Insect Sing-Along

Singing the clap of a butterfly's wings... - a live soundwork on location developed with Ananda Serne

The clap of a butterfly’s wings and the buzzing sounds of sudden movement of an imperceptible brown moth. Eyes closed, these sounds are an intoxicating hum; drawn to the night like a lullaby.

On March 19th, Genetic Choir singers performed a special piece of work, developed with artist Ananda Serne for the opening of her exhibition “Insect Sing-Along” at PuntWG in Amsterdam.

Saturday, 19 March 2022, 18:00-20:00 at gallery PuntWG
Place: WG Plein t/o nr 80, 1054 DM Amsterdam

For those of you who have followed the Genetic Choir for the last 10 years, this new collaboration brings back memories of the 2013 Insect Concert at the Utrecht library, the 2016 Moth, Bird and Fox concerts we developed with Marcus Coates for PublicWorksUtrecht and the collaboration with Amy Cutler, creating live soundtracks for nature documentaries on IDFA 2018.

Ananda Serne gave us another opportunity now to follow Genetic Choir’s keen interest in biological patterns for music creation and to explore insect behaviour and sounds by means of the human voice.

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From curator Àngels Miralda:

Ananda Serné’s short film Insect sing-along (2022) was developed during her residency at PuntWG. It follows the lifecycle of a butterfly: caterpillar, cocoon, to the final metamorphosis towards adult form. Insects are often our closest animal neighbours, and yet, are overlooked in ecological terms. The final form of the butterfly suddenly morphs into a robotic insect developed at the Delft University of Technology. These prototypes could potentially help with the pollination tasks of dwindling insect populations. The surprising history of lepidopterans and technology stems from a remarkable anecdote of the original “computer bug” – a squashed moth that affected early computer operations in 1947.

Behind the screen, a neon blue glow draws the audience upstairs to a sculptural light work. Moths have a strange fascination for artificial sources of light. It is thought that they fly at a constant angle to the light of the moon in order to navigate. They often mistake artificial light for moonlight and in this way lamps distract them and they seem to forget about everything else.

At sunset and nightfall, Serné presents a new performance in the garden developed together with singers from the vocal ensemble Genetic Choir. During regular exhibition hours, a sound piece developed and recorded with voice artist Miyuki Inoue will accompany the silent film.