ATTA (Amplifying the Tropical Ants)
Ants are doing so much of the work maintaining tropical rainforest ecosystem functions: herbivory, seed dispersal, predation, decomposition, soil aeration - and their habitats are in turn crucial to global climate regulation. Can listening to ants generate empathy and encourage us to do our part in countering climate change? Can listening to insects remind us how little we know — and that we are not in charge of nature? Can it shift our perspective and encourage us to consider a biocentric viewpoint? ATTA is a research project on ant bioacoustic communication in collaboration with entomologists Erica Valle and Fabricio Baccaro in Amazonas State, Brazil. I first visited Manaus, Brazil as an artist-in-residence with Labverde in July 2017. On this trip I made preliminary recordings of ant species and their habitats and used these as the basis of several new music compositions. I brought the topic to the attention of myrmecologist Fabricio Baccaro at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas and we have since embarked on a collaborative research project encompassing bioacoustics, field recording, behavioral ecology, taxonomy, music composition, and acoustic ecology. Since 2017 we have been testing out field recording methods and establishing baseline data for a catalog of ant acoustics of the region. We are analyzing temporal and frequency variables across species and subfamilies. I look forward as we continue our collaborative work in ecology and art.
ATTA has had invaluable guidance and contributions from Lilian Fraiji, Labverde, primatologist/bioacoustician Tainara Sobroza, sound engineer Anthony Brisson and ornithologist Jeff Podos.