GREAT WURM
- 2020 - 23.5” W x 13.5” H x 2” D

Printed Circuit Board, Reclaimed Wood Frame. A 10-stage clock divider, flanked by two clock-synced Shepard tone generators, one ascending, one descending.

The Great Wurm swallows its own tail, encircling the ray of creation, from the unified atom within to nothingness without. On either side sits a knave, crushed by the weight of the world and the cruel moon, observing an angel’s fall from grace.


Great Wurm is part of the modular icon series, an ongoing experiment in the use of the PCB (printed circuit board) as a medium for visual art. Pieces within the series serve a dual function, both as purely aesthetic objects and as fully functional modular synthesis equipment.

Great Wurm uses the Shepard tone (an audio illusionary technique used to create the impression of an infinitely ascending or descending pitch) as an illustrative means to analyze historical viewpoints on progress and the passage of time. It contrasts the secular post-enlightenment viewpoint of time as an ascent (towards greater technology, prosperity, and understanding), with the medieval viewpoint of time as a descent (away from the cultural heights of the classical world, the spiritual heights of the early church fathers, and the material heights of the Roman empire), both alongside a more impassive, wide angle viewpoint of time on a divine or cosmic scale.