Xerces Blau

April 17, 2019

33m

Overview

Xerces Blau (the title refers to Glaucopsyche xerces, an extinct butterfly species) expounds on the themes visited by Ferraro on his latest album Requiem for Recycled, released in spring 2019, with both pieces reflecting on human civilization’s intervention into natural processes and its impact on the course of evolution. The four-part visuals, developed with the implementation of machine learning, feature dynamic hybrid imagery in which shots of butterflies and plants are overlaid with scary views of environmental catastrophes, real and fictional man-made landscapes, random urban photographs, and reproductions of artworks. By mixing together the natural and the anthropogenic, Miller visualizes the feeling of overabundance resulting from cultural and technical overproduction.

Directed by

Ezra Miller, James Ferraro