To the woods and waters wild is a work in development that aims to use technology to rescue stocks of local community knowledge that risk being lost as AI and algorithms increasingly organise knowledge consumption according to principles of personalisation, optimisation, and standardisation. Juxtaposing the loss of generational knowledge with the loss of native forest and the declining belief in Faeries (“they left when electricity came”), the work peppers native trees in Irish parks and woodlands with Faeries that recount local stories collected from local Irish elders.

As a pilot, two faeries were installed in native trees in Saint Annes Park, Dublin, in 2021, without the audio element (documentation forthcoming). The audio technology will be developed by No Disco in 2022.