FOUR WEEKS UNTIL  SUBMISSION

 

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CONTRACT

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We are the beaver’s contractor, so they are our clients. Therefore we need to try and meet their needs. To understand what they really want we need to try and establish a common language.

“How do you go about doing an interview, when a ‘common’ language does not exist? Or, how do you hack the given scale of human embodiment and perspective to engage with other species?” – Karianne, F., Abstract: Form Follows ecologies

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It is difficult to communicate with the beaver, however the next quote states the importance for the contract which establishes the relationship between beavers and humans. If we are able to design a contract from which both parties will benefit from the start, we are accommodating a future of beavers who have undergone a genetical evolution wherein they are adjusted to this form of communication.

“For any animal, the environmental conditions of development are liable to be shaped by the activities of predecessors. The beaver, for example, inhabits an environment that has been decisively modified by the labours of its forbears, in building dams and lodges, and will in turn contribute to the fashioning of an environment for its progeny. It is in such a modified environment that the beaver’s own bodily orientations and patterns of activity undergo development.” - Ingold, T., The Perception of the environment. Part II: Dwelling. (p. 186)

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We are in fact in service of the beavers, however there are still borders that need to be established between the urban fabric and the natural environment, without prohibiting the beaver to do anything.

“Floods take the world back to disorder, to primal chaos, to time zero, right back to nature, in the sense of things about to be born, in a nascent state. Correct measurement reorders nature and gives it a new birth into culture, at least in the agricultural sense. […] Deciding on markers and borders indeed appears to be a moment of origin, without such decisions, there is no oasis separate from the desert. […] who makes this decision? The term decision also expresses cutting, the creation of an edge.” – Serres, M., The Natural Contract (p.51-52)

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In order to establish a reciprocal relationship between humans and beavers, they both have to start a conversation, no matter the language. This conversation starts with the humans using the toolkit to suggest a possible location for a beaver dam. The second bond is created when the beaver accepts the invitation of the humans and starts constructing its dam there. When these two bonds take place, a relationship is formed.

“Any contract creates a collection of bonds, whose network canonizes Relations” – Serres, M., The Natural Contract (p. 46)

 

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TOOLKIT

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We created a toolkit that exists out of a basic suit, that can be added onto, depending on the purpose the user of the toolkit.

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Basic suit

• ​Neopreen swimsuit

• Floating board

• boots

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The beaver

• Come closer to the beavers and understand their anatomy

  • “In other words, both the beaver – in its outward, phenotypic form – and the lodge are ‘expressions’ of the same underlying genotype” (Ingold, p.175)

• Parts of suit

  • neoprene swimsuit => skin 1: water resistant, skin 2: pelt

  • floating board => to be able to float just above the water level in order to keep smelling and hearing out the water, steer through the floated area. Beavers use their tail for this.

  • flippers => ease the diving and swimming, resemble the beavers back paws

  • gloves with nails => to handle the construction material (moving trees, collect and add mud and moss to the dam), resemble the beavers’ front paws

  • ropes on the hands => sense the direction of the flowing water and detect holes in the dam, resembles the whiskers

  • toolbelt with scissors and cutter: they resemble the beaver’s teeth, the scissors can be used to scratch off the bark and the cutter to cut down trees

  • darkened goggles: protects eyes from water, it’s darkened to simulate night-time vision

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The co-worker

• Be able participate in the construction of the beaver dam

• Parts of the suit

  • Neoprene swimsuit => insulation

  • Floating boards => navigate yourself in the water

  • Boots/flippers => protection or for swimming and navigation

  • Gloves => waterproof and for protection

  • Toolbelt

    • Bottles with smell: we try to mimic a different beaver family’s smell to advise them to construct their dam somewhere else

    • Sound tubes: to produce the sound of flowing water, which attracts beavers and invites them to build their dam in this specific area

    • Hammer: to fix the sound tubes

    • Cutter: to cut material

    • Pipe system: to regulate the water levels on each sides

    • Goggles with nose protection: be able to see under the water

    • Snorkel: the be able to breathe under water

    • Helmet: protection while participating in the construction of the dam

 

 

 

MODEL

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This is a visual representation of the contract between the human and the beaver. By showing the chronological process, the reciprocal relationship between both parties becomes clear.

“The parasite takes all and gives nothing; the host gives all and takes nothing. Rights of mastery and property come down to parasitism. Conversely, rights of symbiosis are defined by reciprocity: however much nature gives man, man must give that much back to nature, now a legal subject.” - Serres, M., The Natural Contract (p. 38)

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1. This model shows a situation of a fictional part of a river before any intervention has been made by beavers or humans.

2. The first intervention done by humans: cutting down a tree and creating a possible location for the beavers to build their dam.

3. By adding smells of another beaver family, humans suggest the beavers not to build in that specific area.

4. By placing hollow sticks near the already cut down tree, the beavers get more interested to build in this spot. The sticks mimic the sound of flowing water, which attracts the beavers.

5. To be able to regulate the water level on each side of the dam, a pipe system is placed on the bottom of the river, connecting the two sides of the dam.

6. The beavers continue constructing their dam, by adding more logs, sticks, branches, etc.

7. For the beaver to be able to create a flooded area, both sides of the river need a dam. For this reason, humans recreate the same situation on the other side, by also cutting down a tree.

8. Since the beavers already have an interest to build in this area, no more sound tubes are needed.

9. For the same reason as said in step 5, a pipe system is placed to regulate the water levels on each side of the dam.

10. The beavers continue constructing their dam, by adding more logs, sticks, branches, etc.

11. The process of building a dam is about taking and giving. The beavers take their construction material from the environment by cutting down trees. As long as the beaver is active in a certain area, humans will plant new trees for the beavers to use for their dams.

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3D SIMULATION OF FLOOD

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We made a 3D simulation of how the Isar would flood the area in the model, if this were to happen. The lower part of the island would flood first, still making it possible to build a dam higher on, or without the island, over the entire stretch of the Isar.

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SIGN

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To give the beavers the peace and quiet they need, we -as contractors- need to communicate certain parts of the contract with the humans as well. That’s why we chose to make a sign we can put up at the Isar, so people would be aware it’s the beaver’s habitat as well. This actually is an idea we got from Thomas Thwaites’ ‘Policing Genes’ project.