On the Cover: Daniel Chang Christensen

Is there a moment in a horse’s stride when all four hooves are off the ground? was the question Leland Stanford wanted Eadweard Muybridge to investigate. In 1878, Muybridge, a photographer roaming the western U.S. in a horse-drawn carriage/darkroom, took a series of photographs at Stanford’s Palo Alto racetrack. Muybridge photographed a horse named Sallie Gardner running at a speed of about 40mph, tripping threads as she ran to release camera shutters for approximately 1/1000th of a second. When viewed in rapid succession, through Muybridge’s invented zoopraxiscope, what became of these photographs is considered the precursor to cinema – the first film ever made.

Like Muybridge’s A Horse in Motion, Daniel Chang Christensen’s ONE DOG shows the narrative story of an animal in the act of running. 

“It kind of dawned on me one day to print frames and arrange them in a strip designed for a zoetrope,” said Chang Christensen. “I think it was one of the first moving pictures of a video of a horse running. I was naturally thinking of a running animal as a good, easy, natural loop to be turned into an animation. I had played around with little zoetrope things at science museums, but I never had one myself.”

ONE DOG features six frames of a dog running. They are relief prints made from cutting six rubber blocks, and arranged as frames of an animation. A graduate of RISD, Chang Christensen holds a degree in visual communication and derives inspiration from studying nature, landscapes, as well as goth and heavy metal art.

“I’m drawn to album covers, T-shirts, posters. It’s very grungy and dark, a lot of it’s magical and fantastical. SubRosa was one. I don’t think they’re together anymore, but I always liked their minimal style.”

Ever thoughtful with his answers, when asked for his film recommendations and the first film that changed his world, Chang Christensen said, “I would have to think about that.” Then answered respectively: Pig and Jurassic Park.

“I loved the movie Pig. I haven’t watched it since probably around this time last year. But, since I first saw it, it’s really stuck with me. I just thought it was an amazing movie and made me respect Nicolas Cage so much more as an actor… Seeing [Jurassic Park] as a kid, with the effects being so real, was just amazing, a new type of reality; it was this new world. ”

View more work by Daniel Chang Christensen @anobelisk.

Recently, Chang Christensen has found inspiration and support for his printmaking at Overpass Projects and Binch Press. 

“Overpass Projects is a fine art print studio where I’ve occasionally worked as an assistant to the master printer Julia Samuels. She’s incredibly knowledgeable, has a really methodical and scientific approach to printmaking, and she’s a prolific collaborator, working with a really diverse range of artists. Working at Overpass, I was surrounded by and helping to print some unbelievably cool art. That experience is the main inspiration for my printmaking work right now. And Binch Press is a great studio/art organization in the community.”

View more work by Daniel Chang Christensen on IG at @anobelisk.

Make Your Own Zoetrope

1. Cut a hole the size of a marble in the bottom of a circular lid or box.
2. Place a 2-in piece of tape over the hole on the outside of your lid/box, then cut the tape radially from the inside. 
3. Glue a glass bead from the inside of the hole so that it extends beyond the rim and pushes through the tape; cut the tape away from the bottom so the lid/box can spin like a top.
4. Cut out the ONE DOG prints in a row, like a film strip. The strip should be the same length as the circumference of the circle. 
5. Cut slits in a black strip of paper, the same distance apart as the frames. Make the paper strip a little smaller in diameter than the lid/box.
6. Place the black strip of paper around the inside edge of the box and the ONE DOG film strip on the inside of the black strip, positioning the illustrations so they fall between the slits. 
7. Give the lid/box a spin and view the ONE DOG animation through the slits. 

For more detailed instructions – with pictures! – visit wikihow.com/Make-a-Zoetrope.