Visual Communication
Interactive Media
How to be a Bird?
Illustration
How to be a bird? aims to explore reasons why wild birds are considered a nuisance in cities and to search for ways to educate its audiences to reflect upon themselves to be more empathetic human beings.
​
Imaginary Boundaries is another project exploring the same theme.
​
Copyright @ ashleu.work 2022
Adobe Illustrator
2021
Stealing Food – To survive, pigeons often “visit” open air food establishments (e.g. coffee shops, hawker centres) to obtain food. Most of them eat the crumbs we drop, but some are bold enough to steal food from us!
In what sociologists call our “imaginative geography” of cities, there’s a border that separates clean, orderly civilization and wild, uncontrolled nature.
​
"...We don’t like it when grass and weeds begin to grow through cracks in the sidewalks, because that’s nature breaking out of those boundaries that we want to keep in.”
Pigeons cross those boundaries frequently and visibly, inhabiting the spaces that we think of as our own.
Trespassing – Pigeons used to live on rocky ledges and cliffs. It was this natural love for hard surfaces that made them a perfect fit in urban areas.
What if we are the ones crossing the imaginative boundaries?
​
What if we were the ones invading the spaces of pigeons instead of them invading ours?
​
What if we reversed the relationship between humans and birds?
Defecation – Pigeons poop a lot and they poop everywhere.
The Do Not Signs are a visual narrative that connects us to the world where pigeons are dominant instead of humans. These signs instruct humans not to behave or to cross the boundaries of birds.
(Just like how we do not want birds to cross our imaginary boundaries)
Destruction – Acid from the bird’s poo can cause irreversible damage to building surfaces resulting in the scarring of building fabric and damaging its appearance.
Noisy – Pigeons are not necessarily as “noisy” as mynahs, crows, or koels, but I included this as the sounds of birds are present in our daily lives which some may find annoying.
