„Before I Forget“ is a project that emerged from my research trips to Mount Etna, addressing the disappearance of the Etna birch tree (Betula aetnensis)—a species that has survived for 12,000 years but is now vanishing at an alarming rate due to climate-change-induced shifts in water availability. In just the last 12 years, over two-thirds of the forest has been lost. This birch, once a resilient survivor of the last ice age, now faces extinction in near silence, largely unnoticed by the scientific community and the public alike.

The Etna birch is just one example of countless species disappearing rapidly—some with visible, loud disruptions, while others vanish unnoticed. The realization that this loss often occurs without recognition led me to a central question: How can this silence—the void left by disappearance—be translated into something that can be touched, heard, or seen again? How can memory be given to something that has no agency—as an act of resistance?

The visual form of „Before I Forget“ draws inspiration from Bernie Krause’s field recording work on the „Great Animal Orchestra“, in which he maps the acoustic presence of ecosystems through waveform structures. Echoing this concept, the spacedrawing becomes a visible, participatory act of remembrance. When touched, it reflects the sound of connection—offering a counterpoint to the silence of extinction, a moment of resonance in the face of disappearance.