The animated GIF below illustrates the visible animation created by the interplay of the rotating cylinder and the strobe light. Much like in classical cinema, the strobe causes each image to appear as a static “frame,” and the sequence of 24 images creates the illusion of smooth, continuous motion. While the animation loops every two seconds, it unfolds across a series of interchained sequences—allowing the viewer to follow the evolution of the snail along its full horizontal path. This invites the audience to focus on a single creature and trace its entire journey.

Evolution

I began developing this project shortly after completing Snail Trail – Laser Sculpture and Snail Trail – Short Film in 2014. The idea was to bring these two pieces together with the zoetrope, forming a kind of Snail Trail Triptych. Although all three works are based on the same animation, each medium reveals it through a different lens - spatially, temporally, and perceptually.

However, the technical realization of the zoetrope proved far more complex than anticipated. After several failed attempts to build the mechanism, I eventually put the project aside. The zoetrope remained unfinished for nearly a decade - a dormant fragment of the triptych.

In 2024, I returned to the project in collaboration with my colleague Tinka Vey. Thanks to his expertise, we were finally able to complete the work. In September 2024, the Snail Trail Zoetrope premiered as part of a triptych exhibition at the Berlin Animation Festival - shown alongside the laser sculpture and the short film for the very first time.

While the short film is, by its very nature, a linear medium, the laser sculpture is constructed as a circular object, projecting the animation as a loop. The zoetrope serves as a bridge between these two works: its cylindrical form echoes the sculpture’s circularity, yet the resulting animation unfolds on a linear path as a “movie” - a sequence of discrete moments perceived as motion.