What I observed was the feeding area of the Caledonian Park. I act as a camera, watch how animals interact, and record them with sketches. I find that in this small animal society, it is not just animal instinct at play. Feeder design also helps allocate resources and shape spatial order.
Perec (1997, p. 50) poses the question: What’s worthy of note? This prompted me to reflect on my own ways of observing: what I see may only be what I wish to perceive. His chapter ‘The Street’ (1997, p. 50–53) fundamentally transformed my understanding of observation. Perec encourages people to pay attention to uninteresting, most ordinary things until they become strange. This led me to force myself to observe.
Then I felt like I was watching a film, with various animals as the main characters. Squirrels fight over food, yet different birds of similar sizes can always feed together. Great tits are most sensitive to their surroundings. Sometimes the birds are out of sight. A feather falling from a tree proves they were there. And so on. I kept sketching to record animal interactions. Gradually, overlooked behaviours and relationships were captured. I categorised the observed interactions into four modes: Overlap, Avoid, Interrupt, Conflict.
At first, I thought animal interactions were just instinct. However, as my observations deepened, I found some behaviours seen at Feeder A do not appear at Feeder B or C. The only variables across the three feeders are the food inside and structure of the feeders(see Fig. 1 below). Mattern (2013) discusses how urban infrastructure shapes human beings. This raises a question: for the animals in this area, might feeding stations also function as their infrastructure? This line of thinking advances my exploration of the research topic.
Fig. 1 Feeder A, B, C (Li, 2026)
These feeders essentially form a system of resource allocation and space governance. Their physical forms act as the underlying rules. For example, Feeder B uses a 3.5 × 3.5 cm mesh to completely isolate large birds and delineate a low-competition feeding area for small birds. Feeder C’s structure and hanging position are better suited for squirrel feeding. For pigeons, the cage mesh is too wide and thin to stand on. They can only get leftover food scattered by squirrels. Then I found feeder design determines: Who belongs to this system, who can access the resource, who can only obtain the remaining resources, where do different animals meet with each other, who changes whose behaviour, and what relationships repeat? Pigeons lingering on the ground are not timid by nature. Squirrels’ monopoly is not mere dominance. All of this is the design draws for behaviour.
I think the most meaningful part of this study is re-seeing things that have long existed but gone unnoticed. Beyond the human-centred narrative of urban infrastructure, there are countless such micro-infrastructures. They quietly shape the lives of every species sharing the city space.
Reference List：
Li, W. (2026) Feeder A, B, C [Photograph].
Mattern, S. (2013) ‘Infrastructural Tourism’, Places Journal, July. Available at: https://doi.org/10.22269/130701
Perec, G. (1997) Species of Spaces and Other Places. Penguin Books Ltd.