In Spanish, algo means “something”. “Rhythm” is derived from the Greek rhythmos, meaning “movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions.” Though rhythm is both biological and inherent, theorized by an evolutionary instinct and given relation to the speeds of the human heartbeat, gait, and emotional affect, the present moment operates at a tempo artificially imposed rather than intuitively felt. Algo-r(h)i(y)thms proposes an urgent invitation to attune to our symbiotic, poetic futures, the radical reciprocity of all things both living and nonliving, through a vibrational language.

Essentially blind, spiders image the world through the tremors they send and receive through their webs, functioning as an organic and specialized instrument for transmission. A material extension of the spider’s own senses and mind: accessing this umwelt, the installation invites participants to see, hear, touch, and for a moment exist within this web of linked perceptions and proximal worlds. Each of the converging nodes within Algo-r(h)i(y)thms refers to different reverberation frequencies of micro- and macroscopic phenomena—from the peak frequencies of courtship signals produced by an orb weaving spider, to those of a halo generated by ultrarelativistic electrons surrounding a distant galaxy cloud.

The artwork has been presented during the 53rd Biennale di Venezia (2009), the artist’s major solo exhibitions ON AIR at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018) and—in its largest iteration to date—Complementarities at Red Brick At Museum, Shanghai (2024). Algo-r(h)i(y)thms is the result of the artist’s ongoing endeavor and collaboration with scientists in the fields of biotremology, bioacoustics and cognitive science, as a means of sensitive, speculative engagement with the forms of life that exist all around us.