Whooooooooaa wait what? Welcome to the bizarre world of slit scan photography, a special effect created mechanically or digitally that results in warped and wobbly images. How does it work? Here’s my armchair filmmaker explanation: while regular photos and film give you a full frame image of a single moment in time, slit-scan photos and films capture the world just one line at a time. This results in a two dimensional image where one dimension is continuously (but still chronologically) displaced. Or something. This is by no means a new invention, slit scanning has been experimented with for decades and was even used extensively by Douglas Trumbull in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey back in 1968.

In this video by French filmmakers Adrien M / Claire B, two subjects engage in a surreal but highly entertaining dance through the warped fabric of space and time, made all the more wonderful with music from Beirut. (via the curious brain)

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