Digitized ‘Phenakistoscope’ Animations

Phenakistoscopes were early animation devices that created an illusion of motion similar to today's GIFs.

They relied on a disc with sequential illustrations to create looping animations when viewed through small slits in a mirror. They were produced in great volumes across Europe in the early to mid 19th century.









Richard Balzer has a large collection of phenakistoscopes that he and his assistant Brian Duffy have been digitizing, animating and sharing the results on Tumblr since 2012.

Via Colossal

Comments

Statcounter