Lionel March - Sedecim 1, Revolutions Around Red Square - Dusk to Dawn

Sedecim 1

Revolutions around Red Square: dusk to dawn

1966/2010

Photographic reproductions of sixteen digital prints. The set completes the project first published in Architectural Design (February 1966, 62-63) under the title ‘Serial Art: Notes on the cover design “Rotations around a Square”’. In the article, the intention behind the work-idea is expressed: ‘A square impinged upon by events occurring around it. Four-colour printing including black. Three rotating colour plates gives 4x4x4 = 64 variations, or, if rotations of the whole are discounted, just 16 different visual designs. These designs to be presented sequentially in book form’. In fact, just one was selected for the cover design. The sixteen variants are presented for the first time here.

The sixteen prints are visualised over a twelve hour period from dusk to dawn (18:40 - 05:20) in which black (k) varies in intensity from 10% to 80% in ten per cent steps to ‘midnight’ and back again. The colour plates are rotated through quarter-turns. Cyan (c) is held still. Magenta (m) is held still for the first four prints (1-4), rotated through a quarter-turn for the next four (5-8), and another quarter-turn for the next (9-12), and a final rotation for the last four (13-16). Yellow (y) is rotated a quarter-turn for every succeeding print. This sequence is represented by the formula: Nk cImJyK, where N is the percentage intensity of black, and I, J, K take on the values 0 for no rotation, to 1, 2, 3, for the number of quarter-turns. The colours c, m, y are transparent and mix when overlapped: c+m gives purple, m+y gives orange, y+c gives green, c+m+y gives black.