Video: You’ve probably played with one in passing while wandering through a toy store, but did you know that these expanding plastic spheres have an actual name? They’re called Hoberman Spheres, named after engineer Chuck Hoberman, and they’re now somehow even more relaxing.
For an installation called Bits and Pieces, artist Nils Völker hung countless Hoberman Spheres from a ceiling and, using electric motors, levers and invisible string, he choreographed and controlled them all to rhythmically expand and collapse like beating hearts. It could be the ultimate desk toy, except you would never get any work done were this hanging in your office.
[Vimeo via Laughing Squid]