missed assignment fm week 1

1- In Cabinets to Museum the Tradescant collection is discussed. Why is it so significant in terms of who was allowed to view it? It was known by its owner as the “ark” – interestingly zoo as also often described is “arks.” Why would there be this parallel?

It is so significant of who was allowed to view the Tradescant collection because it existed outside of high ranking and esoteric circles. The Tradescant collection was the first to be open to the public without discrimination of age, status, or gender. This is significant because it invigorates a public educational awareness to the zoological world on a greater scale beyond economically sound academics and wealthy aristocracy. It pined upon public exhibition without prejudice, for enrichment, educational purposes and increased awareness of the natural world. It is known as an “ark” because of its classificatory and encyclopedic arrangement of animals into a certain order for the understanding of the natural world. The museum is parallel to the zoo’s common definition to an “Ark” because of its artificially controlled gathering and arranging of the world’s natural wonders in an understandably linking order by means of classification.  It resembles a zoo in its structure of these classifications of “naturaalia” into subcategories in hoped of discerning a organizational link between a large diverse collection of taxonomy/animals.  Zoos are also referred to as “living museums.”

2- What is the primary purpose of a Wunderkammer as described in the readings? Is it simply to collect odd things like a souvenir case of circus show, or something more? Explain in some conceptual detail. In your explanation reference the Dawn of Zoology readings about early natural historians such as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder that you read about tat the very beginning of the semester.

Wunderkammers operated both on a mode of entertainment and on a mode of arrangement and creating links. Despite amassing a seemingly unconnected overview of natural and artificial “exotics” there were attempts to create ordered visual and logical links in their aesthetic arrangement, sometimes without knowledge of history or context. In the same way that Aristotle tried to create a hierarchy out of animals he was able to acquire and even animals of which he’d only heard tale of, he imposed a kind of order, dictating an understandable flow to the world at large within a consolidated volume or space.

3- How are Mark Dion’s cabinets of curiosities similar to the Tradescant one? And how is it perhaps also very different both materially and conceptually? Discuss.

They both focus on ordering arrangements of aesthetics and assumed relationality, creating peculiar conversations with one another. However, Mark Dion isn’t involved in creating a truth, he is involved in posing questions of truth by means of commenting on the act of collection and arrangement itself. He engages the viewers to discern their own interpretations, histories, and links. He models them off of other cabinet collections, based on pre-existing philosophies and aesthetics of previous collectors, but not within the same aims. He acts within a tradition of wunderkammers, but does so in order to both participate as well as critique by taking creative license on the relationships invented.

4- The essay Why Museums? makes the general case for the importance of museum-based natural histroy today. How does the organization, rationale, and functionality of the museum as they describe it differ from the wunderkammer of the past? Out of the various examples they discuss regarding the practical scientific use of museums pick one or two you thought as most interesting or surprising and describe why they caught your attention.

The organization of these useful collections are highly specialized to inform particular categories of threat and can be used as tools to assess and rectify difficult situations.

The first one that stood out to me are the public health and safety section in regards to the CDC. Disease has been cause for serious, world ending paranoia and panic. With the rise of newly adapted “super-viruses” that resist medicinal/technological treatment, it’s no wonder we have buried insecurities that give rise to apocalyptic/zombie virus related pop culture. It is reassuring that there is a facility to monitor these changes in diseases, but also perhaps a but terrifying in the sense that that same facility could be used to engineer much worse. 

The second part that caught my eye was the agricultural segment. It also operates along the line of engineered threats such as bioterrorism. Food supplies are taken for granted, though they make all the difference in conflict and population sustainability. Warlords in Somalia have often used hunger to control. The understanding of catastrophic agricultural threats is a particularly important center of study because it effects large scale populations of people beyond border and class. Historically, events like the dustbowl, though not biological, are constant reminders of what hunger inflicts upon people. 

Missed Assignment week 4

1- Sarah Long, a coordinator of breeding at Lincoln Park Zoo, argues in Date Night at the Zoo that “Noah got it all wrong.” What does she mean by this? What strategy are zoos taking to “get it right”? What are the pros and cons of this strategy on the part of zoos? Discuss them in the context of animals like cheetahs, black-and-white ruffed lemurs, and polar bears. Reference SSPs in your response.

What Sarah Long mean by “Noah having is all wrong” is that to breed an entire generation of animals from two individuals makes for very weak genetic diversity. Without genetic diversity, a single disease, weakness, or predator might take full advantage, which would mean extinction for the future decedents. Zoos are taking steps to get it right by cross breeding with other animals from other zoos, thereby expanding the genetic variability of the animals’ offspring.  Furthermore this equates to ensuring survival. If animals in captivity are not allowed a natural means to act, how will they thrive outside of the institution? Cheetahs in captivity are often kept in groups as pointed out in the Wild Things piece. This suppresses ovulation and reproductive activity. Simply putting two animals together does not mean copulation. Zoos are structuring exhibits to better mimic territorial paths in which isolated individuals can cross paths and reproduce. They are also banking sperm samples to artificially inseminate fertile females whom they do hormone treatment and study on. Sperm is also kept for breeding animals overseas.

2- If conservation is a key goal, then what is the tension between funding resources and the how zoos go about conservation? Wht are the alternatives – what do some other people should be done with such funds if conservation is the primary motive?

Zoos operate on two means, capital and education. To generate capital and attract visitors, zoos need to be entertaining. This is a fact that has not ceased to exist, however the ethical means of providing that entertainment have changed.  Consequently, in the mode of entertainment, the wellbeing and natural preservation of that animal in an accurate ecological climate are often overlooked in favor of display. Zoos do not have the space often times to replicate an environment in which animals act naturally, short of in nature. I  believe if conservation is the key goal, money should be first implemented into the accuracy of habitat/climate display and care of animals within the zoo, so as to provide the best visual information for onlookers. By creating this environment, animals will have a more natural place to live and behave. In the mode of breeding for conservation, these environments will make more sense for animals to have privacy to breed – and by using the methods of cross breeding to germinate stronger offspring, the animals can be better sustained, but within reason of the space. This will protect both the animals within captivity as well as the zoo as an institution, while also entertaining. Proper signage and information would be the next step to providing an educational background on why the animal is important, and what is interesting about it. By doing so, it informs the public into going beyond the spectacle of viewing animals. Thirdly, money should go to organizations paired with conservation of animals within the natural world, so that animals can exist outside of the institution of their own volition. The few kept captive should only serve as placeholders within urban environments, windows into the world at large, and not a place of trying to repopulate through clinical means. If it is possible to elevate the “natural” environment of the zoo, reintroduction may be possible.

3- Many zoos argue that the first hand experience with animals at zoos are crucial for helping people to form bonds, and thus develop a care and sense of conservation ethic, for endangered animals. The Wild Thing piece on the National Zoo especially makes this argument. What is your view?

In my experience, first hand engagement with anything helps to create a bond i.e. Starving children in Africa, a parent, even a pet. It is a physical and empathetic encounter with the “other” in the post-mirror stage of psychological development that forces an engagement, and realizes a relationship. The Wild Thing piece has great ideas for reintroduction and engaging public interest, especially among children. This is crucial to introduce information when people are most receptive. It is however a double edged blade which may incur “pet” like associations with the animal and cause a sort of ignorance of its danger or needs. Some information may not sink in as much as a simple enamored engagement. It has its benefits, which are its saving grace in lieu of its shortcomings.

4- What is a difference between American and European zoos in terms of ther philosophy of captive animals breeding if room does not exist for the adult population to grow given the size of the zoo habitats? Which approach makes more sense to you and why? How does the European approach relate to the logic of conservation and the issues of genetic diversity that underlie them?

American and European zoos differ in their philosophies on euthanasia of animals that they cannot support. Europe allows for the raising of offspring to a certain age of the separation stage before they mercy kill it.  By doing so they allow for parents to have a natural grace time before killing a cub that would end up dying anyway. But this presumption negates any chance for a cub to participate in naturally selective processes and denies its genetics of expanding further. United States uses contraceptive means and birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies between populations that live within the same space. It reduces the need to keep animals apart and saves on resources used to care, treat, birth, and feed the pregnant mother and her offspring. However it comes with its own risk of health problems that may develop towards infertility.

Missed Assignments FM week2

1 - In Wonderful Life Gould hypothesizes on cultural values, assumptions, and what kind of logic are evident in the original interpretation of the Burgess Shale, and then the change in thinking that led to its recent re-interpretation. What model of biodiversity and evolutionary change does Gould argue resulted in the earlier error in classifying the Burgess Shale animals? What is the original cultural/historical source of that model, or what he calls “iconography”?

Gould makes critique of the conical  structure of pre-assumed evolutionary lineage and uses the information he gathered in the Burgess Shale to assert his idea that it is not entirely accurate in its mode of biological development. What the structure suggests is that all animals were derived from the same source, or original organic being and develop in a linear way toward naturally selected variety. This he dismisses as a sort of hierarchical chain of previous generations. 

2 - Notice that much of Gould’s argument centers on discussing evolutionary tress (phylogenies) of the kind you constructed on a small scale. At the end of the chapter we see he is interested in the overall shapes (“topology”) of the phylogenies. Why? What does he claim that the shape of phylogenies imply about how evolution happens over long stretches of time that had been neglected by biologists? What kinds of causal factors alter the course of evolution, the shape of phylogenies, and the eventual designs of organisms that we see today?

By focusing on phylogenies, he is able to construct a modeled argument for the logic of tracking back through the evolutionary map. He is able to take past archaic models and reinterpret them to fit a more accurate and thoughtful concepts.  Gould comes to the idea that the structure of evolutionary paths follow the trend of more of a “bush,” than a tree in the sense that there is a rise of disparity and diversity, and then through the process of natural selection there is a collapse of disparity followed by a rise in diversity.

2b - Related: What does it mean to “replay the Tape of Life” and why is this an interesting idea to Gould? Relate Gould’s preferred model with the views of early Catastrophists – what would Cuvier (if alive) like and not like about Gould’s interpretation?

Gould means by “replaying the tape of life” is that by rewinding the tape of life is to create a scenario where all prior patterns were erased, and replaying the “tape” of life from the beginning.  By doing so one might see that the wide range of catastrophic climate or variable environment changes that would occur, inevitably, some of the species would naturally propegate foreward to become modern adapted animals, but these changes would incur different adaptive qualities to their “present” identity. In essence it would be decided by chaotic and random natural selection, but I believe if one were to replay the tape, very similar results might occur because the environment is still the same Earth. I think Cuvier would have not liked to entertain the the idea of such a chaotic system, for his own limited research and religious beliefs in his time, but I don’t think he would be opposed to it so much as uncomfortable.

3 - What is “disparity” versus “diversity”? Give an original example (one not given in the reading).

Disparity is the range of distinctly different species of animal that do not share an obvious common link in morphology.  Diversity is a range of species that have developed a wide range of adaptations and appearances, but on a base level, are more greatly related. Humans have a wide range (perhaps not on the grand scale) of “races” but ultimately, they are all Homosapiens. In other words, they are diverse, but not disparate. If one were to put a caterpillar next to a butterfly, they would show more disparity because of greater morphological difference as opposed to the human body plan, which is more or less slightly varying allometry.

4 - In the reading Evolution by Walking what is so interesting about how the American Museum of Natural History has changed their mammal display? Why is it significant in how we think about biodiversity in his opinion?

The American Museum of Natural Selection has changed the mammal display from time based – to an order based on phylogenies of how animals branched off in a form of linear succession that is not hierarchical. It is important to view this in the frame of dynamic evolution rather than one of temporal succession because it more accurately tracks the change rather than cramming a lot of information into hard lined time based chapters of superior species and primordial animals. 

Missed assignments week 1

1 - What is Aristotle’s main innovation/ contribution to the classification of organisms? That is, what did he do differently than any predecessors? Why does Aristotle’s or Pliny’s natural histories include things like “wonder people” and dragons? What is the explanation for their having been recognized equally with various kinds of fish, deer, or other well-known animals?

Aristotle was the first to begin creating a system by which animas were classified beyond obvious viewing of reptile/fish/bird/etc, based on their physiology. He, of course, did not have the correct means to measure these distinctions, instead making assertions on blood/bloodless, how they bear offspring, and by number of limbs. This division of classification, he opened up to future generations by stating his position as the first steps, encouraging corrections upon which to build a more modern model such as Linnaeus’s Doman, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. 

The reason for his inclusion of mythological beasts was because of the inability to acquire animals that were seen on conquests into Africa and Asia. He received information through word-of-mouth, documenting the observations of others as fact. These second-hand observations often lead to drastic exaggerations and misinformation. Those specimens he was able to acquire, such as elephant skulls, were misinterpreted as large, one-eyed humans.

2 - Why was there a new urgency to classify the diversity of life in the 1700’s (Linnaeus’ time) than there was for ancient Greeks like Aristotle and Pliny? What fundamentally had changed in Europe by the time Linnaeus was observing the variety of living things. Why was Linnaeus called the “Little Oracle”?

With the rise in exploration and trade came with it the discovery of new species of animals and plants. Moreover, these animals could be transported and collected for observation and study. At the time, a largely Eurocentric system of classification was in place, but as these discoveries were made, the system made less and less sense when trying to group these foreign species. Consequently, a new system needed to be developed to account for these changes. 

Linneus was a particularly adept zoologist in creating links between species and ordering them into a hierarchy of groupings. The true genius of his system was creating nested groups that became more and more specialized.

3 - Which definitions of “natural history” from the Natural Histories Project were most interesting to you and why? How do any of them speak to you personally? Relate interstingly to each other? Relate to zoos and the notions of natural history that came up in this week’s readings?

I rather liked Sarah Rabkin’s story and definition of “natural history” because it illustrated what is so profoundly dynamic about the natural world. Her scenario of the mites utilizing humming bird’s nostrils to migrate hundreds of miles south, when one season of flowers on which they depend, ends. It goes to show that there are sinuous interlinking relationships between animals and plants that pass seemingly unnoticed, but with the right insight one can realize the continuities as well as realize that they themselves, too are part of this interconnection, even on levels unnoticeable. This relates to Gary Paul Nabhan’s ideas of natural historians as pack rats, learning about each of these creatures on the intimate scale in hopes of fitting them like puzzle pieces into the whole system at large.

4 – Pick out one quote from Annie Dillard’s essay on Seeing that stood out to you and discuss it further. What is significant about it and why? If it connects to any of the other readings or the Observation 1 exercise to you, mention how.

“A photography professor at the University of Florida just happened to see a bird die in midflight; it jerked, died, dropped, and smashed on the ground. I squint at the wind because I read Stewart Edward White: ‘I have always maintained that if you looked closely enough you could see the wind- the dim, hardly-made-out, fine debris fleeing high in the air.’ White was an excellent observer, and devoted an entire chapter of The Mountains to the subject of seeing deer. ‘As soon as you can forget the naturally obvious and construct an artificial obvious, then you too will see deer.’”

I am particularly interested in this notion of the artificially obvious vs. the naturally obvious and how this is a challenge for Annie Dillard. The artificial obvious comes from experience in seeing, a familiarity with the conceptual structures that build the phenomena. Dillard goes further to explain a scenario in which she is told to look for green to find a frog, but finds it is the color of bark.  To look for something with preprogrammed notions of invisibility, one can realize the subtlety by “not seeing” in order to discern the thing that at face value, blends in with the environment. The readily apparent notion would be to search for a green frog, but a trained mind knows to seek a frog that hides in a particular area, blends with a certain leaf, moves in a certain way, etc… By knowing the artificially constructed “obvious” concept, one will see frogs everywhere, and every bark colored patch becomes a place of intrigue

Observation

I was walking beneath a train track and noticed this lightly colored pigeon that almost blended in with the sidewalk. Were the city a “predatory” environment, this camoflage might benefit it. Sadly, hunters are not the only danger, but panes of glass and windows prove to be just as hazerdous. These deaths are quite common in the urban environment with skyscrapers and highrises constructed largely of transparent/ mirrored glass. Already there is at work a number of factors that will make this discovey a fleeting moment. Ants and parasites have begin to crawl behind the corners of the eyes and in the gaps in feathers. A sanitation worker slowly makes its way up the block. Perhaps someone might collect this specemin and donate it to the field museum.

I was particularly drawn to this one because it reminded me of a suicide case from 1940’s of Evelyn McHale, who jumped from he Empire State Building. Though there was no volition involved in the motive for deah for this bird, it illustrates a shared victimhood of the urban architecture and of the tragic misfortune of happenstance. It also seems to be a rather well adapted animal, despite its obvious post-mortum condition, to the urban environment

grresponse

I found the Fred Wilson piece pretty interesting, how he can organize his art practice without physically making anything with his hands, and instead using his own collections of objects and going through the process of grouping them around certain contexts, such as his statues from the early part of the century that represented black people in a negative way. I like how his organizing these things into more specific collections is his way of somehow getting rid of them, but not before he really gets in touch to them by having to really think about how they fit as objects in relation to the others. I think thats a really interesting approach for our wunderkammer seeing as how we will be using the museum's collection instead of our own, or making our own things, by organizing them we will get closer to the objects we choose in how we contextualize them. I liked the White article for how he approached the contexts he used to group his cabinet of curiosities that seemed to me to go beyond the obvious physical characteristics of what he chose, and began to use them for what they represent to us already.

-guillermo

RESPONSE (ZH)

I find the processes very interesting as collecting is a very interesting way of creating art. I feel as though collection is very fluid, honest and is the bare bones of art making. Piecing together experiences through collections to make scene of a subject is so natural that even scientists do it.

It reminds me early on in our class, when we did the exercise where we grouped those objects together to give it some sort of grounding in out heads. I feel as though that is what Fred Wilson does with his instillation as well as what Joseph Grigley did in his White article.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology, a perfect wunderkammer-- because it was based on the wonderings of it's creator. So beautifully specific and almost without a theme (except for the theme of exploration.)

Project Update MRF

Folklore, media, and myth debunking-

I have edited down the animals I would like to focus in on being the red fox, hyena, bats, porcupine, otter, and ostrich. I may choose to do edit down to six, but as I develop more information, this will be easier to choose from.

I primarily have been trying to recall the animals I saw in cartoons from my own childhood, and what I remember of them growing up. Disney films have been an easy target for this reason, as well as animations/cartoons from pop culture. Thus far, I have looked at how hyenas, otters, and the red foxes are shown.

I took screenshots of the hyena from the Lion King, and the otter from Pocahontas. The red fox is from Fantastic Mr. Fox. 

At age 4, watching the Lion King, I remember having a huge disliking towards the hyenas. They were portrayed as lunatics, with a terrible cackle with ravenous behavior.  Although they were of course the "bad guys" they really hyped them up to be seen as terrible creatures. 

 

I think these portray a good representation of the look they were going for: 

With the otters, they are personified in a completely opposite manner. They are seen as lovable, caring, and goofy. However, unlike what we are shown, otters do have an aggressive tendency that we dismiss or are unaware of. 

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great example of showing how clever foxes are portrayed to be, and how they can be seen as thieves. This image is perfect for this type of animal portrayal: 

I am finding it much more difficult to get good folklore, so this may be edited to just focusing on myths that are false. I would like to find some that I connect with, or that the audience would be able to.

With my folklore research, I found some really odd and interesting ones.

Here is a bizarre tale of the “Resurrection of the Ostrich” : http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/sbf/sbf19.htm. 

With the hyena, this tale is titled," Why the Hyena is Lame" which claims that hyenas do tend to appear lame in the hind legs. Here is the link:  http://worldoftales.com/African_folktales/African_Folktale_14.html.

While researching about them,  I found that they get confused with being hermaphrodites, so I would like to investigate this further and see if there is a tale linked to this. I also found out that they really do have cannibalistic tendencies. The source I looked at for this was : http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/enghyena.html. 

Since I do believe I will have much more imagery  as my source material, I want to emphasize this by using appropriation in the zine format. I do think that this is important because it will be imagery that is more recognizable than I would think tales from ancient folklore would be. However, I do want to merge the old with the newer renditions, so I need to figure out a good method of displaying both.

Response KC

I found Fred Wilson’s art very interesting. His art is made up of collecting miscellaneous objects from the world. It is hands off in the way that he doesn’t physically make his objects, but extremely personal because the objects come to represent things about him. They are stand ins, the become more than the object itself. He keeps an eye out for objects that relate to themes he uses, and puts them together in a still life. To me, they are extremely personal, and vulnerable. The objects represent somewhat of a “Wunderkrammer” of his life experience and struggle. Each object holds a weight much more than itself. The delicacy and juxtaposition of them together creates different and new meanings in relation to him. He is basically giving people a chance to experience his life. It is giving and taking trust from the audience, and making both vulnerable. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is basically an exploration of the world’s interconnectedness. Everything is connected in some way, and by collecting everything and anything; they are organizing it and discovering that. Objects are a way for people to hold onto and relate to the world and other people. A massive collection of odd and “random” objects, plants, etc creates an overall concept. It is a reminder to be more aware and fascinated by objects in our lives. The “Colors/White” article is really beautiful. Exploring an categorizing things and ideas only based on the color white, and other subcategories. It refers to every connotation, everything from white clouds to white race, and the different implications it can have. How one color (or lack there of) can carry so much weight.

MEN update ______

Magritte Nankin

In beginning to organize my conversation and to specify what it is I specifically want to talk about, I have found these articles and web pages. Because my project utilizes animals sexual dimorphism to expand humans understanding of sex and its relationship to the body, I thought it would be appropriate to address Darwinian concepts of sex and gender. Being a Darwinian society, the Darwinian  concept lingers that human and animal sexes, sexualities and sexual expressions are  similar  . "It's difficult to tell just how many exceptions there are to the rule because observations may have been skewed by Darwinian biases.” Observing this situation I have chosen to investigate anthropoid and Aves sexing or sexual determining comparatively to humans. In Sex Determination and Sexual differentiation in the Avian Model by Justin Chue and Craig A. Smith they state that “Evidence from gynandromorphic chickens (male on one side, female on the other) points to the likelihood that sex is determined directly in each cell of the body, independently of, or in addition to, hormonal signalling.” Hence, sex-determining genes may operate not only in the gonads, to produce testes or ovaries, but also throughout cells of the body."  In Gynandromorphs and Intersexes, the cumulative authors suggest, “Gynandromorphs (i.e., sexual mosaics) are genetically chimeric individuals consisting of male and female tissues. On the other hand, intersexes are genetically uniform (i.e., complete male, complete female or intermediate in every tissue) but all or some parts of their tissues have either a sexual phenotype opposite to their genetic sex or an intermediate sexual phenotype.” Using these ideas to challenge serotypes through the presentation of varied forms of morphology, such as cases of Mosaicism and Chimerism, The expression of sex and the associations humans in western culture have to them will be expanded.

                                          Chimerism in horse- expressed in morphology

 

Sex determination and sexual differentiation in the avian model-Justin Chue and Craig A. Smith-

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/article;jsessionid=5nmb7q22pksq0.alexandra?option1=tka&value1=Gynandromorph&sortDescending=true&sortField=prism_publicationDate&pageSize=20&index=2

Gynandromorphs and intersexes: potential to understand the mechanism of sex determination in arthropods

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/article;jsessionid=5nmb7q22pksq0.alexandra?option1=tka&value1=Gynandromorph&sortDescending=true&sortField=prism_publicationDate&pageSize=20&index=4

Sex and gender scientists explore a revolution in evolution

http://news.stanford.edu/pr/03/aaassocialselection219.html

Stephanie Chasteen

Mosaicism and Chimerism

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/genetics/medgen/chromo/mosaics.html

Chimerism and tolerance in transplantation- Thomas E. Starzl*

http://www.pnas.org/content/101/suppl.2/14607.full.pdf