Why this matters: Many local species disappear without anyone noticing. How do you help people care about an animal they have never seen? This project's answer: make the missing animal something visitors can hear, see and affect.
What the researchers did: Three artists and university educators in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, spent a year creating "Understories," eight interactive artworks for their regional art gallery. Each featured a threatened animal that once lived locally. The team drew on old species records and long visits to places where the animals used to live, then reflected on what they built.
What they found: The project began when a loud cicada season made the artists realize they had only noticed the insects were missing once they returned. Visitors entered a dark, silent room where each animal's story played out. Key lessons:
- Visitors' actions stood in for real threats. Floor sensors picked up footsteps, and heavy steps slowly destroyed the pale-headed snake's habitat. Phone light scrambled projected Bogong moth migration routes, mirroring how artificial light confuses moths that navigate by the star
- Calm, patient visitors were rewarded. Standing still let the bush stone-curlew return to its nest on screen. Waiting quietly by the bilby "burrows" brought scratching sounds, recorded in real burrows on campus, closer.
- Loss sat alongside hope. Sixteen birdhouses sang the regent honeyeater's song. Disturbed birds slipped into other species' songs, as isolated young honeyeaters now do in the wild. Left alone, the birds taught each other their song again.
- Local, personal stories carried weight. The last known breeding pair of bilbies in New South Wales was shot in 1912 where the artists' offices now stand. The koala piece drew on the artists' family memories of the 2019–2020 bushfires.
- Technology didn't suit everyone. Some older visitors found the interactive pieces unfamiliar
What this means for your practice
- Start with what's missing. Ask learners what they no longer see or hear, or what older relatives remember. Old records and newspaper archives can show what once lived nearby.
- Dig into your own site's history. The bilby story mattered because it happened right where the artists work. What once lived on your school grounds, park or center?
- Let actions have visible effects. Which pressures on local species could visitors' own noise, light, footsteps or closeness mirror? Seeing their own impact makes the message personal.
- Reward care, not just damage. In most pieces, stillness and patience brought the animal back. End experiences with a way for learners to help things recover.
- Show connections. The artists linked all eight animals through the seasonal winds that shape their behavior. Each species had its own musical note, and together the notes formed changing chords through the year. Look for ways to show how species depend on one another.
- Invite personal memories. Linking a species to learners' own experiences, as the artists did with the koala, gives it a place in their lives.
- Plan for less tech-confident visitors. If you use interactive technology, think about how older adults and others will find their way in.
- Partner locally. This work grew from a university and gallery partnership. Local artists and galleries can help bring nature stories to new audiences.
The Bottom Line
Three artists and educators in regional Australia built a gallery exhibit about eight threatened animals that have vanished from their local area. Each artwork responded to visitors in ways that echoed the animal's real pressures. Heavy footsteps destroyed a snake's habitat, phone light scrambled moth migration routes, and moving too close stressed a bat. Visitors who stayed calm and still could bring the animals back into view or earshot. The artists found that starting from what is missing, and tying it to local stories, gave people a strong way into nature they had never seen. For educators, the project offers a model for turning local species loss into hands-on experiences where learners' own choices have visible effects.