With a potter’s wheel, a round whiteboard, and a few dry erase markers, Yohei Kisanuki creates momentary phenakistoscope-like animations. “Regarded as one of the first forms of moving media entertainment,” the phenakistiscope is a flat disc that, like a zoetrope, creates the illusion of movement when it spins.
In this quiet spin art video, he draws each line, dash, or curve as the potter’s wheel spins, making patterns that pulse and turn. The explorations are playful and temporary. Watch for the full four minutes.
Spin art has been a side project for Kisanuki, a musician based in Japan. He shares most of the whiteboard and potter’s wheel videos, completed with music, on Instagram:
He’s also created intentional phenakistoscope animations using the same equipment and lots of tiny drawings:
Watch these related videos next:
• Pixar’s Zoetrope and how animation works
• Embroidered phenakistoscope animations by Elliot Schultz
• Zoetrope Pottery by Turn Studio
• Animated chocolate cake zoetropes by Alexandre Dubosc
• Dyskograf: Drawings translated into music
• Wooden blocks trigger sounds on Arduino-programmed turntables
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