One Day They Will Return
On-going, Artistic Research in Environmental and Climate Action, Speculative Worldbuilding
Found structures, litter, animal deterrents (stainless steel spikes, copper meshes, holographic tape, motion-activated speakers), territorial bird calls, birds of prey calls, and promotional materials for people to join the nest-building movement.
One usual dawn break, the world woke up to the quietness of something gone horribly wrong.
This silence was almost as abrupt as when we all stopped talking during a house party, paused, and looked at each other, hoping that one of us would do something about this moment. At first, people thought it was just a bad day, something about the weather. Days gone by, weeks, and soon years and generations. They never came back.
Birds vanished—without any trace of them ever existing, dead or alive—they simply vanished. You could even say that birds were never real. Perhaps the aliens abducted them. Perhaps the government ended their experiments. Perhaps it was all a fever dream. Who knows?
All that was left was the contraptions placed where birds used to be. In urban areas, metal spikes, shiny holographic tapes, wire meshes, and loudspeakers. Many birds made use of these contraptions as nests, as a defence against predators, as warning signs for their young to stay away from dangers, and as gifts for those they loved. So much so, there was barely any evidence that these shiny objects came from the desperate attempt to get rid of birds.
Build and they will come.
Out of nowhere, movements of people building nests for birds began gaining popularity. These nests were decorated with vintage bird memorabilia and what they assumed the birds loved. “Build it and they will come” they said.
They said that they love birds, they love their songs, and they love how important they are to the human experience. They love the fact that they love birds. They love the thought that maybe birds might love them back.
They’ve never seen a bird.
About the Project
The story begins with people, generations after the birds’s disappearance, constructing massive nests decorated with anything they believe to be associated with birds as a ritual practice or movement to bring birds back to existence. Of course, as none of the people partaking in nest-building have the lived experience of birds, the story unfolds in a comically sad manner that perhaps rhymes with our current experience of losing the agency to care for an increasingly unlivable world. This speculative fiction project, “One Day They Will Return,” explores a world where birds mysteriously disappear overnight, prompting global confusion, panic, and a range of conspiracy theories leading towards a global movement of “nest-building.”
Key themes include environmental degradation, the impact of human actions on nature, societal responses to ecological crises, the spread of misinformation, and the absence of cultural and emotional depth in our society facing devastating and catastrophic events. The project will materialize in a series of short fiction accompanied by sculptural pieces, hybrid soundscapes, and printed propaganda through which audiences, in an exhibition-performance setting, can be confronted with the desperation of holding onto hope that no longer exists.
What’s next?
One Day They Will Return is seeking resources and support to be developed into a full immersive speculative fiction paired with installations of habitable nests, sonic environments, festivals (fictional rituals), and experimental publishing (texts, instruction manuals, and posters), subverting the format of propaganda and marketing operations online and offline.
Upcoming:
July 2024 Hull, QC—
Radio-Hull festival micro-residency: sonic environment development in the ambisonic studio at DAÏMÔN modelled from field recordings of the Ottawa Valley watershed and bird songs in the region.
Past:
June 2024, Reykjavik, Iceland—
SÍM Residency, UKAI Projects, SHIPWRECK artist residency: World-building, aesthetic and narrative development for the overarching storyline.
Feb-May 2024, Wakefield, QC—
Ferme Lanthorn self-directed research residency and field recordings collection.
