p56 From Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums
In 1793 the extremely industrious curioso John Hunter died, leaving an unprecedented collection of 13,687 painstakingly prepared biological specimens. The Collection was purchased by the British government and entrusted to the Royal College of Surgeons as a national treasure in 1799. The Hunterian collection is one of the most scientifically important and aesthetically unusual museums in the world.
John Hunter was born near Glasgow in 1728, and in 1748 he followed his brother William to London, where they set up a private anatomy school in Covent Garden. At the school, John did the grunt work of preparing specimens for his brothers lectures, but his skills very quickly advanced to the level of art. John was a genius at dissection and preparation.
In 1761, during the Seven Years' War, Hunter was posted to Belle Ile, off the north coast of France, as an army surgeon. Between savaging people's lives and amassing research on surgery for gunshot wounds, he developed a treatise on geological formations and palaeontology. When Hunter returned to London he began his own anatomical school, practiced surgery on the side, and was elected a facet of natural history, and he procured many exotic specimens, eventually arranging the collection along theoretical principles for teaching purposes. Hunter's research became widely respected, landing him appointment as surgeon extraordinary to the king (1776); membership in the Royal Society of Gothenburg (1781), the Royal Society of Medicine of Paris (1783), and the American Philosophical Society (1787); and appointment as the surgeon general to the army (1790).
Hunter correctly diagnosed himself as suffering from arterial disease, and he occasionally suffered attacks of angina. Adjacent to his consulting room he kept a couch where he could repose when he felt an attack approaching, and he frequently told his friends that his life was in the hands of any rascal who chose to irritate him.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Taxidermy: Aynhoe Park
http://www.thelondonmagazine.co.uk/interiors-gardens/celebrity-homes/james-perkins.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/design/13075/house-of-wonders-aynhoe-park.html
http://howtospendit.ft.com/art/25363-taxidermy
Taxidermy
One of the books I have been reading, The Postmodern Animal, has really bought my attention to taxidermy in art and particularly 'botched' taxidermy. Where random parts are put together not anatomically correct to the individual animal. I find this really interesting as I think it really ties in with the themes of animal gods, like Ganesha; part elephant part child/human, and mystical creatures, like the unicorn, part horse part… rhino?
Why do we as humans create these combinations, what do they mean/symbolise in our world. Animals through the human eye. As we are practically the top of the food chain, do we have to give animals adaptations away from their natural state in order to compete with us or empower or scare us to enable them to work as their role of goddesses or their power in folk law etc? Or is it just that we as humans see specific characteristics we admire in these animals? Do we want to appreciate these characteristics in the animals but not actually aspire to be the animal itself because we like to identify as separate and above these animals as humans. For example buddhism- their is a hierarchy of animals and the least like humans, e.g. the worm, seem to be at the bottom, with powerful rich in resources humans are at the top- have been moral in a previous life. In hinduism the animal gods are used to give the farmers a language (symbol) they understand.. these aspects of the elephant are to be aspired to or scared of - but how is this linked to the physical animal itself ?
Anyway.
I have been doing some more research into taxidermy due to this and I have taken out three books:
'Taxidermy' by Alexis Turner, 2013, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
'Finders, Keepers' Eight Collections, (photographs) Rosamond Wolff Purcell and (text) Stephen Jay Gould, 1992, Hutchinson Radius
'Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums' by Stephen T. Asma, 2001, Oxford University Press, Inc.
This also links in to other research I have previously undertaken;
- Visiting the Hunterian Museum in London. Within the University- a third of the collection (the rest was bombed in the blitz) from Hunter, the royal surgeons, collection of anatomy (things both human and animal in jars). Included foetuses of anything from a baby sloth to a human, spines, faces etc.
- BBC documentary (find again on bbc inlayer) about artists and one focusses on one artist which uses taxidermy in her work, such as small mouse suspended in air by a balloon. The public send her road kill and dead animals from natural causes, which are frozen and then used to work from.
- Aynhoe Park- Stately home bought by someone that worked for the Ministry of Sound. I did an event there and was stunned by the juxtapositions within the house, there was amazing imagery. For example the dining room was extremely long and it was possible to open up doors on each end of the room to prolong the length of the room- on the table there was about 12 globes of differing scale and size, it had such an impact! There was a hanging Jesus on the Cross on one wall, but confronting it directly opposite was a hanging McDonald's sign- symbolising the differences but similarities in the objects/ideas we 'praise/cherish/religious' (can't remember the word).
Saturday 26 September 2015
Tuesday 22 September 2015
Evolutionary Perspective: Prejudice; Rooted in Survival
Journal Reference:
- Julie Y. Huang et al. Immunizing Against Prejudice Effects of Disease Protection on Attitudes Toward Out-Groups. Psychological Science, 2011
Evolutionary psychologists suspect that prejudice is rooted in survival: Our distant ancestors had to avoid outsiders who might have carried disease. Research still shows that when people feel vulnerable to illness, they exhibit more bias toward stigmatized groups. But a new study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science suggests there might be a modern way to break that link.
"We thought if we could alleviate concerns about disease, we could also alleviate the prejudice that arises from them," says Julie Y. Huang of the University of Toronto, about a study she conducted with Alexandra Sedlovskaya of Harvard University; Joshua M. Ackerman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Yale University's John A. Bargh. The group found that the sense of security derived through measures such as vaccination and hand washing can reduce bias against "out" groups, from immigrants to the obese.
The researchers conducted three experiments. The first two (with 135 and 26 participants, respectively) looked at people's reactions to threats of the flu. In the first, some participants were already vaccinated, others not. Half the subjects -- including members of both groups -- read a cautionary passage about the flu. In experiment 2, all the participants had been vaccinated. They read a similar text, but some of them read one with a section saying the vaccine is effective; the others received only an explanation of how it functions. In both experiments, participants answered questionnaires assessing their level of prejudice -- in the first, particularly toward immigrants, in the second, toward numerous groups, including crack addicts and obese people.
The findings: In experiment 1, among those who read the text -- and were thus reminded of the disease threat -- the vaccinated showed less anti-immigrant sentiment than the unvaccinated. There was no significant difference among those who didn't read the passage. In experiment 2, those who got assurances of the vaccine's effectiveness showed less disease-related bias. "Even when everyone is actually protected," comments Huang, "the perception that they are well protected attenuates prejudice."
In the third experiment, with 26 undergraduate participants, half used a hand wipe to wipe their hands and the keyboard of a computer they were using. The others didn't. The text they read included the statement that anti-bacterial hand wipes help protect against contagion. These students were assessed for their nervousness about germs -- a signal of feeling vulnerable to disease -- and their feelings toward seven out-groups and two in-groups (undergraduates and their families). As expected, among those who did not wipe their hands, germ aversion correlated positively with aversion to stigmatized groups. But the germ-averse hand-wipers didn't express prejudice. None showed bias toward people like themselves and their loved ones.
The study -- which is unique in uniting evolutionary psychology, social cognitive psychology, and public health -- holds promise for reducing physical and social maladies at once. Write the authors, a public health intervention like vaccination or hand washing could be a "modern treatment for [an] ancient affliction."
Death Anxiety… Evolution vs Intelligent Design
Researchers have found that people's 'death anxiety' can influence them to support theories of intelligent design and reject evolutionary theory.
Existential anxiety also prompted people to report increased liking for Michael Behe, intelligent design's main proponent, and increased disliking for evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
The lead author is UBC Psychology Asst. Prof. Jessica Tracy with co-authors Joshua Hart, assistant professor of psychology at Union College, and UBC psychology PhD student Jason Martens.
Published in the March 30 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, their paper is the first to examine the implicit psychological motives that underpin one of the most heated debates in North America. Despite scientific consensus that intelligent design theory is inherently unscientific, 25 per cent of high school biology teachers in the U.S. devote at least some class time to the topic of intelligent design. And in Canada, for example, Alberta passed a law in 2009 that may allow parents to remove children from courses covering evolution.
British evolutionary biologist Prof. Dawkins, like the majority of scientists, argues that life's origins are best explained by Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. However, intelligent design advocates such as Prof. Behe, a U.S. author and biochemist, assert that complex biochemical and cellular structures are too complex to be explained by evolutionary mechanisms and should be attributed to a supernatural creator.
"Our results suggest that when confronted with existential concerns, people respond by searching for a sense of meaning and purpose in life," says Tracy. "For many, it appears that evolutionary theory doesn't offer enough of a compelling answer to deal with these big questions."
(Is survival of genes/children/tribe/tradition of survival not big enough purpose? For the collective rather than the individual - were all selfish… we want a meaning and purpose in life for US to make us special. Not for the benefit of others, not when it comes down to it.
"Natural science students have been taught to view evolutionary theory as compatible with the desire to find a greater sense of meaning in life," says Tracy. "Presumably, they already attain a sense of existential meaning from evolution."
Evolutionary Perspective on… Caveman Politics
The paper, published by Gregg R. Murray and J. David Schmitz, from Texas Tech University, focuses on evolutionary psychology, the study of universal human behavior which is related to psychological mechanisms which evolved to solve problems faced by humans in ancient history.
"Some traits and instincts that may have been acquired through evolution continue to manifest themselves in modern life, seemingly irrationally," said Murray. "A near universal fear of snakes and a preference for unhealthy fatty foods likely evolved from when snakes were a common threat and caloric intake was uncertain. We believe similar traits exist in politics."
The author's interest in the physical strength of political leaders stems from the popular observation that taller candidates have won 58 percent of US presidential elections between 1789 and 2008; a trend known as the "presidential height index" by political pundits.
In order to test this theory Murray and Schmitz first reviewed the literature to establish concepts of the 'big man' in tribal leadership of ancient societies, as well as the impact of physical strength on rank and status in the Animal kingdoms.
"We believe this research extends beyond merely establishing an association between physical stature and leadership by offering a theoretical basis for this phenomenon," said Schmitz. "Culture and environment alone cannot explain how a preference for taller leaders is a universal trait we see in different cultures today, as well as in societies ranging from ancient Mayans, to pre-classical Greeks, and even animals."
Evolutionary Perspective on… Autism
Autism
The autism spectrum may represent not disease, but an ancient way of life for a minority of ancestral humans, said Jared Reser, a brain science researcher and doctoral candidate in the USC Psychology Department.
Some of the genes that contribute to autism may have been selected and maintained because they created beneficial behaviors in a solitary environment, amounting to an autism advantage, Reser said.
The paper looks at how autism's strengths may have played a role in evolution. Individuals on the autism spectrum would have had the mental tools to be self-sufficient foragers in environments marked by diminished social contact, Reser said.
The penchant for obsessive, repetitive activities would have been focused by hunger and thirst towards the learning and refinement of hunting and gathering skills.
Today autistic children are fed by their parents so hunger does not guide their interests and activities. Because they can obtain food free of effort, their interests are redirected toward nonsocial activities, such as stacking blocks, flipping light switches or collecting bottle tops, Reser said.
Evolutionary Perspective
Introduction
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain useful mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i.e., as the functional products of natural selection.
The purpose of this approach is to bring the functional way of thinking about biological mechanisms such as the immune system into the field of psychology, and to approach psychological mechanisms in a similar way.
In short, evolutionary psychology is focused on how evolution has shaped the mind and behavior.
Though applicable to any organism with a nervous system, most research in evolutionary psychology focuses on humans.
Evolutionary Psychology proposes that the human brain comprises many functional mechanisms, called psychological adaptations or evolved cognitive mechanisms designed by the process of natural selection.
Examples include language acquisition modules, incest avoidance mechanisms, cheater detection mechanisms, intelligence and sex-specific mating preferences, foraging mechanisms, alliance-tracking mechanisms, agent detection mechanisms, and so on.
Evolutionary psychology has roots in cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology.
It also draws on behavioral ecology, artificial intelligence, genetics, ethology, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and zoology.
Evolutionary psychology is closely linked to sociobiology, but there are key differences between them including the emphasis on domain-specific rather than domain-general mechanisms, the relevance of measures of current fitness, the importance of mismatch theory, and psychology rather than behaviour.
Many evolutionary psychologists, however, argue that the mind consists of both domain-specific and domain-general mechanisms, especially evolutionary developmental psychologists.
Most sociobiological research is now conducted in the field of behavioral ecology.
Binghamton university evolutionist David Sloan Wilson states that evolution is not just about human origins dinosaurs and fossils, it can be applied to almost every aspect of human life, as he demonstrates in his first book for a general audience, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam Press 2007). He is convinced that evolution can become more widely accepted once its consequences for human welfare are appropriately understood. He states that 'when evolution is presented as unthreatening, explanatory, and useful, it can be easily grasped and appreciated by most people, regardless of their religious or political beliefs and without previous training.
Evolutionists
Binghamton university evolutionist David Sloan Wilson states that evolution is not just about human origins dinosaurs and fossils, it can be applied to almost every aspect of human life, as he demonstrates in his first book for a general audience, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (Bantam Press 2007). He is convinced that evolution can become more widely accepted once its consequences for human welfare are appropriately understood. He states that 'when evolution is presented as unthreatening, explanatory, and useful, it can be easily grasped and appreciated by most people, regardless of their religious or political beliefs and without previous training.
Monday 7 September 2015
Predator vs Prey in Art
Satirical Editorial illustrations such as politicians made into animals... etc
World split into Predator vs Prey. - is this the same as good vs bad? No. We are not always on the predator or always on the preys side... just depends on the situation/the way the media dictate? the way the illustrator dictates? interpretation? but sometimes just fact aka fox hunting rabbit - not down to interpretation, where as country vs country could be interpretation however there is a reality of power/influence/wealth... so perhaps is always fact.?
Hmmmm.
World split into Predator vs Prey. - is this the same as good vs bad? No. We are not always on the predator or always on the preys side... just depends on the situation/the way the media dictate? the way the illustrator dictates? interpretation? but sometimes just fact aka fox hunting rabbit - not down to interpretation, where as country vs country could be interpretation however there is a reality of power/influence/wealth... so perhaps is always fact.?
Hmmmm.
Faith and Nature - Papua New Guinea
Faith- Papua New Guinea
Poroiba Wigschool
The wigmen of the Huli people aren't like western toupee manufacturers. They are wizards who only work with people who have fine heads of hair. What a traditional wigman does is use ancient magic to make hair grow faster than normal so it can be cut off and turned into a wig. Evidently magic - like hair restorers - doesn't work if the hair is long gone.
Goroka- De Biami Tribe
The tribesman suggests a forest spirit for those under the spell of a giant snake. This tribe lives in the Parentracy forests of the Western Province.
"...wherever there is multiplicity, you will also find an exceptional individual, and it is with that individual that an alliance must be made in order to become animal. There may be no such thing as a lone wolf, but there is a leader of the pack, a master of the pack..."
-Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 1992
"... a decidedly ambivalent relationship to the natural world, simultaneously in awe of it's beauty, fascinated by it's strangeness and seduced by it's cruelty..."
Head Decoration
Decorative Sheild
Head Decoration
Decorative Sheild
Saturday 5 September 2015
Alexander McQueen Inspiration
Romantic Primitivism
"What I do is look at ancient African tribes and the way they dress. There's a lot of tribalism in the collections."
Throughout his career, Alexander McQueen frequently returned to the theme of primitivism, which drew upon the fantasy of the noble savage living in harmony with the natural world. Eshu (Autumn/Winter 2000) was inspired by one of the most well-known deities of Yoruba mythology. Using materials such as hair beads, latex and mud, McQueen imbued the garments with fetishistic qualities. It's a Jungle Out There (Autumn/Winter 1997) was based on the theme of the Thomson's Gazelle. The collection was a meditation on the dynamics of power, in particular the dialectical relationship between predator and prey.McQueen's reflections on primitivism were frequently represented in paradoxal combinations, contrasting modern and primitive, civilized and uncivilized. The story line of Irene (Spring/Summer 2003) involved a shipwreck at sea and was peopled with pirates, conquistadors and Amazonian Indians. Typically, McQueen's narrative glorified the state of nature and tipped the moral balance in favour of the 'natural man' or 'natures gentleman', unfetted by the artificial constructs of civilisation.
Plato's Atlantis
"Plato's Atlantis predicted a future in which the ice cap would melt, the waters would rise, and life on earth would have to evolve in order to live beneath the sea once more or perish. Humanity would go back to the place from where it came."
Nature's influence on McQueen's work is most clearly reflected in Plato's Atlantis (Spring/Summer 2010), the last fully released collection the designer showed before his death in February 2010. Inspired by Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), it presented a narrative that centered not on the evolution of humankind but on it's devolution.
McQueen created complex, digitally engineered prints inspired by sea creatures and introduced the towering 'Armadillo' boots. A film featuring model Raquel Zimmermann appearing to mutate into a semi-aquatic creature formed a graphic backdrop.
For the Romantics, nature - starry skies, stormy seas, turbulent waterfalls, vertiginous mountains - was the primary vehicle for the Sublime. In Plato's Atlantic, this sublime experience of nature was paralleled with and supplanted by that of technology, and the extreme space - time compressions produced by the digital age.
The collection was streamed live over the internet on Nick Knight's SHOWstudio in an attempt to make fashion into an interactive dialogue between the creator and consumer. With it's mixture of technology, craft and showmanship, Plato's Atlantis offered a patent vision of the future of fashion. It was considered to be Alexander McQueen;s greatest achievement.
A Gothic Mind
One of the defining features of Alexander McQueen's collections was their historicism (this really links into my own topic as I want to focus on the evolutionary perspective and animal- human relationships in art and life.) While McQueen's historical references were far-reaching, he was particularly inspired by the nineteenth century, drawing especially on the Victorian Gothic. 'There's something kind of Edgar Allan Poe,' he once observed, kind of deep and kind of melancholic about my collections.'
Like the Victorian Gothic, which combines elements of horror and romance, McQueen's collections often reflected paradoxical relationships such as life death, lightness and darkness, melancholy and beauty. I really want to focus on these paradoxes in my work focussing on the reality and truth of human beings as animalistic acting as both prey and predator - not some superior civilised being seperated from the natural order. I feel like especially with technology, internet, video games etc we as a species are really disconnected to the reality of the earth and relationships with nature and animals. I think cutting out the meaningless rubbish and finding the core evolutionary reasons and responses to situations/issues etc will be a really interesting and refreshing drive for my illustrations.
We seperate ourselves from animals, and from the natural world. Pretending we are exempt. We are shocked, particularly in the western world, when murders, disability, death, illness and corruption invade our lives. However it is natural. It is normal. Preditor vs prey. It may not be fair but it is how it has always been. Tribes vs tribes, wary of each other but welcoming if there is a benefit to ourselves. And this is to ensure our survival. Evolution has created us. Natural selection and survival of the fittest. My disertation topic will focus on our relationship with animals and particularly animals through the human eye; they are depicted in art in relation to ourselves as humans; symbolising motifs, feelings, wealth, deceit, death etc even humans themselves for example in satirical editorial illustrations.
Empowering women through the portrayl of them as predators rather than prey in his work by using 'weapons' in the animal kingdom that you should be fearful of through evolutionary instinct such as horns, snakeskin, bird feathers/wings -birds of prey. Animalistic/ or a powerful and successful hunter (survival of the fittest- top of the food chain).
Romantic Nationalism
McQueen's collections were fashioned around elaborate narratives that were profoundly autobiographical, often reflecting upon his ancestral history, specifically his Scottish heritage. I really want to focus on our evolutionary heritage in my work in a respectful way that reflects how the reasons and themes that motivated our behaviour then are still relevant today.
When he was once asked what his Scottish roots meant to him, the designer responded, 'everything.' McQueen's national pride is most evident in The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006) which was based on the final battle of the Jacobite Risings in 1745. A grand collection, it presented a catharsis to the anti-romanticism of his earlier, Highland Rape collection of 1995. McQueen's message, however, remained defiantly political: 'What the British did there was nothing short of genocide.'
Despite these heartfelt declarations of his Scottish national identity, McQueen also had a deep interest in the history of England. This was most apparent, perhaps, in The Girl Who Lived in the Tree (Autumn/Winter 2008), inspired by an elm tree in the garden of McQueen's country home in East Sussex. Influenced by the British Empire, it was one of McQueen's most romantically nationalistic collections, albeit heavily tinged with irony and pastiche.
This goes back to the evolutionary perspective - our pride in our tribe, the survival of our tribe and the protection of the traditions of the tribe that have allowed us to prosper and work together this far.
Victim and Aggressor
'I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things.' - Alexander McQueen.
The emotional intensity of McQueen's catwalk presentations was frequently the consequence of the interplay between dialectical oppositions. The relationship between victim and aggressor was especially apparent,particularly in the accessories. He once remarked, 'I like the accessory for its sadomasochistic aspect.'
I like the idea that the accessory, typically thought of as girly and frivalous in our western society, is dissected by McQueen as sadomasochistic and you can see this in his collections. It links to my dissertation topic as originally completely natural materials would have been used to create accessories such as horns, animal bone, animal blood, animal teeth, animal feet (rabbits foot for goodluck) animal feathers, skin and fur.
The exhibition's Cabinet of Curiosities, focuses on atavistic and fetishistic paraphernalia produced by McQueen in collaboration with a number of accessory designers, including the milliner Philip Treacy and the jeweler Shaun Leane. The Cabinet also includes show pieces, one-off creations made for the catwalk but not intended for production.
Romantic Exoticism
McQueen is interested in all cultures not just his own. It seems his focus is on the human condition and this really ties in to my dissertation topic- humans are all linked/the same/animals. The motives for our behavior can be stripped down to key elements based on evolutionary perspective for gene survival.
Alexander McQueen's romantic sensibilities expanded his imaginary horizons not only temporally but also spatially. As it had been for artists and writers of the Romantic Movement, the lure of the exotic was a central theme in McQueen's collections. His exoticism was wide-ranging. Africa, China, India and Turkey were all places that sparked his imagination. Japan was particularly significant, both thematically and stylistically. The kimono, especially, was a garment that the designer endlessly reconfigured in his collections.
But as with many of his themes, McQueen's exoticism often expressed itself in contrasting opposites. This was the case with It's Only a Game (Spring/Summer 2005), a show staged as a chess game inspired by a scene in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), which pitched the East (Japan) against the West (America).
This again links into tribe warfare etc and the evolutionary perspective approach to be wary of strangers. Also competing for resources, attractive mates and power.
Also linked to game theory- evolutionary ties to our innate competitiveness and want to be successful/win - because with winning comes power and resources and that means survival and your genes (childrens) survival. Make anything a game and you can get people to do anything or buy anything - used in sales etc.
Voss
'It was about trying to trap something that wasn't conventionally beautiful to show that beauty comes from within.' - Alexander McQueen.
VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001), also known as the 'Asylum' show, was staged inside a vast two-way mirrored box. The collection featured a number of exoticized garments, including a coat and a dress appliqued with roundels in the shape of chrysanthemums. (the power and intensity of the natural world compared to the frivality of our superficial possessions etc in society today.)
Typical of McQueen's collections, VOSS offered a commentary on the politics of appearance, upending conventional ideals of beauty. For McQueen, the body was a site for contravention, where normalcy was questioned, and where the spectacle of marginality was embraced and celebrated.
For example, dress of dyed ostrich feathers and hand-painted microscopic slides, Voss, Spring/Summer 2001. Model: Erin O'Connor. Image: REX.
Romantic Naturalism
'I have always loved the mechanics of nature and to a greater or lesser extent my work is always informed by that.' - Alexander McQueen.
Nature was the greatest, or at least the most enduring, influence upon Alexander McQueen. Many artists of the Romantic Movement presented nature itself as a work of art. McQueen both shared and promoted this view in his collections, which often included fashions that took their forms and raw materials from the natural world.
McQueen frequently played upon the transformative powers of clothing. In The Widows of Culloden (Autumn/Winter 2006) a dress created entirely from pheasant feathers imbued the wearer with an avian beauty, while a razor clam shell encrusted dress from VOSS (Spring/Summer 2001) formed a brittle carapace. Sarabande (Spring/Summer 2007) incorporated both silk and real flowers, which withered as they fell onto the catwalk.
For example, sketchbook page: Tulle and lace dress with veil and antlers, Widows of culloden, Autumn/Winter 2006-07. Model: Raquel Zimmermann at Viva London. Image: firstVIEW
My notes...
- Survival
- Life
- Hunt
- Sex
- Birth
- Hunterian museum
- Death - fear/sadness/respect/celebrating life/ spirits
- Illness - disease/virus/infection - limbs/scars/amputees/tattooed scars
- Decay
- Traditions - birth/marriage/death... masks/dances/costumes
- Juxtapositions - the world ... the breathtakingly beautiful vs the shockingly gruesome and sinister.
- A power - a real feeling - gets the audience- every human/animals primal instincts and passions.
- Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty book.
Outline Dissertation Plan
Produce an outline dissertation plan including...
- Short section summaries,
- Key quotes
- Specific images.
T H E P O S T M O D E R N A N I M A L
What is the post modern animal? How does this reflect our relationships with animals
T A X I D E R M Y
What is our relationship as humans with animals through the form of taxidermy?
B O T C H E D T A X I D E R M Y
Why do we create botched taxidermy? How does this alter our relationship with the animal?
A N I M A L G O D S
Why have humans created animal Gods? How does this reflect our relationship with animals?
M Y T H I C A L C R E A T U R E S
Why have humans created mythical creatures? How does our creation of unrealistic animals reflect our relationship with animals?
H U M A N S R E L A T I O N S H I P W I T H A N I M A L S
Throughout history how have we lived alongside, worked with, killed and eaten animals, and how has this effected their place in art?
T H E E V O L U T I O N A R Y P E R S P E C T I V E
How does the evolutionary perspective help to explain why we use animals as symbols of ourselves? What are the similarities and differences between us and 'the animals'?
S A T I R I C A L I L L U S T R A T I O N S
How have illustrators, particularly in editorial illustrations, used animals in order to portray a strong message, offensive/emotive etc? Provokes a strong reaction, why? What does this say about our relationship with animals?
Proposal in Response to Research
- A proposal of what you intend to produce in response to your research.
I spent the summer thinking about what it was that interested me in art and in psychology and philosophy etc that could inspire my COP project as I knew I could find something I was more passionate about than my previous idea.
I did psychology as an Alevel so I have a base knowledge on the different perpectives and I have always found the evolutionary perspective really interesting and explanatory as to why we behave and think the way we do (even though it is just one of many approaches and probably just a contributing factor - nature rather than nurture.).
Simultaneously I was thinking about an idea of looking into the current health issues concerning poor lifestyle choices such as poor diet and a lack of sufficient exercise. I also did biology at A Level and have always been really interested in the workings of the body. But instead I thought I could combine this with the evolutionary perspective approach and thinking about humans as animals.
Once you start thinking about how we, in western culture at least, interact with animals, both in life and in art, it is pretty shocking how far we've separated ourselves from animals! I totally believe in evolution and I love nature, so for me I am so surprised that the majority of people see humans as above animals. It is obvious that looking at the world, humans are predators, violent and dangerous, willing to do anything in order for their own survival - which is why we have survived and why in most situations we are at the top of the food chain either through natural processes or through our wit and ingenious weapons etc.
However now I think most of us are very seperated from the reality of our natural instincts. The direct stimuli such as hunting, gathering, killing and birth/survival may be muted in daily life, but our reactions still reflect these evolutionary practices, such as stress, rage, joy, jealousy, love etc.
I want to look at social situations today and strip them down to their raw evolutionary meaning.
I will start to do this by looking at current affairs such as the 'migrant crisis' and the headlines, phrases, photographs and editorial illustration depicting these and how they use animal similies, metaphors, symbolism, linguistics etc to evoke a primal instinctive and raw reaction in the general public... we are naturally fearful of strangers as often it meant competing for resources; food and housing, and sexual mates - basically a disruption to the way of life that allowed humans to survive to that point and a direct threat to our survival. The feeling of distrust, fear and rage at strangers coming to our country is natural. That does not mean its fair or moral. We are all humans and people are dying doing all they can to get out of a horrific situation in a place they call home. These people want peace in their country, they don't want to invade ours. We know that in our educated minds however the primal instinct is still there.
This animal and primal instinct will be the main theme of my work for COP.
I want to look at how other satirical editorial illustrators have used animal imagery to depict people of power/politicians etc and why this effects the readers view on that individual.
This means I will be exploring and investigating into animal symbolism and the history of animal imagery in art, which will be tied into animals role in our lives; religious/catering/cultures etc.
I have got 5 books out of the Leeds College of Art library at the moment which I thought would be incredibly helpful for this project...
Title: Drawn from paradise: the discovery, art and natural history of the birds of paradise.
Author: Fuller, Errol; Attenborough, David
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R79266X0084
Title: The postmodern animal.
Author: Baker, Steve
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R40069X0084
Title: Animals in art.
Author: Brion, Marcel
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R01268F0084
Title: Considering animals: contemporary studies in human-animal relations.
Author: Watt, Yvette (ed.); Leane, Elizabeth (ed.); Freeman, Carol (ed.)
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R76029L0084
Title: James Gillray: the art of caricature
Author: Godfrey, Richard
Classification: 741.5 GIL
Barcode: R28502F0084
Author: Fuller, Errol; Attenborough, David
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R79266X0084
Title: The postmodern animal.
Author: Baker, Steve
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R40069X0084
Title: Animals in art.
Author: Brion, Marcel
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R01268F0084
Title: Considering animals: contemporary studies in human-animal relations.
Author: Watt, Yvette (ed.); Leane, Elizabeth (ed.); Freeman, Carol (ed.)
Classification: 704.9432
Barcode: R76029L0084
Title: James Gillray: the art of caricature
Author: Godfrey, Richard
Classification: 741.5 GIL
Barcode: R28502F0084
For my physical work I will be exploring animal form and other animal imagery such as crosses of human and animal, animal gods, mystical animals etc and why these images have been used.
I have been reading The Postmodern Animal and it is really interesting to explore the idea of whether it is possible to actually depict the animal without the 'human eye' depicting meaning and symbolism within it - reading our own emotions in it or relating it to humans. We are just too self obsessed as a species! Reading into animals may have helped our survival and it definitely is engulfed within folk law etc - the symbolism and innate reactions to animals probably helped us to survive and adapt to working with - or running away from the animal.
However some animal symbolism is extremely complicated such as that of the bear and the lion. BBC Radio 4 has currently been running a series called Natural Histories which I have been following. I was so shocked when I found out that I believe that the king of the jungle is the lion purely because of Christianity, and that my teddy bears are a result of Christianity making a laughing stock of the pagan sacred animal; the bear!
Further Research Activities
- A summary of further research activities to be undertaken as part of the module.
Summer Progress in my Research and Development.
- Step by Step / Thought processes behind the jumps in decisions
- Sketchbook
Presentation
- 10 minutes.
- Summary of original proposal.
- Evidence of progress in your research and development over summer.
- A summary of further research activities to be undertaken as part of the module.
- A proposal of what you intend to produce in response to your research.
- Produce an outline dissertation plan including short section summaries, key quotes and specific images.
To Do List:
- Experiences
- Observations
- Activities
- Reflections
Gather and critically evaluate:
- Texts
- Articles
- Images
- Quotes
Read and...
- Identify
- Refine
- Investigate
...the questions that arise from your practical and theoretical research.
Make work relating to your research:
- Draw lines
- Make images
- Record people
- Media
Play and think through...
- Drawing
- Collaging
- Photographing
- Observations
- Sketchbook - drawings, ideas, observations
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