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Overview

Optikammer brings 19th-century optical toys and experiments to life. It tells the story of how strange inventions and playful scientific devices became the foundations of cinema, animation and video games.

Transforming historical artefacts into playable objects.

Visitors can spin zoetropes, trigger phenakistoscopes, and animate chronophotography, discovering through their own actions how illusions and animation work.

Rather than being a game about history, the experience is a way for visitors to encounter ideas that often sit inert behind glass cabinets – a playable interpretation of material central to the history of design, science, and visual culture.

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Educational approach

A clear lineage

Optikammer traces a path through history that can be followed intuitively:

Philosophical toys → Animation → Chronophotography → Cinema → Video games

Children, in particular, understand games instinctively. The experience gives that understanding depth, connecting their screen-based play to its origins in spinning discs and slotted drums.

Learning through perception

The objects make sense when they move. A zoetrope is just a drum with slits until you spin it. A phenakistoscope is just a painted disc until the images appear to move at the right speed.

Devices designed to be handled.

Their meaning is revealed through interaction not explanation: returning these artefacts to their original, hands-on mode of understanding.

Embodied understanding

Optikammer is play as a mode of enquiry. The relationship between action and effect is where the learning happens. Visitors experience persistence of vision by seeing it manifest under their own control. They learn that frames create motion by feeling the moment when stillness transforms into animation.

Beyond gamification

Form and subject matter work together: just as philosophical toys used simple mechanics to produce wonder, this experience uses straightforward interactions to produce insight. It is not just a layer of interactivity wrapped around educational content – instead, the interactivity is the content.

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For exhibits teams

Museum and exhibition teams balance competing demands. The project has been designed with these considerations in mind.

Educational value

Learning happens through sensing and playing. The experience produces embodied understanding rather than information transfer. Visitors discover principles through direct manipulation of cause and effect.

Age-appropriateness

The core experience can be adapted for different audiences:

• Reading load can be reduced to essentials
• Dwell time can be shortened into clear, satisfying loops
• Physical interaction is calibrated for different motor skills using a simple joystick
• Content is framed as discovery rather than instruction

Practicality

• Multiple installation formats to suit different spaces
• Minimal technical requirements
• Robust hardware options for unsupervised use
• Straightforward setup with no specialist knowledge required

Curatorial integrity

This is a playable interpretation of material already central to the history of design, science and visual culture. The interactivity serves the content – it does not obscure or trivialise it.

Pilotability

The project is well suited to low-risk trials:

• Short-term installations
• Single-day workshops
• Drop-in activities
• Festival or event appearances

This makes it easy to test with audiences before committing to longer programmes.

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What’s inside

The collection contains over two dozen interactive elements and more than eighty playable artefacts, organised into themed sections:

Philosophical toys

• Thaumatrope – The simplest optical toy: two images on either side of a disc that merge when spun
• Phenakistoscope – A spinning disc viewed through slits, creating the first animated loops
• Zoetrope – A rotating drum that brings strips of images to life
• Praxinoscope – A refinement using mirrors for brighter, smoother animation
• Anorthoscope – Distorted images that resolve when viewed through a rotating disc

Chronophotography

• Muybridge’s motion studies – Horses, athletes, and animals captured in sequential frames
• Marey’s graphic method – Scientific visualisation of movement through time
• Multi-exposure photography – Superimposed moments on a single plate

Interactive mechanics

Each element can be controlled directly. Visitors can:

• Embody historical artefacts as playable game characters
• Explore collections of visually stimulating material
• Experiment with elements using simple controls to observe cause and effect

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Possible programme contexts

The installation can work in a variety of settings:

• Permanent or temporary exhibition: As a standalone interactive or part of a broader display on animation, cinema, science, or Victorian innovation
• School visits: Aligned with curricula on light, science, history of technology, art and design
• Holiday programming: Drop-in activity for families
• Workshops: Play followed by creating
• Festival or event: Eye-catching installation for public engagement
• Outreach: Portable format for libraries, community centres or off-site events

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Formats and installation options

Optikammer is designed to be flexible. It can be presented in different ways depending on available space, audience and context.

Arcade cabinet

A self-contained unit with built-in screen, speakers, and controls. Robust and suitable for unsupervised play. Footprint approximately 70cm × 70cm.

Screen and joystick

A simpler setup using an existing monitor or television with a standalone arcade joystick. Easy to integrate into existing exhibition furniture.

Projection

Large-format projection for group viewing. Works well for facilitated sessions or as an ambient installation. Can be paired with a single shared controller or multiple inputs.

Workshop format

Optikammer as the centrepiece of a hands-on session: participants can play the game and physically handle the optical toys depicted. Since modern games descend directly from these devices, workshops can explore the making of both Optikammer and video games more broadly.

Short-form version

A curated selection of content designed for 5–10 minute interactions, suitable for high-traffic environments or drop-in activities.

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Technical requirements

The software runs online as well as offline in a web browser (HTML5), and also as a standalone application on Windows or Mac.

Display	Any screen size at landscape orientation
Input	Arcade joystick (or simplified gamepad)
Audio	Speakers or headphones
Internet	Not required for installed version
Power	Standard mains supply

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History and recognition

Optikammer has been exhibited publicly in London, Berlin and Dublin, and has received recognition including:

• Winner, Best Educational Game – BIG Festival
• Showcased by the Information is Beautiful Awards
• Featured in Killscreen, Everyeye and Malavida

The project has been developed independently over several years, with a focus on fidelity to the original artefacts and a commitment to meaningful interaction design.

About the creator

Optikammer was created by JJ, a specialist interaction designer with a background in digital media and a longstanding interest in the history of visual technologies.

The project began after encountering early optical toys displayed behind glass in the Young V&A (formerly the V&A Museum of Childhood). The experience of seeing these objects, static and silent, prompted the question: what would it feel like to play with them all?

Optikammer has been developed with care to make original artefacts come alive with interactions that reveal their underlying principles.

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Get in touch

For enquiries about exhibition, installation, workshops or collaborations:

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Play Demo

Get a feel for the game mechanics and play a demo of the longform version: