Nobody Told the Woodpeckers (2010)

The Pileated Woodpecker and the Black Woodpecker are two closely related species that have never met one another as one lives in North America and the other Eurasia. As shifts occur in the global climate in the coming years, water levels change, habitats warp, and animals are forced to move into places they never were before, the two species may cross each other's paths.

It is a situation rife with risk for territorial dispute as the species inhabit very similar ecological niches, which is no surprise as they descend from a fairly recent common ancestor.

The Woodiest, a greenwashing robot woodpecker that deals with conflict between woodpecker species due to climate change and also tries to explain global warming to them. Robot art by artist Ian Ingram.

In Nobody Told the Woodpeckers, a robot listens for the territorial drumming of either bird and immediately translates it into the territorial drumming of the other, hopefully alleviating some tension between migrant populations. After doing so, it then proceeds to attempt to explain anthropogenic climate change to the birds in a mixture of Morse Code and woodpecker drumming.

It remains unlikely the woodpeckers understand but up until this point nobody even tried.

Thanks to: Jill Larson, Marc Maier, Anne Wodtcke, and Ulrich and Tomma Galonska

Supported in part by a Fred Rogers Center Early Career Fellowship and a residency at PLATFORM in Munich, Germany sponsored by the Fe Gallery International Artist Residency Program.