Who (and what) are the Croods?

 In the 2013 film 'the Croods' we follow a caveman family who navigate a changing climate (and impending doom). Instead of analysing the actual movie, i'm gonna be a bio weirdo and decide which species the Croods are. so, let us begin....

So, we have a bipedal family (walk around on two legs) throughout the movie. Sandy (the very small child) walks quadrupedal, though this could be due to her being a toddler (a very murderous one at that). They have relatively small teeth and jaws, with a small fore head but also a small degree of prognathism. Using this facial structure, we can eliminate the Australopithecus genus.

Their clothing is reletively complex, being form fitting and made of different materials, likely using some form of sewing. Eep also wears a necklace, suggesting their are capable of more complex thought, potentially with the necklace having a symbolic meaning. They use very basic tools, but not fire, suggesting that they are part of the Oldowan tool structure. When it comes to their hunting tactics, they use communication but not a large amount of tools, also fitting in with the Oldowan tool culture. Their shelter is a natural cave, rather than a free standing hand made shelter, suggesting that they are from the early homo genus. They are shown to eat foods such as raw eggs and meat, which is high (but would be higher if they were cooked) in energy, compared to fibrous plants.

Using this information, I would predict that they are either late Homo Erectus or early Homo Heidelbergensis (hypothesised to be the predecessor to Homo Neanderthals). Both these species are primarily bipedal, have smaller foreheads and use early stone tool culture. How ever, with the Croods, there are a few weird features. They are shown to have complex thought such as grief when Grug is left behind and they mourn his death by blowing their shell horns. They also have very advanced clothing, which could possibly just be a design choice, but where is the fun in that? These features fit better with the Neanderthal genus, so they are a weird species. They also use art (shown by Grugs story telling) which makes this a little more complicated to get a definitive species.

In conclusion, I believe that the Croods family are members of the late Homo Erectus/ early Homo Heidelbergenis species, as shown by both their biological and cultural evolution demonstrated within the film.

In the initial narration, Eep suggested they are neanderthals, but I don't really care. Its a movie anyways.

Not just the power house of the cell.

Biology: Mitochondrial DNA

 In 1987, a group of scientists published a paper about mitochondrial DNA and the common mitochondrial ancestor that humans all over the world share. Mitochondrial DNA is different from nuclear dna and is only inherited maternally (from mothers, because sperm cells do not contain mitochondria). The DNA stays relatively unchanged throughout generations and the only source of variation is mutation (which occurs at a slow and steady rate). Human mitochondrial DNA codes for around 37 genes (compared to nuclear DNA which codes for around 30,000 genes). The mitochondrial DNA that the scientists tested was from all over the world and can all be traced back to a singular woman who lived (probably in Africa) around 170,000 years ago. This woman is nicknamed “mitochondrial Eve”. The average differences in the mitochondrial dna of the participants of the study was 9.5. The DNA difference within a group (eg. just in Europe) is higher than the difference between groups (eg. between Europe and Asia). It was also found that Africa had the highest number of mutations (probably because that is where the lineage started) and Australia had the lowest number of mutations (because humans immigrated there relatively recently). They claimed in their conclusion that a larger sample size would have given a more definitive answer about the lineage of mtDNA.

That awkward moment when your fossil gets found in a cave.

 In level three biology, we have been learning about human evolution. As a fun add on, we have learnt about a random species found in a cave system in south Africa. This species is an interesting thing, where it contains both human like features and ape like features. Another annoying challenge is the lack of surrounding rock and other substance, that makes working the age of this species a bit difficult. 

Homo Naledi

Australian museum (2019)

https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/homo-naledi/

Whilst on a cave expedition in 2013, two cavers found themselves in an unexplored part of the ‘rising star’ caving system (in south Africa). In this unexplored chamber, there were many human like fossils. This was a huge scientific discovery. The call went out for more cavers (who were small enough to fit through a narrow part of the cave. The 6 most qualified people who were chosen to collect the fossils were all young women. ‘Naledi’ comes from the word for ‘star’ in the local Sotho language. The strange thing about Homo Naledi is the combination of advanced human like features (shape of skull, hand structure, foot structure and the bottom half of the pelvis) along with earlier features (small stature, small cranial capacity, robust collar bones and arm bones which suggest climbing). The remains were also found in a cave, but there is no evidence that they were dragged down by predators. It is also very unlikely that the amount of homo naledi found in the caves just got lost and died. It is more likely that they were buried, in a ritualistic manner. This would suggest the potential of abstract thought and rituals within the species. Then again, its not like we can go back and ask them :)

Art board update (wow, look at me go)

 So, panel two is nearly done, which is pretty snazzy. Quick recap: my theme is unattainable perfection and the obsession over being perfect. A truely heartwarming idea. My artist models include Artemisia Gentilschi, Frida Kahlo and Faith ringold. 

The last series (because order isn't relevent in my blog posts):

Art series 8 is supposed to sum up all of board two. Board two focuses on the grotesque side of perfectionism, while still being aesthetically pleasing. The women's faces are painted in watercolour (a delicate and 'feminine' medium) whilst there are flowers bursting out of their skulls. Blood is dripping down their faces.

I couldn't get them to rotate. So the overall visual feel of these paintings is "if a water colour palette could throw up on a piece of paper", which is exactly what I wanted. There is a grungy feel which represents the messiness of perfectionism (how it can make your life a mess). There is also gold leaf to link with the gold boarders of the first board. My artist model for this series was Frida Kahlo. Her paintings are often close up portraits. They also seem to use flowers as a motif a fair bid, along with gruesome imagery (like the one where her heart is cut out). I Incorporated these motifs whilst not translating the media (I used water colour, she used oil paint). 

Art series something (the top one of the second board, I have lost count):

I didn't really have a plan for this series (I know, shocking, considering that everything is planned out to scale) as I started the first one at 2.30 am on a fateful Sunday morning. The next thought was obviously "great, now lets make it look kinda scary". The gold boarder and stitching are both elements which I used in the first board. These paintings now have gold leaf on the white swirls, I just don't have a photo.

This series is in the same style as art series 8 (because I started it in lock down and only had watercolours at the time). Same style features as well. We have some figures in the middle of the painting, dark purple backgrounds, flowers and stitching (with white embroidery thread). Once again, I have used the juxtaposition of beauty (flowers, colours ect) and gruesomeness (because having eyeballs is for suckers).

Its fair to say that I am pretty darn happy with this series. I am really proud of how they turned out and for experimenting with watercolour (I used to find it really annoying because its so easy to mess up).

Art series 'the other one':

I know, creative naming. This series is inspired by botanical charts. Other than the flower motif within my boards, the only real reason why I decided on a botanical chart style is because I think they are really cool. Of course, I needed to make this series depressing, so I added some lovely labels which represent the cycle of perfectionism. I also used the same dripping effect as the other two series, because I CAN. 

Purple flowers, because this is one of my board's main colours. They also have white stitching to tie in with the Faith Ringold emulation series (first board) and the 'girls without eyeballs' series. 

That brings us to the grand finale... The finished board:

I don't know how to get them to be side by side. I guess this year I wont be spending all of study leave in the art room (because that ended REAAAAALLY well last year). Chances are I will do a few touch ups before the end of the year, but I am really happy with myself.

Level two art: term three update.

As of today, which is the second of September, my first art board is completed. Yay.

Ok, so the theme of my board is unattainable perfection and how we tear ourselves apart in the effort of achieving something impossible. This could be anything, from grades to our appearances. Especially in this day and age, it is so easy to get caught up trying to be perfect. From the social media influencers with 'perfect bodies' via Photoshop to some of our peers, who somehow manage to get 100% on everything; its becoming increasingly hard to be happy with ourselves. This unhappiness can lead us to become obsessed with our flaws and try to change them. We try to change what makes us human.

Fair to say, its a viscous cycle.

So, I've planned out all my series, to scale on this page. Little bit nerdy but that's ok. 

Art series one:

Art series one featured roses painted using the principals of positive and negative space. These roses were bordered by vintage mirror/ frames.

The original plan was to have charcoal sketches of mirrors as my series, reminiscent of the style of Kath Kolwitz. After doing the positive/negative space exercise in class, I decided that a rose in that style would be very beautiful and a little bit Gothic, which are both features I wanted to include in my board.

The series ended up looking like this. The roses symbolises beauty, which is one of the many unattainable things we strive for. The wilted rose, while still beautiful, is dying. I thought the dying rose would be an ideal representation of when we take the obsession of beauty too far.

Art series two:

To go with my already depressing theme, we have a lovely series of some woman getting consumed by vines. As ya do. The woman is supposed to be Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. Beauty is one of those things that we are pressured to have and can quickly grow out of control (like untamed vines, see what I did there?). I used the purple flowers to represent the beauty in this obsession (not how it hurts people, but how it starts off as an improvement then backfires). This obsession gradually grows and over takes the image, represented by the vines having more space in the second painting.

Art series three:

Art series three is an emulation of the African American painter/ quilter Faith Ringold. Faith uses quilting and painting to convey various stories and people. Quilting is one of the major ways stories were passed down from generations in some African cultures are used by Ringgold to create her politically charged artworks. I used geometric shadows/ shapes and stitching to represent her art style.

Art series four:

Ignore the title on the planning page, I swapped some series around. Art series 4 acts as a summary of the first board. The images are of two women in different phases of being consumed by flowers. Thats not gruesome at all. 

they are framed with gold boarders, which links back to my first paintings. Wow, its almost like motifs are useful for ncea art, who knew.

Please excuse the blurry-ness, my phone is a bit odd. The contrast between the dark background and the drastic highlights of the figures represents Artemisia Gentilschi's style, who is one of my artist models. Overall, I am pretty happy with board one.

                   :)

Should I steal the bike?

 Another English lesson, another existential crisis. Today I have been learning about Immanuel Kant and his concept of categorical imperatives. Kant is interested in morals and in his opinion, morals aren't connected to religion, they are connected to us as people.

This ties in with our exploration of the concept of self because morals make up the unique reasoning why we do the things we do.

There are two categorical imperatives which Kant uses to summarise how we as humans have morals.

1. “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”. A maxim is the action that you are thinking about taking. For example, I could be thinking about stealing somebody's bike. By this moral logic, I can only steal this bike if I think everyone should always be allowed to steal. Obviously thats a dumb idea, because that would just cycle around and around, so by Kants logic, I should not steal that bike. 

2. “So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in another, always as an end and never as only a means.” This means it is wrong to use other humans for the sole purpose of your own benefit. Obviously we use things as a mean all the time, such as the computer your are reading this on, or the bike I definitely didn't steal in order to get around, but it is morally wrong to use a person and only treat them as a way to get what you want. We use people all the time too, such as teachers to pass on knowledge, or chefs to make food for restaurants, but we still acknowledge their humanity and know there is more to them than that singular purpose. 

These two ideas come together to form the idea that we treat others as human and don't do to them what we wouldn't want them doing to us. 

Ps. No bikes were stolen in the making of this blog post.

Level one art: term 3 update

 As expected, more progress has been made towards my art board. Art series 3 has been completed, art series 4 is nearly done and both 5 & 6 are planned out. I am happy with my progress so far, and am really enjoying planning and creating artwork. 

Art series 3:

This series' artist model was Shane Cotton. I used his signature dark colours, geometric shapes and grungy textures. The geometric shapes and borders (along with the colour scheme) also link these pieces into the rest of my board. The ideas behind this series were the treaty of Waitangi and the musket wars. The key parts are the rid of painted muskets, the treaty of Waitnangi (text) and the moko pattern of Ngai Tahu (which is my tribe). This series was done in acrylic paint, water colour paint and lino print.

Art series 4:

Art series 4 sits directly under #2. These pieces all flow together with the colour scheme and the invading Tudor rose element. At this current moment (while im blogging) the roses and borders are not painted yet. These paintings are done in water colour and acrylic, and have Sofia Minson as it's artist model. I used her flat colours and various textures in my pieces. They link into the rest of my board with the borders and color scheme. There isn't a whole lot of geometric shapes in this series, because I was focusing on more natural shapes and nature being consumed by the tudor roses (a visual representation of colonisation).

Art series 5:

This will be the last piece of art board one. It still focuses on colonisation, and will keep the goemetry and contrast. This will be slightly more gruesome (blood, ect). The artist model for this peice is Shepard Fairey. I am using bright colours, various textures and geometric shapes which link back to the artist model and the rest of my boards.

Art series 6:

Art board two will focus on the 1900's -2000's. This particular series will be around the suffragette movement in New Zealand. The artist model is Sofia Minson, and I will be using a realistic image contrasted with a flat-patterned background.I plan to use the same lino print as a part of the pattern.