''Strobo Trip - Light & Audio Phase Illusions Toy'' is a toy box containing a
stroboscope light and a memory stick with three tracks of music composed by the band
The Flaming Lips.
After the announcement in early May, it was released on September 20, 2011 at 5 pm, and is known for the 6-hour long track "I Found a Star on the Ground." ''The Strobo Trip'' is exactly 6 hours, 10 minutes, and 35 seconds long.
Information
The Strobo Trip toy combines a pulsating strobe light and 24 disks designed by David Bizzaro, Michelle Martin-Coyne, George Salisbury, Daniel Huffman and Dylan Bradaway. The toy creates a stroboscopic effect (similar to a
Phenakistoscope) when components are rotating.
Most of the discs have geometric psychedelic illustrations, but one of them has drawings of
spermatozoa fertilizing
ova.
The first track, "Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die" appeared with a different mix in the 2013 Flaming Lips album ''
The Terror''.
"I Found a Star on the Ground" is a 6-hour long song recorded over a period of 3 weeks from August 23 to September 17, 2011. Fans who donated $100 to two causes selected by The Flaming Lips (the
Central Oklahoma Humane Society
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
and the Academy of Contemporary Music at the
University of Central Oklahoma) got their name in an indeterminate place in the lyrics to "I Found a Star on the Ground." The names of more than 200 donors were recited on the track by
Sean Lennon.
The box-set was available for purchase only at Jackpot Records (203 SW 9th Ave. Portland OR 97205) on September 20, where
Wayne Coyne himself sold 11 boxes to fans. The boxes were available later at other Oklahoma shops, and finally at a later Flaming Lips show. The boxes were sold for $60 to $85.
A website was launched in September 2015 to stream "I Found a Star on the Ground," but it has yet to be officially released in any other format.
On Monday, October 14, 2019, Google paid tribute to the optical phenomena demonstrated in the Strobo Trip Toy via the Google homepage Doodle, which credited
Joseph Plateau
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau (14 October 1801 – 15 September 1883) was a Belgian physicist and mathematician. He was one of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this, he used counterrotating disks with repea ...
as one of two simultaneous inventors of the
phenakistiscope (
Simon Stampfer was the other) .
Track listing
Personnel
*
Wayne Coyne
*
Michael Ivins
*
Steven Drozd
*
Kliph Scurlock
*Derek Brown
References
External links
Real-time streaming of the full songRolling Stone interview of Wayne Coyne Wayne talking about the process of creating 'I Found This Star On the Ground'
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The Flaming Lips EPs
2011 EPs