The first version of Strutturazione cilindrica virtuale (“Virtual Cylindric Structuration”), with one cylinder, published on the catalog Nouvelle Tendance, is the prototype that originated all the other ones. The version with nine cylinders was exhibited for the first time during Miriorama 14 at studio f in Ulm. The version with two cylinders probably dates to 1965-1966.

Actually, the initial concept was titled Esacono (“Hexacone”): a cube hanging from the ceiling should have featured six motors, each of them activating a pair of metal rods, varnished in black with white stripes, forming a right angle and hinged to the center of each side of the cube. By quick rotation, the rods would produce six virtual cones producing mutual visual interference. A program system defining the speed would have made the cones appear and disappear.

The technical difficulties in the miniaturization of Hexacone had as a consequence a radical modification of the project, which became a horizontal square board, with nine pairs of metal rods, varnished in black with white stripes. The rods, rotating at high speed, generate nine cylinders. A program system defining the speed makes the cylinders appear and disappear. In the transition between the two statuses of the virtual volume, the cylinders reach a lower speed that produces an effect of perceptual instability.

Artist: Giovanni Anceschi
Title: Strutturazione cilindrica virtuale (“Virtual Cylindric Structuration”)
Date: 1964
Collection/owner: VAF-Stiftung Collection
Medium: Wood, metal rods, electromechanichal animation
Exhibition: Miriorama 14