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About Eric
About my work
I continuously reinvent the zoetrope, a pre-cinema optical toy, creating unique methods of expression and exploring the ways it filters my ideas. I am now particularly interested in how the physical presence of animated objects surpasses the experience of viewing moving images on screen.
Bio
Eric Dyer is an artist, filmmaker, experimental animator, and educator. His award-winning films have screened internationally at numerous festivals, including the Chicago International Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, South by Southwest, and the… more
I continuously reinvent the zoetrope, a pre-cinema optical toy, creating unique methods of expression and exploring the ways it filters my ideas. I am now particularly interested in how the physical presence of animated objects surpasses the experience of viewing moving images on screen.
Bio
Eric Dyer is an artist, filmmaker, experimental animator, and educator. His award-winning films have screened internationally at numerous festivals, including the Chicago International Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, South by Southwest, and the… more
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Video shorts
Award-winning shorts from the past decade.
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Budy the Carrot (video short, 1998)Budy sneaks into classic films, making them better.
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B-ball Etude (video, 2003)Chopin's Harp Etude restructured footage of a street basketball game in Baltimore.
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Chopin's Bicycle (video, 2003)A Chopin Mazurka restructured video clips of my 1967 Schwinn Speedster.
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Kinetic Sandwich (video, 2002)The secret motion hidden within the favorite American mid-day meal.
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Coversong (2012, video short)Spinning manhole covers reveal secret motion hidden underfoot.
Media Archeology 2110
On a flooded Earth of the future, an archeologist finds and attempts to view a forgotten medium.
The film was created by cutting, burning, weaving, and wrapping 35mm movie trailers.
The film was created by cutting, burning, weaving, and wrapping 35mm movie trailers.
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Media Archeology 2110 (video, 2010) - excerpt
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0024008.jpgfilm perforation refuse is turned into animation.
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0023208.jpgWoven 35mm film trailers
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0021401.jpgWoven 35mm film trailers
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0014509.jpgburned 35mm film trailers
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0011604.jpgstacked 35mm film trailer strips
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media_archeology_2110_final_hd_24p-0004111.jpgWoven 35mm film trailer
Collaborations with Symphony Orchestras
My first such collaboration was with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2004. I went on to create a class entitled Visual Symphony- my students collaborated and presented with both the BSO (2006) and the Brooklyn Philharmonic (2008).
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ProcessUMBC Visual Arts student John Rouse teaches Baltimore Symphony Orchestra percussionist how to use the live video triggering system.
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Shout mp4
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ProcessWhiteboard with the students' plan for the progression of visuals in the "Try to Believe" video.
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KudosFront page exposure for the students' project.
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Brooklyn TripThe 2008 UMBC Imaging Research Center Visual Arts Fellows pose in front of the Brooklyn Museum, where their video was presented live on stage.
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ProcessStudents reacted via zoetrope sculptures to Brooklyn Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence Randall Wolff's Try to Believe composition.
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Try to Believe (2008, student video)Students from my UMBC Imaging Research Center Fellows course Visual Symphony collaborated with the Brooklyn Philharmonic- their synchronous video was projected at the Brooklyn Museum on stage with live musicians as part of the BP's contemporary chamber music series Traversing the Mushroom Kingdom.
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Fanfare (video, 2004)My MFA thesis project and a collaboration with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the Symphony in Motion program, Marin Alsop, Conductor. Set to John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
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Shout (student video, 2006) stillStudents from my UMBC Imaging Research Center Fellows course Visual Symphony collaborated with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra- their synchronous video was projected at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on stage with live musicians.
Experiments with zoetrope form
Experiments with what other forms my zoetropes might take: umbrella, hot air balloon, LP record. Development of these prototypes was fueled by time and funds from a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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ProcessInflating the hot air balloon zoetrope prototype
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Zoetrope Workshop class photoStudents from the CalArts Experimental Animation Program, Eastern China Normal University, Shanghai, show off their creations.
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Umbrella zoetropes, installation visualizationAn idea for how to create an installation with umbrella zoetropes. The public stands under strobe lights and views the back-lit animations while spinning the umbrella.
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Umbrella inspirationWhile teaching an animation workshop for the CalArts Experimental Animation annex program at Eastern China Normal University in Shanghai, I went about the city recording interesting motion. I also had the students bring in their favorite umbrellas/parasols to spin for my camera. It then dawned on me: why not make the umbrella the zoetrope?
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LP Record Zoetrope (prototype)2013, 12"x12", vinyl
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Hot Air Balloon Zoetrope (prototype)2013, nylon, 6'x15'x6'
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Umbrella Zoetrope (prototype)2013, 48"x38"x48"
Copenhagen Cycles
A bicyclist travels through a fantastical, collaged reconstruction of Denmark's capital.
About 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures were built to create the film.
About 25 zoetrope-like paper sculptures were built to create the film.
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Knippel Louises Bro2014, 30"x42" inkjet print
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Pølser Tower2006, 24"x11"x24" One of 26 Copenhagen Cycles cut-paper zoetrope sculptures.
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Copenhagen Cycles tours with GuillemotsThe video was projected on stage as an accompaniment to live performances by the rock band Guillemots. Toured throughout the UK in 2008.
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Copenhagen Cyles at Feldman Gallery
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What it is to be Intestinal8 hours into piece
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Copenhagen Cyles at Feldman GalleryExhibition opening, September 6, 2014. Ten spinning paper zoetropes viewable with shutter glasses.
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Artforum adFull page ad in the September 2014 issue of Artforum, for the Copenhagen Cycles exhibition at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NY.
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Eric Dyer meets Robert RedfordNew Frontier Artist Exhibition, 2007 Sundance Film Festival
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Copenhagen Cycles installationNew Frontier Artist Exhibition, 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT
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Copenhagen Cycles (video, 2006)A bicyclist travels through a kinetic pop-up book collage of Denmark’s capital. "Dyer’s judicious use of contemporary animation in reclaiming the older pioneering grammar of moving image practice enables the viewer to embrace the experience of ‘seeing again’ while ‘seeing afresh’." Paul Wells, author of Re-imagining Animation: the Changing Face of the Moving Image
Implant
Implant is an imaginary medical device that hypothetically fits into a blood vessel, neuron, etc. It is super-enlarged, making the viewer feel microscopic. Implant plays with the paradoxical threat and promise of bleeding-edge anatomically invasive medical practices. The "nanomites” are cell-sized robots performing unknown tasks in the body. The installation is a combination of a large rotating tubular sculpture and projections of live video feeds from cameras aimed at the strips of 3D-printed/laser-cut/hand-painted animation on the tube.
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ProcessFinal strips of animation, painted, acrylic spheres and pincer-gears added.
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ProcessBeginning to paint the 3D prints.
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ProcessStrips of animation fresh from the 3D-printer at Shapeways, NY.
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ProcessStrips of animation fresh from the 3D-printer at Shapeways, NY.
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Process: computer animation testsTesting the animation before 3D-printing. Raymond Bergeron, 3D Animator and print prep
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Implant104"x52"x58"; nylon, wood, acrylic, steel, live video
Live zoetrope-video performances
Spinning zoetropes live as part of the Armory Show after-hours events in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at Bunnycutlet Gallery. Live VJ performance is an ongoing part of my art practice, allowing for spontaneity and testing of animations-in-progress which are part of my longer-term/larger-scale projects. I have also performed at the Tropic Cinema, Key West, FL (collaboration with pianist Jiayin Shen); MoMA Jacksonville, FL; and various venues in Baltimore (with band Batworth Stone).
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Batworth Stone visualsLive visual zoetrope performance with band Batworth Stone, The Windup Space, Baltimore, MD
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Batworth Stone visualsLive visual zoetrope performance with band Batworth Stone, The Windup Space, Baltimore, MD
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Rate of LightBunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
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Rate of LightBunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
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Rate of LightBunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
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Rate of LightBunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
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Rate of LightBunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
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The Eternal DrivePromo poster for collaborative performance with pianist Jiayin Shen, Tropic Cinema theater, Key West, FL. Culmination of my residency at The Studios of Key West.
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Rate of LightPress Release
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Rate of Light2013, paper and acrylic, live video Performance at Bunnycutlet Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Geotropes
The Geotrope project transforms both natural and urban/industrial landscapes into animated organic-synthetic hybrid sculptures. The first geotropes have been cut into the landscape. Future geotropes will consist of objects placed in the landscape.
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Baldwin Geotrope #1 process video
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Desert Cubes Geotrope, visualization still
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Desert Cubes Geotrope, visualization still
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Desert Cubes Geotrope, visualization still
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Desert Cubes Geotrope, visualization200ftx200ft, Proposed geotrope, white cardboard boxes in desert.
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Baldwin Geotrope #2 still image
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Baldwin Geotrope #2 still image2015 100ftx100ft form mowed into landscape, filled with snow.
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Baldwin Geotrope #1 and surrounding area
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Baldwin Geotrope #1 still image
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Baldwin Geotrope #12015, Video 80ft x 80ft form cut into the landscape with a weed whacker, then photographed with a photo-drone, and digitally spun.
The Bellows March
The Bellows March (a.k.a. Bellows), runs anthropomorphized concertinas through a cycle of destroy-create-destroy, contemplating the destructive and expressive potential of humans, and observes these extremes as an eternal cycle.
“…a most unusual and very old 19th century zoetrope cyclical device using 21st Century combined techniques places it in a separate category that may have to be invented....”
Bill Matthews, Disney Features, Head of Training
“…a most unusual and very old 19th century zoetrope cyclical device using 21st Century combined techniques places it in a separate category that may have to be invented....”
Bill Matthews, Disney Features, Head of Training
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Poetry in Motion at Ars Electronica, Linz, AustriaMuseum Director Gerfreid Stoker and me at the Bellows installation, which was exhibited as part of the opening of the new Ars Electronica Center, when Linz was the European Capital of Culture (2009).
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Installation at Avesta Art, SwedenChildren viewing the animation on the zoetropes with liquid crystal shutter glasses.
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Bellows installation at Siggraph 2008At the Los Angeles Convention Center. A group from Japan taught me how to build special liquid-crystal shutter glasses, allowing the public to view the zoetrope sculptures without the aid of video cameras or strobe lights.
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Process stillShooting The Bellows March video.
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Bellows Skate2009, 16"x10"x16" Zcorp 3D print, acrylics One of 18 zoetrope sculptures from the project.
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Bellows Skate-Helix Transition2009, 8"x10"x8" Zcorp 3D print, acrylics One of 18 zoetrope sculptures from the project.
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Bellows Rockettes2009, 16"x4"x16" Zcorp 3D print, acrylics One of 18 zoetrope sculptures from the project.
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Bellows installation at Siggraph 2008Six zoetrope sculptures from the project, Los Angeles Convention Center. "By displaying the concrete machinery of illusion, Dyer fundamentally advances the staid gallery practice of video installation. He delightfully joins the nineteenth century with the twenty-first, and lets the viewer compare self-contained zoetrope space with a video surround." George Griffin, Eric Dyer: Take the B Train, Pervasive Animation, Edited by Suzanne Buchan, AFI Film Reader Series, Routledge
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The Bellows March (video, 2009)Crowds of concertinas live out a cycles of destroy-create-destroy. “…visually and aurally mesmerizing. it is rare to see something this unique and well realized.” Frank Mouris, creator of Frank Film “…one of my top 5 films this year. It captures beautifully so many of the very elemental aspects of what animation is about – it blends some techniques that are as old as the filmmaking with some of the latest technologies…. The devices the filmmaker uses to form these visuals are beautiful sculptures in their own right. It’s the film I wish I’d made.” Malcolm Turner, Co-director; London and Melbourne Int’l Animation Festivals “Hints of old school Fischinger and the Quays in this experimental process, but made Dyer’s own by his narrative engagement with loops and cycles, and play with 3D design and colour forms. Highly pertinent soundtrack, with a range of sinister undercurrents that reinforce the theme of oppression destruction and optimistic creativity.
A Video Introduction, and The Zoetrope Tunnel
First, a video about my work.
And: The Zoetrope Tunnel is an immersive walk-through animated sculpture.
And: The Zoetrope Tunnel is an immersive walk-through animated sculpture.
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Eric DyerA "shareable" video by Creative Capital in which I discuss my art and why I am moved to make The Zoetrope Tunnel. "Dyer’s work bestrides cinema and gallery, time and technology, animation and animus, and effectively re-imagines animation through its long, lost past." Paul Wells, author, Re-imagining Animation: the Changing Face of the Moving Image
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Zoetrope Tunnel 3D visualizationThe Zoetrope Tunnel is a 9ft diameter, 20ft long rotating tube. Sculptural paper “frames” of printed, cut, and layered animation are tiled on a spiral path, covering the inner and outer tube, wrapping over the ends, doubling back to the start, creating both a structural and narrative loop. A footbridge spans the inside of the spinning tunnel. Visitors shine handheld strobe lights as they walk through and around the tunnel–- the content is revealed wherever the lights are directed, in all of its dimensional, animated splendor. Adding to the impact on audiences is the zoetropic form of storytelling. While traditional plots want linear events and individual characters, zoetropes lend themselves to repetition, collision, a waterfall of form and motion. The result is a hypnotically engaging neo-narrative structure, one that is simultaneously temporal and spatial. Planned completion: 2016