Moving Images, Understanding Media

46 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media

scholars have defi ned the more appropriate short-range apparent motion. Th is

phenomenon is the illusion of real-time action produced by a rapid succession

of still images capable of producing smoothly perceived movement. Th e

capacity of the human eyes and brain to process a quickly-moving series of

images as a fl owing succession of movement is essential for optical spinning

toys and motion pictures. Th is illusion is so powerful that we feel as if we

are watching the smooth progress of time and space of the real world when

we watch motion pictures.

As the nineteenth century advanced, the devices using a spinning mechanism

to display a succession of images that blend into movement became more

eff ective and intricate. From Plateau’s phenakistoscope to the stroboscope,

zoetrope, praxinoscope (see Figure 1-4), and zoopraxiscope, the latter of which

Figure 2-5 The phenakistoscope, invented in 1832 by Belgian physicist

Joseph Plateau.

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