Notes

A few posts ago Klima’s Serenades and Serinettes arrived with a thaumotrope. Now Sculpture present a flattened zoetrope on the surface of a vinyl record. The Victorian zoetrope, invented in 1834, was a three-dimensional object that consisted of a spinning cylinder with vertical slits through which still images appeared to move. Sculpture’s animation requires the use of a video camera to convey its magic, but as can be seen from their videos the effort is well worth it. Just the knowledge of the latent potential contained within the vinyl surface serves to enhance the experience of the music and the spinning disc, even to the naked eye, is a hypnotic spectacle. Sculpture’s music, a mixture of psychedelia, hauntology and turntablism, is a perfect match for their striking visuals. Other films by the duo are on Tapebox – they’re very much worth your time. Here’s a beautiful fragment which in its combination of almost tactile textures, retro-futurist sci-fi and lost voices (recalling Akira Rabelais’ Spellewauerynsherde) is unexpectedly moving: First seen on and purchasable from: Experimedia.net