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Digitized Animations from Early Optical Toys

Screengrab of Praxinoscopes webpage: http://www.dickbalzer.com/Praxinoscopes.599.0.html

Richard Balzer has been collecting early optical toys and he and his assistant have digitized many of the discs and outputs from these toys into digital animations, to create a kind of digital museum of historical early moving images.

"I have been collecting for more than thirty years, and my collecting wanders around the theme of visual entertainment, and almost all of the collection dates from before 1900. Over time you will find magic lanterns, peepshows, shadows, transparencies, thaumatropes, phenakistascopes and a variety of other optical toys. "
Source: http://www.dickbalzer.com/

"Nearly five hundred years ago European collectors arranged their pieces in cabinets of curiosities (Wunderkabinette) in an attempt to display their rare pieces. As collections grew, the more ambitious set aside rooms called Wunderkammern (Rooms of Wonder) for visitors to come and view their collections. These were the first museums. Today, the internet allows the possibility of visiting museums without leaving one’s home, and similarly, the possibility of constructing a virtual Wunderkabinett -- my cabinet of curiosities."
Source: Source: http://www.dickbalzer.com/

Dick Balzer's Website

Pages of Interest

 Camera Obscura Prints
http://www.dickbalzer.com/Prints.608.0.html
Camera Obscura Print from Dick Balzer's Collection Link

Magic Lantern Prints
http://www.dickbalzer.com/Prints.250.0.html

Kircher - 1671
Magic Lantern Print from Dick Balzer's Collection Link
Phantasmagoria
http://www.dickbalzer.com/Phantasmagoria.547.0.html




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