I’m with the BAND: FriendsWithYou at Cleveland Public Library
The eternal now glides through an enormous marble box wearing those sherbert pastels last seen in a 1970s Florida hotel. There’s a murmur of inscrutable—yet comforting—language of chimes and tones and whirrs. Lean into this otherworldly chatter and move among entities who move among you; dance without noticing and create the next movement, the next verse, that is inherent in the delicate tracery of an AI minuet. And guess what? You and a bunch of strangers are all refreshed and smiling, dancing in spite of ourselves.
Meet the BAND: five autonomous robots created by Samuel Borkson & Arturo Sandoval III, who have worked collectively since 2002 as FriendsWithYou to create works which promote connection, friendship, and community through immersive installations, sculptures, animations, and live performances for museums, cities, and public spaces throughout the world.
The BAND—Biodigital Autonomous Neuro Dancers—come from a distant dimension where sound is matter, and have alighted in Brett Hall at the Main Branch of Cleveland Public Library (CPL), last home to Rebecca Louise Law’s elegant and ephemeral Archive. Their mission? To spread healing vibration through the universal language of movement.
Ranging in size from a few feet high and wide to over six feet in either direction, The BAND members are shaggy and touchable, rounded and cozy—with frosted orbs that glow blue, glow red, glow purple, glow green. They float across the floor chirping in different voices that each are tuned to unique, healing Solfeggio frequencies. It’s believed that the benefits of the frequencies span a range of possibilities. According to Meditationmusiclibrary.com, for example, LIX (396 hz) can release negative energy and promote stability; ETZ (528 hz) is associated with fostering love and compassion. FUR (639 hz) is said to enhance communication and bring harmony, PMJ (741 hz) may lead to clarity and greater self-expression, and ROC (963 hz) is the frequency that is most often chosen to connect to the universal consciousness.
As robots and human visitors move through this grand space, The BAND members whirr and twirl, spin and stop, nudge and glide. Underneath their tonal conversations is the music of Norman Bambi, a long-time collaborator of FriendsWithYou. And visitors move with delight though this sonic bath: here’s a just-over-one-year-old running up to embrace tall ROC; two middle-schoolers stroke LIX and ETZ as they pass by and then both robots stop and twirl; two adults chat and laugh, while a woman and two children spin, arms outstretched, mirroring PMJ. There’s the constant motion of humans and robots, and smiling. A lot of smiling.
“This has never been done before,” says Tiffany Graham Charkosky, Director of Arts & Culture at Cleveland Public Library. “FriendsWithYou had the concept and we had the space. The artists were excited to work with CPL—this is the first time they’ve worked with a library, and they saw it as a chance to bring art to an accessible, democratic space, and impact people at scale.”
The BAND has definitely made an impact. Visits to the gallery were 19% higher this November and December than in 2023, and Charkosky notes that many people who saw the Archive returned because they were curious what might be next. Theo, a 12-year-old visitor, was captivated by the way the robots acted in unique ways; their mom, Heidi, wanted to stay longer because she was so relaxed. “This is a fun fact,” says Greta, seven. “Whenever their eyes turn red, they don’t want you to touch them (note: this is not confirmed, but conjecture). They’re soft and I like to hug them.”
The convergence of biology and digital technology was brought into being with the help of Deeplocal, a creative technology and design firm located in Pittsburgh. Among the ideas that FriendsWithYou pitched to CPL, the BAND’s concept was the most challenging; Deeplocal used their software and engineering expertise to design 3D models, build a custom robotics framework and motion tracking system (think hidden cameras that detect movements of humans of all sizes) for each of the five robots, write code and choreograph dance moves, then tested The BAND with an ultrasonic beacon system within Brett Hall.
High AI and ineffable healing; art and music and inescapable engagement. Witness this mashup of healing vibrations channeled through cheerful entities (both human and non-human) bouncing through the 100-year-old marble vault of Brett Hall now through spring 2025.
Brett Hall is located in the Main Branch of the Cleveland Public Library at 325 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm. Closed Sunday. The library is free.
The BAND is made possible through the collaboration of Cleveland Public Library, LAND studio, Deeplocal, with funding from the Lockwood Thompson Endowment Fund and LAND studio.
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