Fresh Spin
Rebecca Cummins

Fresh Spin revisits Harold “Doc” Edgerton’s Stroboscopic Discs, a set of spinning discs animated by the Strobotac, a high-speed intermittent electronic flash he developed in the 1930s. The Strobota was also instrumental to his invention of high-speed and stop-action photography, along with a range of industrial and military applications.

In iconic photographs such as Milk Drop Coronet Splash, 1936 (a milk splash) and Making Applesauce at MIT, 1964 (a bullet exiting an apple), his flash seems to stop motion, revealing what cannot be perceived by the unaided eye.

Edgerton was a consummate showman. During lectures he demonstrated stroboscopic devices including The Piddler (the flash appears to change the direction of falling water) and his lesser-known Stroboscopic Discs. In 2003, I assisted Harold’s son Bob in reassembling these apparatuses; I also borrowed his sound-triggered flash for a photographic series in 2004.

Here, in Fresh Spin, my own disc designs are featured. I often explore light and natural phenomena; Fresh Spin also relates to previous “media archeological” works in which I engage media from previous time periods.

**Performance demonstrations will happen at 4:30pm, 5pm, 5:30pm on Friday and Saturday, and 4:30pm, 5pm, 5:30pm, 6pm, 6:30pm on Sunday**



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Professor in the School of Art and Affiliate Faculty, DXARTS at UW, I exhibit widely internationally and am involved with public commissions and collaborations with artists and scientists.

Rebeccacummins.com



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