Holocene Extinction Memorial
Critical Contextualisation
This report aims to critically contextualize and interpret our group project. There used to be a time where over a million chimpanzees roamed different areas all around Africa. Due to deforestation, and hunting, there are currently less than 200 thousand left in the world. The population of chimpanzees is decreasing to this day. Chimpanzees are not just being hunted for reward, they’re also being hunted illegally to be sold as pets to rich benefactors. Young chimpanzees are the most common prize taken due to their overly cute and baby-like appearance. This market is actually widening as people are determined to spend ridiculous amounts of money on having chimpanzees as pets. This is wrong on so many levels, it is first of all illegal to incarcerate chimpanzee babies as pets. They will grow up to not know what it means to be a member of their species. They will grow up to a handicapped chimp, a house pet. Leading from that, it’s very unsafe to keep chimpanzees as pets. They may not develop correctly or mend to themselves naturally as they would in the wild. This practice is highly unethical and sometimes you have to wonder what these hunters think of themselves once they’ve captured an innocent child chimpanzee from it’s mother. Chimpanzees are also hunted for meat, not just by their natural predators — but by hunters. Chimpanzee meat is what is known as “prized bushmeat” by people all over the world. Over four thousand chimps are hunted and gutted a year and they are exported to European countries mainly such as France and England and sold on the down-low. The meat is very expensive. But why would anyone want to eat a chimpanzee? Chimpanzees are dying off due to natural or not-so natural pathogens. There are a number of natural pathogens that a long time ago would have kept the chimpanzee population at a steady number. Now they work to dwindle their numbers alongside us. Not just that, man-made human pathogens regularly reach chimpanzees. The ebola virus has slaughtered thousands of chimpanzees in South Africa. As the human population rises, the demand for human habitation soars. Our species destroy more and more of their habitat on a daily basis. Roads begin to cut into forests, and forest land is turned into farms and housing, and industrialised. It is human nature to expand, however cities, villages and towns all over the world but particularly in Africa are just bloating bigger and bigger in size to provide the room necessary to house the growing population. Habitation eradication is without a doubt the single biggest factor in why over 800,000 chimpanzees have passed away brutally in the last 5 decades. This leaves the question. If 50 years of industrialisation has killed eighty percent of their species. How many chimpanzees will be left in 100 years. Any? Zoos around the world that are employed into the EAZA/WAZA organisations do a good job at thwarting the exctinction of these beautiful animals by breeding them without incest. However, there are only so many zoos around the world and they rarely send big animals like chimpanzees back out into the wild as it is expensive and they might have a hard time surviving and it is very unlikely that they would be accepted into another group of chimps.
Deforestation is killing our planet and the innocent animals that are simply trying their best to inhabit it. Nasa predicts that at the rate we are going. There will be no rainforest in 100 years. This is a huge problem.
To kick off the project — Myself, Daisy Melnyczuk, Megan Kerr, Georgina Shu krou, and Emmy Hakieva visited the Edinburgh Zoo alongside our other classmates. We listened intently for an hour to the staff from the Zoo as they told us about their ideals and the motivations behind the Zoo. Myself and my group members entered the Zoo with a very negative opinion of Zoos and their treatment and captivity of animals. However, the talks from the staff member utterly convinced our group that all around the world, these days Zoos are doing their best to thwart species die-offs. We learned that there are a multitude of worldwide organizations including BIAZA (British and Irish association of Zoos and Aquariums), EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquariums) and WAZA (Worldwide Association of Zoos and Aquariums). Each of these organizations cross-breed and trade members of different species in order to keep the population going upwards. Learning about the different animals, and their troubles — We were drawn towards wild cats and chimpanzees. The chimpanzee enclosure was very effective in keeping the chimps happy and entertained. We found them extremely interesting given their human-like interactions with one another. Thusly, we delved into further research on the species and found that in the last 50 years, over 80% of the original chimpanzee population has been slaughtered mainly due to deforestation but also hunting. This was our smoking gun and the statistic that drove our project forward. Chimpanzees have been throttled by the industrial Revolution. Our driving force behind it was discovering out about only 20% of their population remaining. This initial factoid has developed into a memorial that, will hopefully make people more aware about the dire state of chimpanzees — and also support Edinburgh Zoo in appreciation for theirs and everyone else’s efforts in helping the chimpanzee population. Our final product we named: Our effect on chimps, it is a concrete memorial designed for use in Edinburgh Zoo to commemorate the devastating losses that chimpanzees have faced. The goal of this memorial is not to shame people. It is to inform people about the problems that chimpanzees face, and to thank them for contributing to the rehabilitation of chimpanzees by supporting Edinburgh Zoo. The front profile of the memorial would featured an engraving into the concrete that stated: “This is a memorial to Chimpanzees. Our closest living relatives are at war… Deforestation and hunting over the past fifty years has wiped over eighty percent of the chimp population off the planet. By visiting Edinburgh Zoo, you are contributing to the rehabilitation of this beautiful animal. Thank you.” This message accomplishes our aim of not shaming people for visiting zoo’s or being ignorant about anything. But, it does pack a punch, informing viewers that over 80% of the chimp population has disappeared in the past fifty years. It may also inspire people into acting against this problem. It also thanks the visitor for supporting chimps through the zoo — which we believe will create a kind of contentment in the visitor. The memorial’s message would be engraved into the concrete, and would be glossed with gold paint. Therefore, the memorial will look classy and professional. The memorial features a timeline of human habitats; directly correlating to a timeline of the chimps’ habitats. Therefore, on the bottom slope it begins with little mud huts, progressing to apartment buildings and skyscrapers. On the top slope, starts beautiful and lush forests, burning out into a sad,decrepit, spiky and unfriendly field of dead trees, and loss. We wanted the memorial to not only be interactive to adults, but we wanted it to be interactive for children. Therefore, we included a traditional little game of truth or false. There are eight little ‑aps on the memorial for children to read. They feature statements like: “Humans and chimpanzees share 95–98% of their DNA.” and once lifted this one in particular will say: “True, biologically chimpanzees share more of their DNA with humans than gorillas.” All of the messages are quite interesting and therefore we think this feature of the memorial will be particularly effective in making people sympathise with the chimpanzees and consider the message.
When it came to sourcing facts for the minigame and for general knowledge we looked at a few different websites including National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/c/chimpanzee). We chose to include facts from the National Geographic as it is one of the most prestigious websites for animal facts and can absolutely be trusted to not be biased or fake news. We also looked cited Edinburgh Zoo’s website: (https://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/animals-and-attractions/animals/chimpanzee/)
Looking back, there are a few things I would do differently. We put in as much effort as we can but if more time had been put towards the actual development process we may have come up with something a little more distinguished. The final form was slightly uninteresting even though the content itself was interesting and quite disturbing. I feel we did quite a good job working together and did well at not pressuring the viewer too much. The project required a lot of learning on my part as we were designing a product as graphics students. Hannah’s feedback was particularly helpful in teaching me how to present a product much better. I enjoyed the learning and I enjoyed working alongside people from other courses.
