Fireflies

“ […] the fireflies’ dance, this moment of grace that resists in the world of terror, is the most fleeting, the most fragile thing there is […]”

Georges Didi-Huberman - Survival of Fireflies (2009)

“ a collective situation acting as a firefly itself ”

artist notes (2026)

Concept

'Fireflies' present a performative installation of poetry, light and technology, based on Morse Code. The metaphor of firefly as a minimal light unit makes apparent poetic and political implications in an era of extreme lights and polarized ideologies, defined by tectonic changes at a technological and geopolitical level. Hybrid in its nature, the artwork expands the poetic meaning between bodies, coded signals and site. The artwork establishes a geopoetic, luminous and participatory situation, where walkers act as fireflies of meaning. By encountering a wooden box, and through scanning technology they are able to transmit a poetic message via their mobile devices, in Morse Code light signals. Based on artist’s personal verse “history hovers – a thin thread upon a wise ground”, the message creates asilent score of gesture across the liminal and primordial landscape of Ag. Achilleios-Prespes, where audience walk, transmit and become the poem itself.

Note: Mobile smartphone (iOS or Android) and internet connection is required to experience the work

Description

Title: Fireflies

Description: Performative installation of Morse Code poetic monostich with light

Technical: Wooden box, poem, fabric, HTML code  [link] , NFC sensors

Duration: loop [open ended]

Year: 2026

Courtesy of the artist ©

Note: 'Fireflies' is a performative situation where viewers activate morse code poetry in their mobile phones acting as fireflies in playful ways across landscape.

Credits

Concept – Creation: Bill Psarras

Programming assistance: Nikos Vassilopoulos

Selected Exhibitions

The work was conceived/exhibited as an installation at the Triethnes Music Festival 2026 in Prespes - available at location 9 (Panagia Porfyra, Agios Achilleios, Prespes, Greece)