CATHERINE CLOVER		Artworks   Projects   Info
		Us & Them: Umwelten (2012)
		Project Space RMIT University 23-27 Cardigan Street Carlton Melbourne 3053 Australia
		Eight artists from the RMIT Global Ecologies Research Group respond to German ethologist Jacob von Uexkull's theory of 'umwelt', which suggests that each and every animal, including humans, lives in its own perceptual world that is separate from any other, yet perfectly equal and linked together. Steve Baker, Yifang Lu, Rebecca Mayo, Jen Rae, Fleur Summers, Debbie Symons, Jasmine Targett and Catherine Clover. Linda Williams wrote the essay.
		My response to the concept of umwelten takes the form of a site specific audiovisual installation titled A Storytelling of Ravens. It describes my observations of the wild ravens (Corvus mellori) that live along Cardigan Street, Carlton where Project Space is situated. The work is text based and follows a diary entry process that describes my encounters with the ravens during the months leading up to exhibition. The entries are based on the calls that I hear, the movements that the birds make and the weather. I use the phonetics that naturalists describe in bird field guides to approximate the ravens’ vocal exchanges with each other and their umwelten. These phonetic words are inadequate and border on the absurd in their inability to convey the complexity of the birds’ voices.
		Audio excerpt 1' 15" of 10'
		In this image you can see the audio drive that used the glass of the window as the speaker. The sounds (a short field recording of ravens followed by mimicry by Kate Hunter, Vanessa Chapple and Penny Baron) could be heard both in the gallery and on the street. The audience for this work is both human and bird.
		Artworks   Projects   Info

Corvus corvix, Corvus corvix, Corvus corvix, Corvus albicollis,