In Radio Cyclops (1964), a wide-open eye occupies the center, linked via a circuit to a hot pink band of color. When looking at the sculpture, one sees one’s own eyes looking back, reflected and refracted in the mirrored surfaces. Made at a time when Smithson was experimenting with plastics and developing ideas from his collages, this wall-based sculpture incorporates Plexiglass, polished blue steel, and mirrors on a wooden support.

As a child Robert Smithson created a personal museum of natural history in the basement of his family home. This early interest in science, geography, and museums influenced many of Smithson’s artworks throughout his life. Between 1961 and 1963, Smithson created a series of collages showing evolving amphibians and dinosaurs, developing out of this childhood interest in natural history museums. Algae, algae combines collage turtles with the use of language as a visual tool, its accumulation of text suggesting the movement of the sea's dark green waves.