RICHARD BALZER COLLECTION

The phenakistoscope was an early animation device that used the persistence of vision principle to create an illusion of motion. It relies on a disc with sequential illustrations to create looping animations when viewed through small slits in a mirror, producing an effect similar to today’s GIFs. Richard Balzer – obsessed with early optical devices – and his assistant Brian Duffy have been digitizing and animating these discs and sharing the results on Tumblr since 2012.

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