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MEETING THE LOUGH ON ITS OWN TERMS
Ami Clarke
artist lead with
Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland asked me to work with them in developing an artistic response addressing the crisis at Lough Neagh, the largest body of water in the UK and Ireland, that had became eutrophic with algae bloms and a site of ecocide in the summer of 2023. The complexity of how the Lough became eutrophic presents a text book case in the converging dynamics of power, influence, and conflict of interests, that have developed over decades, if not centuries, around Lough Neagh and the watershed.
I have initiated the following art project, working alongside Friends of the Earth on a live site of ecocide, working within new and emerging dynamics that change on a weekly basis., from the return of Stormont, to the increasing adoption of the Rights of Nature by community groups and the Lough Neagh Partnership, under our provocation. I was invited to join the Lough Neagh Steering Committee earlier this year. I have so far self-funded and seeded the following initiative, galvanising partners, establishing new contacts, and implementing the research and development that means we know there is a serious case and need for the work.
Friends of the Earth have welcomed my approach of ‘meeting the lough’ on it’s own terms, that brings a new experiential focus at a microbial scale within the sensorial realm (immersive exhibition, online hub/portal for the work, and film), drawing our attention to indisputable facts that show that there is simply too much phosphorous in Lough Neagh. My diagram on the complexities that converge at the Lough was used at the Friends of the Earth conference at The MAC Dec 2023, as different communities came together to develop a recovery plan, where the goal is to set a legal precedent in establishing the Rights of Nature.
The following is to give you a sense of the immersive environment, as we shift our focus to the microbial realm, meeting the Lough on it's own terms, that we are developing as a video and sound installation, whilst developing a sculptural apparatus that speaks to the flows of power of a particularly neoliberal sort.
The project overall operates itself as a system, with the ongoing collective writing project, and diagramming sessions, informing everything else, with several outcomes:
Immersive Environment - via game engine software
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immersive environment with spatially realised visual / audio work
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with live polyphonic ritual audio performance with hive choir, Friends of the Earth, and local communities
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bringing together old (traditional indigenous technologies) and new technologies (sensors, AI) via ritual as new technological interface, in order to recalibrate human relationship within nature from a multi-species perspective
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shifting perspectives - acquiring the rights of nature for Lough Neagh
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Film with immersive soundtrack - drawing together the microbial with the neoliberal - working with microscopic footage in 4K and various sound recordings from Lough Neagh.
IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT
The immersive environment holds 4K video footage of microbial life to be found at Lough Neagh, collected by the artist during field trips to the Lough ove ra year and a half, supported by Friends of the Earth NI, and scietists Dave Jewson, and Les Gornall. The footage informs a microscopic view of a multi-species approach to ‘meeting the lough on it’s own terms’ to consider the vulnerable eco-systems that humans are but a small part of, that includes the cyanobacteria and the famous Lough Neagh eels and elvers (baby eels), that no longer come back from their migration to the Sargasso sea. The video enviornment brings together the deep geological time of our ancient ancestors the cyanobacteria (blue green algae) - the microbial mat that first brought oxygen to the planet -together with the multiple scales and temporalities that abound in the ecosystems and watershed around Lough Neagh.
The expressive video and sound environment interweaves with sculptural elements referencing the infrastructural apparatus of water treatment systems, sewage systems and the financial systems that act as contemporary modes of extraction within the vulnerable ecosystems around Lough Neagh, and so many other sites experiencing an over abundance of algae blooms.
When we consider the Lough at the scale of microbial life we cut through the complexity, and can say irrevocably, that the high levels of phosphorous in the Lough bring about the algae blooms. Here, we can start to dismantle everything that makes it this way.
The work includes a live collective sonic ritual during the exhibition period, developed with John D'Arcy of Sonic Arts Belfast and HIVE choir, PS2 gallery Belfast, Digital Arts Studios Belfast, in response to the collective writing project developed with Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, with residues of the live event lingering in the video footage.
sketch of the installation with video wall - the video wall should be considered as one option, for the purposes of illustration only and can be built to suit different room sizes, with the video expanded upon to fit. There would also be sympathetic lighting, in green, to evoke an underwater sense of immersion. (see below for pics)
Ballyronan Marina September 2024 - field trip - Ami Clarke, David Jewson, Les Gornall, James Orr (Friends of the Earth)
hydrophone audio recordings underwater at Lough Neagh
with Peter Harper, Shoreline Environment Officer,
Lough Neagh Pertnership
'sensing the lough'
field recordings - audio, video, monitoring of the cyanobacteria
PRINTS/DIAGRAMS
MAPPING THE FLOWS OF POWER
Lough Neagh Neo-liberal diagram of slurry showing equally: the flows of power and pollution
SONIC RITUAL
other ways of 'sensing the lough'
The Sonic Ritual will engage with the environmental concerns that the work seeks to address as a live articulation - building a technology, that draws upon the collective writing, that becomes a ritual to conjure the future...
first draft ideas that came out of our Sonic Ritual workshop with John D'Arcy HIVE choir, Friends of the Earth, PS2 studios Belfast, and invited guests, in November 2024 (still very much to be developed)
with thanks to the support of John D'Arcy, and PS2, Belfast
Collective writing project - Friends of the Earth NI December 2023 ongoing
VIDEO - SHORT FORM
'We live in capitalism: neoliberalism' - with reference to the feminist science fiction writer and theoretician Ursula K LeGuinn's famous quote: 'we live in capitalism'. The underwater footage shows the dispersal of the algae blooms in the water column at Portlegnone 25.08.24. situated on the outskirts of Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. With thanks for assistance from Darragh Graham, and Navid Gornall.
VIDEO - FOOTAGE OF THE LOUGH
AND ITS HISTORY
Microscopic view of Lough Neagh with Cyanobacteria
The Weather Meets the Water at Lough Neagh
footage: September 2024 Toome Canal, going into Lough Neagh
VIDEO - SCIENCE FICTIONING VERSION
'sensing the lough'
excerpt from video (work in progress) - drawing together all the different scales and temporalities from a multi-species perspective that includes us humans, in the delicate eco-system that is Lough Neagh.
MEETING THE LOUGH
ON ITS OWN TERMS
overview
