Phenakistoscope

After having a tutorial with my tutors on the project, they suggest that I return to it but try something completely different. I’d gotten very in my head about making good art when I was making the book, but I didn’t want to just let go of the project as being a kind of failure in my eyes. I didn’t want to give up.

I realised that it was actually drawing that was getting me down, so I wanted to try a new medium of visual communication. The most obvious way of showing a story is through moving image, so I started researching ways of making moving image with drawings, as I still wanted to use some of the work I’d done previously, rather than have that be a waste of time. My housemate suggest that I look at phenakistiscopes, mostly because it would be something fun for me to make, to help me loosen up and get out of my head.

The phenakistiscopes did actually work, but it is very hard to capture in video. I enjoyed the problem solving at the beginning of making them to try to make them work, by varying the width and depth of the slits.

I took simple elements from previously in the project, and made lots of phenakistiscopes. They aren’t masterpieces, but it did bring me joy and let me have fun with a project that had lost all fun and enjoyment. It also got me thinking about moving image, and I really enjoyed making something with my hands, especially as I usually always just draw. This got me thinking about making a stop motion animation, as i would still be doing it by hand so it was making something with my hands. But it would allow me to communicate more of the story, than the small space on a phenakistiscope does.