Animal Eyes

We see the world with a human centered bias. This work, situated on the grounds of the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center, reframes the perspective to that of the native animals of Wyoming.

Animal Eyes is a multimedia piece that consists of 8 cast bronze sculptures, miniature LED displays, weatherproof optical housings, 4 computers with associated electronic hardware, custom made software, and informational graphics including QR tags and a website.

Each sculpture has small scope type display located behind one eye. When someone looks directly into the eye they will see a real-time representation of that animal’s environment. These animations are selected based on the current time of day, season, migratory activity, and weather conditions.

The animals include a prairie dog, puma, bumble bee, bighorn sheep, camelops, prairie rattlesnake, swainson’s hawk and horned lizard. The animals are bolted to existing boulders located around the center with the one exception of the puma being mounted to an interior wall. Stainless steel cover plates allow access to the interior components. The castings are all finished in a dark brown/black patina and waxed.

Each of the 8 compact full color 800x600 LED displays is housed within a hermetically sealed brass housing with a gorilla glass lens at the front. These housings are threaded into the eyes of the castings from the inside. Network cables run from computers located inside the building to the animals and supply both power and a video signal.

A stainless steel cover plate secures the electronics and provides further information to viewers though laser applied graphics. A smartphone readable ‘QR’ code has been printed on the plate along with maps that reveal where that animal might be found. Scanning the QR code will direct any device to www.animaleye.space and provides a first person explanation of the animal and it’s world.