Dear Listener,
Have you observed the progress of some thing over a period of time? Observed closely? Gardening is good for that, so is parenting but anything will do. You follow it, you think about it, you want to check to see how it’s doing. The world as it changes through the seasons of a year is good for observing, constant change means something is always happening. A couple of years ago, in May, I was walking through the field at the end of the street. The grass that was flattened in winter stood up again, brushing against my waist. In July it might be as tall as I am. The path through the grass leads to the woods where it becomes overgrown and small brooks are forded on fallen trees. The trail passes by some large maple with broad, reaching branches and around a tall cedar with arching roots. Bees swirl around the cedars base as I step around with my hand on the trunk. On the other side, the path leads to the remains of another large cedar. As I approach the old stump, covered in needles and forest debris, I become aware of a shimmering on the surface of the mound. A dazzling display of reflected sunlight that has found its way between branches. Closer I realize that the mound is covered in a blanket of ants. The day is warm and they move franticly without seeming to know where they are going. They are building though, constructing a hive using small sticks and twigs that they drag up the mound to cover what remains of a stump bellow. Some drag sticks, some have other things to do, leaving the nest and returning from abroad. Some have wings and all of their armored bodies catch the light, sparkling with constant movement. When I pull myself away from the ants I go home for my camera to begin a year long document of their lives as well as the life of the grass in the adjacent field.
The above clip is part of my explorations to create a soundtrack for the visuals. I used piezo and acoustic microphones to capture the sounds of the ants themselves. Above I used contact mics on a section of bark that had fallen on the nest. In the second part I attached microphones to two 1/4” steel rods and carefully inserted them into the twig structure. After being around the insects I feel that we’ve developed some trust between us all and I did hesitate to interfere with their existence in any way. However I was overcome with curiosity, as I often am, and I don’t believe I caused any significant damage in introducing the rods about a foot into their porous home world. Acoustically their movements are super quiet and I was surprised that I could hear them at all. At concentration they sound like a clicking or crackling as thousands of them clamber over and around each other wearing their skeletons on the outside. As a group the ants look like a virus, a living mass expanding into its environment. As individuals these creatures can seem confused as to what they are doing. They might pull a stick some distance only to leave it and walk back the way they came or they might just walk around in circles. Still they can build impressive structures and create a foraging system in all directions and care for eggs and larva. Still their community survives disasters. I found out that they communicate through exterior hormones called pheromones and can leave trails for each other to important sources of food or signal to others when they are hurt. When I first began watching these thatching ants I projected my humanity on them, seeing them as humans that might be angry or bored or complaining about their lot in life. That’s obviously not the case so then I began to see them as robots who have been tasked with something like building or foraging, they repeat their task without an understanding of what they are doing. Enough of them do it well enough that they can build and continue. Then I saw them as cells of an organism, performing their individual function as part of a group of thousands toward a unified goal. Then I thought how different that was from Particular primate society’s. A society of competition and confidences. Though ants can seem at odds with one another they are all working tirelessly toward the same end. In re-watching the footage while editing I was finally able to see the connection between ant and human society. These ants are individual organisms, building, foraging, functioning selflessly as if they were one organism but when you look closely they don’t appear to be cooperating. Two might carry the same large stick in the same direction or they may pull furiously at either end of it. Also an ant might be found spending time idly, trying to accomplish an impossible task like pulling at something that won’t move or simply turning in circles. Naturally, through metaphor the inter-species parallels become clear.
The sound of tall grasses in the breeze is a familiar and soothing one as is the sight of it. Like the ants I followed the life of the field grass as well. It grew from below my knees to above my head, seeds were produced and dispersed. Its green leaves were eaten by black tail deer, its thickness home to snakes and mice and it’s frequented by people walking dogs. The wooded area where the thatching ants have built their home is owned by the city. I discovered that the field of grasses next to the woods was owned by an elderly lady living in a yellow house at the far end of the field. I was approached by the daughter of the fields owner. She was wondering what I was doing spending so much time in her moms field. I explained that I was making an experimental film and I didn’t realize that it was her moms field. She seemed ok with that and I agreed to visit the yellow house and relate my project to her mom. Her moms name was Betty and she lived in one of three places that boarder one side of the grassy field. Betty was cheerful and ready to talk when I knock at her door. She told me that she and her husband had bought the place when it was the only one there and it came with the field behind it. Her husband had passed away years ago and they had done little with the space. Betty’s son in law came every August with his tractor to cut the grasses and maintain the drainage so it’s been kept in its open, empty state. I told Betty about my project in her field and the thatching ants in the woods. “Oh, we had ants” she said. When they moved in during the middle of the last century there were large nests made of sticks like the one I was filming. That means that these ant communities have been here for some sixty years, probably much longer. The workers of the species could live several years and the queens up to twenty years. Later I found two other nests on the other side of the woods. Betty died last year, her house and the field went up for sale. The ants continue as they have and the sounds of the grass can still be heard at the end of the street along with crickets and frogs.
The result of my year long document of these ants and grasses is a thirty seven minute documentary called Fomicidae. An experimental documentary with long takes and without narration. Like most experimental work it requires patience and an investment from the audience. It leaves the viewer with the responsibility of interpreting the data, of deciding what they see. The soundtrack varies from ambient, environmental sound to composed tracks. I enjoyed the natural sound around as I recorded and also enjoyed the fantasy soundtracks I heard while watching. Editing is at least as fun as recording, post production is where I saw what the film is about for me, as always it’s about learning to listen and look.
I will see if I’m able to find Fomicidae screen time in some festival but I may just breakdown and put it on you tube. I am eager to get it before people who might have thoughts about it but I think that it has served its purpose in helping me to observe closely, develop my camera and sound skills and develop species appreciation. Watching how life passes the seasons is a rewarding thing. How grass that is encased in ice will soon be long, reaching at the sky with hands of new seeds. How, In the same period, insects will build a tower of sticks and create foraging paths into the woods and up trees. How the living suffer the weather as it changes their world in repeating cycles. How species interact with their environment and the other species in it. How every autumn the thatching ants cathedral will be destroyed by a bear and their population decimated. How every spring the ants will emerge from the ruins of their home and begin the process of rebuilding.
ever yours
D. Centralized
P.S. If you are interested in short films on other interesting subjects like telephone poles, CT scans or cardboard boxes you should visit www.vimeo.com/adavelikeanyother
If you’re interested in music that’s not really music you should visit: www.drmonotony.bandcamp.com
If you’re interested in music that is actually music you might like : www.unseensight.bandcamp.com or www.zekmusic2.bandcamp.com