Abstract/Summary

‘Nature of Truth’ was a newly commissioned work that linked the depiction of nature in the history of the scientific atlas, with the decline in insect populations and moths in Holland and UK. It situates a deeper understanding of what constitutes our shared visual ecology with more-than-human actors as a propositional1 image for cohabitation and coevolutionary politics. The work was produced both in advance and during the installation of the exhibition which was co-curated with zone2source. Workshops with participating artists and a final research presentation took place during the exhibition period. The commissioned work consisted of a surround soundscape, 10 min HD Single Channel Video. Video Element: Stitched together from images of recently extinct moths from the archives of the London Natural History Museum, the video was made using a method of drawing and then embroidering images of the moths in order to capture them photographically. Alongside photographic records of recently discovered moths in Holland (due to climate changes impacting migration), the images are then re-photographed within Amstelpark itself, using a simple technique of light painting. Sound and light elements: An accompanying site-specific video and light/soundscape was made from audio field recordings of bat species found in and around the park as they hunt down moths. Slowed down and remixed with an original composition by Bill Thompson, and a range of other nocturnal insects, the light-based soundscape also interrupts the viewers experience of the video work presented in the black box of the projection space. Commission by zone2source with funding from the Mondriaan Funds, NL.