Kreatives Deutsch - Animate Your Deutsch! Workshop

25 May 2025

In this hands-on workshop, participants first collaborated to write a collective poem and then created eight-frame animated loops inspired by their poems, exploring the foundations of animation by making their own phenakistoscopes, one of the earliest forms of animation devices. A phenakistoscope is a spinning disc attached to a handle, with sequential drawings arranged in a circle. When viewed through slits in the disc while it spins in front of a mirror, the images appear to move, creating the illusion of motion. It’s a simple yet magical way to understand how animation works.

The workshop was led by Mirac, an animator and illustrator from Turkey, who shared his knowledge and creative insights with the group. Under his guidance, participants not only learned about the mechanics of animation but also had the opportunity to engage creatively with language. Each person chose a favorite German word and brought it to life through visual storytelling and movement, combining linguistic play with artistic expression.

It was a fun, interactive session that introduced both animation techniques and cross-cultural creativity—perfect for beginners, language lovers, and anyone curious about how still images can come to life.