project
 
 
 
 
I cordially welcome you to the webpage of the project "DAKTYLOSKOP"!
 
The project accrued during my studies at the” Kunstuniversität Linz - Universität für künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung “/ university for artistic and industrial design. It was my final work to gain my Bachelor degree in “time based and interactive media".
 
The topic of my bachelor thesis-"precinematic playthings and advanced optical plaything as practical work”- refers to the historical period of optic playthings.
 
By examining the time of optic playthings, starting from THAUMATROP and ending with the development of the cinematograph and the projection, I make an attempt to illustrate the then ideas of the mechanics of movement perception. We tend to forget, that developing machines for the eye was only possible, after observation of the gyratory phenomenon. And for the eye alone! Visual playthings are of course useless without the spectator. Additional to my schedule of the most important optic toys up to the cinematograph I illuminated the connection to the history of toys in general, and the stroboscopic as the after-image effect.
 
I am very pleased with and proud of my team, for making it possible to elaborate a subject of such breadth. The hours of engagement in this project gave me/us a deeper insight to a time period, in which visual media was not yet pressed into such a strict form, but the experimental aspect had priority.
 
The basic idea I developed was, to bring one of these objects to the twenty-first century and rethink and develop it further on the background of today`s possibilities .
 
I decided in favour of the DAEDALEUM, which still holds the small number of single images/ frames together in its drum, and therefore signifies how the visual effect from still to movement works. Also it seemed important, to use an object which integrates the viewer (you can choose the velocity yourself). Regarding to the fact that the moment, in which the human brains blur’s single images to one motion sequence individually differs.
 
That is how the combination of an object of the past with an extension of present-day hardware options resulted. The replacement of pictures through displays seemed obvious.
 
The project was born. I managed to win two colleagues – friends by now– for the realisation of my idea. So we built up a team of three. Our collaborative project was finished without economical influences; therefore we could work on it free from pressure. We understand our work as an attempt to show that it is not always necessary to aim at a concrete goal, but rather we wish to focus on the constant creative exchange during the time we worked. Until today the final purpose of the DAKTYLOSKOP remains unconfirmed, though it opens a wide range of ideas on how to play with and use it.
 
I hope you will enjoy busying yourself with our project.
 
Best wishes