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Muybridge Revisited

Iconic images by photo-pioneer Eadweard Muybridge come to life in this striking video collage.

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1986 5 mins

Overview

Wrestling men and kicking mules feature alongside other jumping and lunging figures, all moving to hard electronic beats against a backdrop of buildings in Hammersmith and Fulham. Video artist George Snow used bold computer programming techniques to animate Eadweard Muybridge's 19th-century time and motion studies to stunning, psychedelic effect.

George Snow worked with the 1980s experimental pop group The Art of Noise; graphics from Muybridge Revisited can be seen in the video for the 12inch mix of their track Legs. Snow made the video with fellow artist George Barber. Muybridge's early photography remains a powerful inspiration to artists of all sorts. Steven Pippin was nominated for the 1999 Turner Prize for his exhibition Laundromat-Locomotion, in which he transformed 12 laundry machines into cameras, exploring time and motion in an aesthetic style reminiscent of the famous photographer. Muybridge himself lived an extraordinary life and was acquitted after shooting his wife's lover in the USA in 1874 on the grounds of 'justifiable homicide'.