Google Doodle pays tribute to mobile inventor Calder

Search giant Google on Friday (Manila time) paid tribute to American sculptor and artist Alexander Calder with one of its trademark Google Doodles. Visitors to Google's homepage were treated to a "moving mobile," or the sculpture Calder had invented. Clicking on the mobile will take the visitor to search results for Calder, whose 113rd birth anniversary falls on July 22. A mobile is a type of sculpture that uses the principle of equilibrium, with rods from which weighted objects or further rods hang. Born in 1898, Calder had an illustrious career that spanned much of the 20th century. He is considered "the most acclaimed and influential sculptor of our time," according to a biography on the Calder Foundation website. Calder invented the mobile as a new method of sculpting: "by bending and twisting wire, he essentially 'drew' three-dimensional figures in space," according to the biography on the Calder Foundation website. "He is renowned for the invention of the mobile, whose suspended, abstract elements move and balance in changing harmony. Calder also devoted himself to making outdoor sculpture on a grand scale from bolted sheet steel. Today, these stately titans grace public plazas in cities throughout the world," it added. — RSJ, GMA News