This is one of the first devices to create the illusion of motion from still images. A stroboscopic cardboard disc featuring a sequence of slightly different pictures is mounted on a handle. Around the disc’s rim, above the images, are equally spaced slots. Nothing magical happens when you spin the disc, but the images flicker to life when you peer through the slots at the disc’s reflection in a mirror.
Invented almost simultaneously in 1832 by Joseph Plateau in Brussels and Simon von Stampfer in Berlin, the phenakistiscope was an important predecessor of the zoetrope, and its infinitely looping animation is reminiscent of today’s GIFs.
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On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
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The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Pictures → MI-02. Play and Illusion → MI-02-C02