One at a Tyme

Last week in class we talked a little about pre-cinematic toys. It's the convergence of two things that give us cinema.

First is the moving image. Zootropes, flipbooks, what have you...

And the second comes from these:


These are glass slides from a 19th Century magic lantern. In the above we've got cats that think they're people.

And frogs that think they're people.

The magic lantern projected these images like an ancient Powerpoint presentation. Projection, which allows for a shared experience is a primary definition of the 20th Century art form of cinema.


Strange goings on with humans...

...can lead to a visit from the stork.

We have a few dozen of these slides. They appear to be lithographed onto glass with hand-tinted dyes.