From stereo, multidirectional sound, to a sound beam of precision. Adam Donovan and Katrin Hochschuh offer a visual manifestation of what we hear, or as Gail Priest encourages us to question, sounds we may see and visuals we may hear. This brings the rare opportunity to sit with a precise point of sound as it moves through space. The Curious Tautophone robot is controlling the inputs here. I am mesmerized with the fine silver lines that form curves in constant motion, evolving in their formations. Some dancing toward the center, others away from it. Gliding and sliding as the sound too circulates, as I move in and out of conscious awareness of it. Both eyes and ears are invited to follow. Is my latent memory darting out before me, as I see spiders’ legs or feel fingers upon my skull? Lines flipping and flicking to create new shapes. Lines splaying from center to periphery or creating rings. The reflection of the metal robotic head running across the fine lines as circles dancing into and out of swirls. What Priest offered in her meditative voiceover tones I feel here in the constant flows of these fine lines.

There are some [...] robots that either respond to your presence or condition you to move, like the Curious Tautophone by Adam Donovan and Katrin Hochschuh. This shiny spider of sound and light emits waves in unusually focused webs, making you twist your neck to angle the ears – a bit like a dog whose spatial orientation shifts to make sense of those noisy striations in the air.