Description (May 9, 2005)

Devices of Wonder - Explore the ancestors of modern cinema, cyborgs, and other optical devices at this companion website to an exhibition at the Getty museum. Everything from PDAs to talking robotic toys have an ancestry. For centuries, humans have produced their own examples of "cutting-edge" and "high-tech" gadgets to intensify visual perception. Learn about parlor games, natural wonders, moving image devices, and scientific instruments that have entertained and educated humans for more than four centuries. Experience these inventions through virtual exploration, interactive animations and video, and sounds of objects.

Classroom Integration

• The exhibition has many themes, such as: Wunderkammer (assembling small objects in displays), Interior Reflections (mirrors and their powers of reflection and distortion), Alternative Realities (puzzles and visula tricks). Choose one of the themes and recreate your own. For example, folllow the instructions to create a Thaumatrope - a simple type of moving image.
• Panoramas and Dioramas - create a panorama of your neighborhood or your walk to school, showing all the houses you walk by. Or draw a 360 degree panorama of your room. Use changing light to create a diorama in which the image changes from morning, to noon, to night.
• Tell a visual story by writing a pop-up book.