Protest of cicadas

Sound installation

2017

Our society is made up of multitudes; multitude of individuals, multitude of knowings, jobs, problems, bodies. It is possible to analyse multitude’s intelligent systems gleaning information from common behaviours of some social animals like ants or bees. The intelligence of the swarm does not provide just goods and services but, especially, communication, cooperation and social interactions. There is not someone taking decision for all, but a swarm which operates concretely.
The cicadas remain in a larval state for a long time, 17 years for some species. When the young cicadas reach the maturity, they leave the soil to climb a tree to moult. It is still unclear how is that after many years they reach to emerge all simultaneously. The moment when the cicadas leave the exuviae is significant because it happens in the same moment for the entire swarm. And from that moment they can start to sing.
Behind each cicadas there is a little speaker, set up with a collective intelligence’s practice - in other words using video tutorials and forum to create a sound system. No one of these cicadas has a real interactive ability, but together they reach to spread the idea of a dialogue or of an intercommunication.
The audience in the room is hit by a long buzz and then by the small cicadas on the walls. Getting closer it is possible to hear, in a clear way, each cicadas’ protest.
This is the buzz of the multitude.