TALK AT THE V&A- THIS HAPPENED Marguerite Humeau "Marguerite Humeau is a French artist, living and working in London. She has recently graduated from the RCA Design Interactions. Humeau’s work has been published by different international magazines such as I-D magazine, Blueprint Magazine, Fastcompany, Designboom, NPR. Her work was recently exhibited at the MOMA in New York “Talk To Me”, at the Barbican Gallery and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. “Lucy” from “Proposal for resuscitating prehistoric creatures” was recently acquired by the MoMA for their permanent collection. Is the ancient dream of resuscitating prehistoric creatures made possible by recent cloning technologies? Marguerite is on a pre-post historic epic journey to resuscitate the sound of prehistoric creatures by reconstructing their vocal tract."

1. PROPOSAL FOR
RESUSCITATING
PREHISTORIC LIVES
BY MARGUERITE HUMEAU

3. 14/01/11 AUSTRALOPITHECUS 107
DOC. A. 079—(1–2) Chimpanzee skull
(2)
(1)
OC. A.. 078—Lucy’s skeleton (AL 288-1) Australopithecus
arensis,
14/01/11 AUSTRALOPITHECUS 106

4. CREDIT 3D: CLIFFORD SAGE

5. CREDIT 3D: CLIFFORD SAGE

6. CREDIT: ORIGINAL CT SCANS PROVIDED BY THE IZW, BERLIN

11. 19/02/11 MAMMOTH 127
DOC. M. 091—(1–4) Screenshots of the inside of the Elephant head
(1)
(2)
VOCAL APPARATUS
DOC. M. 090—Drawing of Elephant Vocal Apparatus
19/02/11 MAMMOTH 126

12. CREDIT: GOOGLE MAPS

13. 03/12/10
DOC R. 036
02/12/10
AO.U NI V.PROF.DR . GER A LD E. W EIS SENGRU BER
A RCH A EOZOOLOGY A ND COMPA R ATI V E MORPHOLOGY
MAMMOTH
RADIOLOGY
U NI V ER SIT Y OF V ETERINA RY MEDICINE V IENNA
AUSTRI A
Dea r Ma rg uerite,
A re you ta lking about CT-scans?
Cheers
Gera ld
Ao.Univ.Prof. Dr. Gera ld E. Weisseng r uber
A rchaeozoolog y and Compa rative Morpholog y
A natomy
University of Veterina r y Medicine Vienna ( Vetmeduni Vienna)
Veterinaerplatz 1, 1210 Wien, Austria
49
48
DOC. M. 035—Dima, Baby Mammoth. In 1977, the first complete baby mammoth
was found—a 6–12 month old male named ‘Dima.’—Image courtesy Ria Novosti
IMAGE COURTESY RIA NOVOSTI

14. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

15. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

16. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

17. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

18. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

19. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

20. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

21. IMAGE COURTESY BERNARD BUIGUES

22. IMAGE CREDIT: STUART BAILES

23. DOC V. 0 9 9
a microphone, so they have MB
21/0 3/2 011
a much sma ller microphone, Euh… they a re going to come
ver y limited, so by looking at back, here because, they are
PROFES SOR M A RTIN this you can extrapolate, you in Cha ring Cross at the mo-
BIRCH A LL , PROFES SOR can know, by looking at that, ment because somebody is
DOC M. 098
OF L A RY NGOLOGY compa red to other anima ls, cata log uing them. Actua lly
14/03/11
A ND CONSU LTA NT they can probably hea r ver y Ha rrison, overtime he went
L A RY NGOLOGIST AT low frequencies so they would abroad he used to come back
DON ESK ER THE R NTNE HOSPITA L not be hea ring the tweeting with anima l la r ynxes
M A M MOTH SITE * FIR ST L A RY N X of bird, probably. So that’s
TR A NSPL A NT IN ver y unlikely that dinosaurs MH
Mammoth Site Stylohyoid 98HS038
MAMMOTH It would be g reat to have a
CA LIFOR NI A , 2010 * would hea r the tweeting of a
Ms. Humeau; bird. look at them…
Meeting with Martin Birchall That’s one way a round.
I’m ver y sorr y that this letter has been so long in coming. I assure you MB
It’s looking at it from a dif- Absolutely! so specif ica lly I
that I didn’t forget about our conversation—lamentably, however, a few ferent angle, so, then, the
other projects have interfered. I just f inished scanning an [M. columbi] [ … ] need to have a look at what
bra in is important, the way he’s got for primates, and el-
stylohyoid for you. I’m including it as an attachment to this document in we process the sound infor-
STL (stereolithog raphy) format. Given a couple of days I should be able to ephants.. so we need to f ind
mation coming in and going out what he’s got there, be -
send you a basihyoid and thyrohyoids scan as well. M A RTIN BIRCH A LL out, and then a ll the ner ves
Please note that these scans a re of disa rticulated rema ins, so there Absolutely! so f inish this, and cause, we could scan them
need to be working ok. ver y easily.
is no g ua rantee that they a ll come from the same anima l. This shouldn’t then think about dinosaurs! The next ma in thing
introduce too many complications as a ll of our mammoths a re of roughly I absolutely love this you need is a driver, some- MH
the same size class. idea! Have you a lready spo- thing to pump, so you need This would be g reat.
A ga in, I apolog ize for the delay, and I hope that you f ind this data ken to the speech ser vice at your lungs, to be in good
useful. a ll, or..? shape. The amount of force MB
generated by the lungs will They a re in boxes but you
Rega rds, M. HU MEAU could scan them. That might
No, not yet. determine the volume and to
Don Esker a lesser extent the range of be useful to you. Because,
136
MB the sounds that you a re able la r ynx have complex shapes.
P.S. The sca le is in mm. Ok because, when you a re to produce, so old people with This is a human la r ynx ( he
P.P.S. If you need a different f ile format, please let me know. generating speech or…“A” lung disease have quieter shows a rea l la r ynx, in a bo-
sound ca lled communication voices but they a lso have a ca l) actua lly from Harrison’s
in some sense, there a re lots slightly deeper voice too but collection and so…here this is
of inputs to the system. that’s something you a re not the windpipe here, a ir is com-
So let’s sta rt with the going to have a lot of control ing up, tr ue voca l cords at the
ea rs, so the sound that’s com- of, I appreciate. bottom here, and then there
ing in will a lter your lea rning The la r ynx comes next, is a space there, you see a
of speech but a lso, feedback and as you may know, la r ynx- slit, do you see the slit there?
from the sound you a re ma k- es have a ll different kinds of MH
ing, so it is ver y important, funny shapes. My predecessor Yes.
and it is a lso important be- here, Professor Ha rrison who
cause with the sound that died in the mid-nineties, he MB
you a re ma king you want to built up a huge collection of A nd that’s the la r yngea l ven-
be hea rd by the members of anima l la r ynxes, they a re a ll tricle, it is quite sma ll in hu-
your species so we know for preser ved, so… I don’t know mans but some anima ls have
example that dinosaurs for whether they would be useful it huge, pigs have an enor-
example they have the co- for your purposes or not but mous one…euh…and that a lso
chlea in the ea r shaped like he had a la r ynx of ever y spe - will a lter the ty pe of sound
a sna il , and humans have cies on the planet. that you will get, whether
a ver y long one but in di- they have on this ventricles
nosaurs they only have one MH or not and the voca l cords
cur ve, a ver y sma ll cur ve, Oh wa hoo… and a re they kept can leng then then or shorten
like a microphone, it is like somewhere or..? them to produce different fre -
VOCAL FOLDS 21/03/11 137 MEETING WITH MARTIN BIRCHALL

24. VOCAL FOLDS 21/03/11 147
1
(5)
(4)
21/03/11 VOCAL FOLDS 146

25. IMAGE CREDIT: STUART BAILES

28. CREDIT 3D: CLIFFORD SAGE

29. IMAGE CREDIT: STUART BAILES

31. 07/01/11
07/01/11
DOC H. 069
V RT PA LEO LIST: J ERROLD A LPER N
ENTELODONT
HYAENODONT
Some possibilities:
—The Origin & Evolution of Mammals by T.S. Kemp
(Oxford Univ. Press, 2005),
—The Beginning of the A ge of Mammals by Kenneth D. Rose (Johns
Hopkins Univ. Press, 2006),
—The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins & Relationships of the
Major Extant Clades ed. by Kenneth D. Rose & J. David A rchiba ld
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2005),
— Beasts of Eden: Walking W hales, Dawn Horses and Other Engimas
of Mammal Evolution by David Ra ins Wa llace
(Univ. Ca l. Press, 2005),
— Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution and Diversity
by Peter S. Ungar (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2010),
— Extinction and Radiation: How the Fall of the Dinosaurs Led to the
Rise of Mammals by J. David A rchiba ld
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2011)
94
95
Jerr y A lpern
DOC. E. 068—Entelodont—South Dakota, Wyoming, 2M on shoulder, 30M years ago

32. HYAENODONT
15/04/11
152
153
(1)
DOC. H. 103
(1) 360 degrees view of a modern wild pig skull
(2) Skull of a modern Wild Pig, one living
descendent of the Terminator Pig
(3) Cut/ view of the airways shape
CREDIT: DIGIMORPH
HYAENODONT 15/04/11 152

33. CREDIT: ORIGINAL CT SCANS PROVIDED BY THE IZW, BERLIN

34. CREDIT: ORIGINAL CT SCANS PROVIDED BY THE IZW, BERLIN

35. POLITIQUE-FICTION
MAY 10TH 2012- JAN 10TH 2013
SAINT-ETIENNE, CITE DU DESIGN
Credits
3D images (simulations): Clifford Sage
Photographs: Stuart Bailes
In Siberia: Bernard Buigues
Book/Graphic Design: Ghazaal Vojdani
CT Scans: Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin