Optic Flow is a product of this movement: at its heart is an Arduino microprocessor, with custom-made electronics enabling the light sculpture to change the way it looks. Ten programmable LED light pendants are synchronized with unique light patterns, and high-torque motors raise and lower the pendants according to various patterns.

Henshaw wrote the program that controls Optic Flow, coordinating the light patterns and physical form of the light pendants. He also designed and built a custom electronic circuit that drives the high-current motors and the LED lights.

The beauty of Optic Flow comes from the lights. These are no ordinary lights; they are called BlinkM LED lights and are programmable. Each “smart light” has a bright multicolor LED attached to a tiny microprocessor. The LEDs can turn almost any color, with a range of brightness.

In Optic Flow, ten BlinkM’s work together. The Arduino sends commands to each LED to specify what kind of light to display. These commands are coordinated across all ten LEDs to display the spectacular light shows when Optic Flow is running.

Optic Flow has a control panel, which consists of a bright LCD display and a rotary switch; this is how you can select which light program to run, or configure other settings.

Each BlinkM is attached to a long, flat cable, which in turn is wrapped around a custom-built reel. That reel is rotated clockwise, or anti-clockwise, by a small and silent gearhead motor. A unique “spin ring” prevents the cable from getting "bunched up" with all the winding and unwinding.

The electronic circuit for Optic Flow includes a real time clock, special “H-Bridge” chips to control the motors, and a bank of daisy-chained “shift registers” that help manage the electrical communications to all the devices.