Aoife is an artist and scientist whose work uses science and collage to visualise and communicate negative environmental changes caused by human activity. With a background in Zoology (BSc), Aoife’s passion for the environment and activism is present in her practice and research. Through collage and zine making, she developed the project ‘Collage for Change’ (2026) during the MA Art in Science course. Aoife’s practice aims to engage the general public into environmental sciences through artwork that explains and visualises environmental problems that can be difficult to comprehend.

Project: Collage for Change: AI is generating… environmental problems.

‘Collage for Change’ (2026) is a practice-based research project created to explore how collage can be used to visualise and explain different anthropogenic effects on the environment. The process of cutting, juxtaposing, layering and combining images within collage practice, makes it a unique method to visually comprehend tricky environmental concepts.

Aoife’s work throughout her major project explored the negative environmental impacts of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the datacentres that house it. With the increasing popularity and current ‘boom’ of generative AI, it was a topical and important focus for Aoife’s work. The work aimed to communicate the environmental costs of generative AI, while providing insight to potential solutions to the problem.

The zine ‘AI is generating… environmental problems’ was created to explore these issues in an understandable and engaging dissemination format. The zine uses a combination of abstract collage and scientific data to explain what generative AI is, the problems caused by it and how datacentres could be more environmentally friendly.

The body of collage work created for the zine was developed to be stand-alone pieces outside of the zine format. The individual collages were displayed in an exhibition in the John Lennon Art and Design Building. The Collage for Change exhibition aimed to engage the public in the collages and create a space to communicate the environmental costs of generative AI.

The complete body of collage work and full zine are available to view on Aoife’s website.