The growth of dense urban areas poses a threat to migratory birds. As it happens, one of the leading causes of bird death in North America is collisions with human-built structures. Bird collision detection, then, offers a “canary in the coal mine” to signal troubling changes in our own everyday patterns of movement through the city. Harnessing the practice of psychogeography—which aims to produce new perspectives of urban environments by observing and moving through them playfully—PiGEON will guide participants through the Bloor St. Cultural Corridor on a psychographic birding excursion led by Toronto-based artist collective Friends of Ogden Park and FLAP Canada.

The excursion will be a fantastic flight into the way human stories intersect with the stories of other species, forming a multi-species worldview. As Donna Haraway proposes, “it matters what stories tell stories and what worlds world worlds.”

The walk will be follow by a DIY paracord-string crafting demonstration as a preventive tool for bird-window collision at your home or workplace. PiGEON also includes a brown bag lunch and admission to Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary.

Please meet on the Gardiner Plaza at 8:45 am.

Rain Date: May 6

Tickets: $25 general / $20 Gardiner Friends