Observation Stations
Artist Residency
Observation Stations is a series of interspecies interventions designed to examine how and why we look at animals, and which animals we choose to observe. The project is part of the Machine Wilderness residency programme in Amsterdam, centred on public fieldwork developing methodologies and prototypes of ‘wilderness machines’ that engage with local environmental complexity.
In 2022, Barnett was one of seven artists commissioned to undertake a residency in the context of Amsterdam’s historical zoo, ARTIS, whose mission is based on the concept of ‘Natura Artis Magistra: Nature is the teacher of art and science’. Other invited artists were: Driessens & Verstappen, Antti Tenetz, Ivan Henriques, Ian Ingram, Špela Petrič, and Thomas Thwaites, each artist focusing on different nature/technology relationships within the complex dynamics of a public-facing centre for animal conservation and education.
Barnett chose to focus on the creatures that live at ARTIS incidentally, rather than the ‘star’ display animals. Some of these uninvited guests are highly visible, such as the opportunistic herons which descend on the park at pelican feeding time, or the native ducks enjoying the pleasant waters and the ever-ubiquitous pigeons. Some are less immediately obvious. In the butterfly house mealy bugs try, in vain, to crawl to the abundant supply of ripe fruits but, alas, the feeding stations are designed specifically to deter the various unwelcome visitors, including mice, cockroaches and ants. The ants are everywhere, outside by the oak trees near the aquarium, under the plane trees near the forest house, up and down the fruit trees outside the insectarium – though disappointingly no ants are displayed inside. They live in the cracks of the pavements, under the trees and in the walls, making use of the rich foraging terrain that ARTIS park offers. Most of the time they are ignored or tolerated by the park staff. Some of the time they are seen as vermin and ‘managed’. Context is everything.
During the residency, the most active ant colonies were residing in the plantation areas of the gorilla house and, so, the research focused on the juxtaposition of these two uniquely different species, both highly social and exceptionally smart. In the gorilla house Barnett built and tested Observation Stations, designed to aid the act of looking – at ants. Employing simple devices (such as magnifying lenses) and more sophisticated imaging technologies (such as endoscopy cameras and microscopes) the Observation Stations were an invitation to tune into the lives of creatures usually ignored or beyond human perceptual vision. The interventions enticed the ants from the undergrowth, offering them novel feeding platforms, and mediated between two spatiotemporal worlds, that of ants and humans. Looking at the ants also meant not looking at the gorillas, as attention was drawn away from the performative apes down into the undergrowth to follow the fluid foraging dynamics of the colony.
Acts of observation in turn drew the curiosity of visitors and prompted numerous discussions about animal sociality, collective and individual intelligence, and the hierarchy of species (within the confines of the zoo, but also in the natural world and within cultural narratives).
Acknowledgements
Machine Wilderness Project lead: Theun Karelse of FoAM and Alice Smits of Zone2Source
ARTIS Royal Zoo; Rembrandt Sutorius, Erik de Jong, Anne van Leeuwen, Roosmarij Deenik and Judith de Bruijn.
Machine Wilderness ARTIS was supported by: Stimuleringsfonds voor Creatieve Industrie, AFK, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Bankgiro Loterijfonds, Central Saint Martins.
Artworks
The Politics of Attention
HD video (shot with an endoscopy camera)
Duration: 6:12
© Heather Barnett 2022
The film, shot with an endoscopy camera, zooms in on the creatures usually ignored and largely ignores those we usually pay close attention to, revealing a range of communication strategies and social behaviours across different scales. These small acts of looking – between gorillas, ants and humans – demonstrate something of our need to relate to other species and form relationships.
Exhibitions and Events
The results of the Machine Wilderness artist residencies in ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, were presented at ARTIS Groote Museum on Friday 24 June and exhibited at the Glazen Huis, Zone2Source, in June/July 2022.
Publications and Media
Barnett, Heather. ‘Observation Station’, Interalia Magazine. Issue: Other Minds, November 2022.
Interviews:
Interview by Theun Karelse for Machine Wilderness website.
Interview by Maddie Rose Hills for Mater magazine
Life Drawing
Barnett ran a life drawing class, which challenged participants to observe and represent the ants, not by creating anatomically accurate portrayals, but by examining the behavioural characteristics of the individuals within the colony. The observational activity created encounters between radically different, but relatable, species.
Some of the drawings produced during the Life Drawing class showing the diverse interpretations of ant behaviour, people tuning into ant taxonomies, motion vectors, science fiction depictions or the complex chaos of the colony.
