Private View Thursday November 24, 6-9pm

For the weeks around Remembrance Day for Lost Species 2016, ONCA hosts an exploration of communication and translation between species and languages. What can we learn about ourselves as humans and as creatures by paying attention to the voices of others?

The Cirl Bunting project

A fundraising experiment for RSPB and ONCA from avid ornithologist artist Matt Sewell and his friends. The sage green, butter yellow and ochre cirl bunting was once a friendly feature of farmland and heaths across the whole of Southern England, but today through loss of habitat and food sources, the rare passerine is sadly only found in a handful of coastal and inland spots in South Devon. The drastic fall in numbers led to the RSPB setting up The Cirl Bunting Project 25 years ago. This initiative has protected the bunting and helped reverse its fortunes to great success. Yet, although bunting numbers are on the rise, much research, protection and education work is still needed. Matt Sewell has organised this fundraising project, pulling together the hottest artists and illustrators of 2016 to customise his wooden bird blanks to be displayed and auctioned at ONCA , with proceeds going to help the cirls down in Devon.

Visualised Bird Song from Elisabeth Pellathy

The research of Elisabeth Pellathy, Professor of New Media at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, investigates disappearance – of species. language, culture and digital information. In Visualised Birdsong, she uses 3D printed birdsongs and printed sound waves to show the ‘shape’ of the calls of the most endangered birds of the world.

Zoomorphic paintings from James Roberts

Zoomorphic is a magazine, co-edited by James Roberts and Susan Richardson, dedicated to writing that deepens our connection with wildlife and the more-than-human world. It is curated from the core principle that to defend non-human species we must reconnect our imaginations to them. Zoomorphic contain short and in-depth prose pieces, poetry and artwork. For ONCA , James has created paintings inspired by sea life, while Susan curates an evening of marine-themed poetry performance.

Beasts’ eye-view films and performance experiments from Felix Prater and friends

By visually documenting his own experiences of living as other animals, Felix’s films use the lens to offer people the opportunity to imagine life from non-human perspectives.