Larvæ Dome is an interactive installation based on the sonification of the life cycles and living processes of waxworms, while they digest inorganic materials. It is part of The Living Room experiment (2020-ongoing) hosted at the Medicinsk Museion in Copenhagen. In the Living Room, museum objects – from samples to surgical instruments – are allowed to decay and be transformed in contact with organic agents such as pink oyster mushrooms and waxworms. It is an experiment on the notions of care and the role of the museum, as well as on the dynamics of transformation and the acceptance of the erosive phases of life cycles.

As a sound artist collaborating in the collective experimental environment which is the Living Room, sonification is the approach I am mostly interested in deploying in order to explore the relational aspect of the processes of decay taking place. In one of the ecosystems/boxes being prepared, wax worms will be the agent of decomposition, given their ability to also digest matter usually thought to be non-edible, such as certain plastics. The worms and a few selected museum objects will become a dynamic metabolic system inside of the box, which will be monitored by a sensor array sensitive to environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, electrical conductivity, sound level, and vibration. From this data a 4-channel surround soundscape is produced in realtime, immersing the visitor in a sonic environment which provides a way to experience and encounter a meeting between human and other-than-human agency.

Larvæ Dome as participative performance-lecture

In November 2022, the Larvæ Dome piece was manifested as a performance-lecture at the Medicinsk Museion, where visitors where guided through a sonic encounter with the waxworms while bodily interacting with the sounds being produced in realtime.