The Strob-Optical Machine
The Strob-Optical Machine is a work and performance by Bruce McClure.
The Strob-optical machine is a collection of discs spinning at high speed. Each disc has a picture that when rotated becomes a concentric blur of colour. This cloud becomes the subject of the flashing light that is emitted from a stroboscopic tachometer at intervals that vary between 200 and 30.000 flashes per minute, permitting observers to see isolated instants of rotation, superimposing them on the retina. Unlike Duchamp's roto-optical devices of the 1920's these discs should be viewed with both eyes open and need not to be looked at for a long time to fool the observer into believing they are seeing three dimensional space.
