What is it?
Fliposcope is a DIY hand-cranked movie machine that displays your own video or animated art.
It’s a great maker project and easy to assemble for any creative aged 7+
Our Story
In 2009, Artists Wendy Marvel and Mark Rosen decided to combine their creativity and collaborate on kinetic art.
“When we traveled in Europe and the middle east; we fell in love with the mid-twentieth century mechanized signs that were still operating, especially the split-flap (or solari) departure/arrival boards in train stations, with their mesmerizing “click-clack-click-clack”.
After experimenting on a few projects, they decided to build a similar split-flap mechanism using reclaimed ink-jet printer parts.
Showcasing their first flipbook machine at a charity event, Wendy and Mark were happily surprised by people's reaction to the piece. They knew they had to dive deep into the medium and created their art exhibit company Mechanical FlipBook.
“Our greatest satisfaction lies in watching wonder and joy overtake people when they crank the handle on a flipbook. Adults giggle like children, and kids scowl, open mouthed, with intense concentration as they try to figure out how it works. No matter how many times you create the illusion of motion, you want to do it again and again.”
“Innocence and play are the keys to our flip book experience - the ability to share magic and wonder with other creatives.”
Three Makers
Partnering with inventor Steve Goldstein, Wendy and Mark set to work on creating a prototype for a DIY kit based on their art…it was called FlipBooKit, and the newest version is called “Fliposcope”.
Debuting the miniature movie machines at 2013 New York Maker Faire, the 3 makers coincided their showcase with a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign with over 1,700 backers and $137,000 in pledges. At the time, it was one of the most funded art project in early Kickstarter history.
Mark Arnon Rosen
Mark is a kinetic artist living in Ithaca NY. His background includes multimedia design, fabrication and electronics engineering. Mark creates gadgets, sculpts, art directs and collaborates on projects with his partner Wendy Marvel, as well as other artists and creative engineers.
Wendy Marvel
Wendy is a fine artist and commercial artist working for top names in the music industry. Her artwork can be found in the private and permanent collections, as well as on the stages, web sites and tour books of some of the world’s most popular recording artists.
Steven Goldstein
Steve is a product designer, fabricator and inventor named on 13 patents. In addition to his own product development, Goldstein spent a total of ten years as Director of Entertainment Technology at Disney Imagineering and Sony Retail Entertainment.
All three of the project creators showed off their mechanical and creative skills as contestants on “Unchained Reaction“, a 2012 Discovery Channel series produced by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters fame, which challenges teams to make amazing contraptions. (Steve in Episode 1 and Wendy and Mark in Episode 6).