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MEETING THE LOUGH ON ITS OWN TERMS
Ami Clarke
artist lead with
SYMBIOSIS
In the long hot summer of 2023, Lough Neagh, the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK, became eutrophic, and overwhelmed with algae blooms to such a degree it made the headlines. I joined Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland in discussion later that year, which lead in turn to their adopting my artistic response of 'Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms'.
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. Working alongside Friends of the Earth with new and emerging dynamics that changed on a weekly basis., from the return of Stormont, to the increasing adoption of the Rights of Nature by community groups and many others, I initiated the following art project, galvanising partners, establishing new contacts, and implementing research and development with scientists working on the Lough for several decades. I was invited to join the Lough Neagh Steering Committee in 2024.
After listening to all the stories that converge at the Lough I drew the first diagram, see below, that was then 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 was to set a legal precedent in establishing the Rights of Nature.
MICROBIAL SCALE
Friends of the Earth 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 of an immersive approach to exhibition.
The microbial scale of the cyanobacteria is important in drawing our attention to certain indisputable material facts that show that there is simply too much phosphorous in Lough Neagh, at which point we can start to dismantle everything that makes it this way.
Our focus at the microbial scale has the potential to lead to a paradigm shift in thinking, as we start to understand our relationship to nature in a more de-centred way, and just one species amongst the multitudes that live within the vulnerable eco-system of Lough Neagh, leading to finding sustainable equilibrium from a more than human approach.
'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.
IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT
sketch of the installation with video wall (first draft) for the purposes of illustration - the installation can be built to suit different room sizes, with the video expanded upon to fit.
the video wall brings the micro together with the macro, via a study in cynaobacteria that weaves the implications of neoliberalism upon the microbial, through Lynn Margulis' work and N. Katherine Hayles, with specific attention to the situation at Lough Neagh.
The video wall explores the theoretical underpinnings to the situation at Lough Neagh through a study in cyanobacteria, and is informed by the workshops and collective writing that will happen during the exhibition at PS2 gallery Belfast in August.
The work opens up radical new approaches to climate change, drawing from the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ teaching, and Katherine Hayles’ new book: Bacteria to AI, where systems theory meets biosemiotics. By decentring, but not devaluing the human, we position ourselves anew, amongst a more multi-species perspective. Here, through the teachings of Margulis, Hayles, and others, we reconsider forms of intelligence across different organisms where actions taken in response to stimulus from the environment, amount to cognitive processes, opening ourselves up to different ways of sensing the lough.
These visual and audio vistas from a multi-species perspective encourages a decolonial, eco-feminist, and more-than-human position to flourish, nurturing radical ways for rethinking sustainability.
It is informed by DAS XR group workshops Belfast, where we explore alternative ways of ‘sensing’ the lough, emphasising sound, via a granular synthesis approach.
Meeting the Lough (documentation - work in progress)
providing views into the lough from multiple perspectives, temporalities and scales
Field Research
I stayed on Ballyronan Marina, Lough Neagh, for two weeks Sept 2024, working with scientists Dave Jewson, director of the internationally renown Limnology Lab, Lough Neagh, and Les Gornall (Dr Sludge), who invented the first aneurobic digestor.
The video (work in progress) begins to draw together my emphasis on a multi-species perspective through collating: 4K aerial drone footage, with 4K footage from the boat, whilst being taken out by local people, with 4K underwater footage, also from the boat as well as riverbanks and canals, and microscopic footage collected from several locations around Lough where we identifed the microcystis cyanobacteria.
The video is a first draft of a work in progress that aims to bring together the deep geological time of our ancient ancestors the cyanobacteria (blue green algae) that brought forth life via the microbial mat that first brought oxygen to the planet, together with the multiple scales and temporalities that abound in the ecosystem of Lough Neagh and watershed.
The footage informs a microscopic view of a multi-species approach to ‘meeting the lough on its 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 in sufficient numbers from their migration to the Sargasso Sea.
Cyanobacterial remains of an
annulated tubular microfossil
Oscillatoriopsis longa
Cyanobacteria: microcystis sample from Lough Neagh collected by Ami Clarke
Transverse section of a dividing
cell of the Cynaobacterium Microcystis showing hexagonal stacking of the cylindrical gas vesicles
Petri dish wall photographs
of a fossil, sample, and diagram of cyanobacteria
potential lighting of the work
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 Partnership
'sensing the lough'
field recordings - audio, video, monitoring of the cyanobacteria
SCULPTURAL APPARATUS
SYSTEM
installation is modular in the sense that it can be expanded or reduced to fit the room size as appropriate with larger screen/wall space dedicated to the video wall/s and sculptural apparatus
SCULPTURE
The expressive video and sound environment interweaves with sculptural elements referencing the infrastructural apparatus; the pipes and plumbing of water treatment systems, sewage systems, as well as the financial systems that act as contemporary modes of extraction within the vulnerable ecosystem of Lough Neagh (and so many other sites experiencing an over abundance of algae blooms).
The sculptural apparatus that flows into the exhibition space evokes the feeling that we are part of a much larger system, and nods towards the flows of power passing through water treatment systems, sewage pipes, and drinking water plumbing. It speaks of attempts to manage human needs within such a vulnerable ecosystem that includes the cyanobacteria (blue green algae), the migrating eels, chironomid flies, pollan fish, and the micro-organisms teeming with life in Lough Neagh, depicted in the 4K video wall. The teachings of the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis show us that cyanobacteria are important ancestors who brought life to the planet as we know it, by producing oxygen into the atmosphere. We humans, ourselves, are holobionts, host to thousands of bacteria, most of which we simply couldn't live without. Margulis showed us the importance of understanding life at this truly entangled scale, where interdependencies across species suggest co-operation as a more symbiotic way of being.
The project itself operates as a system, with several components that all feed into one another starting with the collective writing project.
the drawings above, begin to develop the sculptures, thinking through systems theory (with significant experience from Lough Neagh informing the project), with an emphasis on 'sensing' different life forms, from a multi-species perspective.
I liked that they became almost like tuning forks, with the slurry billowing between them, and how that might impact upon a visual 'system', that could start to 'read' almost like a diagram.
Santa Margherita Palace. Eva Mattes and Franco Mattes
Circulations (Circolazioni), 2024. Rosetta Biscotti.
Hot Water Heat, 1984. Galvanized steel pipe, valves, gauges, radiators, and water, 11 x 30 x 22 ft. Nancy Holt
PRINTS/DIAGRAMS
MAPPING THE FLOWS OF POWER
Lough Neagh Neoliberal diagram of slurry, in the great tradition of Hogarth,
showing flows of power and pollution
The MONIAC – Monetary National Income Analogue Computer
I've always been fond of this early attempt at showing the dynamics of the economic system. Despite being superseded by many newer theories and models, it remains an interesting model in terms of showing the dynamics of something complex, and no doubt informs my desire to make visible, in some sense, the flows of power through my own work.
In 1949, A.W.H. (Bill) Phillips, a New Zealand electrical engineer studying sociology as an undergraduate at the London School of Economics, built a hydraulic simulator (called the MONIAC – Monetary National Income Analogue Computer) of the British economy based on contemporary economic theory. It was the first analog computer to solve the nonlinear coupled differential equations of mid-twentieth century economic theory (Bollard 2016) and led to the use of control theory to study stabilization issues in macroeconomics. Later known as the “Phillips machine”, the “Philips-Newlyn machine” or the “MONIAC”, the device demonstrated difficult macroeconomic concepts so clearly that it became a mainstay of instruction at the London School of Economics for more than 15 years (Barr 2000) and at Leeds University for more than 20 (Newlyn, 2000). In a reproduction of the project, William H. Rydera & Robert Y Cavana exposed some of the implementation issues missing in the standard references, and whilst undeniably flawed, the machine remains an important specimen in the evolutionary development of system dynamics models.
SONIC RITUAL
Rituals have acted historically, as early technological interfaces, scoring human / nature relationships, in very particular ways.
The sonic ritual is a work that attempts to develop a new multi-species ritual, drawn from workshops with DAS Belfast XR group, thinking through alternative ways in ‘sensing’ the lough, that combine with conversations held with local druids, herbalists, and permaculture experts.
It emphasises listening, and sound, as practices central to decentering the human, amongst the vulnerable ecologies of Lough Neagh and the watershed.
The work considers how human voice/s in a polyphonic approach might sit within this delicate ensemble, to reflect the new calibration we are hoping to bring about, with John D’Arcy (Sonic Arts) and HIVE Choir and Richard Davis of DAS.
The work is informed by a collective writing project that has been running for over a year with Friends of the Earth - please see below.
Collective writing project - Friends of the Earth NI December 2023 ongoing
Collective writing project - PS2 gallery, Belfast with Friends of the Earth NI May 2025 ongoing
MEETING THE LOUGH ON ITS OWN TERMS
