Intelligence is not something to test – but rather to recognise ..
The Quail Turn: A Project Pivot
EXCITINGLY in late April a rare Red backed button quail (Turnix maculosus) had been sighted by the SERF bird group/Peter Storer. These birds are rarely seen and poorly studied – being agents of disguise within their preferred wet grassland environments – with a call that is a soft repeated ‘oom-oom-oom-oom’ and with the end of each note ascending in pitch. They are most often seen breaking wildly for cover when disturbed and flying elsewhere in the grassland. They are listed as vulnerable (to extinction in NSW), although not in Qld. The itinerant ones are thought to arrive Oct/Nov and likely leave for the North late Feb/March – but this year’s wet hot season has likely kept them longer. (It is likely that the birds had in this case left end of April – pre the slashing season at SERF which is later than normal).
Rare Red-backed button quail (Turnix maculosus) sigthed in the artwork site (Image Peter Storer)
By chance I met Peter Storer in the paddock with his binoculars looking for the quail in late April using call sounds – as I was working late in the afternoon on setting up key sites. During that time at dusk, when they are noted to be active. At that time I spotted a dead juvenile red backed button quail at the edge of the long grass – indicating breeding had happened (they build nests in shallow depressions in the grasses) .. suggesting that great care should be taken entering any of the artwork’s long grassed areas esp. during nesting season.
Deceased Red-backed button quail at the artwork site (Image Keith Armstrong)
Given that the site has been in essence maintained as a grassland by slashing for decades – and that this had attracted a rare find – this raised questions as to whether regenerating the previously burnt gulley/regeneration area with trees, or indeed premature slashing of other parts of the property, may drive them away/destroy their nests/cause them to not stop in the area in the future?
Clearly this finding presaged a project turning point of some kind that would require consultation across a number of groups and the science team. It seemed that the idea of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ areas may now need to change. And that eerie, profound, quail ‘oom-oom-oom-oom’ – it may well resonate across the future artwork ..
FYI .. other birds know to be at the site (ref. Peter Storer) were the Brown Quail (Coturnix ypsilophora) which is quite common and likely resident, the Golden-headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis), Tawny Grassbird (Cincloramphus timoriensis), and Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus).
Panorama of the artwork sites, mid April 2024, (Image Keith Armstrong)
“I can’t think of a single scientific study in the last few decades that has demonstrated that plants or animals are dumber than we think. It’s always the opposite…We keep revealing the fact that all kinds of creatures have a capacity to learn, to have memory, and that we’re at the edge of this wonderful evolution in really understanding the sentience of other beings.” Robin Wall Kimmerer quoted by James Bridle
To begin the process of imagining an artwork able to ‘cooperatively engage’ with the rich intelligence of the site, I resolved to undertake the observational and listening actions:
Obviously the idea that an artwork could ‘benefit’ the ecological evolution of the site is a relative fiction that must acknowledge the limits of what we can actually know, or indeed assume we might be able to know about worlds we study/work within . In a parallel plane fractal geometry reminds us that there is always more to discover the more you pay attention. Whilst we might expect more order and clarity, in reality ever-closer examination will likely reveal more unexpected variation, nuance and detail. Hence The more accurately you might try to ‘measure’, appraise or describe things, (in so many ways) the more unmeasurable, unappraisable or indescribable they will likely become.
Late afternoon light on the artwork edges (Image Keith Armstrong)
STEP 1: Engaging ‘Spheres’
Classical science tells us that everything can be understood as being part of “spheres”: the so called Geosphere and Biosphere that form the land, water, living things and air – and the infinite complexity of their interactions influence factors such as soil salinity, biodiversity, and landscape formation/composition.
Whilst whilst such conceptual sub divisions are clearly an further divideable abstraction, their value to me lay in reminding me that much that we might easily sense/see/measure/ is limited by our human scale, faculties, ambition, technology and willingness or otherwise to transform the site towards our ends. At best these spheres are therefore interlocking, leaky, and ambiguous – but ideally some facet of each would factor into the forthcoming work.
“lithosphere” (land) – includes the rocks and soils (which we were already engaging with in a particular way through soil bacteria)
“hydrosphere” (earth’s liquid water – visibly present on the surface in the still wetland/gulley region of the site, in teh silos and in the air )
“atmosphere” (the air surrounding (and penetrating) the other spheres)
(N/A) ” cryosphere” (frozen regions, including both ice and frozen soil);
BIOSPHERE
(living things, both visible and non visible)
Initial Actions in Regards to the Geo and Biospheres on site:
I resolved to:
Walk the perimeters of the artwork site and make initial localised observations. Choose and sit down at sites of interest in the ‘passive’ and ‘active’ areas of the artwork, and observe and listen. Observe local plants or plant communities of special interest – which will be temporal in some cases, and sustained in others. (e.g. on 16/4/24 I spotted Scented top grass and Black spear – mid/late summer species doing well in the wet and warmth of this years April – so some sites might flourish at sometimes and be dormant other times of year). Make sketches, think small – begin to consider how to build up deep ‘observations’. Be, and don’t be, methodical. Identify a possible series of representative sites to place future artwork elements – in both the grassland (active) and gulley (passive) areas. To record these activities place custom markers at points of interest.
Scented Top Grass / Capillipedium spicigerum in profusion at SERF 16/4/24 North of Gulley Site (Image Keith Armstrong)
This action was initially completed on Tue 16 + Thurs 18 April – using star pickets for marking key sites (locations of interest/monitoring camera sites). Future intention to use coloured site markers to in the grass to determine paths/minimise disturbance. (e.g. I sat at places of interest (usually where a new tree was pushing through the grass as a place to start), over time just quietly observing – as a result of this action I experienced maybe my first ever hay fever that night, noticed the profusion of insects most notably arachnids, ragged re-growth, and softness under as the Fimbrystis slowly dries out to late April maturity).
Black Spear Grass / Heteropogon contortus at SERF 16/4/24 North of gulley site in small, isolated groups (Image Keith Armstrong)
As the late afternoon wore on my quiet, solo process was surprised by an unexpected person moving on the other side of the rise within SERF’s boundary – walking slowly through the grasses as if searching for something. I’d already heard from site manager Marcus Yates of a rare Quail siting in that area – but this chance meeting was pivotal – and threw into doubt how which ways the project might use the site going forward. (see The Quail Turn post)
Dr. Hauxwell has been using adjacent areas at SERF and part of the artwork/revegetation site for her research experiments into beneficial soil fungi – which have an end outcome to reduce pasture dieback that is caused by mealy bugs. (The bug in question is the paspalum mealybug, Heliococcus summervillei – and her work is of particular relevance to the pasture industry given that these invasive bugs devour Buffalo grass which is a key, commercial pasture grass, (and interestingly a notable environmental weed in conservation contexts). To do this work Caroline and her research team have become experts in isolating fungi from soils of forests and pastures.
Collecting soil samples along transects at SERF – across the artwork site (Image Keith Armstrong)
Immediately before, and following the burn of the SERF wet gulley/artwork site A/Prof Hauxwell had initiated a periodic soil sampling regime to learn how the fungal composition of the site might change according to the burn – something which also seemed very relevant to us given we needed proxy ways to determine the improvement of soil and plant health as the artwork process evolves.
So on 11/3/24 Dr. Eleanor Velasquez and I joined the soil sampling process at SERF – to understand and observe more about the scientific methods underway.
Soil samples from the artwork zone, collected and kept cool (Image Keith Armstrong)Soil samples from the artwork zone (Image Keith Armstrong)Artwork/site survey team, March 2024 (Image Keith Armstrong)Site sampling notation (Image Keith Armstrong)
As per the prior study, samples would be taken in transects across the whole site (5 points per transect spanning the strip that we burned last year). Her students and postgraduate team had been analysing those soil samples for the presence of Purpureocillium (see prior soil biology investigation post).
Purpureocillium lilacinum is commonly isolated from soil, decaying vegetation, insects, nematodes and as a laboratory contaminant. It is also a causative agent of infection in human and other vertebrates (Luangsa-ard et al. 2011).
Purpureocillium lilacinum (Subcultures from broth) (Image Keith Armstrong)
During our discussions we learnt that she would be continuing this work into 20924 – and she invited Eleanor and I to join her class which we have now done on a few occasions. The intentions of her study were to pursue three themes ..
Soil Ecology: The isolation of facultative root endophytes, particularly P. lilacinum, to determine the effects of burning on abundance and diversity, and diversity within P. lilacinum.
Media Development: Development of media for the production of P. lilacinum variants as an inoculum (that is – a liquid solution of the fungi that roots can grow through to make them resistant to Mealy bug) – which leads to the third area of interest
The Good Bugs: The application of P. lilacinum variants as an inoculant against pasture mealybug.
Keith And Dr. Eleanor Velaqsquez in the soil biology lab, March 2024 (Image Keith Armstrong)
For me it has been a fascinating return to the analogue chemistry methods I remember only from Year 10 (!) – and has included both sampling soil to the required protocol at SERF and then observing its analysis, culturing and the isolation of so called ‘morphotypes’ (in essence any of a group of different types of individuals of the same species in a population/individual fungi) for further growth on agar plate cultures. (An agar plate is a petri dish that contains a growth medium solidified with agar, and is used to culture microorganisms).
Student preparing soil solution containing bacteria onto an Agar plate (Image Keith Armstrong)Soil fungi experiments with A/Prof Caroline Hauxwell, 2024 (Image Keith Armstrong)
Inoculation medium/broth with dissolved fungi – ready for applying to grass plant roots (Image Keith Armstrong)A mixture of different fungi to be described and isolated. (Image Keith Armstrong)Notes on the composition (numbers of morphotypes and characteristics) of the fungi cultured over the past week – recorded by a student (Image Keith Armstrong)
The descriptions alone are evocative and the structure, form and ‘intelligence’ of this form suggest fruitful investigation ahead!
Preparing agar plates for the second stage of growth (Image Keith Armstrong)
The exciting idea that Caroline has raised – which further cements the fruitful connections emerging between the arts and sciences, is “to do a longitudinal study of the soil microbiome by adapting the sampling this year (across the burn site) to compare the dryer slope with the burned gully below.
Her (and our) interest would therefore be to see the changes in soil fungal diversity over time, particularly once trees are established.” At this stage she is looking to do this highly technical, lab based work over several years – which will allow this project an extraordinary look into the health of the soil as the artwork develops. Exciting times ahead – so many thanks to A/Prof Hauxwell for your kindness, interest and engagement on this co-beneficial process 🙂
Purpureocillium lilacinum (Subcultures from broth) (Image Keith Armstrong)
Transect walks are a common method in conservation biology (Walpole and Sheldon 1999) and are used in participatory rural appraisal methods to uncover local information across landscapes (Chambers 1994). Transect walks involve walking in a straight line for a pre-defined distance, recording geographic coordinates every fifty meters or so, and writing down the kinds of environmental features around that point.(source)
Sunset @ SERF, Passive Regeneration Area (Image Keith Armstrong)
The first few weeks of any project involve processes of listening, observing and thinking through – and even more with a site like this that can only be interrogated through experience. Obviously open experimentation is valuable as part of this.
Sunset Visitor (Image Keith Armstrong)
Transect walking is something that I’d done with scientists before on other projects before – and was something that we’d done during the survey of plants during the winter before this project began (see list below this post) – walking over a few 100 metres – with posts set in the ground for surveying every 50 meters?
Cablecam setup, SERF passive regeneration area, 28/2/24 (Image Keith Armstrong)
It struck me that I could so something similar with a cable mounted camera – in order to record vegetation along the entire line rather than at set markers : Sure there would be camera blur – but maybe a time-lapse process taking stills would work better – these were my first experiments..
This method used time-lapse: NB need to debug the start stop nature of the unit – but the capture of sunset – And sharper images per frame are handy – esp. for cataloguing/identification purposes
Side views – offer capacity to experiment with other focal planes along continuous transect
Passive Plot, Species Map 1/7/23
The following species map was gathered by David Tucker and Gabrielle Lebbink on 17/7/23. NB this was a dry season assessment – and further species were evident after rains by Feb 2024.
Species No.
Species
Provenance
Life Form (Perrenial/Annual-Graminoid/Forb/Shrub/Climber)
1
Cynodon dactylon
Exotic
PG
2
Digitaria spp.
(awaiting seed head to confirm and id species
Thrilled to begin this project – and to speak to some of the ideas and discoveries along the way – I trust it will be both a useful personal journal and of interest to others who may wish to engage in similar journeys 🙂
The Project Site :Image courtesy of QUT REF – Research Engineering Facility
Forest Art Intelligence (FAI) aims to understand how to develop art forms capable of growing and evolving alongside a regenerating forest, whilst also actively benefiting that forest’s health: in collaboration with Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF) and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN).
The extraordinary intelligences that underpin natural systems will inspire and direct the development of our experimental sci-art process. Our aim is to understand how to develop art forms capable of growing and evolving alongside a regenerating forest, whilst also actively benefiting that forest’s health. We envisage embedded artworks capable of slowly finding, and then occupying, their own intelligent ‘niches’, within the forest’s ecology – a speculative form we call an ‘Art Intelligence’.
Samford Ecological Research Facility Forest Edge (Image Keith Armstrong)
Our art+science team have secured unprecedented permission to restore a currently cleared block of land back to high conservation-value forest at the partner’s site, Samford Ecological Research facility (SERF). As the forest ecology slowly returns to health, we will investigate how to develop symbiotic, process-based artworks across that entire site. We imagine that these ‘Art Intelligences’, would be capable of growing & evolving with the forest whilst occupying their own intelligent, ecological ‘niches’ within that emerging forest – with the forest itself being the project’s ‘meta-artwork’.
Our project’s actions, & our on-site creations are therefore intended to directly benefit the forest through both ‘performing’ ecological functions, whilst also encouraging public engagement with the forest’s processes of intelligent natural regrowth.
