Oh!m1gas

0h!m1gas is a biomimetic stridulation environment, based upon the activity of an ant colony, that turns the ants into DJs and creates a sound reactive space that attempts to find analogies and differences between scratching as an aesthetical expression of human culture and the stridulation phenomena within ants as a communication method. Ants represent a natural superorganism that can be sensed and understood as a colony of hyper instrumental entities generating sound waves, bits of frequencies and musical beats by mapping their movements and stridulations.

An emergent scratching system, which as well as the ants themselves, produces a bottom-up structure, emerging as chaos or emerging as order, reacting on the rituals of their life and their development as a superorganism. Just as the Hip Hop culture produces movements and noises, these social agents end up engaging in turntablism activated via motion tracking and hi-fidelity microphones to finally interpret their very same movements and noises as a new form of emerging music.

Maybe there is a way to create a cybernetic feedback system and communicate with ants…The ultimate goal would be to explore a potential playground and experiment with the sound waves and vibrations produced by the scratching effects, in order to see if the ants can react and output some interesting behavior as well, considering the biodata analysis in real time, establishing a feedback connection between the ants and the turntables is an interesting possibility. Powered by the emergent behavior of the other most successful social beings on this planet, 0h!m1gas is a reactive sound installation with a life of its own, extending and transforming the selforganization of ants and presenting a new immersive experience.

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