Sculpture Month Houston will present the introduction of “Roz” an interactive sonic being. Two guest artists, Mark McCoin and Nathan Wheeler, will introduce Roz (Robotic Resonance) with several performances. The performance is part of the current Sculpture Month Houston exhibition "The Sleep of Reason: The Fragmented Figure."

Roz is a new kind of audio-visual hybrid instrument that can produce unexpected, novel soundscapes. The inclusion of an interactive robotic system in the “Fragmented Figure” project points to the vast promises of an exponential rise of human creativity via a mind/machine interface. There is rapidly accelerating research being conducted in linking the human brain and its neural activities with Artificial Intelligence. As recent roll-out events have demonstrated, AI can be unpredictable and even threatening despite tightly controlled parameters.

“Roz” is an interactive and durational sonic art piece that features a piano harp (metal harp and strings of a piano), 2 robotic arms holding spinning felt, and an interactive computer control.

Strings are tuned to the resonant frequencies of the exhibition venue and when activated, create a remarkable soundscape of contrapuntal harmonic relationships.

Visually evoking part sci-fi operating table and part antique instrument, this juxtaposition combines two ages of technology, highlighting the passage of time while still integrating a hybrid audiovisual instrument with possibilities greater than the sum of its individual components.

The sounds are unexpected, ethereal, and glacial in pace, matching the unfamiliar but still resonant structure of the work. Gliding motor-spun felt along the bronze-wound strings bring out different overtones of the re-tuned piano harp, producing unexpected melodies and timbres reminiscent of Brian Eno, Ellen Fullman, and George Crumb.