Natalie Jeremijenko, Zeewolde OOZ (2003)
As a temporary artwork in the context of the two-year art project ‘LOOK & FEEL’ (2002–2003) organised by De Verbeelding, Natalie Jeremijenko created Zeewolde Ooz (2003): a place and opportunity for geese and people to communicate with each other.
As opposed to a zoo, this place has no cages or fences. Jeremijenko designed an environment that is supposed to be ideal for geese. Her aim was to spark off a discussion about the quality of life, choices made by geese about their habitats, and about the possibility of learning about these choices as human beings.
Communicating with gooses
For Zeewolde Ooz (2003), Jeremijenko created Leda: a robot goose which visitors to the pavilion of De Verbeelding could steer by means of a special seat. The ‘driver’ could perform acts to which the geese could respond. This gave people the possibility of communicating with actual geese. The actions, reactions and sounds of the geese could be recorded, and the geese themselves could also cause recordings to be made. All these data were stored in a database, in which the observations could be compared to each other and interpreted.
Natalie Jeremijenko uses new (media) technologies to make her art, and the questions she raises partly bear on that technology, usually biotechnology. She likes to investigate possible future applications. She has made several remote-controlled robot geese, through which ‘drivers’ or participants could communicate with geese, usually in an urban context. She also studies the biotope of other animals in her overall project, Ooz.
Annick Kleizen
Natalie Jeremijenko, Zeewolde Ooz
1966, Mackay, Australia
Zeewolde Ooz (2003)
Monitors, webcams, internet, polyester goose with electronics and webcam
De Verbeelding Collection
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