A new kinetic sculpture has been added to In the Mind of the Collector exhibition at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts - Electric Advertising Automaton of a Baton-Twirling Girl, produced by the American company, Mechanical Man Inc.

While human interest in automata is quite ancient and dates back to Ancient Greece, the Golden Age of automata came in the late 19th-early 20th century, long before the sophisticated electronics and information technologies and approximately at the same time that the baton-twirling majorette dancers appeared. The majorette dancers accompanied the marching bands during parades twirling flags, light-up batons, and fire batons. The Automaton of a Baton-Twirling Girl exhibited at the Cafesjian Center for the Arts was originally used for advertising purposes and comes as a symbol of American advertising art of mid-20th century, CCA said in a press release.