Boredomresearch
Residency date: October 2025
Project Title: Spring Fall
Website: https://boredomresearch.net/wp/
About the artist:
Boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, established in 1999. Their artwork is inspired by natural environments, exploring the diversity that exists in nature and more recently the fragility of these ecosystems. They use digital 3D game, animation and film tools to create poetic and cinematic expressions. Presenting biological insights and creative speculations that encourage us to understand ourselves and our environment from a different perspective. Creating artworks “that peel back the visible so that audiences can see the invisible” which are “highly imaginative” and “works of great depth” (Pamela Winfrey, Scientific Research Curator, Biodesign Institute Arizona 2024). Fascinated by human interaction with landscape, their artwork brings together innovative science, creative use of digital technology and a deep understanding of the complex interplay between human culture and natural systems.
In Residence
Boredomresearch will immerse themselves in the living rhythms, hidden histories, and fragile futures of the ancient landscape. Continuing their practice creating projects where ecological realities meet the imagined, and where local knowledge enriches speculative visions.
They will explore the emotional and ecological significance of tree loss. Through walks, conversations, and encounters with residents, rangers, and conservationists, they will gather stories, memories, and sensations tied to the forest. These experiences will inform new works that invite reflection on the fragile interconnections between land, culture, and memory.
This residency builds on Boredomresearch’s award-winning film Gentle as Moss on Stone, created for Natural Resources Wales’ Natur am Byth! programme in 2024-25. The film weaves together science, imagination and community voices. It tells the story of a bryologist inventing new moss species for his granddaughter, each shaped by young people’s hopes and anxieties. In the New Forest, the artists will continue this approach – using creative storytelling to entwine ecological knowledge with imagined futures, inviting audiences to reimagine their relationship with a changing landscape.
Interview with Boredomresearch - New Forest National Park Artists in Residence
Can you give us a brief overview of how your practice has developed and what led you to the work you produce today?
We began using computer simulation to explore life-like systems for their aesthetic beauty – this led us to appreciate the fragility of complex systems. Since then we have been working with scientists and conservation groups to explore ideas of health that connect humans to the more than human world.
Initially, what aspects of the New Forest do you envision influencing your work the most?
Despite being very old, the New Forest is constantly changing and evolving and therefore it remains true to its name ‘New’ but deeply connected to its past. We are interested in how the Forest has changed over time subject to different demands. It isn’t just a wild space, but a living landscape that’s been cared for, grazed, and protected over centuries. A landscape that is co-produced by people and non-human life. To contribute to this we will consider a collective memory of the Forest in the context of some current concerns and challenges – for example: At Denny Wood in the New Forest no saplings at all have survived since 1995. The Forest may seem permanent and unchanging but this is an illusion. We therefore ask what creativity is necessary to build strength and resilience for an unknown future.
We’re drawn to these layers of change – how the Forest has adapted to different pressures and continues to evolve. By listening to the stories held in its past and present, we hope to imagine possible futures. For us, the New Forest feels like a place of both strength and fragility, and that tension will be an important influence on our work.
How do you hope to engage the local community with your work?
We want to listen to people that work and live in the New Forest, that have an intimate connection with the Forest, that have seen changes over time. We are interested in collecting stories that are personal memories and stories of how people connect with the landscape and its diversity and how this is meaningful to them.
Are you planning to work in any new mediums during your residency?
During the residency, we’re planning on experimenting with alternative photographic processes.
How do you like to connect with nature and the great outdoors?
Nature has always been at the heart of our practice – it’s where our curiosity begins. When we’re not working in front of a screen, we’re happiest wandering outdoors, observing the quiet dramas of the natural world. Over the years, we have been lucky to work in some amazing otherworldly landscapes, from the vast peaks of the Rocky Mountains in Banff, Canada (2001) to the delicate miniature world of endangered moss in Powys, Wales (2024–25). Wherever we are, we find ourselves drawn to life forms that are often overlooked – organisms that barely move or are so tiny they require a lens to reveal them. Our projects have been inspired by intertidal snails clinging to rocks, marine micro-invertebrates adrift in seawater, the resilience of moss and even the humble limpet. This fascination finds its way into our bio-inspired fictional worlds, inviting audiences to share in the beauty of these often overlooked forms and fragile habitats.
What tools and materials will you be sure to pack for your studio space?
We like to bring the tools that allow us to observe and study nature – including hand lenses and microscopes as they allow us to see things that are invisible to the eye. Alongside these, we’ll pack our usual digital studio kit to capture visuals and audio in the natural environment.