For my final installation I placed a giant salmon in the sky of the middle panel, replacing one of the flying fish already there. I did this to tie in Scattered All Over the Earth as well as some or the larger themes of language and modification we have been looking at this year. One of the first things about the book that made it take a turn for the strange was the mention of giant salmon heightening reproduction to an insane extent on page 16. After reading an article on Bosch’s painting that mentioned his use of giant salmon I could not resist using that as one of my collages. It does also connect as a way of examining mutations and chimeras which are interspersed throughout the painting and prevalent in many of the discussions we have had this semester. Chimeras ask us to think about what makes something human or not specifically in relation to technological adaptations. How human does AI have to be to be human and how technological does a human have to be to be machinery. Does a robot programmed to adapt and learn and communicate count as human. Certainly not as of right now but will it in the next 50 years, quite possibly. This is why I replaced half of the salmon with a mechanical skeleton, and added in a text bubble. Is it fish, robot, or human? It looks like a fish, it is made like a robot, and it speaks like a human. As absurd as it seems, that is the reality we are now dealing with. 

As inspiration I used Fiona Hall’s Paradisus Terestris, Louis Jean Desprez’s La Chimère, and Gustave Moreau’s Oedipus and the Sphinx. All of these show some form human combined with something distinctly unhuman. Oedipus and the Sphinx sticks closest to traditional chimera seen through mythology with a human head on another animal or combination of animal’s body. It also depicts the famous story of the sphinx who won’t let travelers pass without answering a riddle. In Desprez’s La Chimère the animal shown has less of a specific function but has a purpose like any animal to survive. These both stay close to the common theme of chimeras through myths and stories, serving as guardians or obstacles to overcome. As we move away from myths and into trials of creating combinations of beings, we have strayed from the old visions. Our chimera’s now function essentially as humans, instead of creating an equal combination we are attempting to create artificial creatures indistinguishable from humans. We do not want chimeras to be their own creatures, rather a means to better humanity. Paradisus Terestris shows the combination of humans and nature in a way Morton claims we should be linked yet many do not feel. It connects humans and animals in the same way Bosch does, creating new chimeras not only reserved for animal life. Hall’s work shows the collision of different species for the benefit of both, rather than the artificial creation of one to aid the other.