part 363 paper snowflakes

[aphanon_meme]

It's... December! I can't believe it's almost the end of another year. Time is weird. Anyway! There's been a lot of neato Hetalia news in the meantime! That game (that I can't get working but will look at videos and screencaps of so I can play vicariously)! The image of the first doll! The musical promo images!! What are you most excited for?

Enjoy part 363!

Latest Page

View flat!

*There is a rules page here. Please read it before reading and posting.

*There is a contact post here. Please use it for contacting me privately.

*There is a meme calender you can use for tracking and listing meme events!

*Dreamwidth, unfortunately, no longer supports any type of anonymous image posting.

*If you would like the Dreamwidth layout to look more like Livejournal's, you can use this workaround for your browser

Note: All entries prior to Part 331 originated on Livejournal.

Comments

Re: ask an anon studying museology

[zeetee]

Ooh, museology! How's it been going for you? And what kind of taxidermy?

A girl in my art school did a 180 on her metalsmithing major (not hard to do, metalsmithing kids were... odd) and started teaching herself taxidermy by skinning mice. Most of my classmates were kinda repulsed but for some reason I found it kinda funny :'D

Re: ask an anon studying museology

[(Anonymous)]

it's really fun! (though hard to throw myself back into an academic setting orz) my favorite thing about it though is that it's really interdisciplinary! history, art, philosophy, chemistry, math - it's all relevant and useful!

i'm looking at the use of taxidermy specimens in natural history museums, ideas about how specimens can be safely stored and handled (considering arsenic & mercury were widely used as pesticides up until the 1980s & even later, found once source saying denmark was still using arsenic until 1995!) as well as the ethics of having the specimens & acquiring them & certain laws museums have to observe in getting new specimens and also loaning them around.

haha, i'd be more like you! like, on one level it's guts and gross stuff but on another it's also pretty neat!

Re: ask an anon studying museology

[zeetee]

ooh, good! (aaa good luck! that can be tough ;3;) Huh, I never really thought of it that way, you're right! You kind of have to know a little of everything to do it well!

Interesting! Eesh, there are some pretty bad chemicals in a taxidermy piece, huh... The urge to kill and stuff is so strange to me, especially in the realm of rare bird species. "Good lord, I do believe that is the last known somethingorother bird of eternal beauty!! I MUST SHOOT IT" On the other hand, when the animal died of natural causes or passed away in captivity as the last known somethingorother it's a good memorial...

It's odd that I found it funny, given that a trips to taxidermy-heavy natural history museums rank up there in my Most Traumatizing Childhood Memories... But like one of the things she made was this white fur mat and shawl which were very lovely and you could think it was fox or something if not for the one little mouse paw or tail she left sticking out. I liked the absurdity of her pieces, haha, though idk if that was her goal :'D

Re: ask an anon studying museology

[(Anonymous)]

there was actually a recent controversy like that! maybe you heard about it - there was a researcher from the American Museum of Natural History that killed & collected the first male mustached kingfisher observed by science and people got REALLLLY upset (even tho the bird population is doing well & considered common in its own habitat it's just rare to science). it engendered a big discussion about the necessity of specimen collecting but the scientists argued that a species has never gone extinct or been critically threatened solely due to specimen collection but idk. when it's the last animal ever, i'd feel better that it was preserved but it still makes me sad

similarly, i read about how a museum in England created a sort of faux taxidermy of a dodo after the dodo was extinct using (illegally collected) swan feathers

haha! i don't recall ever being around it when i was little, but around age ~15 i got to see some of the brilliant stuff they have at Cabela's, ignoring everything else about that place, their taxidermy is really great. Her stuff sounds really cool! and kinda quirky!

Re: ask an anon studying museology

[zeetee]

I think I vaguely remember something like that... though I was referring to a section in Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything (which is a great read!) Yyyeah I think if it was captured and studied, then let free again, it wouldn't've been better. Especially since the species isn't actually dying out, just elusive?? Like take a picture, it'll last longer and get fewer people all mad...

I read the wikipedia page on dodos after responding to you, since we were talking bout them at lunch. Sad that no complete real specimens exist! And... couldn't they have just... bought non-illegal feathers... Especially since dodos have been found to be related to pigeons.

There's a big collection at a local college, for some reason the ymca thought it'd be a stellar activity to take a bunch of small children there. Hooray, dead animals, sometimes with morbid death stories! Y'know, for kids! Haha anyway yeah, her work was cool and quirky! And confused everyone who came near it, haha.