Lya Finston


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    Printmaking
    Animation
    Optical Toys
    Installation
    Books

    Human Copy Machine

 
 


     
                  
                         


    Instructions for Using the Fantascope: an Optical Delusion, (2024) etching

    The phenakistoscope is an early 19th-century pre-cinematic device in which a spinning disc with sequential drawings and evenly spaced radial slots creates the illusion of motion.  For my Fantascope, I prepared a copper plate with each frame of an animation in which a man jumps and falls. After printing this etching and adding screenprinted color, I mounted the print onto a lasercut wooden disk that spins with an inset ball bearing. I used a lathe to turn the wooden spindles that make of the armiture of the phenakistoscope. The mirror and table are altered found objects.  


    Fantascope, (2024) wood-turned spindles, lasercut wood, etching, screenprinting, altered found objects