"Eyes, Lies & Illusions" ACMI Melbourne InPress
... Walton alongside ACMI’s curatorial team and the Hayward Gallery team in London developed this fascinating survey event.
It centres on one of the most remarkable collections of pre-cinematic optical inventions and illusions in the world, that of' the German experimental filmmaker Werner Nekes. Some of the devices, contraptions and curiosities included in this exhibition dare back as far as the 1600s, a time when the the microscope was invented and revealed to us the miracles of worldly minutiae. Others like the camera obscura, zoetropes, praxinoscopes, phenakitascopes, and thaumatropes captured movement long before the invention of celluloid.
"Even before there was such a thing as film or celluloid people strove to animate the static image and to render art more realistically believable even if it was eerie”, notes Walten. “I think it’s fascinating that spookiness played such a strong role in the magic lantern tradition during the 18th century. The travelling lanternists of Europe were the indie film directors and projectionists of their day: they hat music, special effects – smoke, mirrors, lenses, lanterns on wheels – large-scale projections and dissolving views. They would even stage screenings in cryprs and graveyards to terrify people with spooky content.”
"The exhibition has seven pre cinema themes and the Riddles of Perspective is the 'virtual' travel section of' the exhibition and the most beautiful. With huge panoramas including an 18 metre one of London which we can only show at ten metres - and intricately detailed dioramas, perspective boxes and transparent views that slowly change from day to night. Pre cinema is also the history of optical illusions. Some of the most bizarre objects include the cinema-gun for 'shooting' pictures or a Martin optical illusion tan and the once revolutionary Radiocinephone made after the advent of moving pictures- radio/TV/projector home entertainment centre all in one machine."
Perhaps the rarest item is the 'Devilry’ magic lantern from France in 1880. It contains the only known magic 1antern 'film' (rather than a slide) and is hand-painted incredibly ornate and covered in details of devils. The devil is, after all, known as the ultimate trickster and master illusionist.
"The Shadowplay theme - with its myriad magic lanterns is one of my favourites. It's the early animation” adds Walton. I think that our desire to animate the static image cannot be dated. Shadow puppet traditions date back centuries, across culture, using puppets to tell complicated and culturally specific tales just using the basic contrast of light/dark. We have a number of different shadow puppets in the show from different areas in the world and this part of the exhibition also seems to be the most popular with audiences too.”
Check out the chronophotography stuff done by Marey and Muybridge at the turn of the century, where they staged multiple cameras to capture successive frames of movement. It’s the same principle that “The Matrix” series popularised with its bullet-time effect. Or as Walton describes it summing up the essential magic to this great exhibition: “the effect was always there way back then but today it has just found a new digital expression”
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