Messages From Mega Fauna
Original Messages from Mega Fauna display at Beaty Biodiversity Museum in 2022.
Inspired by my own creative writing & art series DearSongDog in which I corresponded with an Omnipresent Coyote, this community engagement project started in 2022 and in the project viewers are asked to write a letter to a wild animal that they have personally encountered. The purpose of this prompt is to ask viewers to consider the wild animals’ experience of us.
Set up at biodiversity museums, nature houses, residencies, and pop up events, to date I have collected over 400 hand written letters. These letters reveal a surprising theme: most people deeply value their encounters with wildlife, some people even credit the encounter for a positive shift in their personal lives. This was true even when the encounter was the result of a conflicting use of space.
The animation shown below is a loop of submitted letters paired with my hand-drawn animations:
