silvan laan

myceliocene

architecture in evolution

older works

work in progress: songlines

Wren, one individual, five songs. Recorded 22 February 2024, Amsterdam. Pencil and ink on xuan paper, wet-mounted, 40x50 cm. Iteration 24 November 2025.

Calligraphy does justice to birdsong as language, to the spectrogram as sign. Because of the power and complexity of its song, the wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) features prominently in folklore and scientific research alike. Researchers routinely draw the analogy between language and birdsong, using terms like "syllable" and "phrase" to describe song elements.

Catchpole & Rowell, "Song Sharing and Local Dialects in a Population of the European Wren Troglodytes Troglodytes", 1993.

Due to the wren's large repertoire and power of improvisation, each individual song is unique. Freezing any one particular song in ink on paper seems trivial; there is no end in sight, no hope of arriving at an exhaustive catalogue. Perhaps I am motivated by a perplexity of transience, similar to that which compelled some impressionists to paint the same landscape over and over, pursuing an essence, rerum natura, through manifold adumbrations. Treating the spectrogram as calligraphy hints at birdsong as language. I am fascinated by a hidden order, the suspected constant behind a surface of endless variation.

Monet, Waterloo Bridge, 1900—1904.