MOTH KOTA (2025), a film by artist and researcher Hannah Imlach, explores instances of multispecies connection between humans and nocturnal Lepidoptera. It documents one full cycle of activity around Imlach's sculptural shelter Moth Kota whilst it was temporarily installed on the banks of Loch Lomond in 2021. The three stages of this cycle – Illumination, Presence and Release – were captured with Andrew Begg (cinematography) and Thomas Butler (sound design).
The film begins with preparations for Illumination; night-flowering plants are gathered before dusk, when the spherical ultraviolet ‘moon’ at the apex of the sculpture begins to glow and moths emerge. These creatures orbit the structure in shifting configurations before settling within its internal darkness. Later, in daylight, Presence documents resting moths, observed in minute detail. Finally, in Release, the sculpture is opened panel-by-panel, the moths inside begin to reanimate and then erupt into flight, returning to the undergrowth.
The Moth Kota sculpture was developed through a multiyear process of ecological and artistic research alongside entomologists and conservation practitioners based at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Loch Lomond Nature Reserve. An artwork working group served to embed the specialist site- and species-specific knowledge of this group into artwork and event design.
This work was supported by a Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Collaborative Doctoral Award, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It was made possible by the financial and in-kind support of RSPB Scotland and benefitted from awards from the SGSAH Engagement Fund and The University of Edinburgh’s Public Engagement Seed Fund, Geography Endowment Fund and Edinburgh Futures Institute.