Response to Grace Taking Form: Marey's Movement Machines

I have an interest in the combination of art and technology and Grace Taking Form gives me perspective on the history and development of capturing motion. Marey believed human eyes did not operate at a high enough frequency to accurately perceive movement of nature or things around us. This reminds me a lot of Muybridge's work to settle a bet with someone by proving that all four legs of a horse are off the ground when in motion. Also, a mockingbird flaps its wings at such a high rate that it requires sufficient nutrients or else it cannot support itself flying around. Then there is Bruce Lee's famed punches and kicks were actually too fast for film cameras to capture.

The idea that Marey had to plot the position and time of movements of anything on a graph appeals the math nerd in me. I'm reminded of Calculus where on this graph, tangent lines can be shown at certain parts of the curve on the graph is where we can find the change of rate of motion at the very moment.