Wormgear (Yannick Mosimann & Tim Shaw)

Wormgear is an audiovisual performance project by Yannick Mosimann and Tim Shaw that explores what happens when a film projector is no longer used to show a film, but is instead played as an instrument for experimental light and sound. The project shifts the focus from the images produced by media technologies to the technologies themselves: projectors, film loops, microphones, sensors, light, vibration and mechanical movement become the primary artistic material.

At the heart of the project are 16mm film loops that were not shot with a camera but chemically processed directly – using everyday substances such as vinegar, salt or plant oil. These loops run through the projector, generating constantly changing visual and acoustic patterns. Microphones and optical sensors capture the light and sounds from the projector and transform them in real time into further layers of sound – creating a feedback system in which image, sound and the behaviour of the machinery continuously influence and alter one another.

The motivation behind the project is a shared interest in revealing the hidden processes that underpin contemporary media technologies. At a time where digital systems are becoming increasingly opaque and automated, Wormgear brings materiality, imperfection and physical interaction to the fore. Rather than presenting technology as seamless and invisible, the project lays bare its mechanisms and regards unpredictability, error and chance as creative forces. In doing so, it invites the audience to rethink their relationship with the technological infrastructures that shape their everyday experience.

Yannick Mosimann is an experimental filmmaker, sound artist and photographer from Bern. His artistic practice encompasses films, video and audio installations, as well as collaborative projects with various artists, both as a filmmaker and as a musician. His work centres on intuitive processes, sensory experiences and the reinterpretation of narratives. Thematically, he explores the Anthropocene, nature, cosmology, darkness and human perception.

Tim Shaw, from England, works with sound, light and communication media to create performances, installations and site-specific interventions. His works reflect an extremely diverse practice. He has devised artistic methods to listen into the sound world of insects, created augmented sound walks and performances for high-voltage equipment, transmitted radio broadcasts through trees and extracted sound material from rocks. Interdisciplinary collaboration is central to his work.