed on the PATH train in New Jersey, between the World Trade Center and Exchange Place stations.

At around the same time, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system installed a zoetrope-type advertisement between the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations which could be viewed by commuters traveling in either direction. The BART ads are still visible, though they are changed infrequently: a particular ad may remain up for several months before being replaced.

The New York City Subway hosted two digital linear zoetropes through its Arts for Transit program. One, "Bryant Park in Motion", was installed in 2010 at the Bryant Park subway station, and was created by Spodek and students at New York University's Tisch School of Arts' Interactive Telecommunications Program.^[12] The other, "Union Square in Motion", was installed in 2011 by Spodek and students and alumni from Parsons the New School for Design's Art, Media, and Technology program in the Union Square station.^[13]

Other places

The Kiev Metro (in Kiev, Ukraine) also featured an advertisement about 2008 for Life mobile telephone carrier in one of its subway tunnels that featured the zoetrope effect. It was quickly taken down.

In Mexico City, Mexico, an advertisement for the Honda Civic featuring a zoetrope effect was placed in one of the Line 2 tunnels.

3D zoetropes

3D zoetropes apply the same principle to three-dimensional models. This variation was suggested by several inventors including Étienne-Jules Marey, who in 1887 used a large zoetrope to animate a series of plaster models based on his chronophotographs of birds in flight.^[14] Modern equivalents normally dispense with the slitted drum and instead use a rapidly flashing strobe light to illuminate the models, producing much clearer and sharper distortion-free results. The models are mounted on a rotating base and the light flashes on and off within an extremely small fraction of a second as each successive model passes the same spot. The stroboscopic effect makes each seem to be a single animated object. By allowing the rotation speed to be slightly out of synchronization with the strobe, the animated objects can be made to appear to also move slowly forwards or backwards, according to how much faster or slower each rotation is than the corresponding series of strobe flashes.

Ghibli

Toy Story zoetrope at Disney California Adventure creates illusion of motion using figures, rather than static pictures.

The Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, Japan hosts a 3D zoetrope featuring characters from the animated movie My Neighbour Totoro. The zoetrope is accompanied by an explanatory display, and is part of an exhibit explaining the principles of animation and historical devices.

Toy Story

Pixar created a 3D zoetrope inspired by Ghibli's for its touring exhibition, which first showed at the Museum of Modern Art and features characters from Toy Story. Two more 3D zoetropes have been created by Pixar, both featuring 360-degree viewing. One was installed at Disney California Adventure Park, sister park to Disneyland, but has since been moved to The Walt Disney Studios Lot in Burbank, CA. The other is installed at Hong Kong Disneyland. The original Toy Story zoetrope still travels worldwide and has been shown in: London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Melbourne, Australia; Seoul, South Korea; Helsinki, Finland; Monterrey, Mexico; Taipei, Taiwan; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Singapore; Shanghai, China; and Hamburg, Germany. It is currently on display at the exhibition for the Pixar's 25th anniversary at Amsterdam Expo in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

All Things Fall

This zoetrope is created by the British artist Mat Collishaw and is inspired by a painting by Ippolito Scarsella of The Massacre of Innocents.^[15] The work, named "All things Fall", presented during the solo exhibition "Black Mirror" at Galleria Borghese in Rome is made of steel, aluminium, plaster, resin, lit by LED lights and powered by an electric motor. Of his work, Collishaw says: “The zoetrope literally repeats characters to create an overwhelming orgy of violence that is simultaneously appalling and compelling.” It was originally designed in three dimensions. Each model figure was 3D printed in ABS printing. The ABS material is a special strong plastic used in this additive prototype systems called FDM.

Peter Hudson

Over the period 2002–2015, Peter Hudson and the makers at Spin Art, LLC, have created multiple interactive 3D stroboscopic zoetrope art installations. This began with "Sisyphish" (2002),^[16] a human powered zoetrope that used strobe light to animate human figures swimming on a large rotating disk. Sisyphish, sometimes called the Playa Swimmers,^[17] was originally unveiled at the arts and culture event, Burning Man, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

Peter has since created stroboscopic zoetropes from 2004 to present including: "Deeper"^[18] (2004), "Homouroboros"^[19] (2007), "Tantalus"^[20] (2008), and "Charon",^[21] which toured Europe^[22] and the United Kingdom in Summer of 2012.^[23] The Charon zoetrope is built to resemble and rotate in the same kinetic fashion as a ferris wheel, stands at 32 feet high, weighs 8 tons and features twenty rowing skeleton figures^[24] representing the mythological character, Charon, who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx.

The most recent zoetrope creation is entitled "Eternal Return", took two years to build, and was unveiled in 2014 in the Black Rock Desert. Peter Hudson's zoetropes are based in San Francisco^[25] are exhibited at various festivals and special events in the United States and internationally throughout the year.^[26]

World record

The BRAVIA-drome at Venaria, in Northern Italy

In 2008, Artem Limited, a UK visual effects house, built a 10-meter wide, 10-metric ton zoetrope for Sony, called the BRAVIA-drome, to promote Sony's motion interpolation technology. It features 64 images of the Brazilian footballer Kaká. This has been declared the largest zoetrope in the world by Guinness World Records.^[27][28]

Media uses

In popular culture

Blue Man Group uses a zoetrope at their shows in Las Vegas and the Sharp Aquos Theater in Universal Studios (in Orlando, Florida).

The 1999 film House on Haunted Hill uses a man-sized zoetrope chamber as a twisted horror theme.

A zoetrope was used in the filming the music video for "My Last Serenade" from Alive or Just Breathing (2002) by Killswitch Engage. It features a woman looking through the slits on a zoetrope while it moves; as she looks closer, the camera moves through the slits into the zoetrope, where the band is playing the song.

In 2007, an image of a zoetrope was unveiled as one of BBC Two's new idents: a futuristic city with flying cars seen through the shape of the number two.

In 2009 the E4 drama program Skins released silent preview clips of series four to coincide with their mash-up competition. One of the clips featured the character Emily Fitch looking into a zoetrope.

9/11 Zoetrope by Scott Blake

In 2011, Scott Blake created a "9/11 Zoetrope" allowing viewers to watch a continuous reenactment of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.^[29]

In 2013, director Jeff Zwart created a two-minute film, “Forza/Filmspeed”, promoting Forza Motorsport 5. The production placed high resolution still images from the game on panels around Barber Motorsports Park and filmed them from a camera attached to a McLaren MP4-12C sports car. ^{[30] [31] [32]}

See also

• Kinegram
• Praxinoscope
• Strobe light
• Zoopraxiscope
• Phonotrope

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zoetrope.

• "From Daedaleum to Zoetrope", Part 1 and Part 2, by Stephen Herbert. Profusely illustrated and sourced. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
• Zoetrope (information on the zoetrope from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
• Further information and a picture can be found here.
• Burns, Paul The History of the Discovery of Cinematography An Illustrated Chronology
• A demonstration of similar optical toys, including the phenakistoscope, praxinoscope and thaumatrope
• Bill Brand's Masstransiscope can be found here.