Zimoun
25 Woodworms, Wood, Microphone, Sound System

The kinetic-minimalist sound artist Zimoun’s video 25 Woodworms, Wood, Microphone, Sound System (2009) takes the sounds made by live woodworms at work as a starting point for the creation of an atonal, minimalist soundscape. A microphone mounted above a piece of bark amplifies the gnawing noises of the 25 woodworms enclosed in it, making these audible to the human ear.
Here too, as in all of the Bernese artist’s works, the remarkably simple experimental set-up results in a complex and unrepeatable tapestry of sound. The acoustic proximity to the soundscapes of his other and later works, such as his large-scale installation of wooden sticks hitting the floor by means of rotating DC motors in 600 prepared DC-Motors, 58 kg Wood (2017) is striking; with the erratic scuttling activity of the insect community illustrating the bustling and complex soundscapes of his works on another level.
Like the sounds of the woodworms, the individual sounds in Zimoun’s works tend to be delicate and fast, repetitive but a-rhythmic. When 25 tone generators or more are drawn together, they acquire something diffuse, which can infiltrate an entire room and even resonate beyond it. Supposedly, but only supposedly, the sound follows its own swarm logic; however, we know from biologists that it is entirely composed by coincidence. Only animals such as termites or ants follow a collective logic, woodworms do not exhibit this swarm behaviour. Like the artist’s wooden sticks and cotton balls, each woodworm emits a unique sound sequence that arises purely from the moment.
(Text: Bettina Back)