“Interactivity” is an enticing word, so I should probably break this early: Only 6 of the 24 pieces in this group show allow you to interact with them. (Unless you count chairs to sit in, toilet paper, and buttons that start predetermined loops. Which I do not.) The rest, I am not interacting with here.
McLeod patrons and members have already seen the work of techie-ad-agency-turned-art-collective Barbarian Group—their McLeod Mirror Series I: See Yourself in Others in the bathroom has been up for a few months. (You might also be familiar with their “Subservient Chicken” web campaign for Burger King.) The mirror—in which your reflection is composed on the spot, Chuck Close–style, of thousands of tiny snapshots and pieces of snapshots, many of which were recorded earlier by that same mirror—is extremely cool, but apart from the statement’s feel-good gibberish about community, it’s just a toy.
Much more interesting is their newest piece, Biomimetic Butterflies, a beautiful and astounding collection of lacy, laser-cut insects (their wing patterns derived from algorithms with florid names) struggling ineffectually beneath pins. The motion begins when you walk by a pedestal and trigger a motor-and-magnet contraption that repels tiny magnets in the wings, making them jerk upward and appear to flutter. The effect is delicate, plaintive, and creepy—the ultimate in today’s zoological cabinets. Nineteenth-century gentleman naturalists are back, and they’re working for tech agencies.
You might have to ask to see the next-best interactive work, which lives on the computer that also houses the popular, permanently installed web-cam Photobooth. Genetic Mandalas, a population simulator by Barry Tolnas that responds to “aesthetic selection,” lets you tap your favorite image to replicate it—but only to a point. You also have to deal with confounding mutations, which are pretty, but totally mess up your attempts at eugenics. 
