Constant Effort

Artist in residence The Portland Bird Observatory

B-Side fesitval, Dorset.

For 60 years, or less than a lifetime, The Portland Bird Observatory and its dedicated voluntary birdwatchers, have closely observed the skies and their surroundings on The Bill. This collective action has amassed a huge and valuable set of data which is fed into national databases and used to understand what is happening to the UK Bird population and our environment. As humans we have a desire to interpret, to see patterns, to put things in boxes so that we can understand them, but often things are far more complicated.  ‘Constant Effort’ attempts to start conversation, to explore and celebrate this data, and it’s means of collection, through the presentation of a visual snapshot of species sightings at ten year intervals from 1962 to 2022. We can’t always see the ‘wood for the trees’, but this installation made through collective creation, will attempt to visualise some of the data on Portland species, incorporating birds, moths and flora and fauna, in order to spark conversation and understanding of the rich intertwined ecology that exists in ‘The Last Landscape’.