r = θ
2021-2026
Single-channel video, 4K, sound, 25:33 loop

r = θ is the equation of a spiral. As the angle turns, the distance grows, so each revolution comes back around without returning to the same place. The work uses that idea as a way of looking. It gathers studies of birds, moths, swarms and weather made since 2021 into one continuous loop, and asks how much of the order we see in collective motion is in the world, and how much we bring to it.

The piece moves through five states. It begins with observation: birds over fields, cities and trees. Then instruments appear, as tracking rings, vectors and labels spread across the sky, trying to measure what they see. Next the footage falls away and only the diagram remains: golden spirals, flow fields and trajectories on black. The work then isolates its specimens, flocks and insects as silhouettes against flat green, before opening into synthetic worlds where whole landscapes curl into spheres. A migration closes the cycle and leads back to the start.

The loop makes two turns through these states. Shown in a darkened room, it has no fixed beginning or end, and viewers enter at any point on the spiral. Each pass covers familiar ground from a little further out, much like pattern recognition itself. The longer we watch, the more structure appears, and the harder it becomes to tell discovery from projection.