HYDRONE

HYDRONE is a transdisciplinary spatial audio installation by Ruby Singh exploring water as memory, force, and connective tissue. Presented through the 4DSOUND system at Lobe Studio, the work combines environmental recordings, voice, synthesis, percussion, poetry, and climate data sonification to create an evolving sonic ecosystem that moves through water's elemental states of ice, river, rain, ocean, and mist. Inspired by hydrological cycles and the rhythms of the natural world, audiences are invited into a meditative and visceral experience of ecology, memory, and planetary transformation.

Developed collaboratively with Priyanka Chakrabarti (voice, synthesis), Tarun Nayar (tabla, synthesis), and Fiana Kawane (Kathak, percussion), the installation draws deeply from Indian classical and ambient music practices. Cyclical notions of time, seasonality, rhythm, raga-based temporalities, and nonlinear storytelling shape the unfolding spatial compositions, while tabla, voice, synthesis, and movement become central pathways through which audiences experience the work.

Interwoven throughout the installation are reflections on ancestral memory, migration, and displacement. Drawing from Singh's Punjabi lineage and the legacy of Partition, which divided Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers, into two. As rivers continue their journeys beyond the borders imposed upon them, water emerges as both witness and carrier of history.

Enhanced by Lobe's haptic floor, low frequencies resonate physically throughout the space, allowing audiences to feel sound move across and beneath the body. HYDRONE becomes a contemplative encounter with ecological interdependence, ancestral memory, and the emotional realities of a planet in transformation.

Experience this sound installation anytime during the presentation window. Stay for approximately 50 minutes to experience HYDRONE in its entirety, or immerse yourself at your own pace.