THE-SPINNING-ANIMATION-SHOW is a unique presentation, a mix of exhibition and live performance, with different optical devices, which presents cyclic animation together with a cinematic soundtrack.
The Show is the final presentation of my Zoetrope-Workshop. The participants are young talented youngsters, trainees or professionals. They develop animation on paper stripes, paper discs, record discs or transparent plexiglass. They can present their results themselves in an audio-visual Show on several optical devices like Zoetropes, Praxinoscopes or projection devices.
The duration depends on the number of finished animations. The show can portray a theme, a place or a story.
Zoetropes are optical devices invented around 1834, which can bring drawings of figures to life as if by magic. In the rotating cylinders of these devices short repetitive cycles of movement can be shown such as running, waving, hopping, opening and closing etc.. The repetitions have a hypnotic effect on the observer. Zoetropes and Praxinoscopes are the forerunners of film technology. Despite the invention of film, the old techniques did not disappear. Animators use it to create fascinating animation cycles. I call this art of animation spinning-animation.
Since I’ve been teaching Zoetrope workshops, I’ve been fascinated by this device and loop animation.
I experimented with this in my new short film THE SAUSAGE RUN.
In a Zoetrop workshop, participants produce instantly viewable animation clips that focus on a very short action of less than a second.
This making-of film was realized by Simone Klar for a Zoetrope workshop we led together in 2017.
I have developed this Zoetrope workshop and The-Spinning-Animation-Show for the Academy of the German Prize Winners of the international youth creativ competition in 2015.
I was commissioned to hold a Zoetrope workshop at the Technical and Vocational College Straubing (FOSBOS/department of design) for the celebration “800 Years of Neustadt Straubing”. The goal of the workshop was to developed a Spinning-Animation-Show about the history of my home city Straubing with the help of four teachers and 30 young creative trainees.