Marguerite Humeau on reviving prehistoric creatures

Marguerite Humeau explores, through design, the possibility of reconnecting and communicating with unreachable life forms.

Marguerite Humeau is a speculative designer and director of a design trilogy. At Design Indaba Conference 2013, the French designer spoke about using design to reconnect and communicate with unreachable forms of life.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art, Humeau set out to revive the sound of prehistoric animals. After she sent hundreds of letters consulting scientists, explorers, zoologists and pathologists, she began her project titled Proposal for Resuscitating Prehistoric Creatures, which seeks to recreate extinct animals for a contemporary environment. 

The project proved to be a fascinating design challenge where Humeau could give insight into how majestic creatures once were. Three creatures were created: the Mammoth Imperator, an Entelodont aka Terminator Pig and an Ambulocetus “Walking Wale”. Once the vocal tract was designed in 3D models, Humeau further designed a brain for each creature so that they would be able to evolve once again.