The Insects are Present
2023-ongoing
The Insects are Present is a performance-installation that engages with insects and their sound to compose music.
Participants are asked to spend an extended time listening to insects.
Through this process of what I call speculative ecoacoustic music composition, the material of ecological information shapes and informs the resulting music.
This system of music recording, processing, and playback prompts interactions between real-time environmental sounds, with a focus on insects’ cryptic sounds.
The soil substrate is used as a sonic filter for playback and subsequent recording of the synthesized sounds, further imprinting the ecological material of the environment on the resulting music.
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In 2023, The Insects are Present took place at Ellie Iron’s Land (Re)Disturbance Laboratory in Troy, NY. This public installation was supported by NATURE Lab, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, a graduate fellowship from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Hudson Mohawk Magazine.
Featured listener: Manuel J. Perez III. Photos: LS & Sina Basila-Hickey. Video & Sound: LS.
The soil substrate is used as a sonic filter for playback and subsequent recording of the synthesized sounds, further imprinting the ecological material of the environment on the resulting music.
In 2023, The Insects are Present took place at Ellie Iron’s Land (Re)Disturbance Laboratory in Troy, NY. This public installation was supported by NATURE Lab, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, a graduate fellowship from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Hudson Mohawk Magazine.
Featured listener: Manuel J. Perez III. Photos: LS & Sina Basila-Hickey. Video & Sound: LS.
Participants are invited to record their own thoughts about and for insects in an assertion of our ongoing connection with the insects in our shared living environments. These messages become components of future iterations of the installation.