Humanless Nature

2022S

Humanless Nature is an exploration of imagining a world, long long time ago, and speculating on alternate evolutionary histories. Concentrating on mutualism as one aspect of evolution, as one possible mode of existence in an environment where there were no predators for a very long time.

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In conversation with paleontologists, we created a unique taxonomy, to further explore the concept of mutualism, and created a fictional world of creatures who thrived in this mutually supportive world. We brought our alternative world of Gabonionta to life through a series of strange models and stories. By presenting a visual language akin to scientific models, we want to question our knowledge of evolution, opening up our imaginations for what life on our planet could have been like billions of years ago.

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We developed our project as a response to our semester brief ‘Jelly Worlds’, where we, Design Investigations, partnered with Vienna’s Natural History Museum to imagine and speculate deep time and alternate evolutionary histories. The brief emerged from NHM’s desire to explore stories around the recently discovered Gabon fossils that suggest multicellular life existed 2 billion years ago.

 

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