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THE OPERA OF EXTINCT ANIMALS

A synthetic, unsettling murmur— is heard.
The shadow is fast, a flash.
In the space, an aura emerges.
It was inconceivable to accept the possibility of an absence, an eternal extinction.

Is the ancient dream of reviving past lives made possible by recent cloning technologies?

Enigma

“Back, Here Below, Formidable” is a quest which aims is to resuscitate the sound of extinct animals by reconstructing their vocal tracts. This is problematic from a scientific perspective: since the vocal tract is made of soft tissue, it does not fossilize. The only things that have been preserved through time are the surrounding bones. The inner parts have to be redesigned.

Quest

For more than six months I have been discussing with palaeontologists, zoologists, veterinarians, engineers, explorers, surgeons, ear and throat specialists, and radiologists ( including BERNARD BUIGUES who discovered frozen mammoths in Siberia http://mammuthus.org/about/team/bernard-buigues/, http://www.google.co.uk/search?um=1&hl=en&biw=1555&bih=1242&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=lyuba+mammoth&oq=lyuba+mammoth&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=undefined&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=7057l8456l0l8l8l0l6l6l0l162l209l1.1l2#q=lyuba+mammoth&um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=c30d3c14c4b4f968&biw=795&bih=813, http://heatherpringle.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/shipping-a-frozen-mammoth/ MARTIN BIRCHALL who grows synthetic larynges http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ear/research/birchall, JOY REIDENBERG specialized in giant animals vocalisation http://www.channel4.com/programmes/inside-natures-giants/articles/professor-joy-reidenberg ETC.) The work is developed as a saga. Each chapter contains a series of work or documents which are gathered in a book.
The quest could be seen as fetishistic and romantic.
The (re)creation of the roars is the goal but as important is the journey, driven by the unrestrained will to be able to feel the beast’s physical presence again. There is a rigour and dedication to trying to produce the real sound, however impossible that might be.

Tools

The project investigates the frontier of scientific fact and designed fiction. I have gone as far possible using scientific fact (showed in the book). The shortfalls or gaps in knowledge were filled in through articulate speculations; designed solutions to the problems left by nature and decay.
The scientific evidence runs parallel to the rumours, fears and fictions. Advices from experts as well as predictions are used to craft the roars of the new creatures.

The new creatures

The recreated beasts have adopted soft tissue from their living descendants. A redesign of the larynx and vocal cords, windpipes of estimated length and diameter, and a new, fresh artificial breathing produced by an air compressor. The beasts are semi-real. They exist in a new time scale. And suddenly, they roar in a non macabre but spectacular pandemonium.
Work includes:
- Mammoth Imperator, – 4,8M -4500 years ago, installation view, 600L X 300H X 100W CM
Resonance cavities, larynx with vibrating vocal cords, windpipe, air compressor, programmed breathing system, subwoofer
- Lucy, Autralopithecus Afarensis, -4,4 -1M years ago,
50L X 115H X 30W CM
Resonance cavities, larynx with vibrating vocal cords, windpipe, air compressor, programmed breathing system
- ” ON THE WAY TO REVIVE PREHISTORIC CREATURES” MORE THAN 100 LETTERS FROM EXPERTS/ CORRESPONDENCE AND DISCUSSIONS AND DOCUMENTS ( PDF AVAILABLE ON REQUEST)

NOW

After reviving a Mammoth Imperator and the first human Lucy, I want to create a full opera. That’s what I am working on now and that I would love to introduce during the event.