Fucuberta and Pseudo-Science

From Pam:

Wow (Maybe the black seadevil should be part of the masculinity symposium)

I like the idea of wonder in science. This brings to mind the Spanish artist John Fontcuberta who created pseudo scientific documents – so convincing that at first they appear to be factual.

(Fontcuberta’s frames his work this way)

Here is a little clip from a gallery review -

About 1987 Fontcuberta and Formiguera apparently made a startling discovery. During a visit to Scotland, in the attic of a house in Glasgow, they found the archive of Dr. Ameisenhaufen who had died in a car crash in 1955. After further research into the life and work of the Doctor, they learned that his discoveries, which document what appears to be many previously-unknown, bizarre genetic mishaps, had provoked great debate and controversy during his time. But can any of it be trueNULL

Solenoglypha Polipodida is a snake-like creature, with twelve feet, that is supposed to be able to paralyze its prey with a high-pitched whistle. And there’s a squirrel with webbed feet and a snake tail – Myodorifera colubercauda. There is Micostrium vulgaris, a menacing weapon-swinging mollusk, and Centaurus Neandertalensis, which Dr. Ameisenhaufen didn’t known whether to treat as a semi-humanoid, as a living myth, or simply as a zoological specimen. As one reviewer put it: This modern-day bestiary is every bit as fascinating as the strange illuminations of the medieval age, and all the more disconcerting as the camera seems to bear undeniable witness to the beasties’ meanderings. (Melissa Rombout, Boston).

http://imagearts.ryerson.ca/imagesandideas/pages/reference.cfm?page=222 (see a photo and more about the project here)