simply a technical history–is human perception being modeled on a mechan-
ical explanation of a mechanical device (rather than exploring the new device in
terms of human perception).
The Phenakistiscope generated a number of offspring, all of which similarly
animated drawn successive figures in loops of repetitive motion when viewed
through revolving devices. The most popular was the Zoetrope, in which, as
Carpenter described it,“We look through slits in the side of a vertical revolving
drum at the interior of the opposite side of the drum...and when one of the long
strips covered with figures is placed in the lower part of the drum, and is
viewed through the slits in its near side, the effect is exactly the same as that
produced by looking through the slits near the margin of the disks of the Phe-
nakistiscope.”
TheMovingImage:MorethananIllusion
It is worth pausing at this threshold in the nature of imagery that the Phenakis-
tiscope and its successors crossed. Since the beginning of culture, movement has
played a role within art works through the physical movement of actors and
dancers, puppets and automatons, or shadows and pictorial figures. But with
these mechanical devices we actually see moving images produced optically. I
maintain this marks a revolutionary moment in the history of the image–one
we have not fully appreciated or explored. To describe the perception achieved
by these devices without recourse to the mechanical description of how they
operate remains a challenge, precisely because their effect overturns our domi-
nant concept of representation as a picture. We are more comfortable describing
how the devices work than how they affect us as viewers.
Let me be clear. These devices do not represent motion; they produce it. They
do not give us a picture of motion (such as a comic strip panel of Ignatz Mouse’s
brick sailing through the air with lines indicating its trajectory); theymake pic-
tures move. For perceptual reasons, which we still understand only in part, we
actuallyseemovement, provided the apparatus is properly made and operated.
Earlier devices represent, or allude to, movement through multiples pictures.
Magic lantern slides, protean or transforming pictures (pictures showing differ-
ent images depending on a change in light) and even Thaumatropes could re-
present different phases of an action, although in a limited number (usually
two). A trick lantern slide showing a dancer in two successive poses could be
manipulated rapidly and smoothly and give an impression of motion through
this alternation. But a viewer is always aware of the individual static phases and
38 Tom Gunning