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→Jamie Ferguson: Vanessa_Cardui in Space
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This project was modelled after the 'Butterflies In Space' project sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Vanessa Cardui larvae that hatched six days earlier flew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. Children from American elementary schools were encourage to take part by creating their own butterfly habitats in the class room, to watch the butterflies live and grow and die over the course of 25 days; the greatest variable was gravity. The second was possibly the 'payload', the artificial habitat taken aboard to house the larvae. The difference is not so much in its content but with the container itself. A 'flight certified scientific insert' was developed at BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado. "Our…competency is enabling the conduct of space life sciences research in a highly regulated environment in such a way as to make the complicated process completely transparent to the investigator." This appeared a very different object from the terrariums and disposable plastic food containers the school children were promoted to use, but their aims were comparable. | |||
These are the plans and models for a simulated version of that habitat. | |||
keywords: | |||
space, simulation, artificial habitat, habitat within habitat, controlled environment, containment, alien | |||
By 'participating' in the experiment myself, situating the larvae into an 'artificial habitat', I was in a position to observe first hand the lifespan of the butterflies in a way similar to the school children. I thought the butterflies were relatively resilient considering their predicament. As environmental sensors, by observing the butterflies I saw very quickly the shortcomings of such a situation and wondered if the total lack of this acknowledgement was passing with the students. How great was our our inability to recognize the needs of another species but of our own. | |||
In parallel to this, I compiled a research of sorts about butterflies of Europe and subsequently of biological conservation practice, some provocative, for example, 'assisted migration'. This suggests preservation strategies that include working out how to relocate a species elsewhere due to environmental degradation and instability. Because of this, it has become important to (re)introduce organisms into fitting micro-biomes, though early twentieth-century attitudes towards the human re-deployment of flora for example, remains characteristic of the way 'invasive' species are approached: unwelcome and disturbing. It is a concern that 'alien' organisms can be destructive… | |||
Assisted migration to space is at a level relatively even fewer can appreciate. Thinking about this distance and this 'alien-ness', I wondered about these artificial habitats, anything that has been modified or made by people, habitats have been constructed and employed to domesticate and house, observe, experiment, and transport life; how do we fabricate this ideal place in relation to ourselves, to others, the environment, in essence, in relation to nature, -something we have gradually constructed as being outside of or other than ourselves. | |||
==[[André Wünscher]], [[Anica Huck]], [[Hannes Wagner]], [[Michael Schlund]], [[Michaela Honauer]], [[Thomas Fritzsche]]== | ==[[André Wünscher]], [[Anica Huck]], [[Hannes Wagner]], [[Michael Schlund]], [[Michaela Honauer]], [[Thomas Fritzsche]]== | ||