That looks like an early prototype of C-3PO sitting down there on the floor!
Hah! Awesome! There is some really crazy stuff sitting around the USF Fine Arts building. One day I'll collect some stuff I've captured from there and post them up. Students have some twisted minds.
I'm guessing the shutter speed was crazy fast on this one (to capture the arcs with very little blur). Digital?
No -- it was actually slow at about 1.5 seconds or so, otherwise you wouldn't get the streaming effect. I just happened to catch the artist not moving for very long, which was just luck. Shot with a Sony F717, digital.