_latex and flesh

_video

_studio research new installation /performance 

_LION PHASE V: ACT III VIVARIUM II (work title)

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Murmurations are huge groups of starlings that twist, turn, swoop and swirl across the sky in beautiful shape-shifting clouds. These murmurations (so-called because of the sound produced by multiple wingbeats) can involve thousands of individual birds forming a coherent three-dimensional murmuration “cloud” within which the movement of each individual bird is highly cohesive and synchronized. This synchronised movement means that the group forms a range of different shapes. Each bird, and in our context each particle, interacts with, and moves according to, six or seven nearest neighbours and it is the proximity of those neighbours, as opposed to all birds within a fixed distance, which dictates individual movement. 

 

Murmurations are an anti-predator strategy:

 

1/The dilution-effect: as group size increases, the chance of any one individual suffering predation decreases, favouring larger groups. Individual birds could further decrease their individual risk through a separate (but complementary) strategy of seeking more sheltered locations within the flock, with birds on the edge of the flock continually moving towards the centre. 2/ Detection-effect: group anti-predator vigilance increases as the number of individuals in the group increases. 3/ Predator-confusion effect: most aerial predators hunt by targeting a specific bird within a group. The constant movement within murmurations might reduce a predator’s ability to “lock onto” an individual; an effect known as target degeneracy. Group size and density might also be important, with predators finding it harder to isolate individuals in larger, denser groups. Predation pressure can result in waves of agitation (dark bends moving away from the predator) as a result of changes in bird orientation and in the shape of the murmuration itself. 

 

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