But after a few seconds he loses interest and returns to his normal, flaccid state. Some of the devices offer a tangential view of the original object. Tim Lewis' Telephone is a ring of tiny clay figures which spin around endlessly in the iridescent blue light of strobes to create the impression, in the manner of the Victorian zoetrope, that they are walking. Other items in the show are powerful comments on modern inventions. Jon Mills' Geneticist is a huge test-tube made of metal infant hands, being sculpted like a topiary bush by clacking scissors.
Several pieces display the gaiety and vigor of the fairground.
Ron Fuller's tribute to the benefits of the electric toothbrush has a Sugar Lump Bug circling a head and knocking down teeth, prompting the Tooth Fairy to fly across with her electric toothbrush restoring the mouth. Keith Newstead's Motorcycle has a rain cover that hoists itself over the rider whenever the weather turns nasty. And like several other exhibits it shows the cogs, cams, wires and string that create the movement. The biggest construction in the exhibition is the Newsteadmanaton, subtitled Mad God Universe, a 4 m orrery designed by cartoonist Ralph Steadman and made by Keith Newstead. Whirring, clicking human organs, surrounded by planets, circulate on a plinth of elephant heads which rest on a column of fabulous fluttering tissue-paper creatures.