# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The hidden history of Oxford's favourite street

# data[].attributes.headline
Notes taken from ‘Cowley Road A History’ by Annie Skinner

# data[].attributes.subject
Notes taken from ‘Cowley Road A History’ by Annie Skinner

# data[].attributes.headline
Edward Ruscha 'Every Building on the Sunset Strip' 1966

# data[].attributes.subject
Edward Ruscha 'Every Building on the Sunset Strip' 1966

# data[].attributes.headline
Ed Ruscha and the Art of the Everyday | Tate

# data[].attributes.subject
Ed Ruscha and the Art of the Everyday | Tate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ed Ruscha and the Art of the Everyday | Tate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The folded books, sometimes called concertina, accordions or leporellos, originally developed from scrolls. Scrolls were awkward to read as they needed to be continually unwound and rewound to access specific passages. By folding the length of cloth, papyrus or paper into a zigzag to form pages, reading became a much simpler task. As a book form it has achieved high status for centuries in Japan , China and Korea.

In the Western world the accordion book is often used by artists as a useful format with great potential. It is able to stand up on its own displaying a continuous array of pages and can be viewed in different ways - two pages at a time or in one long spread. This is a great advantage for display purposes where the accordion book can also be viewed from the front and the back. It lies completely flat when opened - a characteristic not found in many books.

When constructing this deceptively simple book form it is important to make sure your paper/page edges line up as precisely as possible. It only takes one fold to be slightly out of line and the whole book will end up slightly skewwhiff! Selecting the correct grain direction will help with this.

Paper has a grain direction which is very important and makes a huge difference as to how the paper will react when attempting to fold and score. Grain direction should go along the spine. Papers can be referred to as short or long grain, this relates to the direction the grain is running.

Short Grain - The grain runs parallel to the short edge of the paper.
Long Grain - The grain runs parallel to the long edge of the paper.

When folding along the grain, you should get a smooth fold. Folding against the grain may result in cracks and tears (depending on paper). That happens because fibres are aligned perpendicular to the fold and you break them when folding the sheet.

Plan your folds to go with the grain of the paper that way the pages should lie flat and turn easily.

The simplest way of determining the direction of grain is the bend test. Take a sheet of paper, bend the paper (don't fold or crease it) horizontally and vertically. There will be less resistance in one direction than the other. The bend with least resistance is parallel to the grain and is the easiest direction to fold to.

Tools/Materials: bone folder or similar, craft knife or scalpel, steel ruler, glue and glue brush / glue stick, scissors.

A short note on Glue
Considering which glue to use is just as important as the choice of paper. Higher quality papers are made entirely from cotton and/or linen fibres making them superior in both strength and durability. These papers, commonly referred to as "rag", are usually "hand-made" and feature a deckled edge along with an embossed watermark. Rag papers are the best surface for printing or painting onto and are resistant to chemical break-down over time.

Wood pulp based papers often contain high concentrations of acids, and as acid is the primary cause for the deterioration of paper over time and any acidic product coming into contact with it, for example adhesive or tape, may lead to permanent damage and deterioration of the paper.

A little research into different types of glue has opened up a whole new world of discussion and debate, who knew how much importance glue has on the bookmaking world!

In general adhesives can be categorised either as pastes of glues. Pastes are usually a plant product such as wheat starch or nori paste and glues derived from animal products or synthetics. It is personal preference and dependant on the purpose of the gluing to be carried out.

Glue sticks are a fast, simple alternative for adhering paper and are especially easy and useful when only a small area needs to be secured, but beware not all glue sticks are equal some are archival and others not.

PVA is strong and quick drying but can be difficult when gluing large areas. PVA glues are widely available with formulas differing widely, look for archival quality.

Paste is ideal for adhering larger areas of paper to boards. It is possible to make your own but is a labour of love and its shelf life is limited. Tubes of ready-made nori paste are now fairly easy to obtain.
Making the book block
I'm using a sheet of fabriano rosaspina which is easier to fold width ways so have divided the large sheet into 4 pieces measuring approximately 12.5cm x 50cm. this will make 4 structures. Any type of paper can be used some being more structural than others or you might like to try a combination of different papers.

Taking one strip, fold your strip of paper in half (A) making sure to match the ends as exactly as possible, smooth the fold well with a bone folder to give a firm crease. This crease is the one that all other creases line up to.

Take end (B) and fold into the middle matching up as precisely as possible with fold (A) the first fold you made.

Fold the crease line at (C) back on itself and then match up with the original fold (A)

Take the end (B) and fold up to the crease (C) making sure all are aligned as precisely as possible.

Flip the sheet over and repeat with the other half of the accordion

You will now have an eight page accordion fold book.

Using this size paper has created a form in which each page is quite narrow.

I don't have paper long enough to fold an accordion with larger pages so I will need to extend the sheets by joining pieces together.
Joining two sheets together
To join two lengths, take two pieces of paper at the size you need. On one allow an extra 5mm - 10mm at one end. Crease along this point and fold over.

Fold both accordion pieces as described above. When both have been completed paste the small hinge of paper on the second sheet and attach it to the back of the second fold.

This can be repeated until you have the length needed. To help the book structure retain its shape especially when using heavier papers I usually place it under a pile of books for 24 hours to set the folds. Depending on the paper used this structure can support itself or covers can be added, this will be cover in another post.

Jan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Accordion Book Fold - Highland Print Studio

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The folded books, sometimes called concertina, accordions or leporellos, originally developed from scrolls. Scrolls were awkward to read as they needed to be continually unwound and rewound to access specific passages. By folding the length of cloth, papyrus or paper into a zigzag to form pages, reading became a much simpler task.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lee Friedlander (born 1934) began photographing in 1948. Among his many monographs are Sticks and Stones, Self-Portrait, Letters from the People, Cherry Blossom Time in Japan and At Work, among others. His work was included in the influential 1967 exhibition New Documents at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by John Szarkowski. Among the most important living photographers, Friedlander is in the collections of museums around the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lee Friedlander (born 1934) began photographing in 1948. Among his many monographs are Sticks and Stones, Self-Portrait, Letters from the People, Cherry Blossom Time in Japan and At Work, among others. His work was included in the influential 1967 exhibition New Documents at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by John Szarkowski.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vivian Maier Photographer | Official website of Vivian Maier | Vivian Maier Portfolios, Prints, Exhibitions, Books and documentary film

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The official website of photographer Vivian Maier. Showcasing photo galleries, information about exhibitions, print sales, books and documentary film.

# data[].attributes.headline
Gaze changers: the story of female street photography

# data[].attributes.subject
Gaze changers: the story of female street photography

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gaze changers: the story of female street photography – in pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Throughout the 20th century street photography proved more welcoming to women than other art forms – and has been was rewarded with an explosion of daring, perceptive and radical projects

# data[].attributes.headline
Julia Trigg's graphic work inspired by vintage ephemera

# data[].attributes.subject
Julia Trigg's graphic work inspired by vintage ephemera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Q: What was the last art exhibition you went to see?

A: Sister Corita Kent at Ditchling Museum.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?

A: I'm grateful to have a career doing what I love, so hopefully I'll still be doing it. A tidy house, established garden and better work-life balance would be great too!

Q: Any key ambitions or goals you still have on your to do list?

A: I would like to work on a series of original 'one-off' collages, exhibiting them would be fab. I'd also like to paint, or include some painting in my work.

Q: What have been some highlights or achievements you're proud of?

A: My solo exhibition at Castor & Pollux in Brighton. Meeting and chatting to customers who love my prints. Having work chosen for international commercial publications. Having an exclusive range published by King & McGaw.

Q: What are the challenges in being an artist now?

A: Finding your audience. Finding your voice. Covid has meant some projects have been cancelled, but I'm lucky I can connect with customers online.

Q: How would you describe the life of an artist?

A: Obsessive. More ideas than time.

Q: What advice would you give to younger artists just starting out?

A: Rosalie Gasgoine had her first exhibition age 57, so there's always time and hope. Practice your skills, experiment, talk to other artists, create art you are passionate about. To evaluate work, I find it helps to leave it a couple of days and then go back to it. "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" - Picasso.

Q: Best piece of advice you've ever been given and by whom?

A: In hindsight, I think it was David Anstis (my best friend's dad), who told me to do an art degree. At age 17, I didn't realize it was something I could achieve. And my mum, always encouraging, who tells me often 'don't worry so much'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Julia Trigg's graphic work inspired by vintage ephemera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Full of authentic texture and detail, Brighton-based artist Julia Trigg's richly coloured collages are made from the vintage ephemera she's been collecting for a lifetime.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In November 2020, during the Covid lockdown, students from Interiors Platforms Reuse and Urbanism spent a week working with Japanese architect Toshiki Hirano and curator Clare Farrow to gather images, objects and sounds for the Japan Pavilion at London Design Biennale (1-27 June 2021).

Reinventing Texture is an immersive, interactive design and sound installation made up of traditional and modern urban textures, objects and sounds in the cities of Tokyo and London. The 8-metre-long relief is a collection of photogrammetry scanned elements from the cities of Tokyo and London, digitally and manually fabricated using CNC milling and papier-mâché technique with Japanese Washi paper.

The workshop began with an introduction by Toshiki to set the installation within the context of his interest in the urban writings of Walter Benjamin, and the practice of 'urban frottage' (making rubbings), developed in the 1970s by artist Tomoharu Makabe, founder of the Lost Items Research Institute. In the spirit of Makabe, students ventured out into locked-down London to make similar rubbings of the city, using pencil and paper to document the texture of objects and surfaces.

Reinventing Texture updated the practice by using 3D software to convert smartphone photographs into objects that could be converted into a CNC milled polystyrene mould. While Toshiki gathered objects from Tokyo, the students photographed objects in London ranging from iconic red post boxes to boxes of fruit and a display of trainers, and then converted them into 3DF Zephyr files. The miscellaneous items were collaged together by Toshiki, pairing similar but different objects and textures from the two cities.

Later in the week, DJ and sound artist Nick Luscombe, founder of MSCTY Studio, joined the workshop to discuss the role of sound in the urban environment. Then using a handheld microphone the students ventured into the city to record a variety of sounds including bird song, 'mind the gap' recordings and sirens. The recordings were uploaded and shared with Nick, who created a soundscape to accompany the installation within the Japan Pavilion.

By linking students and designers in London and Tokyo, Reinventing Texture turned into a pavilion of friendship and shared innovation between Japan and the UK, at a time when travel has been restricted and physical barriers reinforced. Curator of the pavilion, Clare Farrow says: 'a homage to the ancient Japanese art of Washi paper-making and papier-mâché, the installation celebrates texture without touch, and is a poem to the two cities and the spirit of invention in Japan that still resonates with its history.'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students from Interior Design platforms Reuse and Urbanism worked with Japanese architect Toshiki Hirano and curator Clare Farrow at the London Design Biennale.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cowley Road, Oxford - Google Street View/Maps

# data[].attributes.subject
Cowley Road, Oxford - Google Street View/Maps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

# data[].attributes.headline
Shading Sunset: Charles Waldheim on reimagining the streets of Los Angeles for a warmer future

# data[].attributes.subject
Shading Sunset: Charles Waldheim on reimagining the streets of Los Angeles for a warmer future

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1965, Ed Ruscha stood on the bed of a moving pickup truck and photographed Sunset Boulevard. Through this process he calls "motorized photography," he captured the entirety of a mile-and-a-half long segment of the street with mechanized precision. These images were then collaged for Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), a book whose accordion-folded pages unfurl over 27 feet. The experience was not a one-off. Ruscha would soon traverse different thoroughfares in Los Angeles, including Wilshire and Sepulveda Boulevards, and perform the same operation. Every few years, he-and now others in place of the 83-year-old pop artist-returned to these streets to photograph them again and again. The cumulative result of the ongoing endeavor, which could be classified as a long-duration artwork as much as data collection, is an archive of over one million images. The Getty Institute recently acquired this unique history of Los Angeles's built environment in pictorial form and, to date, has digitized over 60,000 photographs. Their goal is to make it both accessible to the public and, as Charles Waldheim's spring studio, "Shading Sunset: Reimagining the Streets of Los Angeles for a Warmer Future," exemplifies, useful as a tool for imagining alternative futures of the city.

Ruscha's deadpan documentation of American vernacular design did not begin in 1965. Two years prior, he published his first book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, which features black-and-white photographs of monuments located between his native Oklahoma and Los Angeles. Form and function fascinated him. "I would look at a building and disregard the purpose of that building (in this case a commercial outlet to sell gasoline). I was really more interested in this crazy little design that was repeated by all the gas companies to make stations with an overhang to create shade for their customers," Ruscha has said. "It seemed to me a very beautiful statement." Gas stations would appear in his paintings at the time, too.

In the 1960s, this respect for the quotidian was echoed by many non-American architects, urbanists, and theorists. Denise Scott Brown and Reyner Banham were among those who came to the United States in part because its cities were viewed from elsewhere as illegitimate, lacking good taste, and even degenerate. "They were looking for evidence of the contemporary city," says Waldheim. "In Ruscha's work, especially the Streets of Los Angeles project, they find a kind of Duchampian readymade. It's not only a city and the documentation of that city but a way of seeing which confounds architectural criticism. Without judgment, Ruscha documented everything. In that, there's a kind of empathy as well as a kind of empiricism."

Scott Brown and Robert Venturi visited Ruscha's studio with their Yale students, who were directed to apply Ruscha's nonjudgmental, indexical aesthetic to their work on Las Vegas. This work led to the duo's seminal 1972 study, Learning from Las Vegas. And Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (1973), a BBC documentary shot in the manner of a European travelogue which takes a cheeky but almost reverent look at Los Angeles, even guest stars Ruscha.

The initial motorized photography ventures inspired these figures. Now no one, not even Ruscha, can reasonably view every image in the series. The Getty had to double its server size upon acquiring them. To Waldheim, this archive represents a form of big data avant la lettre. Compared to traffic surveillance footage or social media posts, however, these images are less clouded by concerns regarding big data's problematic biases, which allows for more freedom in utilizing them as research material.

The Getty convened a group of art and architectural historians to analyze the archive. "Among the challenges of interpretation associated with the archive is the impulse toward making these images sensible to traditional modes of human cognition-the notion that if I can see it, I can understand it. That leads to making them searchable by address, building type, etc.," Waldheim explains. But the sheer number of images recommends, if not requires, novel technology and methods, he argues. "Unlike cartography or public health, for example, design is by definition speculative. Big data sets like this give us an opening to a way of working that can be described as machine- and rule-based. They allow us to put less pressure and cognition on our own biases and produce an environment in which nonlinear and unexpected outcomes are generated. It's outside the immediate what/where of the architect's faculty cognition. That's an enormous advantage because it allows us to get past preconceptions and organize other forms of information to inform design decisions."

To this end, Waldheim proposed a form of Style Generative Adversarial Network, or StyleGAN, modeling as the studio's foundational tool. This workflow for the studio was developed by Waldheim, Aziz Barbar, and Min Yeo from the GSD's Office for Urbanization in collaboration with a team led by Jose Luis García del Castillo López and the GSD Laboratory for Design Technologies. A form of machine learning built on facial recognition, the technology entails feeding images with a particular pattern into a system, training it to comprehend this pattern, and then feeding it a different set of images featuring a new pattern so it can learn difference. By processing thousands of Ruscha's photographs, for example, the machine recognizes the precise visual composition of certain neighborhoods, structures of space, and building typologies-a task that exceeds human cognition. After doing so, it generates strikingly real images, similar to deepfakes, that are uncanny fictions. "I think of it as akin to alternative fiction in a literary sense," says Waldheim. "It also has similarities to distanced or delayed authorship in the historical avant-garde, in which artists produced and generated forms that were not under their control."

Waldheim considers using technology in this way as an iteration of da Vinci's advice to stare at clouds or stains on walls for inspiration. This comparison becomes explicit in Los Angeles-based artist Refik Anadol's animations, such as those he created of Stockholm harbor or New York City architecture. Called "machine hallucinations" by Anadol, these animations begin by feeding a StyleGAN sometimes over 100 million images of a specific place from many different time periods. From this input, he creates a slowly morphing video of that particular area, as if reflected in a rippling pool of water. At first, all seems recognizable and accurate; upon further inspection, it's evident that the buildings featured do not exist in reality. Rather, they are various iterations or manipulations of what is technically referred to as the "latent space" (forms, lines, proportionality) of the images fed into the network. What we see, in Waldheim's reading, are "parallel worlds that could have happened based on these rules but didn't."

While a design process that utilizes StyleGAN does not eliminate the designer's subjectivity from the process-the images the system receives must be curated-it undercuts a normative sense of authorial agency. "Instead of starting with a blank page, a declaration that 'I will do this,' questions of taste or culture, and a virtuosic exhibition of drawing, this places more emphasis on the designer's reflective and interpretive qualities," Waldheim explains. "I find it incredibly productive for architects to produce imagined realities. It doesn't mean those realities are good things or that we should realize them in the real world, but it calls on different faculties of the designer to make judgments about them. It triangulates the curatorial agenda, the making of images of alternative futures, and the architect's interpretation of those images."

The process simultaneously supports and rejects the traditional association of technology with efficiency. StyleGAN's automation accelerates the process of coding and analyzing an archive that exceeds human capacities, but only as a tool to give the designer time and freedom to engage in other tasks. "It changes the relationship between the architect and the object of their study," says Waldheim. "We've gone from a paradigm of representation to a paradigm of automation of the imagination on behalf of the designer. The architect used to be pictured with their drawings, and that's falling away to workflows and processing. Early digital drawings were themselves simulacra for things we used to do. This way of working, with technology like StyleGAN modeling, is a different form of representation that multiplies the faculties of the designer and changes their labor. We have to become data scientists, in a way, and focus much more on judgment, advocacy, and curation around what these images portend or afford."

For the studio, this curation requires identifying certain themes in Ruscha's images that need urgent attention, among them homelessness and disparities of environmental justice related to race and ethnicity. These issues are among the many examined in the Future of the American City project, an urban-study initiative at the GSD funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which spotlights Miami, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

One theme that unites many of these concerns has become increasingly important in recent years: shade. In Los Angeles specifically, shade has become a scarce resource, with the city's iconic palm trees providing little cover from increased heat-island effects. A public health concern that results from global warming and is exacerbated by public policies and design ideologies, this lack affects the most vulnerable populations who have limited access to the tree canopy. Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged a need for intervention and, in October 2019, began a Cool Streets project that includes planting 90,000 by the end of this year, building covered bus-stop benches, and installing cool pavement.

"The unconditional positive regard for more and more sunlight is deeply steeped in the way architects and urbanists have been trained in the West for at least a century," says Waldheim. "The oldest regulations about what you could build in the Anglo tradition-the English 'right to light' laws and the origin of city planning in New York-all come back to the fundamental issue of not wanting to die in the shadow of someone's enormous building constructed for profit." This ideology perhaps has reached its terminus, as greater concern is placed on low-carbon energy construction and structures that provide shade. The backlash against police surveillance cameras, which require unobstructed sight lines and connect darkness with criminality, also critiques this ethos of total visibility.

Ruscha's archive, an unintended precursor to Google Street View with similarities to surveillance footage, metaphorically exemplifies this long-term obsession with pure knowledge and illumination. But as a tool for imagining a more shade-filled future, it can be read negatively-by identifying what it doesn't represent or what its focus makes invisible.

The images' pure horizontality implies an equalization across class, race, and ethnic groups. Close examination, however, reveals the distinct shifts between municipal boundaries and the extent to which disparities like decreasing percentage of tree canopy have been exacerbated over multiple decades. The images provide substantial evidence for where plant material once was, its height, how much shade it produced, and how it changed over time. Seeing this evolution provides evidence for where vegetation might be increased, with StyleGAN modeling employed as a tool to give a realistic glimpse of how that could appear.

Even more fundamental is the absence of people in the photographs, which goes unnoticed in part due to the viewpoint from a car that diminishes the presence of the sidewalk. This establishes the automobile, not the human body, as the primary actor in public space, which suggests speed and movement's supremacy over stasis. Not every Angeleno owns a car though, and regardless, every person deserves space on the sidewalk to exist without enduring intense sunlight and its resulting stresses. COVID-19 has made explicit that most humans long for contact and time in public. But the built environment in American cities is increasingly hostile to occupation, as anti-homeless technology like dividers on benches and a lack of covered seating generally demonstrate. The Ruscha archive may show where generous, equitable spaces once were and what happened to them over time, in addition to revealing the panoply of spaces most people avoid.

"The goal of the studio might be to reconceive the street fundamentally by returning to the Ruschaian vocabulary in a perverse way to examine what it affords, who it accommodates, who it surveils, how much sun there is, and who is authorized to be there," says Waldheim. "Without being stylistic, regional, or contextual, we're asking if there is something to draw from Ruscha that is Angeleno in its 'essence.' I believe there is, for example, an infinite number of latent Ruscha Sunset Boulevards. If we develop the latent spaces available within Ruscha's archive which address issues like shade and shelter, that can inform what we project forward when imagining an alternative to the current conditions on the streets of the city."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shading Sunset: Charles Waldheim on reimagining the streets of Los Angeles for a warmer future

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1965, Ed Ruscha stood on the bed of a moving pickup truck and photographed Sunset Boulevard. Through this process he calls "motorized photography," he

# data[].attributes.headline
12 Sunsets: Exploring Ed Ruscha's Archive

# data[].attributes.subject
12 Sunsets: Exploring Ed Ruscha's Archive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
12 Sunsets: Exploring Ed Ruscha's Archive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore Sunset Boulevard throughout 60 years as photographed by LA photographer Ed Ruscha and archived by the Getty.

# data[].attributes.headline
Alison Martino's report on Ed Ruscha's EVERY BUILDING ON THE SUNSET STRIP

# data[].attributes.subject
Alison Martino's report on Ed Ruscha's EVERY BUILDING ON THE SUNSET STRIP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alison Martino's report on Ed Ruscha's EVERY BUILDING ON THE SUNSET STRIP for Spectrum News

# data[].attributes.headline
Time-lapse: Installing Ed Ruscha’s “Every Building on the Sunset Strip”

# data[].attributes.subject
Time-lapse: Installing Ed Ruscha’s “Every Building on the Sunset Strip”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Time-lapse: Installing Ed Ruscha’s “Every Building on the Sunset Strip”

# data[].attributes.headline
Ed Ruscha's Hollywood Boulevard, 1973 and 2002 

# data[].attributes.subject
Ed Ruscha's Hollywood Boulevard, 1973 and 2002 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ed Ruscha's Hollywood Boulevard, 1973 and 2002 (Modern Architecture in Los Angeles)

# data[].attributes.body
A great example of an illustrative response , look at the rest of her work for more ideas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Up My Street - Louise Lockhart | Illustration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Up My Street is a concertina book for all ages, and illustrated by Louise Lockhart. It is a celebration of those wonderful high street shops that are about to disappear. Those classic establishments such as Laundrettes, Children’s Outfitters,…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Zoetrope animation is one of the most popular pre-film animation techniques. Originally developed in the 1830s, it became a popular Victorian toy. It is still used today - adapted and updated to make 3D versions by the likes of Pixar. Find out more about how this simple but effective technology works.

What is a zoetrope and how does it work?

A zoetrope is a cylinder with vertical slits down the sides. The inside of the cylinder displays a band with a set of sequenced images. When the cylinder spins, the user can see the pictures inside as they look through the slits, which prevent the images from blurring together. Combined with the rapid succession of images, the illusion of motion in a continuous loop is created.

As with other motion simulation inventions, the illusions created by the zoetrope rely on the human retina retaining an image for roughly a tenth of a second. If a new image appears in that time, the brain merges them and the sequence appears continuous.

History of zoetrope animation.

In 1833, the phenakisticope was invented by Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and Austrian inventor Simon Stampfer. This disc is considered the first widespread device used for animation. In a pamphlet that July, Stampfer noted the technique could be adapted to use cylinders and looped strips of paper.

Taking note, William Horner, a British mathematician, created the first type of zoetrope in 1834. He named it the daedalum in a nod to the Greek myth of Daedalus. The viewing slits in Horner's revolving drum were between the pictures, unlike later variations, which had them above.

In 1867, William Lincoln patented the name zoetrope, which was a combination of Greek words zoe (life) and tropos (turning), to translate as 'wheel of life'.

Board game company Milton Bradley began selling the cylinders in the US, with London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company selling versions in the UK. They became a popular Victorian parlour toy. Children loved spinning their zoetropes and gazed in delight at the primitive animated images of moving horses and other animals.

Soon after, a giant zoetrope, 50-feet in circumference and powered by a gas engine, was on display in the concert hall of Crystal Palace, London.

Other animation devices, including flip books and the praxinoscope, followed. The basic principles of zoetropes and similar inventions eventually led to the creation of motion pictures in the late-1880s.

Perhaps as a reaction to digital technology, zoetropes underwent a revival in the late-20th century and were increasingly used and updated. Animator Eric Dyer invented his own version, removing the drum and using the fast shutter speed of a camera instead of slits. He made experimental films from 3D sculptures, called 'cinetropes'.

Building on the zoetrope revival, large and elaborate versions were made, as well as an ever-increasing number of 3D versions. Pixar Animation Studios created a 3D zoetrope featuring characters from Toy Story 2 (1999). The Toy Story Zoetrope has been shown in museums and galleries around the world.

With its looped image sequences, GIF animation on the Internet could be considered the contemporary successor to zoetrope.

Fascinated by the world of animation?

Keep learning by reading our beginner's guide to animation.

Examples of zoetrope animation.

In 2012, animation studio Sehsucht, Berlin created a CGI 3D zoetrope carousel to represent the American Dream.

In 2008, UK visual effects company Artem Limited built a 10-metre-wide, 10-metric ton zoetrope for Sony. The BRAVIA-drome featured 64 images of the Brazilian footballer Kaká and was named the largest zoetrope in the world by Guinness World Records.

American horror film House on Haunted Hill (1999) featured a human-sized zoetrope chamber, dubbed 'the Saturation Chamber'.

Tokyo's Ghibli Museum houses a 3D zoetrope featuring characters from the Japanese animation studio's 1988 animated film My Neighbour Totoro.

Inspired by Ghibli, Pixar's Toy Story Zoetrope led to a further two 3D zoetropes. One is install at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, the other at Disneyland Paris.

In 2012 the horror film The Woman in Black features a zoetrope spun by actor Daniel Radcliffe, which is peered through by the titular character.

From 2007 to 2014, BBC Two used a zoetrope to create the effect of flying cars zooming around a futuristic cityscape for an ident, shown before TV programmes and on the BBC iPlayer.

A haunted zoetrope toy features in the supernatural horror The Conjuring 2 (2016).

Clothing company The Gap built a human-sized zoetrope to promote its 'Meet Me in the Gap' campaign. The giant multi-coloured wheel featured people dancing on the spot which, combined with the spinning cylinder and shot in 360 degrees, created an immersive experience of movement and colour.

American performance art collective the Blue Man Group used a quick-spinning carousel to create a zoetrope effect at their shows in Las Vegas and Florida.

UK supermarket Sainsbury's celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019 with a giant zoetrope cake in a TV advert.

New York advertising agency Johannes Leonardo created an advert for Volkswagen in 2021. The Wheelfeatured eight complex zoetropes that each told a part of the story of transport evolution. Each was made using various disciplines, including sculpture, hand drawing, cel animation, photography and 3D stop motion.

How to make a zoetrope.

You may not have access to the technology of studio giants like Ghibli and Pixar, but you can certainly make a vintage zoetrope at home.

Zoetrope template. There are lots of templates online that you can use or feel inspired by. A popular example is to use images of galloping horses.

A chopstick. Use one from a Chinese takeaway or you may want to order in bulk online - especially if you plan on making more than one.

One compact disc. You may listen to music via streaming nowadays, leaving your CD collection untouched. Here's something you can use them for.

Two 1/8-inch x 1-inch zinc-plated fender washers. You can get these at most hardware shops or online.

Scissors

Tape

1. Prepare the strip. Cut out the strips of your template. Fold both strips along the dashed lines. Next, cut out the marked rectangles on the template from both strips to create the viewing slits. With loops of tape, fold the sheets together.

2. Put the strip together. With the pictures on the inside, tape the sheets together, creating a circle. Take care not to let any tape fold into the inside. Then, tape the outside of the circle to the edge of the CD. Try to keep the circle as round as possible and ensure there are no bulges.

3. Zoetrope assembly. Place one washer tightly over the tapered end of the chopstick. Place the CD on the washer, ensuring the zoetrope strip is facing up. Next, place the second washer over the tapered end, to sandwich the CD between both washers. Take a small piece of tape and use it to hold the top washer to the chopstick. Make sure you don't tape the washer to the CD.

4. Use your zoetrope. Hold it at a slight angle. As you look through the slits you made, spin the CD. The pictures inside should be animated and appear to be moving. If they're moving backwards, simply spin the CD in the opposite direction. It may take time to discover the right speed for spinning the CD to see the animation at its best.

The best ideas for zoetropes revolve (literally) around the idea of simple movements. Here's a few of the most popular to get you started:

Animals. Galloping horses, walking elephants, flying birds, leaping lions, swimming fish.

People. Dancers, weightlifters, jugglers, athletes, children, cartoon characters.

Shapes. Shrinking and expanding stars, tumbling sticks, decreasing and increasing circles.

You could build a 3D zoetrope with models and static sculptures. With a spinning turntable, pipe cleaners, papier-mâché, a turntable and a strobe light, a 3D zoetrope is possible without 3D printing technology.

Fascinated by the world of animation?

Keep learning by reading our beginner's guide to animation.

How many frames is a zoetrope?

The more frames per second, the greater the trick on the eye. The ideal frame rate is 24 frames per second and the minimum is 12 frames per second. A zoetrope spinning quickly at one rotation per second will need 12 frames to avoid flicker. However, such is the retro appeal of zoetropes, the flickering quality is often a large part of the charm.

The origins of the zoetrope begin with Austrian inventor Simon Stampfer. He co-invented the phenakistiscope disc, regarded as the first widespread animation device, in 1833. Stampfer suggested the concept could be used with a cylinder. A year later, British mathematician William Horner came up with the daedalum. The definitive zoetrope was invented by American inventor William Lincoln in 1865 and patented two years later.

How fast should a zoetrope spin?

A typical zoetrope spins at less than 100 rpm. By comparison, a yo-yo reaches 5,000 rpm on an average throw. The comparative slowness of the zoetrope is another part of its quirky appeal to animators and viewers alike.

Discover more about animation.

Not sure which apps are best for you?

Not sure which apps are best for you?

Take a minute. We'll help you figure it out.

Take a minute. We'll help you figure it out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Zoetrope animation is one of the most popular pre-film animation techniques. Originally developed in the 1830s, it became a popular Victorian toy. It is still used today - adapted and updated to make 3D versions by the likes of Pixar. Find out more about how this simple but effective technology works.

# data[].attributes.headline
The typography of Italian Streets (book by Louise Fili)

# data[].attributes.subject
The typography of Italian Streets (book by Louise Fili)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Louise Fili's typographic love letter to Italy, Grafica della Strada, is a photographic diary of a decades-long obsession with signs from Torino to Taormina, and everywhere in between.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Louise Fili's typographic love letter to Italy, Grafica della Strada, is a photographic diary of a decades-long obsession with signs from Torino to Taormina, and everywhere in between.

# data[].attributes.headline
The typography of French Streets (book by Louise Fili)

# data[].attributes.subject
The typography of French Streets (book by Louise Fili)

# data[].attributes.body
Ephemeral Archives available to view in Oxford

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
'Printed ephemera' is an umbrella term for everyday printed items that are produced for short-term use and normally then thrown away, such as advertisements, greetings cards, programmes, menus, tickets and election leaflets. When they survive, they give us often unexpected insights into the daily lives of our forebears.

# data[].attributes.body
Psychogeography describes the effect of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How do different places make us feel and behave? The term psychogeography was invented by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955 in order to explore this. Inspired by the French nineteenth century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire's concept of the flâneur - an urban wanderer - Debord suggested playful and inventive ways of navigating the urban environment in order to examine its architecture and spaces.

As a founding member of the avant-garde movement Situationist International, an international movement of artists, writers and poets who aimed to break down the barriers between culture and everyday life, Debord wanted a revolutionary approach to architecture that was less functional and more open to exploration.

The reimagining of the city proposed by psychogeography has its roots in dadaism and surrealism, art movements which explored ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination. Tristam Hillier's paintings such as La Route des Alpes 1937 could be described as an early example of the concept.

Psychogeography gained popularity in the 1990s when artists, writers and filmmakers such as Iain Sinclair and Patrick Keiller began using the idea to create works based on exploring locations by walking.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tate glossary definition for psychogeography: A term coined by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955 in order to describe the effect of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals

# data[].attributes.headline
Serpent River Book, 2017, Carolina Caycedo.

# data[].attributes.subject
Serpent River Book, 2017, Carolina Caycedo.

# data[].attributes.headline
Introduction to Concrete Poetry + publication / editorial design

# data[].attributes.subject
Introduction to Concrete Poetry + publication / editorial design

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Word hoards: masterpieces of concrete poetry – in pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Poets such as Ian Hamilton Finlay and Augusto de Campos have shaken words out of standard verse structure and rearranged them in striking, enigmatic new forms

# data[].attributes.headline
Film art piece on how our identity dictates our perception on place set around one road

# data[].attributes.subject
Film art piece on how our identity dictates our perception on place set around one road

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Past Oxford’s Dreaming Spires, an Artist Shows a Different View (Published 2018)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new exhibition by the artist Penny Woolcock shows that, contrary to tourist clichés, England’s famous university city is blighted by poverty and inequality.

# data[].attributes.body
The Library and Research Center (LRC) holds more than 800 unique and limited-edition books by women artists in a variety of mediums, complementing an additional 200 held in the museum’s fine arts collection.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Library and Research Center (LRC) holds more than 800 unique and limited-edition books by women artists in a variety of mediums, complementing an additional 200 held in the museum's fine arts collection.

An artist's book is a work of art in book form. Objects in this medium can be entirely handmade or mass-produced and vary in the degree of focus on content, form, and materials. Many artists encourage readers to rethink the nature of the book and reading in new and unexpected ways. Contemporary artists' books range from fine craft letterpress works to one-of-a-kind or limited-edition art objects presented in a wide variety of materials and book formats. Artists incorporate typography, papermaking, paper engineering, bookmaking, design, fine art, graphics, creative writing, and digital media into their book works.

Artists' Books at the LRC

Artists' books have been an important part of the Library and Research Center since the museum's beginnings. The collection formally started in 1986, when NMWA founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay purchased Caroline (1985) by Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim. The museum collection now comprises more than 1,000 unique books and limited editions created by women artists in a variety of formats, from scrolls and accordions to codices and sculptures. The library holds over 800 of these artists' books, including works by prominent book artists such as Ida Applebroog, Mirella Bentivoglio, Michele Burgess, Julie Chen, Laura Davidson, Johanna Drucker, Colette Fu, Carol Schwartzott, Clarissa Sligh, and Kiki Smith.

In addition to artists' books, the library contains print materials about the book arts.

Related Content

Explore the Collection

Explore highlights from the museum's collection, spanning more than 5,500 works from the Renaissance through today.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore more than 800 unique & limited-edition books by women artists in a variety of mediums and formats held in NMWA's Library and Research Center

# data[].attributes.body
'Pensées' demonstrates the desire to curate the everyday by collecting together graffiti found on the walls of the British Library lavatories and giving them the status of 'found poems'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Request to view at the National Art Library

The artist Jeremy Deller has been described as 'an anthropologist of the ordinary'. With 'Pensées' he demonstrates this desire to curate the everyday by collecting together graffiti found on the walls of the British Library lavatories and giving them the status of 'found poems'. The book is laser printed and stapled giving it a cheap throw-away quality, and is wrapped in a 'dust jacket' of rough tissue that is suggestive of old-fashioned toilet paper. Its contents reveal that patrons of the British Library like to indulge in philosophical, literary and political debate, to create acrostics and solve number puzzles when scribbling on toilet walls. However, mixed amongst these high-minded thoughts are moments of puerility that remind the reader just where the 'poems' were found.

Categories

Object type

Materials and techniques

Brief description

Artist's book, 'Pensées: a book in five chapters', by Jeremy Deller and Thomas Nicolaou, London, 1993

Physical description

Artist's book containing 'found poems' copied from the walls of the British Library lavatory.

Laser printed on double leaves, Chinese style and side stitched.

18 pages.

Dimensions

Summary

The artist Jeremy Deller has been described as 'an anthropologist of the ordinary'. With 'Pensées' he demonstrates this desire to curate the everyday by collecting together graffiti found on the walls of the British Library lavatories and giving them the status of 'found poems'. The book is laser printed and stapled giving it a cheap throw-away quality, and is wrapped in a 'dust jacket' of rough tissue that is suggestive of old-fashioned toilet paper. Its contents reveal that patrons of the British Library like to indulge in philosophical, literary and political debate, to create acrostics and solve number puzzles when scribbling on toilet walls. However, mixed amongst these high-minded thoughts are moments of puerility that remind the reader just where the 'poems' were found.

Other number

Collection

Library number

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest Feedback

You may also like

Shuffle objects

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pensées : a book in five chapters / by Jeremy Deller and Thomas Nicolaou | Nicolaou, Thomas | Deller, Jeremy | V&A Explore The Collections

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Artist's book, 'Pensées: a book in five chapters', by Jeremy Deller and Thomas Nicolaou, London, 1993

# data[].attributes.headline
LA Stories: Urbanism, Music, and AI in Ed Ruscha’s Archive

# data[].attributes.subject
LA Stories: Urbanism, Music, and AI in Ed Ruscha’s Archive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LA Stories: Urbanism, Music, and AI in Ed Ruscha’s Archive

# data[].attributes.headline
make a zine from a single sheet of paper

# data[].attributes.subject
make a zine from a single sheet of paper

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inspired by Malaka Gharib's zines and Warren Craghead's drawings for his daughter's lunches, I've been making these tiny little zines for my son Owen's lunch out of a single sheet of paper. (See more of them below.)

It's a really simple and old technique. Nothing fancy. Tons of people use it. I first learned about it years and years ago from the great book, Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine?

Here's my version in a short video:

Here's a diagram from Keri Smith's wandering zines:

And here are some of the results (see more on my Instagram):

Here's a photo of Owen and I holding up the one-page zines we made while hanging out at the Lone Star Zine Fest:

Happy zine-making!!

Filed under: zines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to make a zine from a single sheet of paper - Austin Kleon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inspired by Malaka Gharib's zines and Warren Craghead's drawings for his daughter's lunches, I've been making these tiny little zines for my son Owen's lunch out of a single sheet of paper. (See more of them below.) It's a really simple and old technique. Nothing fancy. Tons of people use it.

# data[].attributes.body
Have a look at the amazing folded structures of Paul Jackson. His books in the library are definitely worth looking at.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paper Project: Paul Jackson's Folded Motif