Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta and Warp Records as part of the Warp Works and 20th Century Masters show this video is an accompaniment to the Mira Calix track, Nunu.
The live performance of Mira Calix’s Nunu is performed with a tank of insects including cicada’s, cockroaches, crickets and beetles. The audio and video is sampled from the insects in real time and mixed live. Sadly, some venues will not allow the use of live insects so we were commissioned to make a pre filmed version. The concept was to present an environment where each type of insect could be sampled individually whilst being sensitive to displaying the mood of the music and the ways in which the piece was originally conceived. The set was constructed out of jam jars, each one arranged with a combination of insects, plants and flowers. This acted to contain the insects and also hark back at a childhood nostalgia and sort of backyard scientific aesthetic.
