Gregory Barsamian’s “Feral Fount”

Feral Fount sculpture with its pieces becoming moving images in a dark room under a strobe light is something that must be experienced to the naked eye. This is one way of explaining this fascinating piece. On our visit to the Museum of Moving Images, we were guided to a room that had the exhibits of some early moving images and were able to see the original zoetrope that were discussed in the lectures. I was able to see and experience the Bird in Cage thaumatrope, and see the optical illusions that the piece conveyed. The bird is not in a cage, there is a picture of a bird on one side and a cage on the other, when you make it spin, it creates an optical illusion of the bird inside the cage.

            I also got to see a zoetrope and was able to make it spin and experience its function. Seeing the men, through the slits of the zoetrope, running, but in actuality the men are not running. There are painted pictures of men doing different motions, and when you spin the zoetrope the optical illusion shows the men running.

            Then the guide told us to go and check out what is in the room around the corner. I walked in and saw something that is still mesmerizing to me. It was the Feral Fount exhibit, which spins in a dark room with a strobe light flashing. I couldn’t understand at first what I was seeing. How was this sculpture alive? It was turning in a circle with all different kinds of gizmos attached to the piece. Some of the gizmos are a person’s hand, a green rocket, and what looked like white paper.

            As the Feral Fount went around in circles, the images that it was creating were the green rockets melting through the hands and turning into a plastic liquid. If you can picture what plastic looks like when it is melting, well this is what the optical allusion was creating.

            After a minute or so, the lights would turn on in the room, to show you how the piece is constructed. The elaboration of this piece in a spiral form with hands, rockets, papers, and other gizmos, the illusion created each of the different things melting into each other when in motion.

            In relation to our lectures and media in general, it is interesting to see how our eyes play with us, and how in the media industry there is so much work that goes into a certain shot to convey to the audience what the director or film maker wants the audience to see.