Phase Frames

Artists: Oliver Bown / Britt Hatzius (UK)
Ivana Kuzmanovska / Rachel Couper / Sam Ferguson / Joseph Narai / James Murchison
Collaborators: Jiajian Li, Dawei Zhou

Country: Australia

Phase Frames is inspired by the technology of 1920s celluloid film-making and the workings of a zoetrope. The zoetrope was one of several early animation devices that produced the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of images on the inner surface of a spinning cylinder.

Phase Frames invites the viewer to enter a circular installation of 18 monitors, each showing the same, synchronised image. As the viewer interacts with the installation, the images on the screens are sent into different phases of action.

At a point when the interaction becomes too disruptive, the ‘zoetrope’ created by the screens gently decays the moving film into a fluttering array of diverse sounds and images that appear momentarily disconnected. Once the interaction has ceased, the sounds and images fall back gracefully into synchrony.

The interactive remix offered by the installation gives viewers a special insight into the nature of moving images and motion picture projection.