Mobile

a city and port in the southern USA, in the state of Alabama. Located on Mobile Bay at the mouth of the Mobile River, on the Gulf of Mexico. Population, 190,000 (377,000 including suburbs, 1970), over a third of whom are Negroes. Mobile is the starting point of an inland waterway to the city of Birmingham. Volume of freight handling in the port was 23.7 million tons in 1972, and included major bauxite imports. Mobile’s industries include woodworking, cellulose and paper, chemicals, alumina and cement production, and shipbuilding. The city was founded in 1711.

the western, that is, main arm of the river formed by the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers in the state of Alabama in the southern USA. The eastern arm of the river is known as the Tensaw. The Mobile River falls into Mobile Bay in the Gulf of Mexico, forming a marshy delta. Length, approximately 80 km; basin area, 109,000 sq km. The Mobile is fed by rain; high water occurs in the spring and low water in the autumn. The river is navigable for its entire length. The seaport of Mobile is located at its mouth.

a work of art consisting of a movable structure, usually made of light metal and plastics, that changes its form because of air currents or a mechanical apparatus, creating various color, light, and sound effects. The term “mobile” was first used in 1932 in reference to abstract works by the American sculptor A. Calder. The term is broadly applied to works of kinetic art, a school that developed in the 1960’s and aims at activating the viewer’s perception. The principles of kinetic art, including multiform variations of structure permitted by engineering techniques and electronics and the creation of optical and acoustical effects through photographic, cinematic, and stereophonic techniques, are sometimes applied in the designs of decorations for festivals and for exhibition interiors. However, as a work of studio art, the mobile has not yet transcended the stage of abstract formal experimentation.