This series of work is the result of a research project conducted at the Natural History Museum in London (UK). Following the curators of the fish department in their everyday work, a series of photographs and a video piece were produced exploring their relationship with their work on the fish collection.

Expanding on the theme of becoming more-than-human (Whale Voice Choir, Polar Series), the aim is to deconstruct the so-called separation of humans and nature by exploring ways in which we can become other forms of life.

As David Abram expressed when forming the phrase “the more-than-human world”, we need to anchor ourselves and our cultures firmly within the natural world, not as separate, but very much entangled with other forms of life, even exceeding us, beyond the human. (2)

By attempting to become more-than-human, connections and/or stronger bonds with other forms of life could be created. This path might lead to a form of empathy and the realisation of our interwoven relationship with the more-than-human.

The subject of this study is: what do natural history museum’s curators dream about? Their love for non-human animals have driven them to chose a career where they are working with them on a daily basis. All the different specimens seeping into their thoughts and subconscious. How has this shaped their way of thinking about the more-than-human? How has taking care of every dried skin, limbs in spirit, and stuffed bodies influenced their connection to nature? How is their research into the taxonomy, biology, and ecology of a fish impacting their everyday lives?

“I've never met an ecologist who came to the field for the love of data or for the wonder of a p-value. These are just ways we have of crossing the species boundary, of slipping off our human skin and wearing fins or feathers or foliage, trying to know others as fully as we can. Science can be a way of forming intimacy and respect with other species that is rivalled only by the observations of traditional knowledge holders. It can be a path to kinship.” (1)

(1): Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Minneapolis, Minnesota, Milkweed. p.252

(2): https://mothrights.org/2023/11/16/can-language-change-our-relationship-with-nature/