Seeing a given thing as another allows for explanatory simplification, in which the simplicity of explanatory elements – rather than the liveliness of them - is the measure for successful reduction. P R O G R A M M E D   B U T T E R F L I E S is a visual study of a lively and dynamic material - the flight muscle construction of the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae). The study is made by means of capturing or immobilizing certain aspects of change through adjustment of arbitrary procedures. The procedures consist of the programming of research stocks, followed by the systematic killing of them. For this purpose, the observer is trained to function as a histologist and imaging technician, looking for quantitative measurements to analyze and publish. Although this practice has more freedom to be speculative rather than predictive, it is still bound by countless rules to keep the work completely or partially alive. Meanwhile, many decisions that were made within these rules were highly spontaneous, in which intuitive and imaginative measures are not completely left out.