Works on Paper
An interest in magnetism drew me to create work inspired by starling murmurations. Starlings have an extraordinary sense called magnetoreception that literally allows them to detect magnetic fields that aid them in navigation and their murmurations are truly a thing to behold. In amazing synchronicity, starlings dive and ascend together in huge flocks, twisting, turning, and defying all logic that they don’t crash into one another in the process. This interest lead me to want to know more about the life and behavior of starlings.
This work, Murmuration Diagram (starlings in flight, twilight), was created in the form of an experimental diagram as an attempt to understand these murmurations. The structure illuminated by the setting sun, was transferred from a tracing of their movements over a video screen. Points were inserted where marks outlining their movements became heavy, later the points were connected in space to form a light filled hidden structure at sunset.
How can we find our own pathway to understanding the movement of another creature? What can be learned in the process?