Outlier's Stage, Mammalian Eye HD & low res, audio Three channel video installation Duration: 8 minutes, 53 seconds 2023

Outlier's Stage, Mammalian Eye takes as its starting point the structured rhythms of an agri-food research farm by day – wherein the animals and their environment are carefully monitored and tested – in contrast to the natural law of the land on its periphery by night.

Filmed with a remote animal tracking camera using night-vision and infrared, wild foxes, badgers and deer travelling after dark infiltrate the interlinked territories and trigger the motion sensors. The animals’ patterns of movement reveal parallels with sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson’s references to a fictional technology – the "Internet of animals” – that allow animals to communicate with humans and other animals via a network of sensors and devices. Tracking animals using technology can be traced back to significant moments in history, such as R. Lord and W. Cochran’s rabbit field in the 1960s. Similarly to remote cameras, night-vision technology was first developed for military and surveillance purposes, and infrared photography emerged as a tool for military reconnaissance. As further commentary on the complexity of humans’ possessive traits over animals, “how to” found footage of the taxidermy processes to prepare and display deceased wild animals permeates the work.

Outlier's Stage, Mammalian Eye is underpinned by a number of dualities that traverse manmade boundaries, the lifespans of animals and human perspectives. Through this farm and these nocturnal animals, the work invites viewers to deeply consider the networks at play on-screen and the site’s expanded contexts.

Outlier’s Stage, Mammalian Eye was created as part of the Artist Laboratory residency at Lands at Dowth, curated by Belinda Quirke. Kindly supported by Solstice Arts Centre and the Arts Council of Ireland, 2023. Exhibited as part of Holdings Exhibition, Solstice Arts Centre, 2023.