LEER Exhibition: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland

LEER Exhibition: Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland
June 12, 2024 | Exhibitions & Events

This exhibition marks the culmination of the year-long Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research (LEER) Residency, blending art, ecology, and technology. Over the past year, we adapted HAKOTO, a sensory instrument designed to measure photosynthesis in tree leaves, for the unique environment of Ireland’s peat bogs. This required a complete redesign of HAKOTO, shifting its focus to capture the subtle life signs of sphagnum moss, the heart of these vital ecosystems.

Our technical team focused on redesigning the leaf chamber with a dome shape, designed to measure carbon flux over a 10cm diameter section of the bog. Despite the challenges of Ireland’s unpredictable weather, we successfully tested HAKOTO acrosss multiple bog sites, from Conwal South to the slopes of Truskmore. to effectively measure carbon flux within this delicate environment. Each location deepened our understanding of the fragile, often-overlooked peatlands, further enriching our Deep Mapping of Lough Boora project, and fostering collaborations with experts in Ireland and the Netherlands.

Our Contributions to the Exhibition Include:

• Large-format video projection of HAKOTO: This immersive video reveals the “life signs” of the bog, translating photosynthesis and transpiration of sphagnum moss into sound. HAKOTO—meaning “leaf words” or “leaf memories”—focuses attention on the often unheard “sounds” of the bog, bridging human perception with the hidden world of peatlands.

• Bog Lyric 2024: A four-screen text and image display, developed in collaboration with an AI we named “Bog Whisperer”. This AI-generated poetic and visual exploration of the boglands reflects the shifting relationship between Ireland’s people and its peat ecosystems, contributing lines of poetry and evocative imagery to the piece.
  
• Physical elements: Additional objects and structures create an immersive, sensory-rich experience that invites visitors to engage deeply with the bog environment.

Exhibition Details:

• Curator: Sean O’Reilly
• Collaborators: Chris Malcom (animation), Noel Hefele (AI program and imagery)
• Technical Team: Jim Watt and Blair Thompson

Bog Lyric 2024

Ancient Irish bogs
Trapping carbon silently
Earth breathes in and out

Water enables the bog form
A spongy walk, reluctance Beneath soft sphagnum
The water preserves the past

A carbon green conflation
The bog grows toward the sun
A nurturing living thing*

Below, you can watch a sphagnum-performance featuring HAKOTO, set in the wild, untamed bogs of southwest County Sligo.

For a deeper look into our LEER residency journey, we invite you to explore our complete portfolio. This document chronicles our research process, artistic decisions, and the development of the final exhibition, providing a comprehensive view of our engagement with the bogs of Northwest Ireland.

Download the Complete LEER Portfolio (PDF)

The Collins + Goto Studio is known for their long-term projects focusing on socially engaged environmental research, with a particular interest in empathic connections with non-human entities. Their methods include a blend of reading, writing, sculpture, and the use of diverse media and technologies. Recent projects include Deep Mapping | Lough Boora Sculpture Park (2020), Future Forest: The Blackwood, Rannoch Scotland (2017), and Plein Air, a sculptural instrument exploring plant consciousness, presented in multiple international locations.