This page serves as documentation of some explorations into the soundscapes of other-than-humans.
I recently bought some contact microphones, a hydrofon (water) and a geofon (soil) and started listening to these hidden universes such as tree trunks, water bodies and the soil. I started out in my parents garden, testing out my new equipment on a few different trees and noticed they all have a very distinct sound. It can be a patience activity, sometimes they stay relatively silent for several minutes, in other times there are many things going on. You can hear the sap streaming, the bubbles making their way in these streams, a larvae of some insect munching on the wood, the wind testing the strength of the wood fibers that creak and so on.
During the summer I also took these microphones with me on vacation, testing out more trees and in a different environment.
At I.N.S.E.C.T. summercamp 2024, a co-created camp focused on more-than-human design, we explored insect communication and tried to connect to our companion species in the natural reserve at Bistrup forest in Hvalsø, Denmark. Based on scientific literature and our own observations and field recordings, we attempted to understand what we were hearing.
There are several different strategies for communication in insects: percussion (drumming, e.g. tapping with the feet), stridulation (i.e. rubbing two body parts together), tymbalation (i.e. vibrating a specialised membrane), tremulation (i.e. shaking a bodypart or the entire body), and forced air (vocalisation whereby sounds emanate from the oral cavity by air being forced through the foregut, quite rare in insects). Of course the sounds insects make can also be a by-product of their habits or behaviours, such as munching on wood, moving through the soil, walking on a plant stem or leaf or moving through the water.
After our observations and learning about our companion species in general, we attempted to mimic their communication strategies and built instruments. We then played in an improvised insect orchestra.
