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.
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