From Shelley Esaak,
Your Guide to Art History.
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Definition:

(noun) - A mobile is a kinetic sculpture invented by Alexander Calder in the late 1920s. Rumor has it that that prankster, Marcel Duchamp, actually coined the term as a sort of French pun to denote both motion and motive.

A mobile's components are suspended from (usually wire) arms and carefully balanced so that the slightest movement of air sets the entire construction into motion.

Many of us became familiar with mobiles at an extremely early age, having gazed in wide-eyed, drooling wonder while they floated over our wee heads, as we lay supine in cribs. (Calder's pieces, however, made no use of either copyrighted cartoon characters or a music box.)

Pronunciation: moe·beel

Examples: "I used to begin with fairly complete drawings, but now I start by cutting out a lot of shapes.... Some I keep because they're pleasing or dynamic. Some are bits I just happen to find. Then I arrange them, like papier collé, on a table, and "paint" them -- that is, arrange them, with wires between the pieces if it's to be a mobile, for the overall pattern. Finally I cut some more of them with my shears, calculating for balance this time." - Alexander Calder on building a mobile