10 September 2017

With She changes everything She touches and everything She touches changes (Vanessa), Ella Dawn McGeough and Faith La Rocque gathered a varied selection of human guests to hear, see, and consider butterflies (Vanessa cardui a.k.a. Painted Ladies) play a theremin.

Thank you to the following for sharing their time and knowledge: Staff at Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory; Cheryl Tyndall, curator of the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory; Antonia Guidotti, entomologist at the Royal Ontario Museum; Jennifer Carpenter, professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto; Clara Venice, musician and performing artist; and Chris Stopa.

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Theremins are curious instruments. They are (usually) operated via two metal antennas that sense the relative position of a thereminist's hands. One hand influences an oscillating frequency, the other amplitude (volume). The corresponding electric frequencies are amplified through a loudspeaker. Ours was an experiment that began with a simple question, ‘would a butterfly’s wings offer enough resistance to affect a theremin’s controls?’ The answer is yes (albeit, a yes with, and without, an asterisk). As one might imagine, during their initial performance, the butterflies attracted a lot of attention. Viewers were unabashedly seduced by their flaming beauty and couldn’t resist coming very close to their enclosure. The result was an unintentional ‘collaboration’ between the insects and our guests, with which the theremin emitted a kind of a trans-species symphony. However, later in the afternoon, with only us-plus-camera for witness, it was possible to discern the Vanessas’ delicate and clearly audible movements.

Despite the aesthetic success of the event, we felt unsettled. The process of both attaining and working with the butterflies was difficult to square with our intention to foster a sympathetic relationship between us and them. A power-differential was apparent within the beautiful aquarium-like structure Faith created for the event and greatly amplified, when the following day I awoke to find that the evening quarters I had constructed around a strawberry patch with mosquito-netting was invaded by wasps who left scattered orange-wings. Evidence of their early morning feast.

Follow this link to track our attempts to come to terms with the event’s questions, observations, and aftereffects

— Ella, May/June 2020