Converting Audio into Voltage

Hi everyone,

I am a member of an educational group at my school and I proposed to my boss that we make a ferrofluid sculpture for future outreach events. She thought it was a great idea but now I have to figure out how to make it and I have no electrical experience. I would like to take an audio file (from an iPod or computer, maybe even a microphone) and turn that into variable voltage (or current) to make an electromagnet vary in strength. Can anyone help me figure this out?