1934
Duchamp states in notes written between 1911-15 (see illustration 1, showing Duchamp’s Green Box Note published in 1934) that the time and date of hisreadymades is important “information” in addition to the “serial characteristic of the readymade.”
The “snapshot effect” of this timing of the readymade, to which Duchamp refers in this note,makes sense when we examine Duchamp’s readymades with his mathematical notes (written 1911-15 but held back for publication by Duchamp until 1967, a year before his death.)
First, let us begin by “looking” at Duchamp’s readymades through time. Since Duchamp claims that he “lost” most of his original readymade objects, Duchamp’s 1915 hatrack, as well as his urinal, snow shovel, coatrack, bottlerack and bicycle wheel and stool, exist only in a series of varied representations given to us by Duchamp over an extended period of time.
As an example, the following time-line illustrates the sequence of appearances of Duchamp’s “lost” hatrack. We see “the serial characteristic of the Readymade” just as Duchamp described in a presentation of his “Readymade”.
html