Artists are communicators, the science world cannot remain autonomous; it requires the aid of the visual establishment to convey heavy-handed material to a broader audience. Science is useless when it perpetuates the historical narratives of elitism, unreachable by the masses. Collaboration should not only be encouraged, it is necessary.

So during my interdisciplinary studies in South Africa, I decided to research and communicate the intersectionality between human and animal populations for a conceptualized future. I attempted to visualize a sustainable world in which the desire for poaching (and potentially even conservation) were eliminated in favor of autonomous human and animal habitats through the implementation of buffer zones.

Authority and resistance were also topics of research, as I proposed a model to decentralize westernized populations and their jurisdiction over historically autonomous indigenous nations. The interplay between these two powers has afflicted existing buffer zone models as indigenous rights come under siege in favor of conservation efforts. This sketch, however, serves as iterative, one permutation in a series of imaginings. 

Specifically addressing the various issues faced by some of Africa’s most vulnerable and endangered species such as pangolins, vultures, rhinoceroses, and elephants, in conjunction with human sociopolitical conflicts, this piece is meant to inspire further pondering. Perhaps this entails the envisaging of another possible sustainable future, a utopia of sorts in which both human and animal discrimination subside.