'The first bird I searched for was the nightjar, which used to nest in the valley. Its song is like the sound of a stream of wine spilling from a height into a deep and booming cask. It is an odorous sound, with a bouquet that rises to the quiet sky.'
– John A. Baker, The Peregrine, 1967.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (9th May – 15th May, 2023).
The publication of The Peregrine (1967) by John A. Baker marked a significant shift in naturalist literature; although it had always been committed to finding a style that combined expertise and poetry, ever since Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne (1788), John A. Baker's influence can be felt in the restored autonomy given to nature. The environment exerts its own fascination on man, as if in a reversal of the naive notion of human domination over its natural space. In describing the saltings of Essex, Baker records an obsessive journey into birdwatching, a kind of one-sided love affair driven by the comings and goings of peregrine falcons: there is something deeply serious and melodramatic about his writing, reflecting a communion between the author and his environment. This subjective approach has become a source of inspiration for contemporary writers – most notably Mark Cocker's Crow Country (2007), David G. Haskell's The Forest Unseen (2012) and Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk (2016) – and regularly attracts criticism from some zoologists, who feel deceived that these books are primarily poetic works rather than ornithological manuals.
Birdwatching today, between naturalism and personal poetry
Baker's approach stemmed from a change in birdwatching methods after World War II. Spurred on by Max Nicholson and his manual The Art of Bird-Watching (1932), British birdwatching adopted a more scientific method, favouring observation in the field rather than skeletons in museums. This new methodology was supported by the rise of ecological science, the study of the interactions between living things and their environment, but also by the collaboration between academic societies and local amateur associations. In the 1960s, the decline of bird populations due to chemical pollution prompted British local authorities to take action and reinvent a tradition of birdwatching, giving it a patriotic or local colour [1]: demands for environmental protection often led in the United Kingdom to calls for a return to a lost age and the withdrawal of mankind from fragile natural areas.
The strength of The Peregrine lies in its ability to evoke powerful emotions through birdwatching. Baker combined this new-found concern for environmental conservation with a sublime and poetic sense of wonder. Such a spirit can certainly be found in the recent revival of birdwatching in the wake of the ecological emergency. [2] The Bird Museum crystallises this new attitude to ecological conservation. The concept of exhibiting representations of birds highlights the subjective nature of the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The variety of artistic styles is surprising, ranging from abstract charcoal drawings to ethereal watercolours, shimmering pop art or more detailed naturalistic sketches. Some pieces are the work of amateurs, while others are astonishing in their technique. The Bird Museum reflects the complex relationship of the different artists with birds and nature, without comparing them to each other, thanks to the random generation of the gallery.
Nature observation in the Internet age
There is something almost majestic and tragic about this museum. Instead of real birds, it is their representations that the player can observe. Is this a reversal of the master and the beast, as in The Peregrine, where the birds are the ones observing the humans trapped in a aviary-museum? Or is it something more tragic, such as the disappearance of bird species whose only visible trace is the artistic inspiration they provide to humans? The interpretation is left open, but The Bird Museum is primarily concerned with highlighting animals that are ubiquitous in our environment but generally ignored. The various artworks pay tribute to ordinary species such as the rock dove. The more absurd productions, especially the sculptures, underline the plasticity of the avian kingdom, which, without reaching the fantastic contortions of the statues, comprises several thousand species.
The Bird Museum reinvents nature by suggesting an almost symbiotic contemplation, immersing the player in an enchanting diversity. The experience is certainly not perfect, as the random generation of the instance still produces duplicates. Perhaps most importantly, the edge-distorting filter interferes with the experience, preventing the player from using their peripheral vision to appreciate the gallery as a whole. The Bird Museum seems to be conceived as a linear observation of the different artworks, rejecting the idea of a more complex and transversal museography. The layout of the rooms does not allow for organic circulation, and it is often necessary to cross multiple times the large central hall to access the other wings of the gallery. Nevertheless, The Bird Museum is an atypical project that manages to arouse genuine curiosity by integrating contemplative strolling, concern for the environment and collective artistic creation. It is only a pity that the title did not have full confidence in its concept and decided to negatively and unnecessarily alter the artistic productions through various filters.
__________
[1] Sean J. Nixon, ‘Vanishing Peregrines: J. A. Baker, Environmental Crisis and Bird-Centred Cultures of Nature, 1954-73’, in Rural History, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 205-226.
[2] The global lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic was also an important factor, as it encouraged introspection, while the decline in human activity allowed animal species to repopulate places they had traditionally avoided. However, the production of The Bird Museum predates these events.
– John A. Baker, The Peregrine, 1967.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (9th May – 15th May, 2023).
The publication of The Peregrine (1967) by John A. Baker marked a significant shift in naturalist literature; although it had always been committed to finding a style that combined expertise and poetry, ever since Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne (1788), John A. Baker's influence can be felt in the restored autonomy given to nature. The environment exerts its own fascination on man, as if in a reversal of the naive notion of human domination over its natural space. In describing the saltings of Essex, Baker records an obsessive journey into birdwatching, a kind of one-sided love affair driven by the comings and goings of peregrine falcons: there is something deeply serious and melodramatic about his writing, reflecting a communion between the author and his environment. This subjective approach has become a source of inspiration for contemporary writers – most notably Mark Cocker's Crow Country (2007), David G. Haskell's The Forest Unseen (2012) and Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk (2016) – and regularly attracts criticism from some zoologists, who feel deceived that these books are primarily poetic works rather than ornithological manuals.
Birdwatching today, between naturalism and personal poetry
Baker's approach stemmed from a change in birdwatching methods after World War II. Spurred on by Max Nicholson and his manual The Art of Bird-Watching (1932), British birdwatching adopted a more scientific method, favouring observation in the field rather than skeletons in museums. This new methodology was supported by the rise of ecological science, the study of the interactions between living things and their environment, but also by the collaboration between academic societies and local amateur associations. In the 1960s, the decline of bird populations due to chemical pollution prompted British local authorities to take action and reinvent a tradition of birdwatching, giving it a patriotic or local colour [1]: demands for environmental protection often led in the United Kingdom to calls for a return to a lost age and the withdrawal of mankind from fragile natural areas.
The strength of The Peregrine lies in its ability to evoke powerful emotions through birdwatching. Baker combined this new-found concern for environmental conservation with a sublime and poetic sense of wonder. Such a spirit can certainly be found in the recent revival of birdwatching in the wake of the ecological emergency. [2] The Bird Museum crystallises this new attitude to ecological conservation. The concept of exhibiting representations of birds highlights the subjective nature of the relationship between humans and the natural environment. The variety of artistic styles is surprising, ranging from abstract charcoal drawings to ethereal watercolours, shimmering pop art or more detailed naturalistic sketches. Some pieces are the work of amateurs, while others are astonishing in their technique. The Bird Museum reflects the complex relationship of the different artists with birds and nature, without comparing them to each other, thanks to the random generation of the gallery.
Nature observation in the Internet age
There is something almost majestic and tragic about this museum. Instead of real birds, it is their representations that the player can observe. Is this a reversal of the master and the beast, as in The Peregrine, where the birds are the ones observing the humans trapped in a aviary-museum? Or is it something more tragic, such as the disappearance of bird species whose only visible trace is the artistic inspiration they provide to humans? The interpretation is left open, but The Bird Museum is primarily concerned with highlighting animals that are ubiquitous in our environment but generally ignored. The various artworks pay tribute to ordinary species such as the rock dove. The more absurd productions, especially the sculptures, underline the plasticity of the avian kingdom, which, without reaching the fantastic contortions of the statues, comprises several thousand species.
The Bird Museum reinvents nature by suggesting an almost symbiotic contemplation, immersing the player in an enchanting diversity. The experience is certainly not perfect, as the random generation of the instance still produces duplicates. Perhaps most importantly, the edge-distorting filter interferes with the experience, preventing the player from using their peripheral vision to appreciate the gallery as a whole. The Bird Museum seems to be conceived as a linear observation of the different artworks, rejecting the idea of a more complex and transversal museography. The layout of the rooms does not allow for organic circulation, and it is often necessary to cross multiple times the large central hall to access the other wings of the gallery. Nevertheless, The Bird Museum is an atypical project that manages to arouse genuine curiosity by integrating contemplative strolling, concern for the environment and collective artistic creation. It is only a pity that the title did not have full confidence in its concept and decided to negatively and unnecessarily alter the artistic productions through various filters.
__________
[1] Sean J. Nixon, ‘Vanishing Peregrines: J. A. Baker, Environmental Crisis and Bird-Centred Cultures of Nature, 1954-73’, in Rural History, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 205-226.
[2] The global lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic was also an important factor, as it encouraged introspection, while the decline in human activity allowed animal species to repopulate places they had traditionally avoided. However, the production of The Bird Museum predates these events.
LordDarias
11 months ago