Augmented (Re)wilding of Urban Entanglements in Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s AR Project The Deep Listener

Abstract

The article examines Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s 2019 artistic project, The Deep Listener, within the framework of Jamie Lorimer’s relational ontology of wildlife. The artist employed Augmented Reality (AR) and audio technologies to reimagine the anthropocentric approaches towards the rewilding processes implemented in London’s Hyde Park. As the text demonstrates, the artist perceives wildlife not merely as a technologically transformed nonhuman site but as a network of more-than-human materiality and sensory experiences, shaping its spatiotemporal dimension. The Deep Listener establishes techno-environmental interconnectedness explored by users through sensory experiences. The work thus serves as an ethical practice, allowing users to unlearn desensitized reactions and develop care-driven relation with the more-than-human environment of the park.