As reported on The Verge.
By Aaron Souppouris
Audio-visual group Sculpture creates vinyl picture records that appear to animate when viewed unders the correct conditions, and its latest is gorgeous. When you start “Plastic Infinite” spinning, the images on the record just look like a blur. Apply a strobing light to the record, or film it at 25fps with a high shutter speed, and the record is transformed into a giant zoetrope disc.
This isn’t Sculpture‘s first foray into animated picture discs; the group used has the same technique for a number of previous records. Sculpture comprises artist Reuben Sutherland, who works on the visual aspects of the group’s records, performances, and music videos, and Dan Hayhurst, who creates the music. When cut into its distinct parts and properly arranged, the animation found on the pair’s picture discs can be truly impressive, as demonstrated by the 2011 video for “Elk Cloner.”
Although the concept of zoetropic animation dates back over a thousand years, and picture discs are very much an established art form — even Miley Cyrus’ latest album has one — the two mediums are rarely combined so well. In the mid-20th Century, Red Raven Movie Records played short animated loops that could be viewed using “Magic Mirror” attached to a deck’s spindle, while a 2013 music video from Japanese groupSour used several zoetropic discs to create animation. “Plastic Infinite” is currently sold out, but the group is planning a second print run, which you can register your interest in at its official site.