Two projects, featuring birds, art, the environment and a human-sized nest, offer an opportunity for the public to explore the possibilities for collaboration within Lancaster University's emerging culture innovation agenda.
This month Morecambe Bay and Lancaster will host two artistic commissions that redefine how we think about sustainability, migration, and ecology.
Elizabeth Clough's HARBINGER and Henna Asikainen's Lintukoto/Haven explore the fragile balance between nature and human experience, using artistic research to engage communities in pressing environmental conversations.
Both projects contribute to Lancaster University's Culture Innovation agenda, demonstrating how artistic methods can act as tools for environmental inquiry, knowledge-making, and social engagement.
HARBINGER: Reimagining the Sound of the Future
HARBINGER is funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Accounts and developed as part of research by Dr Nathan Jones, Dr Jen Southern and Professor Carlos Lopez Galviz.
The commission is led by Deco Publique and The CoLab, exploring how artistic research can shape new ways of thinking about place and sustainability in Morecambe Bay.
Taking place from March 21 to March 24 March at the Beach Café on Marine Road West, Heysham, Morecambe, HARBINGER is a new installation by Elizabeth Clough that combines sound, sculpture, and drawing to question the loss of birdsong and its wider ecological impact.
Clough describes the work as an expression of both reverence and grief, stating: "I have used my voice and my hands to make this work. Birds are part of our world, our food systems, and our environments. What happens to them is happening to us."
By blending sensory experience with environmental research, HARBINGER aligns with Lancaster University's approach to cultural innovation-where artistic practice serves as a form of environmental knowledge production.
