A SOFT melodic staccato fills Rebecca Baumann’s Fremantle Arts Centre studio as a series of metal boxes come alive in a burst of colour at the flick of a switch.

There’s almost a cheekiness to the work she was commissioned by FAC to produce.

Switched off, the displays revert to a blank, silent blackness — except for one that has the last say with a surge of fast-clicking hot pink dots.

We laugh — but is there more to these machines, one wonders?

Manoeuvres is a choreographed series of electromagnetic flip dot displays, a bit like the stock market once used, and buses still do.

Next week they’ll be arrange in the gallery, creating a narrative of colour and sound.

“As you move through the installation, your experience will be altered as you encounter the work from various positions within the gallery,” Baumann says.

“The flip-dots will be in constant flux, depending on the arrangement, the work will alternate between being a gentle to an overwhelming experience.”

Meanwhile, a huge 4×3 metre billboard will mesmerise as iridescent acrylic prisms rotate under spotlight, projecting colour that leaves the gallery awash with moving and refracting light.

Named as one of five artist to watch in 2014 by Art Collector magazine, Baumann is represented internationally and has a burgeoning reputation overseas.

Manoeuvres is on at FAC November 21–January 24.