Folioscopes

Object On display
Photograph by Egmont Contreras, ACMI.

They’re called folioscopes in France and translate to ‘thumb cinema’ in German, but they’re best known as flipbooks. Images come to life when you rapidly flip through pages of sequential illustrations or photographs. Popular since the 1860s, flipbooks have been used as promotional tools, cereal box prizes and artworks. They have animated everything from boxing matches and erotic dances to political propaganda and cartoons.

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Related articles

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

On display until

16 February 2031

ACMI: Gallery 1

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-02. Play and Illusion → MI-02-C02

Collected

4370 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/100514--folioscopes/ |title=Folioscopes |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=15 October 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}