AMPLIFYING THE TROPICAL ANTS (ATTA)
ATTA (Amplifying the Tropical Ants) is a multimedia research project on ant acoustics in the Brazilian Amazon producing results in bioacoustic anaylsis, sound works, and music composition.
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. Since then, I have been collaborating with entomologists Erica Valle and Fabricio Baccaro at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas / INPA on a collaborative research project encompassing bioacoustics, field recording, behavioral ecology, taxonomy, music composition, and acoustic ecology.
Ants are doing so much of the vital 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?
MULTISPECIES : live performance
Produced by Umanoid Studios in Rio de Janeiro at Z42. Performed by UAU: Anthony Brisson, Larissa Conforto, LUMANZIN, and Lisa Schonberg. This composition features the stridulation sounds of an Atta species (leaf cutting ant) and Pheidole species, and locomotion sounds of an Eciton species (army ant).