What causes us to perceive "personality?" What is it that we do in our minds that makes a sculpture appear to "come to life" or allows us to believe in an animated character? These are some questions that I've been wrestling with. To help me figure them out I've been trying to make "kinetic sculpture": things that are aesthetically somewhere midway between animation and sculpture.

I'm trying to understand what is compelling about these objects, where they cross the bridge into believability, and when they become uncanny or disturbing. I'm also trying to create methods that tie this direction together aesthetically with more traditional techniques, such as sculpting in clay.

One experiment that came out of these questions is this: