Artist Statement

Nocturne is an interactive media installation focusing on animals such as opossums, gophers and the endangered kit fox that have found successful niches within the urban and suburban landscape. Footage of these animals is captured using video live traps and surveillance equipment. In the gallery, each captured video plays on a LCD screen or projection scaled to the creature’s actual size. The video responds to the presence and actions of the human viewers visiting the gallery, becoming a mediated exchange between co-inhabitants of urban spaces. The project’s intention is not only to acknowledge the individual lives of the animals represented, but also to forward the idea that they have an important presence in our contemporary city space’s presence that insists that the boundary between man-made and natural remains permeable.

• Colin Ives, University of Oregon, USA colinives.com