In the Blink of an Eye: The National Media Museum Bradford sees Media and Movement

Cultural Olympiad 2012: In the Blink of an Eye: Media and Movement, National Media Museum, Bradford, until October 14 2012
    
The beauty of movement, from Victorian optical toys to a motion-capture suit used in a CGI film, is explored in exquisite detail in this multimedia show, using the National Media Museum’s authoritative archive of photography, film, television and new media to examine the criss-crossing of art, science, entertainment, sport and recorded history.

Harold Edgerton, Eadweard Muybridge, Roger Fenton and Richard Billingham are a few of the image-makers whose lenses visitors to Bradford can see the world through. And artists Quayola and Memo Akten have made Forms, an interactive video installation inspired by Muybridge’s inquisitive studies of movement.

Bob Levene and Anne-Marie Culhane contribute Time Frame, a film they made at the UK Olympic training centre in Loughborough. Barnet Fair, a new animation by Jo Lawrence, also features.

“Since the earliest cave paintings, people have been fascinated by the representation of movement,” says Colin Harding, the Curator of Photographic Technology at the museum.

“This exhibition explores how artists, photographers, inventors and scientists have responded to the challenge of capturing and synthesizing motion, creating images which transcend the boundaries of art, science and entertainment.”

Harding says the conception of the show has been “a wonderful opportunity” to bring rarely-seen highlights from the National Collections of Photography, Television, Cinematography and New Media into public focus.

The brilliance of high-speed, time-lapse and time slice photography techniques are also illuminated, showing how they reveal a world which was once invisible to our humble eyes.

• Open 10am-6pm. Admission free.

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