Kinetoscopic Memories

I'm only now starting to catch up on all of the wonderful things that happened on the Gravity (mini) world tour that took place over the past few weeks! A tour that has left me with indelible memories (and a totally messed up sleep cycle, hehe...!). I totally forgot to mention this amazing exhibit we saw in conjunction with the New Horizons Film Festival. The exhibit was called Rub Your Eyes and featured the optical illusion/historical film antiquities collection of experimental filmmaker Werner Nekes (a comprehensive account on how he began collecting can be read here, highly recommended reading!). The main museum the collection was displayed in was a beautiful marble marvel, part of Wroclaw's BWA consortium of museums which have a pretty interesting agenda that seeks to move art outside of the art world, viewing it in a greater social context, an outlook that I think should be the main focus of most art institutions- and art for that matter...!

The collection itself was a constant corner turning shock: (please note: all links within descriptions are not indicative of the collection which was low lit and hard to photograph! I also wanted to use the links to move outside Nekes' collection and, keeping with the agenda of BWA, show other ways people are using these antiquated ideas outside of museums & on the web) the first hand cranked flip books, shadow puppet cards (pictured below), (probably the first ever) ASCII art dating from the 70s (a softspot for me in the computer art genre), anamorphoses (cylinders & cones!), zoetropes, large scale camera obscuras and so on all told the story of the development of the the moving image and the human eye! Seeing all of these things made the film festival feel like an extension of a long standing legacy, a legacy that New Horizons definitely propels forward through their promotion of cutting edge work and new cinematic voices! For so many reasons did this exhibit make sense....I almost wish it could be shown alongside Gravity at every screening as we keep the animated tradition alive while bringing in the newest in digital technology!