rainforest

Payamino Project: Patterns

A team from University of Glasgow, did field-work in Payamino rainforest, Ecuador. Zoologists use patterns to identify different species in the field – using guide books, cameras, field notes, magnifying lenses. Through being in Payamino, we all gathered images and learnt new patterns.

Team-members contributed photos and drawings to send as a “thankyou” to the residents of San Jose de Payamino. Acknowledgements to the makers of Aquascribe for donation of water-hardy paper to print the posters on for Payamino residents.

You can download the pattern sheets here:
Payamino Pattern Sheet 1
Payamino Pattern Sheet 2

rainforest fieldwork extracts: booklets

From fieldwork, I made a set of booklets. The first documents the journey from Heathrow to Quito by plane, with a further flight to Lago Agrio – an oil town in Amazonian Ecuador. We proceeded by bus, pick-up, and finally, canoe.

Once at San José de Payamino, the herpetological and ornithological teams set to work surveying what fauna they could catch. The ‘bird’ team used mist nets, carefully disentangling their catch to identify, measure and ring the birds that became trapped. The ‘frog’ team walked transects, usually at night – later returning the amphibians they caught to the exact spot they were found. I accompanied the teams, becoming progressively more aware of the 3D complexity of the primary rainforest. The second set of booklets contains drawings made during surveys and at the cabañas (research and accommodation huts).

As an artist, I used drawing to investigate the process of jungle fieldwork. Drawing produces work that people can look at immediately – and they relaxed and let me disappear into the background. I disciplined myself to only take photographs that supported the drawing. The result is a partial and personal record of what took my attention, in the round of activity that consists of zoological field studies.

I supported students develop a creative response to rainforest fieldwork with Martin Muir, culminating in the show EX…