At the start of the semester, we were given the task of creating kinetic or robotic art. The art had the follow a theme of illustrating the junction between “the Human and the Machine”. It also needed to incorporate an Arduino microcontroller for the following purposes: to sense the presence of a human user via interactive and/or reactive methods; and to control the activity/inactivity/modulation of an electromechanical actuator, LEDs, lights, or other devices.

A few of our team members had seen a fluid that was responsive to the presence of magnets. We learned that this fluid is named ferrofluid and consists of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid. Being intrigued by the hypnotic way the fluid shows the magnetic field of any given magnet strong enough, we purchased the fluid and started thinking of ways we manipulate the fluid artistically. Here’s what we came up with!