Sensing Birds

‘Sensing Birds’ is a multimedia video installation exploring the entanglement of migratory birds, sensing technologies, and anthropogenic infrastructures. Developed through fieldwork and collaborations with birdwatchers and scientists, the project examines how living and technological sensing networks can interact and operate to create intelligent, more-than-human systems.

The project is centred on a case study of wind turbine shutdowns in the North Sea to protect migrating birds. The decisions to do so have been fictionalised by the designer and presented in a script that weaves the film together. Real-time location data from tagged Spoonbills, provided by research group BirdEyes, feeds into the installation to generate a live choreography of sound, light and image. ‘Sensing Birds’ speculates on planetary intelligence as an interspecies choreography of adaptation and collaboration, offering new imaginaries for ecological futures.