Robert Peterson

Robert Peterson is a member of “Birds Ear View” (with collaborators Jon Barraclough and Alexandra Wolkowicz .) About Birds Ear View, they write, “The ways in which urban environments interfere with wildlife on the ground are self-evident. We are keen to find out more about how wildlife is affected in the air, especially in a city that is built to reach high into the sky. With the help of NYC Audubon, the charity that protects wild birds living in the city, we learned that thousands of birds fly into skyscrapers during migration season in autumn and spring every year. They are distracted by lights at night and cannot see the buildings because of their mirror-glass surfaces during the day. As audio-visual artists, we now propose to gather ‘evidence’ of these collisions in the form of artworks for development and subsequent publication and dissemination. Our project evokes connected themes such as: man’s desire for the bird’s eye view and the ability to fly; how architecture is designed to reflect nature, causing these tragic deaths and ultimately how art (gathered field evidence) might influence science and urban planning in the future.”