When the early modernist message crackled across Europe like an electric charge, Aalto was quick to enter the charmed circle that included Le Corbusier, the historian Siegfried Giedion, and artists like Hans Arp, Constantin Brancusi and Fernand Leger, whose organic abstractions were soon to influence his own use of form.

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So here he was, the Neon Snuffleupagus, live in the flesh, steps from Columbus Circle, dressed head-to-toe in electric-colored Nike.

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The outer ring and the inner circle are made from different alloys, which have different electric potentials.

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