Electric diver

Fantastic Diver is a short film created in 1905 by Aragonese filmmaker Segundo de Chomón. The footage shows 19 dives performed by a swimmer plunging into the water. Half of the dives are shown normally, while the other half are altered by reversing the playback of the frames. As a result, instead of falling into the water, the swimmer emerges from it in a fantastic leap—creating a cyclical sequence: from the surface to the water, from the water to the surface, from the surface to the water, and so on.

The film employs an early special effect typical of cinema at the time (1905), playing with the creative possibilities of the medium and its technology.

Fantastic Diver is the name of a film created in 1905 by Aragonese filmmaker Segundo de Chomón. This installation, titled Electric Diver, uses fragments of the digitized footage to develop a series of projections that the viewer can alter through interaction with a musical instrument—a theremin. As sound is generated through the instrument, it simultaneously modulates the projections, creating a variable audiovisual piece. The work allows users to explore the compositional possibilities of the installation by engaging with it in a participatory and playful manner.

Many early 20th-century films experimented with the illusion of movement through montage techniques. Fantastic Diverwas conceived more than a century ago as an exercise in motion capture, with the director reversing the playback direction of frames to create a technological illusionism unique to that era.

The installation revives this historical footage by applying a new interactive reproduction system. In doing so, it not only adds a soundscape to the original material but also allows the viewer to control the sequence of frames—offering a contemporary exploration of archival cinema through the lens of new media.