Ferrofluidicious.

You've probably heard about ferrofluid. I've been obsessing about it ever since I've discovered it. It's a liquid which looks like some sort of motor oil but under the influence of a magnetic field tends to act like it's alive because of its nanoscale ferromagnetic particles.

Singaporean artist Afiq Omar got into ferrofluid explorations and so far produced three videos of aesthetic perfection. The music he picked for each of his videos utterly matches the visuals.

The first one has a dark, futuristic atmosphere:

Ferreum from Afiq Omar on Vimeo.

In the second one, which is definitely my favorite, the artist experimented with smaller amount of ferrofluid which he mixed with other liquids such as milk, soap, alcohol etc.

Ferroux from Afiq Omar on Vimeo.

In the third video he again played around with mixtures of ferrofluid and other liquids. What's really admirable is that no computer software was used for the creation of the patterns but only manipulations with fluid dynamics and magnetism.

Ferienne from Afiq Omar on Vimeo.

Analogue animation.

It all started with this:

Andrew Salomone's Pizzoetrope.

Then I started digging and discovered so many interesting people who like to play around with phenakistoscope and zoetrope techniques nowadays.

The phenakistoscope and zoetrope (funny and weird names?) are both early animation devices which produce an illusion of motion.
The phenakistoscope consisted of a spinning disc which was vertically mounted on a handle. Around the disc's center were series of drawings and series of slots right next to the edge. The user would spin the disc and look through the slot into the disc's mirror reflection where rapid succession of images would appear to him as a moving picture.

Eadweard Muybridge's phenakistoscope, 1893

The zoetrope was practically the improved version of  the phenakistoscope, only cylindrical shaped, which did not require the use of mirror and more than one person could view the moving picture at the same time.

Using phenakistoscope technique but adding turntables to the equation and a bunch of records with printed-on animations based on album covers (!), Clemens Kogler created something delicious to watch:

Stuck in a Groove / Phonovideo from Clemens Kogler on Vimeo.

Then there's Jim Le Fevre's magical experiment :

ICA heavy pencil with Malcolm Goldie from jim le fevre on Vimeo.

And in the end, Retchy who stunningly incorporated projection mapping into his 3D zoetrope:

Battles - IPT2 - 3D Zoetrope Mapping from Retchy on Vimeo.