Fifteen Suspended Rings Rising at Different Rhythms: Recording SpY’s CYCLES N2

To record SpY’s CYCLES N2, keep one viewpoint and make a sequence of annotated sketches. Track how changing ring heights alter visible overlaps, and leave uncertain relationships unresolved rather than completing them from imagination.

What exactly are you recording?

SpY identifies CYCLES N2 as a suspended kinetic installation comprising fifteen rings moving vertically, each operating as an autonomous unit within a choreographed system of movement, light and sound. That identity should accompany the record so the sketches remain connected to this particular artwork. SpY’s CYCLES N2 documentation (https://spy-urbanart.com/video/00_spy_cycles-n2_tmb_video/)

The project description attributed to SpY explains that the rings rise and descend at different rhythms, producing changing configurations. It also describes their superposition and light travelling around their circumferences. These are the documented relationships to preserve; the description supplies no numerical movement schedule from which to reconstruct a complete cycle. Project description by SpY, published in METALOCUS (https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/choreography-transformation-cycles-n2-spy)

For a viewer making a visual notebook entry, the concrete task is narrower than describing the entire installation: from one selected viewpoint, record how differences in ring height change which contours overlap and how those overlaps read. A small sequence can answer that question more clearly than one elaborate drawing assembled from several moments.

The method below is an editorial adaptation of observational drawing and field-note practices. It is a proposed way to record the artwork, not an account of a completed viewing or a description of any Nightstill product feature.

How do you establish a viewpoint that makes comparison useful?

Start by writing the artwork’s name and stating whether you are observing the installation directly, a photograph or moving documentation. This identifies what your entry can establish. One photograph supports a record of one visible configuration; it cannot establish the direction in which a ring was travelling.

Choose a viewpoint and keep it for the sequence. When using moving documentation, select a passage whose framing remains consistent. Treat a camera cut or a substantial viewpoint change as the beginning of a different sequence, because the resulting images no longer offer the same basis for comparison.

This follows a useful principle in the American Museum of Natural History’s field-sketching guidance: decide which aspects of the subject matter to the record, and establish proportions from the observing position. Its guidance explicitly notes that moving to another position changes the visible relationships. AMNH: Helpful Hints for Field Sketching (https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/biodiversity-counts/plant-identification/helpful-hints-for-field-sketching)

As an illustrative drawing choice, use several equal-sized sketch areas with the same crop. Keep their scale consistent rather than enlarging each configuration to fill its space. If a stationary feature is visible, it can serve as a reference; if none is available, note that alignment between drawings is approximate.

Begin with a light sketch of the visible ensemble. Record the outlines as they appear rather than imposing an ideal circle on every ring. The purpose is to preserve the chosen view, including whatever portions are obscured or difficult to distinguish.

How can you follow fifteen rings without inventing their arrangement?

Keep the documented total of fifteen separate from the number of rings you can confidently distinguish in a particular view. Do not add outlines merely to make a sketch reach fifteen. Instead, note that the artwork contains fifteen rings and specify that some could not be individually traced in the selected image or passage.

You can assign temporary letters to identifiable rings as an illustrative notation choice. These letters belong to your record; they are not official identifiers. Retain a letter only while you can follow the same ring with reasonable confidence. If continuity becomes unclear, write “identification uncertain” rather than transferring the label to a nearby contour.

Make the first drawing an overview, then concentrate subsequent notes on a manageable pair or small group. This keeps the central question visible: what changed between these particular contours? The overview preserves their place within the ensemble without requiring every moment to become a fully detailed rendering.

AMNH recommends beginning with basic proportions and general shapes before adding detail. Applied here, that means establishing the visible configuration before spending time on individual luminous edges. The selection of a small group for closer comparison is a practical adaptation for this recording task. AMNH’s guidance on simplifying a sketch (https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/biodiversity-counts/plant-identification/helpful-hints-for-field-sketching)

What should each sketch say about height and overlap?

Give each sketch a sequence label, then describe height and overlap separately. “A appears higher than B in this view” records a vertical relationship. “A’s contour remains visible where B’s contour disappears” records evidence at a particular overlap. Neither sentence requires a claim about the installation’s complete spatial arrangement.

Use a short diagnostic sequence whenever two contours become difficult to read:

• Identify the same local area in both sketches.

• Describe the visible vertical separation there.

• Note whether the contours remain separate, meet in the image or obscure one another.

• State which contour is traceable through the overlap, if that is clear.

• Mark an unresolved relationship as uncertain.

Avoid turning every apparent crossing into a definite front-to-back order. If the visible evidence does not distinguish the contours, record their meeting without assigning depth. Likewise, restrict a clear observation to its location: evidence at one overlap does not automatically establish a single ordering for the entire ensemble.

For illustration only, suppose a first sketch shows a gap between two labelled contours, while a later sketch shows them meeting. A useful comparison would be: “The visible gap between A and B has closed in this part of the image; their order at the meeting point is unclear.” This demonstrates the notation without claiming that the documented artwork followed that particular sequence.

The strongest entry records both the change and its limit. “More overlap is visible” is useful when supported by the images. “A passed behind B” requires a continuous observation that actually supports that interpretation.

How do you record movement and light without inventing cycles?

Keep a still-state description distinct from a movement observation. A sketch can establish where a ring appeared at the selected moment. Add “rising” or “descending” only when you followed its movement continuously, and make clear which ring the note concerns.

Use timestamps only when they are available from the material you actually observed. Otherwise, labels such as “first observation” and “next observation” preserve order without suggesting measured intervals. If you choose evenly spaced samples from a recording, state that the spacing is your sampling choice, not the artwork’s rhythm.

A similar-looking later configuration is insufficient evidence of a completed cycle. Describe it as similar and identify the visible resemblance. Leave recurrence, duration and synchronisation unclaimed unless the observation supports them.

Record light in its own sentence or annotation. The project description documents light travelling around the circumferences, so a change in a visible luminous segment should not automatically be treated as displacement of the ring itself. Where the outline cannot be followed, describe the light that is visible and leave the ring’s position unresolved. SpY’s description of movement and light in CYCLES N2 (https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/choreography-transformation-cycles-n2-spy)

What makes the finished record useful to revisit?

Pair the sketches with brief notes about what the drawing cannot communicate. The Smithsonian’s field-book guidance combines contextual information, labelled drawings and written observations, including remaining questions. It also distinguishes seeing from thinking and wondering. Those practices offer a useful structure for keeping visible evidence separate from interpretation. Smithsonian: Field Book Activity—Making and Recording Observations (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/field-book-activity-making-and-recording-observations)

Before finishing, check that the entry contains the artwork’s exact name, the kind of source observed, a consistent viewpoint, an ordered sketch sequence and a specific comparison of overlaps. Explain any notation you introduced. Label any reconstructed or illustrative drawing separately from observational sketches.

End with a finding proportional to the record. Identify the pair or group whose height relationship changed, describe the overlap that changed with it, and retain any uncertainty. The finished entry should let you return to one precise visual relationship within CYCLES N2’s fifteen moving rings and understand what you actually recorded.

Sources

• SpY — 00_SpY_CYCLES-N2_tmb_video (https://spy-urbanart.com/video/00_spy_cycles-n2_tmb_video/).

• METALOCUS — Choreography in transformation. “CYCLES N2” by SpY (https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/choreography-transformation-cycles-n2-spy), including the project description attributed to SpY.

• American Museum of Natural History — Helpful Hints for Field Sketching (https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/biodiversity-counts/plant-identification/helpful-hints-for-field-sketching).

• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Field Book Activity: Making and Recording Observations (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/field-book-activity-making-and-recording-observations).