Interactive Model of the Horse in Motion

"The Horse in Motion" is a famous series of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge, commissioned by Leland Stanford, to capture if a horse lifts all four legs while running. Using a series of cameras triggered by tripwires, Muybridge successfully captured multiple sequential images in quick succession, which when shown rapidly created what some call the first moving image. This model conveys this moment in film history visually and tactilely.

How the Interactive Model is Used: A figure of G. Domm (the jockey) "runs" (is held and placed onto) along different trip wires (tin foil rectangles attached to string). As G. Domm lands on each tripwire/rectangle, a still image of G. Domm and the horse in a different position appears on the laptop screen. Once all four tripwires are tripped (landed on), the G. Domm figure is placed onto the play button at which point the images will play in rapid succession, demonstrating how still images can create moving images when played at a quick frame rate.

This would operate as a useful demonstration for teaching K-12 students about film history in an interactive manner.

• Laptop
• Copper tape
• Printer
• Tin foil
• Makey Makey controller
• ~5 small alligator clips
• ~4 LED lights
• ~4 coin cell batteries
• Two pieces of the same colored construction paper
• Scotch tape
• String

1. Determine how many tripwires you would like to include in your model.
2. When thinking about this number, consider how many LED lights and batteries you have available to you and how large you would like to make this interactive model.
3. Each light and battery will correspond to one tripwire.
4. Because I built my project on a standard-sized piece of construction paper, I used four lights and four batteries.

Sketching:

1. Sketch out how you would like to arrange your circuit paths.
2. I drew my paths out in pencil before I added copper tape to avoid wasting materials.
3. Remember that the LED lights should appear in a row, so when designing the circuits, ensure that there is room for the lights to be next to each other without the copper tape overlapping.
4. The circuit path will need to be able to close when the G. Domm figure lands on a corresponding rectangle. I used the folded paper method of circuit creation. Attached are some examples of paper circuit paths.

Creating:

1. To create a copper tape path, place your LED light in the desired spot on the piece of construction paper.
2. Cut a piece of copper tape that is long enough to run from the positive terminal of the battery to the positive leg of the LED light.
3. Peel off the backing of the copper tape to reveal the adhesive and place the copper tape on the desired path.
4. Cut another piece of copper tape that is long enough to run from the negative leg of the LED to the negative terminal of the battery.
5. Repeat the peel-and-stick process of the copper tape.
6. Remember to avoid overlapping the tape or creating any gaps in the circuit path.
7. Repeat this method for creating a path for however many LED lights and batteries you chose to include.

Remember that you can create a circuit path that is different from the one included in this tutorial! This was my first time playing with circuits and this may not be the most efficient method. As an extra challenge, you could try making a circuit that uses one battery to power multiple LED lights to save resources.

1. Test your circuit by seeing if closing the circuit leads to the LED light turning on. For me, this meant pressing down on the folded end of my piece of paper where each of the batteries were placed.

1. Once your circuits are operating correctly (this may take quite a few tries, don't worry if you don't get it the first time!), it is time to move on to the tin foil step. Other materials may be used instead, but the material must be a conductive material that can work with a Makey Makey. I used tin foil, a cheap and easy to find resource.
2. Fold the tin foil into small rectangles that fit on top of the folded part of your piece of construction paper.
3. Create as many tin foil rectangles as there are tripwires.
4. Along with the rectangles, create a tin foil triangle to act as the play button after all of the wires have been tripped.
5. Attach the pieces of tin foil to the folded bottom of the piece of construction paper, ensuring that they line up with the LED lights and circuits.
6. Place the tin foil so that when you press down on a tin foil rectangle, it closes one of the circuits.

It's time for some "movie magic" AKA hiding the technology used to make your scene so your audience cannot see it.

1. I covered up my circuits by cutting a piece of the same colored construction paper to fit on top of where my circuits were. This helps to make the piece look neater, if the desired look is to highlight the film history event.
2. If exposing the circuits is your intention and you would like your audience to know how you powered the lights, feel free to not cover the circuits up.

It's time to decorate your scene!

1. Make sure to include printouts of "old-timey" cameras to place next to your LED lights (the LED lights simulate the camera flashing).
2. I included:
3. A photo of a horse race track to set the scene with a label of where this took place (Palo Alto)
4. Photos of Eadweard Muybridge and Leland Stanford with labels for their names
5. A title (I used what the photo series is titled, "The Horse in Motion")
6. Attach string between each printed photo of a camera and the corresponding tin foil rectangle. This will act as the tripwire.
7. Create the figure that will trip the wires. I printed out a photo of G. Domm (the jockey) riding the horse from the actual Muybridge photos.
8. Make sure that your figure is attached to the conductive material that you used. I taped the photo of G. Domm to a piece of tin foil.
9. I also included a name label for G. Domm, an important step as the significance of the African American jockey and his name are often left out of the retelling of this historic event.

I know coding can be intimidating and this step might seem scary. However, this was my very first coding project and I was still able to complete it! I used the program Scratch which involves drag-and-drop coding, making the creation of a coded project intuitive even if you are unfamiliar with coding.

1. Due to the way the Makey Makey controller works, you will want to focus on programming commands that are associated with the basic keys on a keyboard. These include: Up, down, left, right, and space.
2. Select as many images from "The Horse in Motion" photo series as there are trip wires on your model track. Because I have four trip wires, I selected four images. One image from the start of the photo series, two images from the middle, and one image from the end.
3. Upload these images into Scratch as backdrops and label them by numbers in the order you would like them to appear. I ended up with "Backdrop 1," "Backdrop 2," "Backdrop 3," and "Backdrop 4."
4. Drag a "when __ key is pressed" piece of code under the "events" code category in Scratch into the work area.
5. Assign this event to one of the parts of the Makey Makey (left, right, up, or down arrows).
6. Attach a "switch backdrop to" under the "looks" code category into the event code.
7. Assign each backdrop to one of the four arrow keys.
8. Create code to stop and reset the images.
9. Using the same "events" and "looks" pieces of code, assign any key on the computer keyboard to switch the backdrop back to Backdrop 1 when you want to reset the images. I chose key 0 to be my reset key as 0 seemed associated with the act of resetting something back to the beginning.
10. To create a "stop" button, drag an "events" code into the workspace and attach it to a "controls" code that says "stop all." I made my "stop" connected to key number 1. This will make it so that there is a way to pause the series of images after they are playing.
11. To make the photos play as a moving picture, you will need to combine three different categories of code blocks. I wanted my play button to be the space bar, as that is what I use to play videos and movies on my laptop.
12. Use an "events" code that is connected to when the space bar is pressed.
13. Beneath that block, add a "repeat until" command. Do not add anything within the repeat until block, because we want the image to continue repeating until it is told to stop.
14. Within this repeat block, add in "looks" blocks that switch to all 4 backdrops.
15. Once all four of these different switch to backdrop commands are added under the repeat block, place a "wait" block (found under the "control" section) between each of these backdrops.
16. I set my "wait" to be 0.2 seconds, a time that is fast enough to make it look more like a moving image than a slideshow of photos.
17. Using the keys on your keyboard that you programmed the Scratch code with, see if the code works! Press the different arrow keys to make the different images show up, press space to make them play like a movie, press 1 to stop the images, and press 0 to reset. If all of these commands work, it is time to move onto the penultimate step.

1. Connect one alligator clip to each of the tin foil pieces (all of the rectangles and the triangle play button).
2. Connect the other end of each of the alligator clips to the corresponding key on the Makey Makey control.
3. For example, if in Scratch you connected the left arrow with Backdrop 1, connect the alligator clip attached to the first rectangle to the left arrow section of the Makey Makey. As another example, if you connected the space bar with the playing the moving image/repeat command, attach the other end of the alligator clip on the triangle foil to the space bar section of the Makey Makey.
4. Once all alligator clips are connected between the tin foil and the Makey Makey control, it is time to test out the interactive model.

1. Make sure that the Scratch code is open and running (green flag on Scratch).
2. Plug the Makey Makey controller into the computer.
3. With one hand holding the Makey Makey controller (touching the "earth" section of the controller), use the jockey figure to hop onto each of the tin foil rectangles. As the jockey lands on each of the rectangles, the light should go off to simulate the tripwire being triggered, and the image should change according to which tripwire has been triggered (Backdrop 1 for tripwire/rectangle 1, etc).
4. If this is not working, reread the instructions, ask a friend for help, or reach out to me (the author of this Instructable).
5. Land the jockey on the triangle play button to play the images as a moving image.

Congratulations, you have created an interactive model of "The Horse in Motion" film history event using circuits, Scratch, and arts and crafts!