This article was taken from the June 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
The Conversation is an abstract art installation built from elastic bands and a circle of 99 solenoids -- coils of wire that create magnetic fields when electrified. Switch it on and each coil contracts and relaxes, pulling at cables that, in turn, stretch elastic bands suspended at the centre of the machine into shifting patterns. According to its creator, Bremen-based German artist Ralf Baecker, this constant adjustment blurs the lines between cause and effect, creating a back and forth "conversation". To Baecker,
The Conversation is a machine without purpose, as it never quite achieves the "inner equilibrium" it seems to yearn. The only way to make it still is to pull its plug. We know how it feels.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
