Colony
The Arctic tern makes the longest annual migratory journey of any bird on Earth – all the way from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again. Colony celebrates the tern’s free flight over every human-imagined border on our planet and hints at other invisible limitations that might affect such a journey, such as record-breaking global temperatures and the changing borders of whole continents.
The space is hung with sculpted clusters of circles based on images of the tern in flight and filled with a looped minimal electronic score by composer Lars Koens: circles and circles, ceaselessly rounding back on themselves.
This project began as a commission by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to create bird sculptures to be placed on a wildlife reserve in Scotland to attract a colony of terns to a safe breeding space. This initiated an in-depth collaborative exploration into the life of the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), and, through this prism, environmental factors and interactions between human and non-human animal.
Sometimes called the ‘sea swallow’, this graceful little sea bird makes the longest migration of any bird or animal on the planet. It spends more time in the daylight than any other living creature. Every year it flies from Arctic to Antarctic and back, covering almost 1.5 million miles in its lifetime – a distance equivalent to three times to the Moon and back!
The Arctic tern is a reminder of how the world is in constant flux and how deeply everything is interdependent. It challenges the idea of borders: how freely these birds fly over our country borders without restriction or control, yet are affected profoundly by environmental boundaries (such as using the world’s wind system to navigate its way from pole to pole).
Colony has been featured in various formats at the Edinburgh Science Festival, SONICA, Glasgow, and Highlights Arctic Festival.
The sound piece - a minimal electronic score consisting of sound sculptures - is created by composer Lars Koens.
Many thanks to Mark Mitchell and Mike Fraser from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for their advice, input and support for the project.
Press: Herald Scotland
Sonic sculptures
Created by Lars Koens, the sound composition consists of individual segments, each containing 5 layered sounds, similar to how the sculptures are constructed.