THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR ART OF FEAR

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

Every June The Cleveland Museum of Art holds its annual signature event, Summer Solstice. In 2015 the grassy knoll performed at the event as a duo, with Justin Bernard Williams on saxophone.

the grassy knoll performing at The Cleveland Museum of Art. June 20, 2015

After our set, Boston-based media-artist Brian Knep, who was there debuting his installation Healing Pools, introduced himself. He wanted to discuss the projections that I had created for the performance. This led to a fascinating discussion regarding his work observing and interacting with nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans) during his time as the first artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School.

Nematodes are one of the most studied organisms in the scientific community and are often used to study aging. In an effort to connect with the microscopic creatures, Brian introduced the worms to bacteria and fungi from his own body, and he built microscopic sculptures for the worms to explore. He recorded his observations of these interactions with high definition video.

Towards the end of our talk he presented the idea of putting music to his footage—naturally, I was curious to check it all out.

Avatar. A nematode (Caenorhabditis elagans) explores a fake worm.

Worm Constructs

The imagery was thought-provoking and oddly elegant. We both agreed that the song “Art of Fear” would work well as a soundtrack to his footage. Brian offered me complete artistic freedom. The only rule—create a music video of his Caenorhabditis elegans.

Thank you for reading, watching, and listening. Comments are encouraged.