CICADA GAMES
ASMR-Audio Play for One Voice
and Seven Spirits
By Claire Tolan
A buzzing clatter fills the air. Sitting among the branches of the trees, they murmur of the past, present, and future. The cicadas of this audio play are gossipers and voyeurs. They observe the world and speculate about the nature of things. They use ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) to beguile and relax us, reminding us that there are realities beyond the human one. They promote awareness of our environment, our human and non-human companions, and ourselves.
CICADA GAMES: THEME (02:00)
THE AUDIO PLAY
Part One (05:28)
Part Two (06:19)
Part Three: Earth’s Monologue (03:34)
Part Four (04:46)
This publication is the materialisation of the digital art project CICADA GAMES (2021–2023) by artist Claire Tolan, developed as an augmented reality app for public spaces with the artist. The 20-minute immersive buzz takes up the cicada trope metaphorically, mythologically and biologically.
The poetry and sound of the play has been compiled by czirp czirp – experimental and sonic arts 2024 as a self-published hybrid poetry volume.
THE AR-APP FOR iOS
The AR app is available for free:
DOWNLOAD CICADA GAMES for iOS
This application complies with the GDPR. No personal data is collected.
The ASMR Audio-App CICADA GAMES, written, programmed, and spoken by Claire Tolan features an entirely new species of cicadas that no one has ever seen, and that no one will probably ever see. For it is not so much their visual appearance as their voices that we are able to perceive through her audio play. These cicadas hatched in the sunny, grassy meadow of a lush Viennese park and entered our world in the pandemic year of 2021. Creating new patterns of meaning purely from their speculations, they weaved their rhyme with what was happening around them—and they watched us. The cicadas analyzed and commented on our actions. Like us, they asked themselves, who am I? Why am I here? How do I know what is true and what is not?
In 2024, the cicadas of this play are bound in a limited edition hardback poetry volume.
THE PUBLICATION
AR hybrid App produced in 2021 by
czirp czirp – sonic and experimental arts, Vienna.
Edited for publication in 2024.
First edition of 50 copies.
Author of play: Claire Tolan.
German translation: Luzie Meyer.
Female speakers in audio play: Luzie Meyer and Claire Tolan.
Cover Design, Layout, Illustrations, Font “Claire T” after the artist’s handwriting:
Milena Georgieva
Editor: Lona Gaikis
Special thanks to Pete, Kathy, and Mike Tolan(Recordings of Brood X Cicadas, Ohio, 2021).
Recordings with the support of The Studio for Electroacoustic Music, Akademie der Künste Berlin.
Funded by The City Council of Vienna (MA7 Stadt Wien Kultur).