Dates: 15 – 17 June 2023
Opening Times: 8 – 10pm (dusk 9.30pm)
Duration: Approx. 20 minutes
Deep in the heart of St Nicks nature reserve in Yorkshire, the UK’s butterfly and moth database is dreaming. Enter the dream.
Seeded throughout the nature reserve, The Dataset’s Dream is an unguided installation featuring a series of illuminated glass ‘casket-cocoons’. Visitors are invited to venture into the woods at sunset to encounter the illuminated, colourful caskets whilst listening to the spoken word audio through headsets.
Poetic narrative and illuminated glass sculptures guide us on a journey into the world of big data, exploring the importance of both cataloging the natural world and of touching it with our imaginations.
What happens when we turn nature into data? If data could talk, what would it say to us in this time of declining populations of our beautiful butterflies and moths? If it could dream, what worlds and visions would it conjure?
Created in collaboration with researchers at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, this curious, sorrow-full, hope-full, data-full installation by artist Bryony Benge-Abbott and poet Thomas Sharp, is a dusk-time storytelling experience where nature, art and data combine in one inspirational experience.
Important event information:
This is a FREE event but booking is required.
The experience lasts approximately 18 minutes.
We have a limited number of headsets available so audiences are requested to bring a personal mobile phone and headphones to access the audio experience.
The installation is an unguided tour of the woodland and recommended for audiences over 12 years old. Torches will be provided and volunteers will be on hand to assist.
Delicious hot drinks will be available to purchase from St. Nicks.
Sign in at the entry gate to St Nicks Environment Centre. The art installations will be spread across the St Nicks Nature Reserve.
#thedatasetsdream🦋
Image gallery
