Algo-r(h)i(y)thms

Black cord arranged in complex clusters transforms the exhibition space into a web-like landscape of nets. By gently plucking the converging nodes in Tomás Saraceno’s interactive sound installation »Algo-r(h)i(y)thms«, different reverberation frequencies of web-building spiders become tangible for the audience. Feeling the vibrations in the space, visitors access the Umwelt of spiders. Essentially blind, spiders create an image of the world through the tremors they send and receive through the web, which also functions as an organic and specialized instrument for transmitting these seismic signals. The spider web is thus considered a material extension of the spider’s senses, and – some argue – of its mind. Stemming from this phenomenon, the work actuates participants to see, touch, hear and for a moment exist within this web of linked perceptions, drawing awareness to proximal worlds. »Algo-r(h)i(y)thms« is the result of the artist’s ongoing endeavour and collaboration with scientists in the field of biotrimelogy, bioacoustics and cognitive science, among others, as a way of engaging speculatively, but also sensitively, with the forms of life that exist all around us.

Produced in cooperation with ZKM | Karlsruhe