Fugue in Wire

The last two weeks have passed rather slowly for me, since during the day I spend all my time in my office, beavering away at my Graphical Models proofs, and in the evening I exercise or retire to my empty house. I can go whole days without speaking a word to anyone, except the occasional arigatou at a shop. Fortunately this weekend past the Delightful Miss E came to town, ostensibly to see me but really so she could use my phone and christen my new kotatsu; so I finally had someone to talk to. Incidentally this weekend was also the weekend of the University festival (gakuensai), which occurs here once a year. There were many stalls, and many of the rooms in the buildings had exhibitions of artwork, photography, dancing, the bear-watching club (I kid you not), some kind of club for producing large graphs to stick on blackboards, the Ikebana club, etc. While wandering around trying to find some dancing hip-hop chicks, the Delightful Miss E and I stumbled on the end of a hallway in which we found this delightful proto-dalek, hidden away behind a half a screen with its component parts and the tools of its construction still scattered about. There were no signs to explain it, no human sculptors to defend its origin, and no evidence that it was there for the festival. What can it be for? When will it be used? Who designed it? In the absence of concrete knowledge in support of its provenance, I can only assume that its simple but beautiful lines, its mysterious purpose, and its asymmetric perfection, speak to the involvement of a higher being ... a Designer, if you will...