I see motion control as an emerging art form, and I have dedicated the last 15 years to creating art pieces from scrapped industrial equipment. At first I created pieces by cutting steel, engraving on aluminum or drawing on eggs using motion control. Recently, I have focused on creating pieces in which the motion control is the piece itself. For example, in Sisyphus, a concealed xy-table perpetually rolls a steel ball through sand, creating intricate patterns that are eventually erased by new patterns. I believe that these "art machines" are like any musical instrument: what they need now is "music"--algorithms and paths for them to "play."

With my art machines I have been able to create large permanent installations. In 1999 I installed Pipedream I in the newly constructed Minnesota Science Museum. I have installed larger and differing versions in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Toronto, Canada. Sisyphus III was installed in Technorama, Switzerland in 2003. And most recently I installed Ribbon Dancer in the newly opened Des Moines 2006.

I have also included a brief gallery of my static pieces created from steel, aluminum, glass, and eggs. Although I have largely moved away from using my machines to create such pieces, I continue to cut use my plasma machine to cut steel for my other pieces. Meanwhile I now use eggbot, my first machine, to teach children and adults about motion control.