Jakob Kudsk Steensen
RE-ANIMATED




























RE-ANIMATED ?by Jakob Kudsk Steensen revolves around the haunting sound of the Kauai’O’o, a bird that became extinct in the year of Steensen’s birth. Its mating call, recorded and circulated on YouTube, where it has attracted hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments from viewers who felt the need to share their own emotional connection with this creature. For Steensen, the video exemplifies the way in which digital media experiences can serve as a memorial for a disappearing natural world, and how they can activate deeply felt connections with nonhuman creatures. ?RE-ANIMATED ?extends this function of the digital by inviting the viewer to a simulated island of Kaua’i where the ghostly bird lives amidst a diverse selection of flora and fauna, which grow and evolve algorithmically, accompanied by a generative musical score. Thus, the work functions both as a site for the activation of memory and connection with the bird’s past, but also as a kind of prototype for a future relationship with nature that is marked by technological intervention and new, hybrid forms.