Artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy loves to collaborate with wild things. She has made work with bees, snails, mushrooms and, most recently, fireflies.
Her latest project, Firefly Music, will be presented online in the form of a live digital concert on July 19 and 20, on location from the Fountain Creek Nature Center in Fountain.
Murphy grew up in Colorado but never knew there were fireflies here. That discovery inspired her to invite a team of scientists, musicians and code specialists to locate the rare places where these local lightning bugs hang out and convert their famous flashing into sounds that could be brought together as a performance piece. The artist hopes the concerts bring attention to the need for preserving open spaces where animals of all kinds can exist abundantly.
Firefly Music premiered last summer, with a few glitches, thanks to inclement weather. Murphy has retooled it and invited new musical guests for the latest iteration.
We asked her to explain how it all works.
Q: Let’s start with the most important question. Is the proper name fireflies of lightning bugs? I grew up in Philadelphia where we were overrun with them, and we called them lightning bugs.
A: Interestingly, the country is almost divided in half. According to a recent poll from YouGov.com, along the East Coast and in the South, they’re called lightning bugs most often. When I was a kid I only knew them as fireflies from seeing them in New Jersey.
Q: Why are people so fascinated with them? Or maybe that question is personal: Why are you fascinated with them?
A: I would guess most people are just fascinated with any form of bioluminescence, but fireflies are the most visible. I grew up in Colorado but spent a lot of time in New York City and New Jersey where my mom grew up. I would catch them as a kid with my family, but miss them in Colorado. It’s crazy that they were here all along and I didn’t know.
Q: About your project, let’s start with the “why” and move on to the “how.“ Why collaborate with lightning bugs?
A: The big-picture answer is that my work has focused on species facing extinction since 2010 or so, when I went to grad school at Ohio State University. My environmental concerns have been with me since I was a child. I’m not as famous as Greta Thunberg, maybe, but I was just as upset about what was happening.
When I was struggling to find ways to get people to care about this issue and making weird sculptures about it in grad school, the artist Ann Hamilton walked into my studio and very plainly said, “You’re making approximations of nature. Why not just work with nature directly?”
Q: So, that is where this work started?
A: I began with bees and moved on to snails, but fireflies were there from the start. I would sit behind the studios at OSU and watch my bees return to the hives in the evening while the firefly show started, and think to myself, “I wish I could share this with my friends in Colorado.”
The idea for Firefly Music was born there, but the project was abandoned in 2013 when I came back to Colorado, shelved for maybe an East Coast residency one day.
Q: You thought they did not exist in Colorado?
A: Until the pandemic era of bored Googling told me they were here. I started reaching out to scientists and researching and having interesting conversations, and here we are.
Q: Can you tell us how your project works? It sounds high-tech but maybe you can simplify it?
A: It’s both simple and complicated. Sound artist Ben Coleman built the programming we’re using now, which uses (the code systems) Pure Data and Python to translate the light flashes into sound. Basically, a camera tracks the light flash and movement, and that data can be converted to any sound digitally. Through that, I can create a soundscape that is informed by the musicians we’re working with and triggered by the fireflies. Though, when we did it last year, the weather was so bad that the fireflies didn’t show up, so we tested it with flashlights. It’s still being tweaked and will likely continue to be.
Q: What will it sound like? Does the technology produce a score the musicians play or do they improvise?
A: It all happens live, and is largely improvisational. The musicians will have input into the sounds we are using, but the pitch and qualities of those sounds will be created by the fireflies. The musicians are free to respond to this as they like, but it should all blend together pretty well. There’s a kind of John Cage quality of randomness that I love.
Q: I am looking at your musical lineup here, and it is impressive: Roger Green and Victoria Lundy.
A: I’ve known and admired both Roger and Victoria’s work for years. I met Roger when he was with the band the Czars (who actually played at my wedding), and have followed both his philosophical pursuits and music ever since. Roger is brilliantly experimental and creative, and I thought his approach to music was a great fit.
Victoria is an amazing theremin player, and honestly, the instrument itself is ethereal and magical in nature. Victoria was involved last year as well, and the sounds she produced on a battery-powered theremin were exquisite. I thought the pairing of the two of them would be an interesting blend.
Q: Is weather a factor for this event?
A: So much. As I mentioned before, the weather last year meant no fireflies showed up, but we were still out there, covering borrowed equipment with tarps and watching a scary storm cell, with hail, on Doppler radar, which thankfully went around us. Even without the fireflies though, the event was a blast, and the attendees were curious and excited.
Q: The show goes on, rain or shine?
A: This year, there’s a different worry. The scientists I’m working with have informed me that lightning bugs here are flashing three weeks early due to the recent heat wave. They have a very short season in Colorado, so we will be going to Boulder this week to attempt to at least capture backup footage and test equipment. We will be there; the question is, will the fireflies?
Q:What other projects have you done with living things?
A: I began working with bees to create sculptures in 2010, but when I found out I was allergic to their stings in 2012, I knew I needed other options, though I’ve continued working with them through other beekeepers. At a residency in 2013, in the Catskill Mountains, I became fascinated with snails and their slime, and started trying to figure out how to preserve it.
Q: Working with animals has to be a challenge. I mean if you are going to collaborate with snails, you have to keep them and care for them. Is that difficult and do you consider that part of your practice?
A: I do consider it part of my practice. When I first began with snails in 2013, that meant learning how to breed them and keep them alive in Colorado’s dry climate. I am careful to do no harm, and never subject any animal I work with to any danger. In fact, at Ohio State, I was required to take an ethics course before I was even allowed to set up my bee hives, which I am really thankful for.
Q: What is next for Firefly Music?
A: My goal for Firefly Music is that it becomes a yearly program that travels around the state, raising awareness and working with different musicians each time. I also would love to be able to take my laptop to wherever there are fireflies, and just set it up for spontaneous online concerts.
Q: Anything else folks should know about you, the project, or to prepare for the actual livestream?
A: People can support the future iterations of Firefly Music by donating to our ongoing GoFundMe (gofundme.com/f/support-firefly-music) or purchasing merch from my website: lynnxe.com/shop.
I’ve been so focused on Firefly Music I don’t have many other shows on the horizon outside of having my largest snail drawing included in an amazing show that opens on Aug. 9 at the La Napoule Art Foundation in Provence, France. After that, I’ll be teaching my yearly Bio Art class at the Denver Art Museum, along with a one-day workshop about Bio Art. Readers can sign up if interested here: https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/calendar/creative-classes-bio-art-august-2024
And people can always visit me at the Evans School where I have my studio, either during an open studio event or simply by contacting me through my website.
IF YOU GO
Firefly Music takes place at 8:30 p.m. July 19 and 20. The live stream can be accessed online at fireflymusic.org. It’s free.
