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Butterfly Wall 2011

Creating a delightful dance of rising and falling mechanical “butterflies,” Butterfly Wall is an interactive kinetic sculpture controlled by ten visitor-operated hand cranks. When cranked, the 20 butterflies continuously descend their belts at a rate dictated by the air resistance of their spinning iridescent wings. Cranking faster than the descent rate of the butterflies causes them to rise towards the ceiling; cranking slower than this rate causes the butterflies to flutter back down or hover in one place.