These items represent the work of artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (collectively known as boredomresearch), who researched two key species, the Apple Upright Moss (Bartramia Aprica) and the Dog Screw Moss (Tortula Canescens). In 2024, boredomresearch ran workshops with neurodiverse students at Newtown College exploring the often-overlooked world of moss. Linking the resilience and vulnerabilities of moss to human emotions, participants shared their hopes and fears, which became the central focus of boredomresearch’s film Gentle as Moss on Stone (2025). Featuring animated mosses that embody remedies for the fears expressed by the students. Blending realism and fantasy, the film reflects the fragility and strength of both moss and human emotions, offering a meditative take on health and resilience.

About: boredomresearch is known for creating evocative digital artworks that explore the delicate interplay between natural systems and human life. Over the past two decades, their practice has merged art, science, and technology to reveal poetic insights into ecological and biological processes. Their acclaimed projects include Real Snail Mail (2008–12), the world’s first webmail service operated by live snails, celebrated for its playful critique of digital speed; and AfterGlow (2016), a 3D visualisation of malaria transmission that won the Lumen Prize for Moving Image. Recent award-winning works such as The Cavanoids Dance (2022) and In Search of Chemozoa (2020–21) blend speculative biology and environmental research to illuminate the interdependence between human and planetary health.

Through imaginative storytelling and digital innovation, boredomresearch continues to engage audiences worldwide, creating poetic reflections on the fragility and resilience of life in an increasingly technological world.

This work was commissioned as part of the Natur Am Byth! project by Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru.