Yale University exhibit 2016
featured work by artists
Uwe Arens
Victor Romanyshyn
Hilla Steinert
mp Warming
and scientists
Christopher Clark
Damian Elias
Madeline Girard
Richard Prum
Kristof Zyskowski
Uwe Arens
Victor Romanyshyn
Hilla Steinert
mp Warming
and scientists
Christopher Clark
Damian Elias
Madeline Girard
Richard Prum
Kristof Zyskowski
bird architecture: the coevolutionary aesthetics of bird and man
bird architecture was presented at the Institute Library with sponsorship from the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities at Yale University and was based on the work of Ornithologist Dr. Richard Prum. The intent of our inaugural exhibition was to inspire a deepening in understanding coevolutionary beauty. This was achieved by interweaving scientific inquiry with soulful works of art.
One such image opens the home page of this website, Leonardo da Vinci's fetus placed in a robin's nest drawn by mp Warming. Warming's digital montages in this exhibit included sections from da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds. Dr. Prum evidenced this codex in his article, Leonardo and the Science of Bird Flight.
Artist Victor Romanyshyn's photographs of birds were curated in diptych arrangements aside still lifes of his studio. These parings worked to transform the artist's studio into the artist's nest. Uwe Arens' photography depicted performance artist Hilla Steinert ground nesting in her art installation Dream On.
The curatorial concept expanded upon exhibitions in museums of natural history by more fully acknowledging the underlying scientific exploration featured in these germane artworks. Current scientific articles providing factual evidence of coevolutionary aesthetics and other relevant science where showcased with the artworks- and were perused by the audience while viewing. The articles were positioned alongside nest specimens borrowed from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
In Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) Charles Darwin proposed that birds select mates based on a female subjective perception of beauty, and that these aesthetic interests underpin the evolution of ornamental traits. A substratum of sexual selection is sensual selection. Bird Architecture explored this concept with visual and scientific parallels to Darwin's ideas, as further developed by Dr. Prum and associated scientists.
One such image opens the home page of this website, Leonardo da Vinci's fetus placed in a robin's nest drawn by mp Warming. Warming's digital montages in this exhibit included sections from da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds. Dr. Prum evidenced this codex in his article, Leonardo and the Science of Bird Flight.
Artist Victor Romanyshyn's photographs of birds were curated in diptych arrangements aside still lifes of his studio. These parings worked to transform the artist's studio into the artist's nest. Uwe Arens' photography depicted performance artist Hilla Steinert ground nesting in her art installation Dream On.
The curatorial concept expanded upon exhibitions in museums of natural history by more fully acknowledging the underlying scientific exploration featured in these germane artworks. Current scientific articles providing factual evidence of coevolutionary aesthetics and other relevant science where showcased with the artworks- and were perused by the audience while viewing. The articles were positioned alongside nest specimens borrowed from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
In Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) Charles Darwin proposed that birds select mates based on a female subjective perception of beauty, and that these aesthetic interests underpin the evolution of ornamental traits. A substratum of sexual selection is sensual selection. Bird Architecture explored this concept with visual and scientific parallels to Darwin's ideas, as further developed by Dr. Prum and associated scientists.
artist nest © Victor Romanyshyn