In collaboration with UChicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) and with guidance from local animator Lisa Barcy, families will explore the history of technology and animation as they construct their own zoetrope. Step into the galleries to view contemporary works featured in the Smart’s current exhibitions, then step back in time by viewing ancient invention replicas provided by ISAC. Drawing from these themes, Lisa will provide hands-on animation demonstrations and guide families in constructing a zoetrope, one of the earliest pre-film animation devices designed to create the illusion of motion. By comparing advanced technologies with ancient everyday devices, families will consider how people across time have used innovation to understand movement and the passage of time.
About ISAC:
Right at 58th and University is one of the world’s greatest centers for understanding the story of our lives as humans together; envisioned as a “laboratory for the study of the rise and development of civilization,” ISAC is the University of Chicago’s—and one of the world’s—very first interdisciplinary institutes. The ISAC Museum houses some 350,000 artifacts, excavated mainly by ISAC archaeologists, and includes a comprehensive archive that documents our fieldwork and other research. Together, the ISAC Museum collections comprise one of the best resources in the world for the archaeology, art, history, and languages of West Asia and North Africa, allowing us to understand, reveal, and protect the past.