The frame is made up of red oak consisted with a sensor and five electromagnets. The electromagnets are steel rods coiled with enameled copper wire and have zinc steel washer base. All of the wooden parts are able to move easily to adjust the frame as needed. On the back is a wooden box made to encase the circuit.

Our circuit was designed to allow the Arduino microcontroller to control the five electromagnets that we constructed. Because the Arduino (powered by a 9V battery) can only output 5V to its outputs, we had to incorporate a series of relays and Darlington transistors to turn the electromagnets on and off.  Our final design had the Arduino sending 5V to the base of the Darlington transistors, this allowed current to flow through the solenoid of a relay. Once the relay was thrown, current could flow through our electromagnets. We had five of this arrangements connected in parallel with a 12V battery. Each Darlington transistor base was connected to a different pin of the Arduino. We then had full control over the five electromagnets.

We chose to receive input from the user using a PING))) ultrasonic motion sensor. The Ardunio was then programmed to respond differently based on whether the motion sensor detected a object within 20 inches of the sensor. The electromagnets were programmed to send the ferrofluid away from the user until the object detected stayed still for 5 seconds, the electromagnets would then turn on in a pseudo-random order until the user moved, or 20 seconds lapsed. If at any point the user moved during the series of random movements, the fluid would flow toward the user.

The way we wanted to have our device convey the “Man vs. Machine” theme is by hopefully causing the viewer to visualize the way humanity reacts to new technology. When first introduced to new round breaking technology, we are slightly cautious of allowing it into our lives. But we warm up to it and start integrating it into our day to day and before long we cannot see ourselves functioning without the new technology. With humanity being the “creature” and the viewer being newly introduced technology, we demonstrated this occurrence by having the device senses the viewer, gets shy, and a ‘creature’ comes out and retreats. If the viewer stays long enough, the creature will “warm up” to the viewer and give him or her a show of dancing around. It grows to like the attention because if it sensors the viewer walking away, the creature runs to the front as if the chase the viewer in hopes that he or she will return.