Anemone

The Anemone comprises 12 small stepper motors with doll arms attached. The arms swing back and forth at slightly different speeds. When an object comes too close, say within half a meter, the arms quickly swing closed until the disturbance is removed. When the arms start moving again they are in sync. However they rapidly become chaotic because each is coupled to its neighbor in the circle. The coupling signals when the previous arm has reversed direction and is used to adjust the speed of the current arm in an attempt to catch up. Since everyone is trying to catch up with everyone else they (usually) loose their synchronization, but there is a slight chance that they will all regain sync. Such is the nature of Chaos.

Dateline 2011

In a possbily futile effort to move with the times I have reconfigured this piece into Anemone, NM by moving some of the arms such that they form a vague resemblance to the New Mexico State Zia symbol. I did this in order to enter the City's annual "Poster Competition": Common Ground: City of Santa Fe Art Exhibit & Prize, now "revamped" into a "Notecard Competition" and opened to 3d work. The interesting point is that they -- claim -- that all entries will be displayed in the Community Gallery, with the only aesthetic requirement being that it be a "inspired by Santa Fe". So taking a lead from My Man Duchamp I went all Zia on it (not to be worrying, it can be re-reconfigured at any time). Here's the new look: