FEATHERS




Why Feathers? 

      Feathers are a miracle of nature. The culmination of evolution's design process, infinitely more varied than hair of scales. They also perform many more functions than any skin on any other animal. They are also unique to birds. Bird's ability to fly, thanks to the feather and some nifty adaptations to their skeletal structure, has given them a unique place in the history of human culture.


" We are removed from the rest of the natural world in that we can infer the future and examine the past. Yet history has shown us that even the most advanced scientific thinking occurs within a framework of human culture. So why not examine ourselves from different frameworks?



What can we discover when we look at fashion in terms of sexual selection, or birds of paradise as cultural models? What can we learn about nature and ourselves by reversing our point of view?"

Feathers 2012

 ©Pia Wortham 2015