I posted the above photo once before, but didn’t explain any of the fun details of artist-designer Thomas Thwaites‘s visit to the RVC to dissect a goat with us. Now his show has just finished in London, celebrating the end of his project and the near-completion of his book about his experience trying to live life as a goat. This week, I went to his east side gallery and had some time to chat with Thomas about his transhuman experiences. Because the project has a strong biomechanics, anatomy, art and science theme to it, I’m posting a photo-blog post about all of that. It’s goat to be seen to be believed! I for one wouldn’t mind being a goat right now; I could use a break from my decrepit body…
Stomach-Churning Rating: Too late, there’s the goat pic above and more like it below. I’d give those a 8/10; no kidding. The puns make it worse, too.
The context. Thomas never did get to gallop (sorry, spoiler!) but he did manage a trot, and some other capricious behaviours. I forgot to ask him if he’d tried the Goat Simulator. I have; it’s good for an hour of fun hircosity.
Starting the dissection at the RVC, to get inside a goat.
Hide.
Fore- and hindlimbs; comparative design for inspiring prosthetics.
Dissections on display!
Prototype goat-suits. Their mobility was too limited.
The prototype in the foreground could not move without falling down.
Inhabited-goat-suit shots.
The final Goat-Suit: custom prosthetics, a helmet, and some form-fitting casts.
Thomas Thwaites with the goat-suit.
The forelimb prosthesis. I was worried it would hurt his wrists but apparently it transferred the loads mainly to the forearms. It was made by a prosthetics clinic up in Salford.
Photos from rambling around the Swiss Alps in the goat-suit with goats.
Trip-trap-trip-trap… (but no trolls)
Goat-suit in action! With Goat-Pro camera, I see.
Acceptance?
And the goat that we had dissected, skeletonized at RVC and re-articulated by Thomas:
Do goats wish they were human?
What are you looking at?
Close-up of goat head and shoulders.
Goat hooves-on-hips; a gruff pose.
So like us.
What's In John's Freezer? 
Interesting, although I’m not entirely sure where the shaman comes in. I mean, I see where that fits with transhumanism, but I thought shamans were more inclined to have their transhuman experiences on the spiritual level.
Hi Stella, I am not sure of the entire motive but the story is that Thomas wanted to become an elephant, but the shaman said he had more of a goat spirit. I guess he consulted the shaman to find out what kind of an animal he’d best be.
At least goats are easier to fit in the freezer…
It may seem silly, but this artist should have taken a gander at the Furry fandom and the niche of fursuits called quadsuits- suits to be worn on all fours.
Here’s some examples:
goat quad suit:
Bear quadsuit:
http://lilleahwest.deviantart.com/art/Golden-Bear-Quadsuit-207250287
Video of a sabretooth suit in action:
Video of a baby Mammoth suit in action
And here is a commercial digitigrade stilt producer:
https://www.digilegs.com/
And example of ‘anthropomorphic’ ibex suit:
These kinds of suit are meant to wear for a couple hours at time at fursuit walks, cons and other furry get togethers.
I think this artist could find himself some like-minded company!
Good point, and fun links- thanks!
Well, that was … unexpected. I’d be interested to know the rationale of the Welcome Trust in deciding to fund this project.
Presumably via one of their arts funding schemes- e.g. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/funding/public-engagement/funding-schemes/arts-awards/
Just enjoying a bowl of grits and reading about your elephant feet, and then suddenly… all I could taste was that goat.
That’s beautiful!