Progression

Once I had made my info-graphics, it was much easier to begin producing imagery. I think if this had been done a week or two into Unit X we would have progressed the idea much further and our project would have been more successful overall as we struggled to make big group decisions.

I progressed my ideas for the Weedy Sea Dragon, Stag Beetle and Bison as these were the most threatened of my four chosen animals had the best potential for mechanical upgrades- The Arctic Fox was difficult to modify as it is only endangered due to habitat loss and scarcity of food.

I tried to vary my approaches to creating imagery for each animal and was determined to make a life-like, mechanically altered Stag Beetle after visiting the displays of insects at the Manchester Museum (as seen below).

My first attempt to make the Beetle was atrocious... I had constructed it four times bigger than a real Stag Beetle and it was not carefully crafted. However, my next, smaller attempt was much more successful. 

I used an assortment of found items to create the beetle and filled its insides (revealed by open wings) with tiny cogs and clock parts to represent the mechanical alterations. I decided that to survive endangerment and be useful to the environment, the modified stag beetle must be able to consume and process scrap metal and turn it into small, recyclable pellets. This was based on the way these beetles consume dead plant matter and return the minerals they contained to the soil.

After making this sculpture I considered how I might display it if I used it in the exhibition. I thought about  doing a scientific-style exploded drawing of how the modified beetle might work and photograph the beetle crawling on, or pinned, to the diagram.

Helpful info-graphics

It was around this time when one of our tutors told us we needed to be more focused within our theme. (I agree, I had no idea where my work was leading). We decided to make a list of endangered animals, birds and insects, and allocate four to each group member and make an info-graphic to pinpoint why each animal was threatened, the conservation work being done to help them and why it is important to save them.
It was important for the progression of the project that we all completed these info-graphics quickly and share the information so we could move on to experimenting with upgrades and preparing for the exhibition.

Unfortunately, after this meeting we immediately broke up for the three week Easter holiday, throughout which, communication was not as good within the group as it should have been.  So I had to continue developing work from my info-graphics without really knowing what the rest of the group was working on.




Below are my Info-graphic pages on my chosen animals: the Weedy Sea Dragon, the Arctic Fox, the Plains Bison, and the Stag Beetle

 

Animal Adaptations

After experimenting with mechanical insects but not really considering how their adaptations would be useful, I moved onto making a few functional alterations to mammals and birds. These "upgrades" are in no way scientifically correct or feasible... they are more comical.

After discussing with my group how the magpie has already adapted to urban environments, I began to think of ways that its adaptations could be taken to extremes. These included adding a handy "chest of draws" and a magnetic foot to aid the magpie in collecting shiny trinkets.
My adaptation for roadkill animals, rabbits in particular, was the addition of a headlight which prevents the "frozen in headlights" reaction that causes the deaths of so many bunnies...
These adaptations are quite ridiculous and were well fitting with the project as the animals are not really endangered and the drawings are only rough, however it did help me to grasp the concept of our theme a little better and enable me to move on to more appropriate animals.

Bio-Mechanical

After considering the possibility of combining animals to help them adapt, I began to think of ways humans could use technology to interfere with nature. The images I found combining the organic and the mechanical were pages from Fritz Kahns's book on the human body. I had never seen these pictures before but apparently they are considered to be some of the first info-graphics. Fritz Kahn was a scientist who worked in 1920's Berlin. He used mechanical metaphors for his insightful theories of how the human body worked and commissioned artists to visualise his ideas. I loved all the examples I could find, I think the ones that look like mechanical cross-sections of glamour posters are the most interesting.

Although I didn't experiment applying mechanical parts to humans, I did try with a few insects- as insects, especially bees are crucial to our survival as they pollinate plants. Insects cannot be allowed to die out... but if they did could they be replaced with machines?

  

I really like the aesthetic of these images, the combinations between photographs, paintings and real mechanisms but I think I need to start considering how and why these mechanical parts are being applied, and not get carried away with appearance.

Bad Taxidermy and Victorian Monsters

After searching for examples of "bad taxidermy" and expecting to find images of moth-eaten, utterly unbelievable Victorian inventions I came across a modern artist who works along the same lines. However, the work of Enrique Gomez de Molina is much more beautiful, shocking and believable (to an extent) than I was expecting. Unfortunately, Molina as recently been arrested for using the skins of endangered animals which goes against the entire principle of our themes. However, his images are still useful for our research and I began to consider how we could combine different animals to either bring back extinct animals or aid existing ones. What are the endangered animals lacking that could be provided by another animal? How could animals be altered to exist in a new urban habitat?    

After finding Enrique Gomez I continued to look for examples of bad Victorian taxidermy. Instead I found only the name of an avid collector of these artifacts from the same era and the book he wrote about them. Ulisse Aldrovandi wrote "The Monstrorum Historica", "A compendium of all known human and animal monstrocities", the illustrations from which are hilarious... and a little scary. Supposedly this man had in his vast taxidermy collection several dragons and even a mermaid but sadly I couldn't find any photographs. 

It struck me that it might be interesting to attempt to make a modern "Monstrorum Historica" using animals which have become monstrous by adapting to the urban world. Although it might be more fun to make a less serious version using slightly comedic adaptations. 

Initial group research

During our first group meeting we mind-mapped a collection of ideas for us to research individually over the weekend. It quickly became apparent that we were mostly interested in the reclamation of nature, or nature reclaiming its place in the modern world. Here are some of our initial ideas:

On the theme of nature reclaiming it's place...

• Trees and plants overgrowing cities or man made structures
• Animals adapting to urban environments
• Ways to stop endangered animals becoming extinct

And reclaiming nature...

• Bad taxidermy- how the Victorians took to stitching exotic animal skins together to create new or mythological animals
• Mythology- how myths began, for example, elephant skulls resembling a cyclops
• Spontaneous Generation- a reclamation of the old belief that life grows from nothing and animals appear from the substances they are found near. E.g, mice are produced by dirty clothes and old cheese. 

We also agreed that we were interested in the Wunderkammer or "Cabinet of Curiosity" style museum presentation so I researched this too. 

The MOSI

I had imagined the Museum of Science and Industry to be a lot more inspirational than it was. I was hoping to find some evidence of lost theories or science that had been proven wrong to link to the theme "Reclamation" but the things I found most interesting were the old machines and Victorian style illustrations and old photographs on the signs.

The old-fashioned illustrations reminded me of an artist I found in Juxtapoz called Dan Hillier who collages together victorian drawings, often combining humans animals and machines. I wasn't really sure about how I could link this to "reclamation" other than it reclaiming old drawing methods... I did think about modifying old household objects within the drawings or photos to demonstrate how old technology could be reclaimed by modern people but didn't push the idea much further.

Above: Dan Hillier's collage work