DEMENY’S PHONOSCOPE.
Modified from a picture in La Nature, 1892.
One form of this apparatus, or photophone, was made to be turned by hand, and the combined picture or illusion viewed through a lens by one person at a time. Another type was constructed so that the synthesized picture of the speaking face could be thrown on a screen.
There is a natural curiosity in nearly every one to want to know about methods in art. And the interest is general in watching a craftsman create an object of art, or an artist bring into graphic being some imagery of his brain. It would not be out of place for these reasons, as well as a matter of instruction, to produce films showing art methods.
Especially for elementary pupils would it be a desirable thing to show the way of making simple free-hand drawings. Then, instead of an instructor repeating the process—sometimes with indifferent interest or enthusiasm—it can be arranged that some one skilled in drawing, and when he is feeling at his best, go through the procedure under the motion-picture camera. The result could be multiplied a number of times and shown in many classrooms with an evenness of performance not possible when some one does it day in and day out.
Methods and principles of the more advanced branches of art instruction—pictorial composition, for instance, could be taught, too.
As one example, we will suppose that the purpose is to show what good pictorial composition is. First an indifferent picture, poorly arranged, is shown; the various components appear on the screen exactly as they would in making a picture on canvas or paper; then little things pointed out that are lacking in artistic merit, or an explanation given of any detail that is not quite clear. (For this purpose a drawing of a pointer is made on cardboard and cut out in silhouette. It is moved around precisely as if it were a real pointer.) After showing the faulty construction the various components can be moved again, but into places to form the well-composed picture.
Methods of designing in the crafts could be demonstrated by animated drawings; and they could also be employed to explain visually the story or history of design. Ornament can be shown as it evolves from its natural form, to the first rudimentary basic type; then it passes into the best classical style, after which it becomes, as in all art evolution, the merely decorative. And it can be shown, as is usually the case in the history of an ornamental form, terminating in a debased and meaningless figure or scroll. All these screen pictures could be managed so that the pictures go through their mutations before the eyes as if they were living things.
Presuming that in the acquiring of knowledge all brains function in a similar way, what could be better as a means of instruction than a film of some educational subject?