Inspiration:
Particular inspiration for this project comes from the tradition of “Ribbon Dance”, an art form common in the far east. With the giant bubble juice I make, it is possible to stretch long soap film tubes many feet long.
A kinetic artist named Bruce Shapiro has made a very interesting robotic silk ribbon dancer.
The cable iris mechanism is inspired by camera lens iris apertures, like this one I made:
The idea of using cables instead of blades came from the Canadarm end effector on the space shuttle and international space station:
