Dada Nests

Birds everywhere begin making nests at predictable times of the year, more or less everywhere. They start this process by selecting a suitable site, then scavenging around for material with which to construct the actual nest.

The idea is to find a remote place, then carefully seed a number of starter nesting points, consisting of various mangled objects, such as segments of broken furniture, cut up shoes etc., to act as distorted nesting boxes. These would be mapped and recorded in their raw state. Piles of inviting raw material for the birds to collect and use are then left in heaps over the general vicinity. This material consists of cut up examples of the sort of objects that were originally used to form the basis for Dadaist art works: ie, pieces of toys, features of doll's houses, cut out letter forms, small bones, multi-coloured twigs, diverse components, etc. Hopefully the intrepid birds will collect lots of these objects and incorporate them into their nesting endeavours.

You can check and replenish your raw material periodically, then revisit your nesting sites. With any luck at least some of the birds will have created nests randomly festooned with a combination of natural material and many of the objects you have left out for them.

You can photograph these, and when the birds have departed, carefuly collect, and display them as original art works.