In 1935 Marcel Duchamp rented a booth at the Concours Lépine, Paris’s annual inventors’ fair, and offered the public his Rotoreliefs: twelve optical designs lithographed on six double-sided cardboard discs, meant to be spun on a phonograph turntable at 33⅓ rpm. In motion the flat prints swell into illusory volume — a lantern inflates, a balloon rises, a fish circles its bowl. He sold almost none, and took home an honorable mention in industrial arts.
The trick is the kinetic depth effect. Each design is little more than circles printed off center; in rotation their drift mimics the moving contours of a solid form, and the brain supplies the missing dimension. It needs only one eye, which delighted Duchamp — sculpture made of nothing but rotation.
All twelve are redrawn below from surviving prints, in Duchamp’s numbering. Each turntable runs 0 to 66 rpm, with 33⅓ — the record speed, and the default — notched dead center. Stare at the centers.
Claude’s versions and mine aren’t perfect, but they’re close, and the 3D effect comes through well. If you want to see what the discs actually look like, you can find all twelve at the Met’s website.