Sydney College of the Arts The University of Sydney DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2012 THESIS THE AESTHETICS OF REPRODUCTIVE MORPHOLOGIES By Maria Fernanda Cardoso August 2012 Statement This volume is presented as a record of the work undertaken for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 4 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... 6 Summary ........................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 11 Chapter One ..................................................................................................... 16 Identifying Genitalic Extravagance and Imagining a Museum as a Means of Investigating and Communicating Strangeness in Animal Reproductive Morphology 16 Imagining a Museum .............................................................................................. 20 A Museum is Born —Press Release ........................................................................ 23 MoCO Timeline: an idea in time ............................................................................ 24 Chapter Two ...................................................................................................... 29 How to Make Your Own Museum ............................................................................. 29 Chapter Three ................................................................................................... 48 Making Sense of Artful Science ................................................................................. 48 Chapter Four ..................................................................................................... 69 Specimen by Specimen a Museum Collection is Made .............................................. 69 On 3-D modeling 3-D printing and 2-D rendering ................................................. 69 First specimens ....................................................................................................... 72 On microscopic specimens and how to make them exist at human scale ............... 79 On Museum and Exhibition Design and Display .................................................... 89 Chapter Five ...................................................................................................... 97 Objects That Talk: The Science of Sexual Reproduction ............................................ 97 Evolution in a nutshell ............................................................................................ 99 Genitalia .............................................................................................................. 100 Sperm Competition .............................................................................................. 101 Sperm Plugs ......................................................................................................... 103 Female Promiscuity .............................................................................................. 104 Cryptic Female Choice (CFC) ............................................................................... 105 Sperm morphology and coevolution .................................................................... 106 Sexual Conflict ..................................................................................................... 108 Female Sense Organs ........................................................................................... 114 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 118 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 121 Appendix ......................................................................................................... 131 Images of the Installation of MoCO at Cockatoo Island .......................................... 131 The Wonderful World of Professor Cardoso ............................................................ 132 Museum of Copulatory Organs Catalogue of Works ............................................... 133 3 Acknowledgements This project would have not been possible without the unconditional support of many individuals who believed in the merit of my research and encouraged me to do so. Even though it is my research, the scope of my project and its ambition would have not been able to be developed without collaborating with other artists, academics and technicians. I would firstly like to thank my supervisor Ross Gibson, who kept me on track for four long years, always keeping the big picture in mind. He guided me in a field unknown to me: academic writing. Thanks to his insights I was able to tame my enthusiasm and deliver a proper thesis. I want to thank my editor Ross Harley, who helped me on the last stretch to get it into a tight form. Thanks to Sue Linsday, microscopist at the Australian Museum, who encouraged me to pursue my dream to make 3-D models out of electro- microscopic scans, and had the patience to sit with me and scan miniscule specimens multiple times until we achieved the results we wanted. Thanks to Andrew Simpson from Vert Design, who was not afraid to experiment with me to achieve what no one had achieved before in 3-D modeling, and who found the talent and technologies to do it. Thanks to Matt Booth, for his great eye and technical skill in computer modeling, and for taking the risk of tackling this subject matter. Thanks to Valerie Odewahn, Tony and Johnathan at Sydney College of the Arts, who helped me ‘make things’, and answered technical questions absolutely every day I was on campus. There was so much to learn from them. Thanks to Nick Greenwich, from the 2-D Digital Lab at Sydney College of the Arts, with whom I learnt to work in 2-D digital image printing. Thanks to Allan Jones at the Centre for Microscopy at Sydney University. Thanks to Mark Elliot for lending me his flame glass skills to make some beautiful objects. Thanks to Gary Warner for the thoughtful and effective museological design, display case design and object support, and especially for the beautiful miniature lighting he did for the show at Cockatoo Island. I enjoyed working with him making every decision a thoughtful one. Thanks to Philip Sticklen for his beautiful craftsmanship of the display cases. Thanks to Bill Eberhard for his generous comments, and for letting me use his drawings as inspiration for many of my artworks. Thanks to the Australian Museum for giving me access to its microscopic collection of animal genitalia, and for lending me some Harvestman specimens for the exhibition at Cockatoo Island. Thanks to Sydney College of the Arts, who gave me access to fabulous facilities and a beautiful environment in which to study and make art. Thanks to Sydney University for the UPA Scholarship, and thanks to Arts NSW for their generous support for the exhibition of my project at the 18th Biennale of Sydney. Thanks to the Biennale of Sydney for lending me Building 123 at Cockatoo Island and for an audience of over 600,000 people. Thanks to Catherine de Ziegler and to Gerald McMaster, curators of the Biennale, for inviting me to participate. Thanks to Emma Watts for her thoughtful documentary The Wonderful World of Professor Cardoso produced by ABC TV Artscape, which followed the project prior to the exhibition at the Biennale, warming the audience to the show at Cockatoo Island, and presenting my 4 perspective as a woman artist to the public. And lastly, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the many volunteers who gave me at hand with the installation and de-installation of the project on the island. 5 List of Illustrations Figure 1 William Eberhard, Mammalian penes, Hemipenes of Snakes, and Damselfly Penises, illustrations from Sexual Selection and Animal Genitalia, (1985). With permission from the artist. Figure 2 Maria Fernanda Cardoso, The most elaborate genital armature yet known. Coloured scientific illustrations of the flea genitalia from the Cardoso Flea Circus Lecture 1998-2000. Figure 3 Maria Fernanda Cardoso, (Australian) Animal Penis Museum Business Plan, confidential document. Printed matter, 2004. Figure 4 Barnum’s American Museum 1853 on Broadway and Ann Street, New York. Figure 5 Portrait of P.T. Barnum. Figure 6 Madame Tussaud, Self Portrait, Figure 7 Madame Tussaud, Guillotined heads. Figure 8 Madame Tussaud, Self portrait as a young lady. Figure 9 The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. Figure 10 Richard Ross photograph of the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, 1982. Figure 11 Richard Ross, photograph of the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, 1982. Figure 12 Richard Ross, photograph Rhino, Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1981. Figure 13 Clemente Susini, reclining female wax figure from La Specola. Late 18th century. Figure 14 Mascagni's lymphatic vessel man, late 18th century wax figure, La Specola, University of Florence. Figure 15 Ziegler studio: How to model an embryonic lizard brain by the wax-plate method of reconstruction. Figure 16 Ziegler stand at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Figure 17 Wax models from the Ziegler studio of Ernst Haeckel's four main types