Immersive Animation Storytelling:
Professor Eric Dyer, of UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts, was awarded a 2012 Summer Faculty Research Fellowship this year to develop the Zoetrope Tunnel, an emotionally and physically engaging way for the public to experience subject, content, and ideas. Instead of learning through text, photos, or video, viewers are bodily immersed in sculpture to come to life. They stroll through a rotating tunnel, exploring a vast expanse of animated sequences with hand-held strobe lights, much like a paleontologist investigates a newly discovered cave.
The Zoetrope Tunnel will interest museum directors and educators passionate about informing and connecting with their public in extraordinary new ways. Additionally, because the animated content is modular and replaceable, the tunnel is adaptable to an institution’s evolving focus and changing exhibitions.
The full-scale tunnel will measure 12 feet in diameter by 34 feet long. To prove the concept, the IRC worked with Dyer to produce a prototype that is four feet in diameter by eight and a half feet long. Covered with velcro, this model allows test animations to be quickly printed and attached to the tunnel for evaluation.
The Zoetrope Tunnel builds on an earlier IRC project, Bellows.
Now transformed into an Implant, the project has been exhibited at the Beall Center for Art Technology at UC Irvine (2015) and the Arts Electronica Center in Linz, Austria (2016).
Implant on Vimeo Eric Dyer recently received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a Creative Capital grant. He is represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. For more information about Eric and his work, visit ericdyer.com.
Researchers and Creators
Collaborator: Eric Dyer, Department of Visual Arts, UMBC
Sponsors: Creative Capital, The Guggenheim Foundation, UMBC’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Summer Faculty Research Fellowship
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