"The Wheel of the Devil": On Vine, Gifs and the Power of the Loop
When Vine launched last week, a new format for looped media was born. While visual loops have been in existence for centuries, they have arguably enjoyed special attention over the last hundred years. In this essay I want to consider the purpose and power of the loop. I also intend to propose that the reign of the loop is greatly empowered by digital media, and that today loops have enriched culture while offering new perspectives on the nature of reality.
It is William George Horner, a 19th Century British mathematician, whom we may credit with the invention of the modern zoetrope. Horner described the mechanism in an article for the journal Philosophical Magazine in 1834. When spun by hand at a steady pace, a cylindrical tub with slits around the rim would produce a looping animation, usually of a person or animal. Horner called this device "the daedelum", but it was known popularly as "The Wheel of the Devil."
Read the full post by PR Newswire Europe operations exec and MNR production specialist Chris Baraniuk on his blog, The Machine Starts.
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