Birders

We are bionic human beings. We are modern travelers. Today it is possible to be everywhere and nowhere. When we are on our phones we are human’s streaming vision through satellites. The practice of self-documentation has today become a mass practice and obsession. By removing every object of technology, Birders is challenging the participant to analyze certain birds without help of electronic devices. It’s a game that proposes a new way to look, to watch, to observe, to appropriate and to exist in the world. In birdwatching you learn how to connect (not to hunt). You don’t shoot the bird, you look at it.

Birders no.1 was officially launched on June 28th at Pond Mountain Natural Area (located at 120 Fuller Mountain Road, Kent, CT 06757) and can be replicated in new places with similar conditions. Birders is a game and educational project in which one observes birds. It's centered on a game’s structure, as a way to develop a set of thoughts and a relationship with the body and nature. One can play individually or collectively. Pond Mountain Natural Area is cellphone-free zone where the participant is not allowed to document the experience. The game is composed by four Strategies: 1) The Hunter, 2) Learning the Territory, 3) How to Attract Mates and 4) Alignment. Birders is a walk, is collective listening, critical play, replicable and free. 

BIRDERS, Issue No.1 Spring 2014
Website: universalbirders.com
Illustrations: Lynn Baik
Print Edition: 1.000
Date: June 28th at 4pm, 2014
Duration: 2 hours
Number of participants: 24
Location: Pond Mountain Natural Area, Connecticut, NY