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Proposal for resuscitating prehistoric lives: the Synthetic Woolly Mammoth 2
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Asian Elephant CT scan image
(provided by the Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin)
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Inside of an Asian Elephant's vocal tract
3d reconstruction from original CT scans
All content © 2011 Royal College of Art
Site: Loh & Fiedler
Thanks to: T.Lynch, S.Thiel, D. Foster-Smith
Proposal for resuscitating
prehistoric lives
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?
"Back, Here Below, Formidable" is a quest which aim is to resuscitate the sound of extinct animals by reconstructing their vocal tracts. This is problematic from the scientific point of view: since the vocal tract is made of soft tissue, it does not fossilise. The only things that have been preserved through time are the surrounding bones. The inner parts have to be redesigned.
For more than six months I have been discussing with palaeontologists, zoologists, veterinarians, engineers, explorers, surgeons, ear and throat specialists, and radiologists.
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 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.
And suddenly, they roar in a non macabre but spectacular pandemonium.
Project Credits
3d models: Clifford Sage
Book: Ghazaal Vojdani