Representing Fieldwork (no. I)

The world’s creatures sense their umwelt (environment) in differing ways. These are senses honed to fit their world. However, with a rapidly changing climate, some species are having to cope with changes placed upon their senses. Some examples include bats being less able to ‘see’ through echolocation due to rising humidity levels in Germany, lizards losing their ability to sense the chemical signals of mates in the Chilean mountains, upsets to wild horse proprioception in New Zealand due to the wet, and heat affecting the ability of woodlice in the United Kingdom to move and communicate through thigmokinesis. Some of the scientific studies involved in such research is fieldwork, others involve future predictive modelling. After consulting a range of scientific studies, the artwork presented here uses digital animation to represent this world of confusion and changing umwelten for creatures whose ability to sense are affected by human-led climate change. This work specifically employs anthropocentric aesthetic techniques reminiscent of contemporary painting to create an abstract and artistic 2D realm.