Professor showcases cricket cacophony

11/13/09 - University of Rhode Island art professor Ben Anderson decided to take a piece of nature out of its everyday environment to examine it.Anderson wanted his piece, "Voice of the Mystic," to allow its audience to "observe sound and take it out of nature."

To accomplish this he collected a group of crickets and put them in a glass container, approximately one foot by five feet, that he made. He then set up a microphone, lowered into the container, and an amplifier facing the entrance of "The Hatchery," a room in the art hallway of the Fine Arts Center.

"[There's a] natural space that's out there and we can wander around and think about it," Anderson said.

Anderson wanted to erase the physical aspects of sound so that his audience could "only think about and only [be] exposed to sound." In order to accomplish this, he amplified the noise, hoping it would reach people in the halls before they even entered the room.

"In this event I am interested in the potential narratives that are formed from what we project on a collection of objects and sound," Anderson said. "These elements become a key to something else, enabling a connection for the viewer to envision their own place, their own narrative."

The first group of crickets was acquired directly from Anderson's garden. These crickets were large, black and very aggressive, Anderson said.

Once Anderson gathered them in a contained area, the males fought and killed each other until only one remained. The females, on the other hand, were not so aggressive, and all survived, he added.

Anderson did not want his piece to suffer due to lack of specimens, so he purchased a new group of crickets which were much smaller and less aggressive.

These crickets not only tolerated each other, but when the dominant male of the previous set of crickets pursued them, they were defensive and quick to flee.

In general, the male crickets hide more than the females when approached by humans, but use their noise to both attract the females and to ward off other males. They are very territorial.

Although Anderson's initial purpose for "Voice of the Mystic" was to observe sound, he found himself observing and researching the crickets as well.

He pinpointed a physical difference in the crickets: the females are larger and they have one long protrusion in the center of their backside, which is used for reproduction, where the males have two.

Besides containing more than 20 crickets, the container holds pieces of bark, sticks, leaves and dirt. Also, Anderson included oatmeal and lettuce as food for the crickets.

"It's a slice of their space," he said.

Anderson also hung parsley and sage on the wall, completing the atmosphere of the room. "The herbs are a reference to their location," Anderson said.

The remaining male cricket from Anderson's garden took to his new home. He claimed the largest piece of bark for himself and at any point of the day could be found there.

If another cricket approached, his chirps got louder while he moved toward them until they retreated. This male also made the most noise out of the crickets.

At one point Anderson moved the microphone next to the bark so that this vocal cricket could make "Voice of the Mystic" come to life. Anderson wasn't the only one inspired by this decision; the cricket seemed to hear his echo and immediately began making noises directly into the microphone, holding a conversation with his new 'friend.'

Easy as it was to be drawn in by the crickets, Anderson did not want the piece to be about the crickets but rather emphasize the sounds.

"It's about observation, the underlying theme is paying attention," he said. "I'm not trying to tell people what to do, it's for me; as I mature the more I stop and listen and just see."

"The sound of something so ordinary can become the voice of the mystic, connecting us to the natural world," he added.

Anderson said that this piece opened his eyes to sound technology as well as sounds of nature. He said that he would have liked to have added power to the microphone and possibly even added special effects.