RIVELATORE CROMOCINETICO 1
RIVELATORE CROMOCINETICO 2
RIVELATORE CROMOCINETICO 3
CHROMOKINETIC DETECTOR (1967)
In the 1960s, Fogliati worked on a series of urban‑scale intervention projects. He sought to endow the city with aesthetic presences by acting even upon atmospheric events through unusual actions. One of these was the coloring of rain. The aim was not to trivialize the idea by using simple colored light beams, but to create a truly unexpected phenomenon through a light endowed with “its own particular behavior.” Around the middle of the decade, he succeeded in conceiving and producing a type of light he would name Fantastic Light.
When this light illuminates a stationary object, it appears white; however, if the object is in motion, the light decomposes, revealing the colors that compose it (since, as is known, white is the sum of all colors). Fogliati realized that by projecting Fantastic Light onto a moving body, the body itself would become tinged with its colors. This is precisely what he imagined for his Fantastic City: raindrops that, as they fall, carry all the colors of the rainbow.
Thus was born the Rivelatore Cromocinetico, a work brought to life through a projector of Fantastic Light whose beam illuminates a white elastic cord stretched vertically between ceiling and floor in a dimly lit environment—an indispensable condition for fully experiencing the work. When the cord remains still before the projector, it appears simply struck by an ordinary beam of light, similar to that of a common lamp. But once set into oscillation, a circular, striated form appears in mid‑air, composed of adjacent vertical bands of color whose width varies in proportion to the amplitude of the oscillation.
For the work to manifest fully, direct intervention by the viewer is required: one must pull and release the cord, generating an oscillation that gradually diminishes until it returns to stillness. During this movement, a colored luminous effect emerges in the space, detaching itself entirely from the reflective support and giving rise to one of those phenomena Fogliati described as “luminous ghosts.”
Synthetic Light (1965)
During the 1960s, Fogliati worked on the development of his urban projects. He wanted to introduce aesthetic presences into the environment and to act on atmospheric events in unusual ways. One of these was the colouring of rain.
Instead of trivialising the idea with simple beams of coloured light, Fogliati intended to create a truly unusual event with a light that “behaved in a ‘particular’ way”. In the mid-1960s, he designed and produced a type of light he called Luce Sintetica, Synthetic Light, or Luce Fantastica, Fantastic Light.
When the light is used to illuminate a motionless object, the beam appears to be white. When the light illuminates a moving object, then it breaks down into its constituent colours. In other words, the distinctive feature of this type of light is its ability to adapt to the characteristics of the object it illuminates. Fogliati realised that when a beam of Synthetic Light was projected on a moving object, the object would be coloured by the colours of the beam. This is what he wanted to do with rain, and he demonstrated the idea with the Prisma meccanico, the Rivelatore cromocinetico and the Svolazzatore cromocangiante.