Zoetrope Redux
In the modern bid to find ever new ways of delivering advertising, one company has looked back in time to the Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope, and related devices. This new device, like its inspirations, uses a successions of still images viewed in a small interval of time to create the illusion of movement. The new twist here comes from the images remaining still while the viewer is moved. Most often the audience is captive and did not come for the “show”. One company bringing us this “advance” in advertising is Sidetrack Technologies, an allusion to the placement and method of animation. These are to be placed in the tunnels of BART, and similar commuter trains. They are not alone in this wave of nostaglia. Sub-Media has already installed such advertisements in New York-New Jersey PATH trains (fifteen megabyte, two and a quarter minute motion picture experts group file).
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March 26th, 2005 at 2:09 am
This is ironic. Back in 1969 or so, cartoons were deployed in the Montrreal Metro system on the northbound line from Berri Station towards the original home of the Montreal Expos, with strobe lights which fired off as the cars went by. It was NOT the most successful of systems, but in a way it was inevitable, given the vast wave of cinema innovation which followed the kinetic experiments of Expo 67. And Sidetrack is Canadian, eh?…. based in Winnipeg. Ironic.