Turning Electromagnets On/Off in Pattern

I am creating a circular frame out of wood with 8 homemade electromagnets dotting the circumference evenly spaced. The magnets will simply be manipulating a Ferrofluid suspended in a liquid in the center of the circular wooden frame.

What I need is to be able to connect all 8 electromagnets on some sort of a grid and automatically be able to turn them on and off rapidly or in a pre defined pattern. Some sort of program or something (I don't know that's why I'm here) will be needed so that I can set the electromagnets to fire in a pre defined pattern of on/off. I am not doing any kind of rail gun type thing so I'm not looking for the timing of the electromagnets to coincide with some kind of outside moving object. I can create an electromagnet with an on off switch and link more than one, but doing them in a programmed sequence is beyond my knowledge. I will need some suggestions or direction on how to do this or have it done for me.

A PIC or Basic Stamp microprocessor would be great for controlling the magnet pattern. I can't help with that as I don't do microprocessors. There are many PC controlled digital I/O boards on the market and here's one that is $39.

http://www.kadtronix.com/digio.htm

That's more my speed. The circuitry between this board and the magnets are something I can help with by providing a design.

And if one magnet pattern is ok I would use a 4017 IC decade counter driving the magnet circuit.