Tag: sense

Kinetic paths and orientation

nikkirwright3 Comments

Still stuck at home with the flu, with little energy to much neighbourhood walking, Instead I get curious about the vitality of insects, and attempt to map their kinetic energy and pollinating pathways, during moments of warmth and sun following days of grey skies and rain. For half an hour I make line drawings, trying not to look at the paper, letting my eye and hand follow the paths of bees and flies as they fly in and out of frame, feeding on flowers.

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Wayfinding by Moon and Stars

nikkirwright3 Comments

I might be going balmy trying to rescue moths that have fluttered in through the kitchen door at night. It seems rather futile in the challenging swirl of the times – wars, pollution, deep fakes. What does it matter? But moths make me interested in the idea of navigation, of finding a way through. They are mostly nocturnal and orient themselves by the moon and stars. Our city lights confuse and startle this ancient ability to chart a course, and so the fragile beings batter away their short lives at our windows and streetlights that shine into the darkness – false beacons.  Some of our ancestors shared that same ability to navigate using celestial bodies, and some people still do. Others quest even further beyond moon and stars for direction and meaning. Are we all somehow drawn together through space, searching for a pathway beyond the incomprehensible?   

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Moments in Warmth

nikkirwright2 Comments

I think I’m becoming obsessed with the temperature gauge as the weather flip flops between extremes. No sooner has a cold southerly snap arrived than it vanishes, followed by sudden and often intense heat. The other day it climbed to 17C in the shade and, for a time, the sun strike on our deck was 32C. Too hot to sit there! We heard on the radio that Japan had recorded its hottest June temperature ever – 40.2C. But the northern hemisphere is not even into its proper summer yet!

When the air temperature climbs I come across moments of frenzied insect activity on some of my walks. It seems to be the exotic plants they are dipping into such as flowering bottlebrush, dandelions, gorse, lavender, rosemary, buttercups, tree lucerne and nightshade, plus some natives including the odd manuka bush and hebes. What would they forage on in winter if it wasn’t for the introduced plants – some of them considered weeds.

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