Thaumatropes-What???

We explored science and art in our co-op art classes this week. Thaumatropes, or "wonder turners" were a paper toy from the early 1900's, and a scientific precursor to movies or "moving pictures." Thaumatropes are based on the principle of "persistent vision"-the eye's ability to retain an image for 1/20th of a second after the image is gone. Two pictures are "combined" by the method of spinning them together at a fast rate to fool the eye into seeing them both as one. The classic images used are a bird and an empty birdcage. When these images are placed back to back and spun, the bird "magically' appears to be inside the cage.

To make our thaumatropes you will need:


heavier paper-(cardstock)
pencils
scissors
glue
sticks (skewers from the grocery store-snip points if too sharp)
markers or colors-if desired
good ideas and desire to experiment a little

Copy two circles on cardstock and cut out. Decide which two images you will try to combine. Draw your images. Be sure they line up/combine by stacking the two circles and holding them up before a bright light or window. Glue the images together with a stick in the middle. Check that they are straight before they dry. Hold a minute to bind them. When dry, twirl and see how you did! Try another one.

Here are some images we used or talked about:

whole apple/apple with bite out
words with partial phrases on each circle
man walking
flower/butterfly
open eyes/winking eyes
bird/twig
bare tree/leaves of tree
cloud and rain/sun
bird/nest
spider/web
bird/nest
bug/jar

There are many examples on youtube and we looked at two or three of them in class.

Here is our own (sideways) video with W's thaumatrope.