The film Exoville takes place in a ruined city where exoskeleton come to life after having bided their time in the underworld. The insects are the result of a complicated development process, where in their powerful body hut they constitute the most costly stage of their life cycle. The exoskeleton is the result of a ruthless hunger where in the larval stage they can eat an entire stump, before pupating in the underworld where they undergo a five-year transformation process where an evolutionary soup reorganizes itself into a complete insect. Stately, shiny, heavy and charged, they then make their way out of the earth to the crowns of the oak trees where they are sentenced to live for just under a month as mating-programmed terminators with all their senses tuned to the test of strength and the search for a partner. The exoskeleton’s biotope brings the different individuals together in a dense biotope that is characterized by the struggle for survival and continuation, similar to today’s shiny cities where heavily armed residents strive to become winners in an unforgiving food chain. Historically, the city is a protection and a manifestation of the collective benefits of a fixed herd existence.

Cities are like the exoskeleton of humans; a protective shell, but also an exposed surface. Historically, the city is a protection and a manifestation of the collective benefits of a fixed herd existence. The ecoxen’s habitat brings the different individuals together in a dense biotope characterized by the struggle for survival and perpetuation, similar to today’s shiny cities where heavily armored inhabitants strive to become winners in an unforgiving food chain. The inhabitants of the urban environment move in coded competition, nurturing precious shells, vigilant and vain in their search for proximity. A densified habitat demands its price – a densified life path in an awe-inspiring physical manifestation. As we begin to approach robotics as a kind of everyday technology, we are reminded of the body structure, joints and movement patterns of beetles: perhaps this was the first and most sophisticated technology we could observe. The insects are ancient and advanced in their construction, their exoskeleton and outer armor with its joints bring to mind modern technology which is itself a field characterized by competition and exclusion.

The sound in the film Exoville is a recording of Jupiter’s atmosphere made by NASA with instruments that register electromagnetic vibrations inaudible to the human ear.

– Malin Zimm