Stora? Utdöda? Djur?

Tre frågor till naturhistoriska gestaltningar

Abstract

Departing from observations from the Jurassic Park roller-coaster ride at Universal Studios, Los Angeles, this article poses three questions to popular cultural performances of natural history: how is size assembled and produced, what role does death and extinction play, and what kinds of animal/human positions do the performances generate? Based on a diverse material of pilot studies for the project Post-animals at natural history museums and theme parks, popular film, youtube reviewers and literature, the article sees the collaborations and dissonances between different agents and technologies involved as an ongoing production. Size is the result of an intricate interplay between interpretations and perspectives, and the mounting, staging and framing of remains. Death and mass extinction organize post-animals, from geological narrative to individualized and dramatized death, creating both classificatory order and suspense. The human is central to the performances – as a point of reference and presupposed spectator of a specific shape, size and often gender. To conclude, the article claims that post-animals – emerging at the intersection of popular culture and science – constitute important keys to an understanding of how humanity is imagined in relation to other species.