Portuguese Man-of-War by Aaron Ansarov

These are photographies of Man-of-War by Aaron Ansarov. At the beginning, I didn't know Man-of-War is the name of a kind of jellyfish, and I was so confused about the title of the post on National Geography. 

I have to say that I super love their colour, their form, their every twist structure. I can stare at them for ever. They are truly art works. I really want to have this kind of form in my work. Well, I can imagine the difficulty. Maybe it is better to do it in glass, which is out of my hand in this stage.

Reference: Juxtapoz Psychedelic

I found this book during writing research paper, which was about juxtaposition and alternative realities. Though these works were not included in the paper, this book gave me some ideas the beginning of the research. Some of them look really contemporary and scientific or abstract. Some of them are in more traditional illustration styles, with elegant details. I found that collage is pretty popular in this kind of theme. In terms of colour, their colours tend to be dramatic. Purple, red, green and blue are used a lot. Perhaps the strong contrast between them can stimulate people. 

London Aquarium

Since some people told me that London Aquarium was really good and some held totally different idea, I decided to go there and have a look. Because of my project, if I can find some useful reference or resource, it will be great.

Here are some pictures I took.

This fish can walk on the sand which is really creepy, and cute at the same time.

To sum up, I was quite disappointed. Though I was not surprised about this, as I also felt disappointed about the one in HongKong. But comparing these two, the one in HongKong is awesome. 

London Aquarium is small and has few things to see. Really. It doesn't have many fish, and many fish just live in small tanks. I was hoping that the aquarium may have some nice setting in the tank, but I couldn't find any thing interesting. In the marine section, I can even see more species in the fish shop I am working than there. In the tropical section, some of the plants in the tank are in a poor condition.  But the tropical fishes are healthy and active. I cannot understand. It is like the aquarium doesn't want to arrange the tanks well. The setting are important. They should visit the aquariums in other countries. Or it is because they don't have competitors here. Even the tanks in Kew Gardens are better.

Exhibition: Stranger than Fiction

This exhibition was in Science Museum. It was definitely out of my comfort zone. The longer I stayed there, the more I felt scared. My hair was all standing up. 

The photos and other evidences were arranged in a really scientific way that my friend and I thought these weird animals were real. There were video about how these strange animals were found. And analyses of their habit, features were just around every specimen. There were even anatomical drawings. We kept saying that these animals must not evolve naturally, because there was no way that these features could appear in one animal. For example, a monkey had a bird's wings, or a turtle has four wings. We thought these were some cruel experiments during the war time.

I have to admit that this artist trick us successfully. Until now, when I am writing the journal, I am still not brave enough to look at the photos. It is a good way to be narrative indeed, but the specimen is my nightmare since I was young.

QAQ

Artist: Geoff Litherland

Key words: natural world, human influence, surrealism of science fiction, fantasia of abstraction, parallel world.