Wikipedia
The Phonotrope is the term coined by Animation Director Jim Le Fevre to describe the technique to create animation in a 'live' environment using the confluence of the frame-rate of a live action camera and the revolutions of a constantly rotating disc, predominantly (but not exclusively) using a record-player.
It is a contemporary reworking of the Zoetrope, one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion.
The crucial difference of the Phonotrope technique is that it is specifically an in-camera technique using the frame-rate of a live-action camera set to a high shutter speed in confluence with a constantly rotating disc to create the illusion of movement as opposed to the vertical slits in a Zoetrope or the flashes of a stroboscope to create the 'interruptions' needed to create the illusion of movement. As such it can only be seen through either the camera's viewfinder, a connected monitor or projector or viewed as footage after the event.
From its inception the most commonly used methods of rotating the disc have been using a record-player however the technique of using the confluence of frame-rate and revolutions has been applied to a variety of spinning objects from bicycles to pottery wheels.
Although the technique uses the live-action camera to 'parse' or interpret the animation it does not necessarily mean that it is solely a 'film' based process watched remotely on a screen as many iterations of it have formed the heart of installations and performance pieces.