About
More Than Senseis an ongoing artistic research project that explores the sensory impacts of human activity on nocturnal species.
The project was initially launched to chart and explore what visual ecologists call ‘anthropogenic noise’ and how it impacts multi-species habitats. Anthropogenic noise is simply a form of pollution that impacts many living species, from birds to insects or whales, that humans cannot detect due to our limited sensory perception.
As a term developed by ecological scientists that covers different areas; sound, light & chemical toxins, anthropogenic noise can be used to describe impacts on more than human species in many ways which are imperceptible to humans.
For example, in terms of visual noise, blinding spectrums of artificial light flood into the eyes and sensory organs of many living species that share our nocturnal urban habitats. And audio noise includes the infrasonic sounds (inaudible to human) emitted from drilling or shipping that interferes in the delicate hearing of marine species that live in the oceanic deep. What we know is that humans are polluting in many ways, that we think only science can measure. Yet science faces many challenges in changing the behaviour of humans alone.
What have observed through our own research (fieldwork, reading, making) is that our main interest in visual pollution is framed by a temporal rather than spatial interest. We are interested in the night, the nocturnal life worlds of other species, those that have to live whilst humans sleep.
The research here focuses on our own research into this area, our work with light both as an artistic material, and as artificial immaterial presence reshaping other life worlds.
For more on this, please follow the link to Visual.Noise in the menu.
Our framework to understand the life worlds of other living species is rich territory. From the work of indigenous scholars and elders, through to ecological scientists, a critical conversation that is International in scope has emerged that speaks to the human imagination and its potential. Attuned through our human imaginary with changing ecologies, this work is seasonal, sensory and immersed in an understanding from those living closer to nature, paying attention to new and emerging scientific insights, challenging social and political frameworks.
Tiny Ghosts Collection (Biodiversity Series) – The World Biodiversity Forum, Davos 2024. Please contact us if you wish to use any images or have further interests.