Brainstorming
I am interested in how we sent a chimpanzee to space. I think this says a lot about humanity. It flexes control over nature. It displays a desire to explore the “frontier.” It acknowledges the similarity of chimpanzees to humans, using them as a mascot for the entirety of humanity. It is a historical retelling of Icarus’ desire to fly high.
Process
Final Piece
https://vimeo.com/377641610
Statement:
This piece is about how we sent a chimpanzee to space on January 31, 1961. I think this historical event says a lot about humanity. It flexes control over nature. It displays a rather uniquely human desire to explore the “frontier.” It acknowledges the similarity of chimpanzees to humans, using them as a mascot for the entirety of humanity. It is a historical retelling of Icarus’ desire to fly high.
In the video, I wanted to depict Ham’s caretaker forcing him to watch porn. The woman in the video is being used and degraded and I feel that this parallels the treatment of Ham and other animals by people. The porn is prefaced by a statement that is meant to glorify Ham’s achievements, telling him to “fly to the sun” on behalf of America, though he had little to gain from this and the risk of death was extremely high. In fact, the chimpanzee was named No. 65 prior to his flight so that people (both his caretakers and the public) did not become too attached to him. He was only given the name Ham after his safe return to earth, named after the the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, in order to avoid negative publicity that would have come from his possible death. At the end of the video I have some text that is slightly sarcastic to critique how he is hailed as a hero but was treated as a tool. Even his skeleton is used in the National Museum of Health and Medicine on display, rather than being buried as a truely respected hero would be.
