A metal ball rolls silently through sand, forever creating and erasing beautiful patterns. Sisyphus is a kinetic sculpture that has mesmerized millions of visitors at its permanent installations in museums around the world. Now museum quality kinetic sculptures are also available to decorate it in your house.
This is developed by Bruce Shapiro who dedicated his past 25 years to exploring motion control as a medium for artistic expression. It has harnessed the precise calculations to run a complex machine so that its action creates stunningly complex art forms and patterns on a table top.
The two-motor robot (the “Sisbot”) constantly moves a ball magnet through a thin layer of sand under a thick glass tabletop, forming the patterns. You can control the movement and pattern making with an app from your phone. The pieces of kinetic beauty are created by using 12 VDC universal switching supply to power both the LED’s and Sisbot.
A single AC power cord plugs into a standard outlet. They are of machine-tooled wood. Although each table is hand-crafted there are several standard sizes to choose from to fit your decor. The End table is two foot in diameter and stands 22″ tall; there are both three and four-foot diameter coffee tables. The veneers are traditional woods such as birch, maple, walnut, and padauk – all CNC machined and hand finished.