In February 2025, the residents of Constantine, Cornwall, UK, launched our two-year research project by planting Pollinator Pathmaker DIY Editions in 17 gardens. Together, we’ve created a networked living artwork across the village, featuring over 130 plant species across 255 square metres. 

This first landscape-scale Pollinator Pathmaker edition is an experiment with network ecologists, social scientists and philosophers at the University of Exeter and the University of Edinburgh, funded by UK Research and Innovation, the UK government’s national funding agency. It follows two pilot research studies at the Eden Project, Cornwall, and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, monitoring the biodiversity benefits of Pollinator Pathmaker.  

Gardens are not islands, they are interconnected across landscapes as insects and other species move between them. In this multidisciplinary project, we’re investigating Constantine’s network of DIY Editions to explore how living artworks can conserve pollinator diversity in urban spaces and how these artworks can empower us to engage in nature-positive actions.  

Over the spring and summer of 2025, ecologist Dr Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury of the University of Exeter and his team will compare pollinator activity in the 17 DIY Editions with 15 “control gardens” across the village. We are also teaming up with residents who will join as citizen scientists to monitor the visitors to their artworks and gardens to understand how Pollinator Pathmaker’s algorithmic planting design supports pollinator populations. 

We’re studying the more-than-human and the humans alike: our social scientists, led by Professor Jane Calvert of the University of Edinburgh, are looking at how taking care of these living artworks impacts our relationship with nature, empathy for other species, and perception of what an artwork can be, both as individuals and as a collective. Meanwhile, philosopher Professor John Dupré of the University of Exeter will be looking at how Pollinator Pathmaker changes our understanding of what a garden is and who it is for. 

We’ll update this page as the project progresses, and you can also watch the artworks grow on our Instagram @pollinatorpathmaker. 

Acknowledgements 

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg 
Producer Ruby Dixon 
Studio Manager Freire Barnes 

University of Exeter 

Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury 
John Dupre 
Research Fellow Morgan Morrison 
Research Assistant Luke A’Bear 
Research Assistant Ruth Warfield 
Project Administrator Srilatha Mysore Nagendra 

University of Edinburgh 

Jane Calvert 
Research Fellow Molly Bond 

Expert Advisors 
Colin Skelly 
Annie Skelly