Cultura Popular

Mayan Glyph Journals by Kalina Wilson (Portland, Oregon, 2010)

“Mayan glyphs are solid blocks comprised of 1-5 separate words, so my initial idea was that each block would have a main scene but also a few qualifiers – for instance, the coffee mugs in the first panel, indicating that I was in fact drinking coffee as I fixed bugs at work.”

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The Zoetrope

The zoetrope is by far the best know of the “persistence of vision” toys. Invented in the early 19th century, the name is now applied to almost any drum shaped motion toy. The zoetrope is a drum with a series of slits on the upper half. A strip with the same number of images is place in the lower half of the drum. When the drum spins the slits act as shutters to show the images one at a time. Each of the images shows a slightly different part of the movement and they blend into a smooth motion.

On the left below is a large 19th century zoetrope on a red base. It holds strips as well as disk shaped cards that sit on the floor and give a second “movie”.

This 1905 supplement to the New York Sunday American and Journal newspaper. A zoetrope pattern with instructions and two strips are included. You can make your own by downloading a PDF of the page and sizing it to fit your printer. Enjoy!