Museum proposal MRF

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Proposal 1

Name of Project Members

Michelle Ralph-Forton

Unifying Biological Concept /Theme – What is the biological concept around which you will organize your wunderkammer?  Discuss a little bit how you plan to use the cocept to connect and synthezie objects and aspects of the museum in an interesting, novel, informative, and potentially eye-opening way for visitors?

For my wunderkammer, I would like to explore the way certain animals have been portrayed to us through folklore and popular culture in media, and counter that by retelling true facts about these animals. My goal will be to enlighten the audience with true facts that may have been tweaked, hyped up, or poorly misjudged. When a certain archetype is placed upon an animal or individual, it is difficult to cleanse that misjudgment if it is repeatedly passed down from generation to generation. This is why I particularly find it essential to revisit folklore stories or cartoons we were raised with to shed new perceptions on animals that may have been judged too hastily.

Rationale for this Concept /Theme – Why are you interested in this theme? Why is this a meaningful natural history supplement to a museum experience? What will a museum goer learn / experience / think about that they wouldn’t otherwise? (100-200 words)

I am interested in this theme because I feel that it is especially important to remind oneself of how an animal should typically act like when confronted with dead animals. Museums work differently in this manner because of this resolute fact- it is a collection of dead things. As much life and animation the curators and taxidermists may have in posing the animals in elaborate ways to give them “natural” characteristics, the obvious still remains clear that they are indeed inanimate. Thus, what remains is our memories or stories we were told about these animals and we can begin to decipher how they may have been like alive. I feel it is crucial to be reminded of the real facts, in comparison to these out dated fairy tales we may still be lingering on to, to remind us of the truth.

Media format of the project – What are the components in terms of text, diagrams, audio, video, etc that you will likely use and why?  How will this be accessible to the general public.

I am leaning more towards a book, or zine for this project, that may have an audio component as you follow along the path.

I would like to make it so that one page will be mimicking the false interpretation of the particular animal, and the image to the right will have a more accurate one. Next to it will be jotted facts, and why the first image misconstrues an accurate perception of the animal. Not all will be so obvious or completely contrasting what the first image says- I think sometimes it is will just be a matter of colors of the animals that may have been off or certain characteristics such as speed or height.

Possible, specific items or components to include in your wunderkammer (so far)

1.     Red fox- high percentage are born with abnormal coloring, are albino, or melanists. Are they really that conniving and sly as the stories described them to be? Do they steal?

2.     Crows- I want to understand the origins of why they symbolize death, and being a “trickster”. Are they really cunning?

3.     Wolves- “Big bad wolf”

4.     Badgers- I always remember them to be “loners” and lazy in childhood stories. I wonder if this is really true or if they are social creatures.

5.     Bats- intimidating, blood sucking little monsters.  I wonder how much of this is true, are they really so ferocious or only attack when irritated/feel that they are threatened?

6.     Bulls- are they really attracted to the color red?

7.     Bees- I always found that they were characterized by being agitating to humans, and that they were a threat- you had to swat them or else they would sting you. This is very different from the realistic personality of a bee- they are actually quite gentle if not agitated. Also, they are all female, which I do not believe was ever mentioned in any books I read as a child.

8.     Camels- they store fat in their hump, not water like most stories said they did

9.     Cows and their intelligence. They always come off as banal.

10.  Hippos- usually portrayed as lazy, dim, and rarely described as aggressive as they are.

11.  Mosquitoes- blood sucking, even males (this does not exist)

12.  Porcupines- shooting their quills (cannot happen in real life)

13.  Otters- always fun, joyful, friendly, but never as aggressive as they can be in real life

14.  Ostrich- sticking head in sand, which does not occur in reality