We don’t live in a wilderness

The project is currently in development and explores how human intervention and extractivism has come to shape how humans interact with bogs/wetlands. The practice-as-research project involves work across five sites in Ireland (Girley Bog, Mountlucas Bog, Sally Gap), England (Walshaw Moor) and Netherlands (Korenburgerveen).

Bogs offer critical sites which exemplify how extractivism has governed how land is valued. One example can be found in Mountlucas Bog (Co. Offaly, Ireland) which has undergone multiple cycles of extraction from British Colonial drainage planning to industrial peat extraction. Today, with the majority of its peat removed, it exists as a site for ‘green’ energy infrastructure to justify the continued construction of data centres.

My site-work aims to involves:

• subterranean sound recording

• bioelectronic signal sensing

• microbial fuel cell generated audio compositions with Arduino

• bog-scored movement

• photo and video compositions

• self-experimentation reflecting on my own extractive practices

• construction of a peat-bio-leather, exploring alternative bog materialities.

• analysis of GIS data on soil, water and vegetation patterns

This pages serves to share some visual documentation as the project develops.

The pre-research phase of this project was funded and supported by the Pan Pan International Mentorship 2025 in collaboration with Arts Council Ireland, Dublin Theatre Festival and Project Arts Centre.