A Zoetrope workshop with a final Spinning Animation Show were commissioned by the city of Straubing on the occasion of the celebrations “800 years of the new city of Straubing”.
I came up with the idea of telling the story of the city with Zoetropes and other optical devices and named the concept ‘The Spinning History’.
Together with the city archive and the State Technical and Vocational Secondary School FOSBOS Straubing I developed a 40-minute show as part of a six-month Zoetrope workshop.
The students majoring in graphic design created 80 animation loops on historical events in the city, each with 15 drawings on paper strips or discs, on records or on transparent Plexiglas. The students themselves presented the results in an elaborate audiovisual show with eight optical devices, e.g. Zoetropes, Praxinoscopes or on turntables in combination with stroboscope and UV light.
participants and group size: 30 creative trainees
duration: 6 months with 4 workshops at the school and continuous remote support of the ongoing project from Kassel
animation technique: animation loops with 2D (drawing, painting, foto-collage) and 3D materials (Plasticine, folded paper, grains, cotton wool, strings, etc.)
workshop place: Technical College for Design FOSBOS Straubing, design craft department
staff: cooperation with the regular teachers for design at FOSBOS
Watch a making-of by FOSBOS Straubing (German) or read the articles History of a City in Animation (German) or When the Pictures learned to move (German).