The sound that wood makes
Walking through a forest or even by a single tree you’re probably only aware of the sounds you can hear in your immediate vicinity, but below the tree’s bark is a cacophony of the daily lives of the insects who live there. One such resident is the woodworm. A woodworm is any of several species of woodboring beetles, basically a little bug that lives in wood and eats it, and until now you’ve probably never heard what they sound like. In fact, you’ve probably never thought about the fact that they make a sound at all. That’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person. But Swedish artist Zimoun was interested.
Zimoun is known for his sound installations, most of which revolve around a pattern of connected mechanisms that repeat a sound or an action. One installation, for example, mimics the sound of wind blowing through trees by turning a set of fans on a mass of crumpled plastic. “Woodworms” (above) is a decidedly more organic approach, with materials that include 25 woodworms, wood, a microphone and a sound system. It’s kind of incredible to think that just by turning a microphone on a piece of wood you can capture the sounds of the tiny world inside. Have a listen.
