“I’m fascinated by the magical aspect of science; which seems to reduce the complexity of the world to a few mathematical formulae.” —Vincent Fournier
In 2008, Vincent Fournier provoked our imagination about the ambiguity between science fiction and reality with Kubrick-esque photographs of various space-program destinations. Fournier then explored the real-life fantasy of people in Europe and Japan living with humanoid robots. His latest work is a collaboration with evolutionary geneticists, dreaming up human-engineered improvements to DNA in plants, insects, and animals — super species that evolved to survive negative effects on the environment from humans. Here we have anteaters that are able endure global warming, sparrows with keen vision, beetles equipped with GPS, mushrooms that grow in dry climates, lizards with mirrored scales for camouflage and collecting heat, and dragonflies that can detect poisonous emissions through monitoring changes in the air.
Take a peek at Past Forward, the 270-page limited-edition book including images from his Engineered Species and Space Project series. There’s also a wonderful 18-minute video profiling the artist here.
(via “Imagining the Future Animal” on TIME LightBox)
Credit: All photos by Vincent Fournier courtesy of TIME.
