Everybody knows about the Japanese Zen sand garden, in which you draw a shape of your choice with a small rake. Well, there is no need anymore for tools and imagination with Bruce Shapiro’s invention: the Sisyphus Machine. It’s an elaborate kinetic drawing machine that uses magnets to drag rolling steel marbles through a thin layer of sand to create complicated patterns.

Shapiro is the kind of artist who proved that technology and science can definitely be Art. His artworks are all about “motion control”, an industry term for computer-controlled movement in applications like robotics. Now Shapiro is taking his fascination for motion control into art and educational purposes, and has created large-scale motion control sculptures placed all over the world.