EIGHT

Fantasy on numeral 8

Opus 8

1966

In the collection of the The Museum of Modern Art

EIGHT is James Seawight’s eighth sculpture. He created EIGHT about the number 8 to complete the collection for his first show at the Stable Gallery in 1966.

Technical Details

There is an oscilloscope tube behind the third and forth compartments. An electronic circuit “draws” a figure eight image on the tube which is seen in the fifth compartment via a mirror at 45 degrees. The circuit creates a Lissajous figure “8” using a 60 Hz AC signal combined with rectified and filtered signal producing 120 Hz. These two signals with the appropriate phase and gain are applied to the Y and X oscilloscope tube plates to draw the 8 image.

An AC synchronous motor drives a sweeper over metallic contacts on a wheel to illuminate counting numerals on the Nixie tube in the sixth compartment. The counting starts at numeral 1 and counts up to numerical 8 which is displayed for longer time due to a longer contact duration for the 8. This counting repeats every 15 seconds.

The same AC synchronous motor spools a magnetic tape loop though a tape recorder head which is amplified and played through the speaker in the seventh compartment which says “eight” synchronized with the Nixie tube counting reaching the 8 numeral.

Andrew Seawright with EIGHT at the MOMA archives in 2024