Shadow play (1)
Using light and ones imagination, one can create creatures, settings and atmosphere by using hands, puppets made out of card and wire, or in some instances, peoples entire body as a prop to create something one might see in their everyday lives.
Even though that the idea is basic, like a white sheet and a controllable light source, it became a popular form of entertainment before cinema would come along and change the world.
Tricks of light (2)
Using glass as the main medium to create prisms to divide light, distorted mirrors and perspective changing lenses to make patterns and reflections one would not normally see. Use of this tech can be seen today in collideascopes and fun mirrors. The prisms are often used in scientific experiments and are used as
Crystals one would find hinging in a room, and would produce colours as light would pass through them.
Riddles of Perspective (3)
I have had experience in graphical drawings (buildings, houses, furniture etc) where perspective is important in building an object in order to get a client to see what you see and also to solve problems and get the true measurement of the object one wishes to build.
But this can more often than not take on an artistic application, as perspective can be played on in order to get the viewer to decipher and decide what they are seeing.
The riddles on perspective reminds me of the famous M.C. Esheer drawing of the infinite stair loop.
Enhancing the Eye (4)
The camera has always been of interest to me and its evolution from the camera obscura to the camera up to its eventual moving pictures capability of the movie camera. Also the chemical processes that would evolve with the camera, from the deadly processes that used metals and mercury to the process and create photos to what we use today involving film and chemical labs.
The camera obscura and the “dark room” were used to record real life images by using light coming through pinhole to project onto a recordable medium for artists to either paint or draw on. These would become the first “photographs“ in recorded history of recording people or places and would lead to the development of cameras and other photographic technology which we have today.
Deceiving the Mind (5)
These pictures are drawn in a specific way to have double meaning, it would be an animal, or it could be a human. These pictures are set up like an illusionary trick, its in a way , to me, set up to make the viewer doubt on what they see, it could be one thing, it could be the other, or it could be both. Its up to the viewer to make the decision… but not without some doubt and changing ones mind a few times.
Persistence of Vision (6)
Using speed as a catylist for these devises, an animated optical illusion is created wherether it be 2 images become one to reveal a new image ( a bird and a cage to brome a bird in a cage) or a series of images on a plate are spun at speed create an animated cycle.
These devices can be thaumatropes, zeotropes, rotorliefs, praxinnoscopes, and phenakistiscopes.
We see these implentered today on the internet as animated GIFs, where a few frames are taken from programs, videos and animations and are looped.
Moving in Time (7)
I liked the Moving In Time part of the ACMI exhibition the most. It provides valuable data about the truth of how everything moves by taking pictures of every stage of movement, be it human or not.
These pictures can be used for not only scientific applications but prove to be an indispensable tool for animation in order to understand walk cycles and the true movement of things. These movements can often be perceived wrong by the naked eye when trying to recall from memory or using ones imagination.
With these observations of movement, we can change them and re-imagine them in order to give characters certain traits (like limps, skipping, or fast pacing) to go with their personalities and could explain their background.
lordmicheal 