Installation artist Peter William Holden built a delightful machine consisting of eight umbrellas that "dance" to "Singin' In The Rain." The video of the mechanical performance is terrific. From Holden's description of the work:
Busby Berkeley choreographed dancers to mimic the motions of machines and modern inventions. "AutoGene" is the flipside of this. It's a simple aesthetic looking robot composed of eight modified umbrellas mounted in a circular pattern. A cocktail of air hoses and electrical cables join these umbrellas to a central computer which enables "AutoGene" to produce a choreographed dance to music which erodes the machine's mechanical qualities and transforms the mundane umbrellas into magical animated objects.
Link (via Salon, thanks Dale Dougherty!)
