How to Record Rotating Forms Between a Lightbox and Two Viewfinders

Record this scene with a spatial sketch and a sequence of observed moments: keep the round lightbox central, distinguish the bipyramid side from the two-disc side, and label each viewpoint.

The task is to make a drawing and written description that preserve the arrangement and its movement. A single polished image can document one moment; a sequence can retain the changes that make this particular scene recognizable. Start with the components and their relationships, then add only the appearances and transitions supported by the reference you can inspect.

What arrangement must the record preserve?

Olafur Eliasson’s 2025 installation, Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives, has a central circular lightbox. On each side, transparent plastic elements hang between the lightbox and a circular filter serving as a viewfinder. One side contains a rotating hexagonal bipyramid; the other contains two discs revolving about their axes, sometimes aligning and sometimes overlapping. These are the essential spatial and movement relationships documented by the artist’s studio. Studio Olafur Eliasson’s artwork record (https://olafureliasson.net/artwork/your-negotiable-vulnerability-seen-from-two-perspectives-2025/)

Begin your own record with a component list. Name the lightbox, the bipyramid, both discs and both viewfinders separately. This prevents a circular opening from being mistaken for one of the moving discs when you return to the drawing later.

Use “bipyramid side” and “disc side” as stable labels. Left and right describe a particular image or viewing position, so attach them to that reference when needed: “left in this frame,” for example. Keep the component names consistent throughout the record.

Write the ordering on each side before drawing details: lightbox, suspended form or forms, viewfinder. This short relational description gives you something to check against every sketch. It also allows you to document the arrangement without inventing distances, dimensions or a floor plan.

How can a sketch preserve geometry without inventing a layout?

Make an arrangement study first. The National Gallery of Ireland’s observational drawing exercise begins with basic outlines and asks the reader to consider placement, interactions and the spaces between objects. Those steps provide a useful basis for recording this scene before attempting surface detail. Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations)

Choose one available reference view and keep it fixed for the initial sketch. Mark the lightbox’s visible boundary, then locate the moving elements and the visible viewfinder. If the reference does not show the whole installation, let the drawing remain partial. Use a separate, clearly labeled schematic to explain documented relationships that the chosen view cannot show.

For example, you could place a small relationship diagram above two larger observational drawings, one for each side. This is an illustrative page arrangement, not a claim about the installation’s layout. Label the diagram “schematic, not to scale” and identify the reference view beneath each larger drawing.

In the bipyramid study, establish the outer contour and the visible meeting points of edges. Add internal lines only where the reference supports them. Keep an explanatory construction drawing separate from the observed view so that hidden geometry does not become indistinguishable from visible edges.

For the discs, draw each visible boundary separately before marking the shared area. Follow the contours shown in the reference rather than replacing them with two ideal circles. If one boundary becomes difficult to distinguish, note where it becomes unclear instead of completing it from expectation.

Check the gaps as carefully as the objects. Compare the space between a form and the lightbox’s visible edge, and the space between that form and the viewfinder boundary. Treat these as proportions within the chosen image. The gallery exercise specifically identifies negative space as the space between objects; using it here gives you another way to check placement. Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations)

How should you record rotation and changing overlap?

Use successive panels with brief captions. Adobe describes a storyboard as a sequence of visual panels representing key moments, supported by sequencing notes. Adapt that structure to observation: each panel records an inspected moment rather than planning an invented action. What Is a Storyboard? (https://www.adobe.com/in/products/firefly/discover/what-is-a-storyboard.html)

Make a first pass through an accessible moving reference without drawing. Identify the uninterrupted passages, changes of viewpoint and cuts. Then return to one passage and select moments that show meaningful differences. Keep separate passages separate until you have evidence that they continue the same movement.

For each selected moment, record four things:

• The side and viewpoint being shown.

• The form’s visible contour and orientation.

• The relationship between boundaries, including disc overlap where visible.

• The next visible change within that uninterrupted passage.

For the bipyramid, follow a recognizable visible edge or meeting point across successive moments. Describe its changing position in the image. Add a rotation arrow only when the intervening movement establishes its direction; a single frame cannot supply that sequence.

On the disc side, attend to the relationship between the two outlines. Useful moments may include a clearly distinguishable pair of boundaries, a changed shared area, and a later alignment. These are selection criteria, not an asserted order. Number the panels in the order actually observed, even when that order differs from a convenient drawing exercise.

For example, an illustrative three-panel study could show an initial overlap, a changed overlap and a later alignment—provided the reference visibly contains that progression. If it does not, choose different panels. Never fill a missing interval merely to make the sequence look complete.

Do not call a passage a full revolution or repeating cycle unless the reference establishes that return. If the recording ends during movement, finish with the last visible state. A caption such as “passage ends here” preserves the boundary of the evidence.

How can material and colour notes stay precise?

The studio identifies the suspended elements as transparent plastic and documents changing colour appearances as the materials move or the viewing position changes. Record the visible colour states alongside their viewing conditions, without turning the description into an explanation of optics. Studio Olafur Eliasson’s artwork record (https://olafureliasson.net/artwork/your-negotiable-vulnerability-seen-from-two-perspectives-2025/)

Keep material labels and appearance notes distinct. “Transparent plastic” identifies the documented material; a colour word describes a particular observed region at a particular moment. Avoid making a temporary colour the permanent name of a disc or a face.

Use local descriptions wherever possible. Identify whether a colour occupies an entire visible face, a narrow edge region or part of the discs’ shared area. If the boundary is indistinct, say so. Specific placement makes a colour note more useful than an unsupported description such as “rainbow-like.”

Label changes of viewpoint alongside the panels. When the camera moves while a form turns, record both visible events without assigning the resulting appearance to either one alone. Keep separate studies for a stationary view and a moving view when the reference allows that distinction.

If working in pencil, an illustrative notation system could use small letters beside regions and matching colour descriptions below each panel. Explain that key once. Avoid applying an arbitrary overall tint to make the page more striking, because that would add an appearance the record has not established.

What should the finished visual record contain?

Assemble the record so that another reader can recover both the arrangement and the observed passage. Put the component description first, followed by the fixed-view study and the numbered movement panels. Keep captions adjacent to their drawings so that the sequence remains readable.

Before finishing, check these specific points:

• The central lightbox and the two viewfinders have distinct labels.

• The bipyramid side and the two-disc side remain identifiable.

• The suspended elements retain their documented relationship to the lightbox and viewfinders.

• Each observational drawing identifies its reference view.

• Panel order follows inspected movement, with cuts and gaps marked.

• Schematics, notation choices and illustrative examples are labeled as such.

The completed record should let a reader locate the components, follow the visible changes and recognize where observation ends. Preserve a partial view or an unfinished movement when that is what the reference provides. That precision keeps the scene’s geometry and sequence available for later drawing without adding an unseen arrangement or an invented transition.

Sources

• Studio Olafur Eliasson, Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives, 2025 (https://olafureliasson.net/artwork/your-negotiable-vulnerability-seen-from-two-perspectives-2025/).

• National Gallery of Ireland, Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations).

• Adobe, What Is a Storyboard? (https://www.adobe.com/in/products/firefly/discover/what-is-a-storyboard.html).