video

Understory

/ Amy Youngs

by Loren Kronemyer
Worm Wide Web is a collection of videos that document the live performance of garden insects. Moving in condensed time-lapse, the creatures appear to congregate together and articulate familiar symbols related to communications technology. Originally conceived as part of the City of Subiaco pARk project, these videos are embedded in the site-specific augmented reality app hosted by the Subiaco Art Centre.  When viewed through the app, the videos are overlayed onto the pavement, making it appear as though the insects are appearing out of the garden itself.  Standing on their own, the videos exist as a simple but evocative tribute to the innovative communication and emergent intelligence strategies of these commonplace garden fauna.

The other videos in this series can be viewed here.

To see more of Loren’s artwork, visit her website.

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/ Amy Youngs


This interactive installation offers human participants an opportunity to tune into – and bodily experience – the vibrations made by tiny, soil-dwelling beings. Humans continue to be interested in detecting signals of extra-terrestrial life in outer space, but have overlooked the intra-terrestrial signals of life – the worms and insects that sustain our own terrestrial existence. This highly amplified environment allows humans a chance to appreciate these extraordinary life forms through live, amplified sounds and infrared video. Hopefully this experience will give a viewer/participant a different sense of the life inside the earth; one that goes beyond the scientific and instead approaches something more akin to fellowship, communion or appreciation.

by Amy M. Youngs

Digestive Table

/ Amy Youngs

An ecosystem of worms, sowbugs, plants and bacteria live and eat at this table. They are a part of the digestive system that starts with a person discarding food leftovers and shredded paper into the portal at the top. The bacteria and sowbugs begin breaking down the waste and the worms soon join in to further digest it into a rich compost that sprinkles out of the bottom of the fabric bag that hangs beneath the table. This compost is used as a fertilizer for plants, such as those at the base of the table.

The human plays an important part at the table by eating, feeding the food waste to the worms, feeding the resulting fertilizer to the plants, or by simply sitting and appreciating the living ecosystem she/he is a part of. A cross-section of the activity inside the top 9 inches of the compost is made visible using an infrared security camera connected to an LCD screen built into the table. On the screen, viewers can see the live movements of the worms and sowbugs inside.

By Amy M. Youngs