Imagining the Future Animal

4 minute read

Vincent Fournier is a photographer of the future—both the one that’s actually happened, and the science-fiction future that we hoped would come to be. In his earlier work, the French artist plucked robots out of laboratories and staged portraits of artificial life forms like Sony’s Asimo going about their business in the human world, drinking from a water fountain or playing basketball. In his sprawling “Space Project,” Fournier—who used to visit the Paris museum of science as a child—traveled to world’s centers of space exploration, places like the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia and NASA’s venerable Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Fournier’s photographs make the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah look like the forbidding alien landscape it was meant to stand in for, while his shots of technicians in bubble-helmeted space suits are mined from the same visual vein as Stanley Kubricks’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. These are glimpses of Tomorrowland, the space age that never quite took off. Even his work on Brasilia—the custom-built capital of Brazil, that perpetual “country of the future”—show an obsession with classic visions of tomorrow, with humankind’s effort to bring the universe to heel. “I love machines, the ones that fly, speak, count or observe,” Fournier has written. “I’m fascinated by the magical aspect of science, which seems to reduce the complexity of the world to a few mathematical formulae.”

In his new work, Fournier is still looking to the future—to the hard lines of the man-made—but he’s moved to things that are living. Or at least, things that may live. In his “Engineered Species” project, part of his recently released book Past Forward, Fournier explores how life itself tinkers with its own design, changing DNA to make species better, faster and stronger. Fournier took pictures of taxidermy specimens—stuffed and pinned animals—and brought them to animal geneticists to find how these species were evolving in real time as the environment, thanks largely to human action, keeps changing.

The result are new engineered species like a global warming-tolerant pangolin, a rodent-like Asian mammal with a tougher keratin skin that enables it to maintain a constant body temperature, even in a hotter climate. An ibis—a long-legged wading bird—evolves longer, stronger claws that help make it more resistant to both drought and frost. A rabbit—one that stares at the viewer with expressive blue eyes—is engineered for higher intelligence thanks to neural stem cell treatment.

None of these species are real yet, and like Fournier’s earlier space-age work, they may turn out to be a vision of a future that does not come to pass. But I doubt it. We’re already on our way to engineering new life forms, to tinkering with the DNA of the species around us—and eventually ours as well. We may have no other choice—the environment is changing more rapidly than wildlife can adapt to, and the result is a wave of extinction happening faster than any this planet has witnessed for millions of years. For nature to survive, it may have to become artificial—though even Fournier, who says he loves machines, has his doubts about our ability to control these metamorphoses. “The universe is not as well ordered as our machines,” he writes. “It acts in an irrational, chaotic, violent and mysterious way, and even though there are computers that can design our forests, the control remains artificial.” Our engineering, after all, can exceed our wisdom.

Vincent Fournier’s limited edition monograph Past Forward was recently released by IDEA BOOKS.

Additionally, Fournier’s photographic work will be on display as part of the Les Rencontres d’Arles photography festival in France through September.

GREAT GREY OWL [Strix nebulosa]Predator-resistant feathersVision in pixels for delivering a fuller pictureto the brain. Process of computer software memory.Engineered nerves cells and photoreceptor cellsin the retina of the eye. Neither ears nor horns.Embryogenesis modification. Tufts feather with a narrow band of wavelengths (305-320mm) to avoid predation.Claw composition: non-metallic and metallic (106Cd)components [1:5] for defense.Vincent Fournier
TREEHOPPER [Curculionidae botulus]Pollutant-sensitive insectDNA parts (by direct DNA synthesis)for constructing an inducible sensor-receptor circuit.Produced a flourescent protein based on the blue-lightreceptor YtvA protein (from Botulus subtilis). VP64 activation domains. Nuclear localisation signals of cells on ventral abdominal region. Animal with bacterial sensor-reportercells for the detection of pollutants.Vincent Fournier
PANGOLIN [Pholidota supraclimatis]Climate change-tolerant mammalBetter adaptation to climate change (i.e. increase of 2∘C). Nocturnal/diurnal animals.Impaired number of repetitive units (scal family gene). A high keratin content (DM content of 45%) maintains a constant body temperature and controls homeostatis. Claw composition: non-metallic and metallic (Ir) components [1:7] for animal defense.Vincent Fournier
SPARROW [Passeridae megapixeliadeae]Bird with high visual acuityInjection around 20000 engineered stem cells per eye using isolate fibroblast precursors from corneal stroma.Critical visual angle : 0.35 arc-minute. Large format camera : 180 degrees.Resolution of the bird eye : 576 megapixels. f/ratio = 22.3/7 = 3.2Vincent Fournier
BEETLE [Oryctes transmissionus]Insect adapted to continuous trackingGPS receiver in the horn as integrated antenna.Secretion of a two-layer ABS/Plexiglas material bythe engineered animal. Accuracy of time signals (±10ns). Head and thorax made with Al for short-wavelength transmissionsin the ISM band from 2400-2480 MHz. Able to withstand accelerations of 12,000 g or about 118 km/s2. The L5 frequency band at 1.17645 GHz added. Animal for continuous tracking. Vincent Fournier
CORTINARIUS [Fungus aridus]Like-arid environment tolerant fungiInjection of a genetically modified gene isolatedfrom camel hump cells in spores. Reservoir of fattytissue derived from lipoblasts within cap. Metabolized tissue with a yield of approx. 0.1 of H2O for each 0.1 g of fat converted through reaction with O2 from the air.Vincent Fournier
CROCODILE [Crocodylae hypersexualis]Reptile with new reproductive strategyDecreased aquatic/terrestrial animal body size.Compensation of body-downsizing effect of competition. Teethes consist of polymer with a linear thermal expansion coefficient (4.7 ppm/∘F).Engineered with a synthetic operon for production of an ester of methacrylic acid (CH2=C[CH3]CO2H). Sharp scales as secondary sexual characteristics. Vincent Fournier
WEEVIL [Entimus saliris]High adaptation for jumping insectJump rings made with metallic (anodised Al)components in segments. About 0.4 (1 cm) inche in diameter; 20 mm thick.The engineered insect produces an electric current causing the surface of the aluminium to oxidize.The jumping beetle can be 3 to 7 feet (1 to 2 m) tall.Vincent Fournier
FLOWER [Orchis musa]Edible flowerPetals genetically transformed into a thin outer layer and an edible inner portion.Flavor and texture of tree-ripened bananas dueto Musa genes introduced by agroinfiltration. Purified BAC DNA sheared by nebulization, size-selected(2-3 kb) and ligated into pHOS1 (a pUC-derived vector).Changes to a brownish-yellow as petals ripen further.Vincent Fournier
IBIS [Passeridae temperatio] Drought- and frost-resistant bird Long claws made with silicon-28 Improve cell wall strength of claws with up 1 percent methylvinyl- siloxane units (R=CH3–; R' = CH2 = CH–). 95-99% purity. Molecular weight, (3-8) x 105; density, 960-980 kg/m3 (0.96-0.98 g/cm3). Temperature resistance : from - 30∘C up to + 700∘C. Vincent Fournier
DRAGONFLY [Chloromgonfus detectis] Volatile inorganic-sensitive animal Detection of traces of volatile inorganics (NOx,CO, CO2,O2,N2 and H2) in pure air by helium ionization. Engineered insects with helium carrier gas and make-up gas Deliver sensitivity in the low ppm range by a florescent signal (using a genetically modified G-protein coupled receptor kinase gene). Maximum flow rate of 400 mL/min. Elongated abdomen with visual function. Vincent Fournier
MONITOR LIZARD [Varanus imitabilis] Mimetic lizard Glass mirrors on scales providing parabolic reflectors. Very low f/#s. With a ray depth of 48. Secretion of a thin layer of aluminium by reduction from tetrahydroxoaluminate Al(OH)4– to metallic aluminum by microbial-bacterial processes. Agro-infiltration of engineered bacteria with surfactant Silwet L-77. Body for mimetic camouflage.Vincent Fournier
SWEET PEA [Lathyrus gemmae] Real Flower Jewellery Genetically modified cell membranes.White flowers, 2-3.5 centimeters broad. At maturity freezing requires SFR2 genes. Ability to switch from fresh to frozen phase by lipid remodeling. Combined activity of SFR2 and triacylglycerol-biosynthetic enzymes.Vincent Fournier
RABBIT HIGHLY [Leporidae cognitiva] Very intelligent rabbit. Motor neurons from induced pluripotent stem cells. Capable of generating new cells (neurogenesis). Higher level of electrical activity in neurons seeded on carbon nanotubes (CNT) modified microelectrode arrays (MEAs). Armchair (2,2) CNT with a diamter of 3 A. Carry an electric current density of 4 x 109 A/cm2. Animal with enhanced cognitive capacities.Vincent Fournier

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