The original patent for a Kaleidoscope was granted to David Brewster in 1817, a Scottish scientist who coined the word as well, derived from the Ancient Greek word καλός (kalos), “beautiful, beauty”. The Kaleidoscope became instantly popular and has fascinated generations for two centuries.
These designs can now be created with digital editors and displayed in video streams like youtube. We have added this genre to our rapidly expanding portfolio and share eight examples for study, each with its own story.
The first is based on our recording of the Ann Arbor Russian Festival held at St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Church. Our co-founder Maria Koukios was a folk dancer and this folk art is what makes this distinctive kaleidoscopic form.
The second, “After Visiting Dr. Duncan’s House for a Fall Barbecue “, started in 2013 when we recorded Christa Duncan playing at the piano. We met up again this year, rediscovered her improvisational performance, and wedded it to a fall photo shoot from the next morning. That was modulated with a second, non-kaleidoscopic “counterpoint” layer. Enjoy.
The third stems from our research on kaleidoscopic properties of stripes created with our digital editor. We added a “leaf” layer with a shape that punctuates the stripe geometries, then added a discordant “autumn” music layer to complement the design.
The fourth work adapts our recording from the 2018 Harvard Commencement where the Class of 1968 50th Reunion brought alums back to Cambridge, including Evans Koukios. This festive design brings the song “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” to the soundtrack and to the joviality of the design. Sing along and enjoy:
Ten Thousand Men of Harvard want victory today
For they know that ov’r old Eli
Fair Harvard holds sway.
So then we’ll conquer all old Eli’s men,
And when the game ends we’ll sing again:
Ten thousand men of Harvard gained vict’ry today.
The fifth work is 33 minutes in design length and contains nearly 60,000 designs, that all started from a single photograph of a leaf. The kaleidoscopic artist has to consider, too, the “motion” of this temporal art form, as the sequence of images that pass through the subject area of the mirrors give “motion” to the design. This design is playfully creative on the shape of a hexagon due to the angle between the “mirrors” and their physical properties of reflection. It’s a work reflecting the art of physics and the physics of art.
The sixth and seventh works come from a visit to Mary Beth Doyle Park, a place like Walden Pond was to Henry David Thoreau. Can’t ever get enough time with your camera and on November 23, 2019, the FZ2500 revealed new ways to make kaleidoscopic photo designs on a wintry day. Trees were revealing their bark while backgrounds were remnants of brown decay. A man wearing a blue jacket jogged with his dog.
Meanwhile, two weeks of public impeachment hearings had just concluded informing America it was loosing its democratic soul by cruel actors. The soul of America was maligned in the McCarthy era but refused to be suffocated. A dramatic photograph of Fiona Hill taken by New York Times photographer Erin Shaff appeared on its front page and moved this photodesign forward. The soundtrack “Winter” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://audionautix.com/. Thank you Mary Beth Doyle for feeding our souls in these wintry times.
Finally, we wrap around to another cultural festival from the Nativity Greek Orthodox Church in Plymouth that we recorded live. The we add a decagon design to the music of the parish folk dancers and the crowds of visitors attending on a lovely evening enjoying “The Taste of Greece”. The soundtrack includes the Enigma Greek band. Consider this 40 minute design a radio broadcast of the evening along with a design given animation by these cultural festivities. Yassoo!
