The Taxonomy of Remembrance

This work is a collaboration with media artist Florian Zeeh.

Taxonomy of Remembrance reflects on the logic of taxonomic systems, of sorting and classifying nature; the "order of things" becoming a symbol for the order of the world, of society itself. The starting point is a specific butterfly, the Parnassius Apollo, which has an extremely variable appearance and has been a very popular collector's item. It is now almost extinct in most of its european habitats, mostly due to the effects of industrialization, however a myth remains it has been "collected" into extinction. I was able to collaborate with Leipzigs Natural History Museum and document their collection. The Apollo is a white butterfly with black spots on the forewings and black/red/white ocelli on the hindwings – wing markings that immediately made me think of musical scores. The sound work’s base is thus a graphic score deriving from analytical drawings of the wing markings. The forewings’ scores were interpreted by the singer Anne Munka

I teamed up with Florian Zeeh to create the composition: The hindwings’ score is synthesized and modulated with the help of image recognition and SuperCollider. The algorithmic composition programmed by Zeeh translates the score into a generative system: This imitates taxonomic sorting processes by comparing different aspects of the butterflies in terms of their similarity and visual proximity. A process that seems almost endless: the composition is therefore theoretically also neverending.

Voice: Anne Munka
Recording: Andreas Lammel
Photography: Falk Messerschmidt

This work and its exhibition was made possible through funding by Kulturamt Leipzig (2019), KdFS (Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen (2024) and funding by Musikfond e.V. (2026) Thank you!

8-channel sound-installation | Computer & Screen | endless | Score: Series of 30 drawings (pencil, ink, laserprint, transparent film on paper, 420 x 297 mm each) | Series of 15 analytical drawings: laser print, transparency paper, tape, label and pencil on paper, 580x490 mm/490x370 mm | 2023–2025