Thaumatrope, A Spinning Toy from the Victorian Era
A thaumatrope is a Victorian-era toy, the size of a small disk or card, with related pictures on each side. When the disk is spun by strings attached to the sides, the images merge. Common image combinations were a bird and a cage, and a tree and its leaves.
So if you spun the thaumatrope, it would appear that the bird was actually in the cage and that the leaves were on the tree.
London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, popularized the thaumatrope (which means "turning marvel" or "wonder turner,") in the 1820s.
On the thaumatrope's page for Jack and Beverly's Optical Toys, you can see pictures and animations of spinning thaumatropes. The first example is of the bird and cage:
The second example is of a circus rider on a horse:
Videos of Thaumatropes in Action
In the following video, on one side of a disk a woman is tempted to get every last drop out of her soup bowl and on the other side she makes sure she's successful:
On one side of a thaumatrope is a hat and the other side the head of a man minus the top portion. The spinning creates the animated illusion:
Video Meditations on Thaumatropes
In an animated short, "Thaumatrope, the 2 Sides of Life," by Effie Pappa, the dual sides of this rotating device are used to contrast "two diverse ecological consciences." (Pappa teaches at the Department of Graphic Design, Technological Education Institute of Athens, Greece.):
"Finding Himself In A Thaumatrope"
Jesse LaFlair is a multimedia artist (YouTube profile and MySpace page) who created this "Finding Himself In a Thaumatrope" video. This modern-day take on the two-sided Victorian-era toy interlaces two stop-motion videos of a man who can never quite find his other self:
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The Kinetic Interface blog on Great Dance starts with the premise that by focusing on the body and movement we can better understand, engage with, and contribute to many of the technological and scientific changes that are reshaping our daily lives.
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