From what we know, our planet was not always inhabited by sound-making beings. For a long time, the only sounds came from the elements: wind, water, stone, and fire. But then, about 300 million years ago, one creature made a sound—not by accident, but deliberately, for the sake of making a sound.

They discovered you among a swarm of other insects in the Salagou Formation, at the southern edge of the Massif Central in France. There must have been an accident: you were blown away by the harsh winds of the Permian period, and your wings became stuck in silt or mud. Over time, stone grew over your body, and millions of years later, your wing veins and contours became visible as impressions in the rock. You roamed the Earth with mayflies, thrips, and dragonflies, alongside other ancient forms of modern insects. But your wing imprint bears an unusual feature: your central vein is supported by millimetre-long side veins, like a ridge. Based on similarities in the wing structure of your descendants, we assume you used it to sing. When you rubbed your wings together, the raised central vein scraped over the base of the other wing, creating sound.

The kinetic sound installation Crickets is an invitation to imagine the sound of this early, distant relative of modern crickets, the  Permostridulus  (Permian: the geologic age of the fossil; stridulate, Lat., the zoological term for rubbing body parts together to make sound).

Crickets (4 DC motors, wire, wood, combs) was shown at the Sonic Mass Exhibition at Munyu. in Nairobi from 4th – 31st of October 2024.