2024
Site-Specific Project, Llano Estacado Street Light Survey Project, Lubbock, TX, June 25, 2024 - Ongoing
Llano Estacado Street Light Survey Project
Streetlights are a constant of the American landscape and are well-known as a common form of public safety. Less considered, however, are the effects that artificial light can have on nocturnal animal behaviors. These effects are most noticeable in insects which are attracted to light and also causing them to swarm or sit motionless. Less noticeable are bat populations which have learned to hunt insects using streetlights. Some wavelengths of light work so well at attracting bugs that scientists use artificial lights to attract and study insects. The widespread use of street lights through the United States allows communities to observe record bats and insects in urban areas.

The Street Light Survey Project is a public art project that archives ecological communities found at street lights. The work is aimed at creating an understanding of the interaction between artificial light, animals, and the human-built environment in the Llano Estacado Region of Texas and New Mexico. Throughout the project visitors to Co-Opt Research and Projects and Tablelands Center for Bioregional Art are invited to contribute to the archive by participating in the project’s biodiversity survey. The biodiversity survey can be completed using a survey card and online tool. Both can be accessed at an official project site, which consists of a project sign, survey box, and biodiversity survey card. 

The physical components of the project follow a larger tradition of surveys, questionnaires, and log books commonly used in hiking and hunting areas. In this context, visitors to hiking and hunting areas have a responsibility to report specific information to help land managers better facilitate a healthy environment and habitat for animals. Urban spaces often lack these features, yet a variety of species rely on our urban spaces as a niche habitat. 

The Street Light Survey Project is designed to create a space where people can appreciate, observe, and share information about urban ecology similar to how visitors to hiking and hunting areas can record information for land managers. Through the use of public and private street lights, porch lights, and other artificial lights, residents are encouraged to contribute to the archive and ultimately the publication through the use of the online survey which will be made using data and images submitted by participants in the Street Light Survey Project.