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Urban Times reflections: Thin Air

August 29th, 2012

Urban Times asked me to share some reflections on my comics. Below is the fifth article in this ongoing series.

The Comic Art of Stuart McMillen: Thin Air

Stuart McMillen is a cartoonist from Brisbane, Australia who draws comics on science, society and environmental sustainability. In an exclusive series of articles, Stuart reflects upon his comics for Urban Times.

Thin Air summary

Thin Air describes the 17th century experiments of Jean Baptista van Helmont, who wondered what exactly trees were made from. The counter-intuitive answer is that trees build themselves almost entirely from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen: the same elements which breeze past them in the air. The comic goes on to compare the construction techniques of nature with those of human industry, and wonders if industry will ever learn to use building techniques like nature.

Hidden in plain sight: trees

A major aim of Thin Air was to make readers appreciate the elegance and brilliance of a familiar, yet overlooked neighbour: the humble tree.

To the enlightened person, trees are no longer just ‘things’ that fill the space between the important, man-made structures of the world. They are incredible in themselves!

Trees are solar powered ‘machines’ that use sunlight into turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen. They are living symbols of defiance that fight gravity and tower above the earth with bodies made from solidified air.

Of course, by extension, we are mostly made from thin air too. Despite trace elements (such as the calcium of our bones, or the iron of our blood), we too are mostly made from the same stuff that we are swimming in. Essentially, the main thing separating our bodies from the free-floating gases of the atmosphere is fancy jigsawing.

Once hidden before my eyes, I am now drawn to the sight of trees wherever I look. I marvel at the defiant way they erupt from the ground, pushing towards the sky. I rave over the precarious way they hold their mass above our heads. What I once ignored now forms a focal point of the way I appreciate the world around me.

Inspired by Biomimicry

Thin Air is spun from a train of thought that followed one of my many re-reads of Biomimicry (1997) by Janine Benyus (new / used aff). In beautifully-written prose, Benyus presents a laundry list of amazing technologies ‘invented’ by nature which surpass human achievements. Leaves more efficient than solar panels, mussel glue stronger than human adhesives, rhinoceros horns which self-heal. Nature, it seems, has remarkable secrets to teach us.

Thin Air is partially a love letter to biomimicry, but it is also a cannon aimed at my once-sacred cow.

It’s easy to get carried away with biomimicry and ignore the amazing technologies, amazing achievements of humanity. Yes, we should respect and learn from nature, but there are limits. We should beware the New Age “nature = good, technology = bad” mentality which pervades so much of the green movement.

Rejecting naive Biomimicry

My dose of reality into the limits of biomimicry came from reading Steven Vogel’s 2003 textbook Comparative Biomechanics: Life’s Physical World. After 500 pages of comparing nature against engineering and physics benchmarks, Vogel writes:

“Biomimetics has built, quite unnecessarily, in my opinion, on some counterfactual mythology (= bull). … Artists and antitechnologists disdainfully disparage any claim of true novelty in the artefacts of human industry. But knee-jerk naturalism does not withstand scrutiny.
…
[N]ature neither holds, nor should be expected to hold any natural superiority, and she provides neither comfort nor example to engineer-bashers. Our technology does all kinds of things with few or no natural analoges.” (Vogel, 2003, p 511, 516)

His conclusion is similar to that of the Thin Air comic: we have much to learn from the wonders of nature, but we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that nature trumps human ingenuity on all fronts.

Now retired from teaching at Duke University, Steven Vogel proved to be a helpful sounding board for early drafts of the Thin Air script.

Artwork

With Thin Air, I tried to capture the contrast between the natural and constructed parts of our world. I quickly decided that Sydney would serve as the backdrop for a city containing wonders of natural and human engineering. Basing the comic in Australia gave me a good excuse to draw my favourite type of trees: eucalyptus.

Although the novelty of drawing tree leaves quickly wore off (I spent 170 hours on line art alone), the final graphics are distinctive and striking. Thin Air included my first use of double-page spreads as a way to highlight expansive ideas within the comic. Who knows where this crazy experimentation will end….I might even start adding colour!

Originally the cover image of Thin Air was that of a strangler fig climbing a Sydney office tower (see above). It looked nice, but didn’t sensibly link with the comic. After a long period of brainstorming, I hit upon an idea to combine van Helmont, the city of Sydney and trees all in the one frame. The final cover artwork satisfies me immensely.

Van Helmont the anti-hero

Thin Air uses the experiments of Jean Baptista van Helmont as a gateway for explaining the elemental make-up of trees. Despite his starring role in the comic, I would like to make one thing clear:

Van Helmont was not a good scientist.

Riddled with holes of logic, van Helmont’s willow experiment embodied many of the qualities associated with junk science. Hershey (2003) points out a comprehensive list of his errors, including:

conducting his experiment to prove a pre-determined conclusion (that trees are made from water)

ignoring his own data when supporting his conclusion

failing to control and isolate the experiment against environmental factors

failing to document and explain his scientific methods to make the experiment repeatable

The image of van Helmont examining his willow tree serves as a great poster for science, but the real van Helmont was both hero and fool. For this reason, as a Faustian bargain for his starring role in Thin Air, I have portrayed van Helmont as permanently dressed in foppish clothes. Take that!

Beyond Thin Air

Like its sister comic, Type III, Thin Air ends without a specific ‘message’ or conclusion. The simple reason for this is because I do not quite know the implications of the comic.

I am not an engineer or a physicist, and am unsure how far we can push nanoengineering. Similarly, I am unsure of the limits to which we should heed when constructing with the very same carbon which is needed by organic life.

As a minimum, Thin Air offers readers a fresh perspective to appreciate the ways of nature. At best, the comic could point to a new direction for human civilisation. One with less need to turn the Earth upside-down and mine the crust for resources. One which builds artefacts from life-friendly materials in a life-friendly way, inspired by nature.

Only time will tell how we move from here.

View more in the Urban Times series here.

Tags: biology, cartoon, comics, construction, environment, industry, Jean Baptista van Helmont, making of, nature, plants, science, sustainability, Sydney, Thin Air, trees, Urban Times, Van Helmont
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Urban Times reflections: Type III

August 15th, 2012

Urban Times asked me to share some reflections on my comics. Below is the fourth article in this ongoing series.

The Comic Art of Stuart McMillen: Type III

Stuart McMillen is a cartoonist from Brisbane, Australia who draws comics on science, society and environmental sustainability. In an exclusive series of articles, Stuart reflects upon his comics for Urban Times.

Type III summary

Type III describes the 1980 volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens, which devastated the natural ecosystem immediately surrounding the blast zone. The comic describes the successive types of organisms which helped to recolonise the mountain, ranging from weedy, fast-growing ‘Type I’ species, through to the organisms which constitute the stable, mature ‘Type III’ ecosystem.

Parallels are made between the strategies of Type I organisms with current human industrial practices. The reader is left to contemplate whether human industry will evolve to Type III maturity like a stable ecosystem.

Mount St. Helens

Type III is about the other story of Mount St. Helens. Usually seen only as an force of destruction, I tried to show the flip side of the coin. In the comic, I recast the iconic volcano as a shining example of nature’s versatility, creativity and resilience.

In a devastated environment, seemingly sterilised beyond hope, life found a way to bounce back. From invisible microbes, to hardy lupins and tunnelling gophers, the work was done on many fronts. Though all acting in self-interest, the organisms’ efforts inadvertently served a common purpose.

Over time time the Mount St. Helens landscape transformed in a dynamic process tending toward diversity and stability. Almost poetically, the pioneering lupins and fireweeds were shaded over by shrubs and small trees eager for their time in the sun. More and more, the system folded in on itself, with nutrient recycling, symbiotic relationships and niche specialisations increasing in importance with time.

Unlike the human system mentioned in the comic, we have the opportunity to see the future of the Mount St. Helens ecosystem. The eagles, beavers, bears and wolves of woods surrounding the blast zone give a preview of the species destined to spread across when the time is right. Exactly what the human Type III system will resemble remains to be seen.

Industrial ecology

As interesting and picturesque as Mount St. Helens’ story is, Type III was a comic spawned from my interest in industrial ecology systems theory.

The Type I, Type II and Type III classification system was heavily inspired by Biomimicry (1997) by Janine Benyus (new / used aff), as well as the textbook Industrial Ecology (1995) by T.E. Graedel and B.E. Allenby, which informed her work. I was lucky enough to have Brad Allenby review early versions of the Type III script, and offer his input into the validity of the comic’s ideas.

Industrial ecology is a exciting contrast to conventional industrial practices, based on wasteful linear processes. Industrial ecology aims to maximise efficiency and resource recycling in ways which resemble food webs. In nature there is no such thing as ‘waste’ by the dictionary definition of “useless or worthless material”. Instead, materials are constantly swapped and reused by organisms evolved precisely for nutrient recovery.

Industrial ecology challenges us to apply the strategies of nature to the way we conduct business.

A real-life Type II system: Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park

Perhaps the most famous real-world example of ‘industrial ecology’-like recycling can be found in the Kalundborg Eco-industrial Park in Denmark. Wikipedia describes the resource flows within the park:

“At the center is the Asnæs Power Station, a 1500MW coal-fired power plant, which has material and energy links with the community and several other companies. Surplus heat from this power plant is used to heat 3500 local homes in addition to a nearby fish farm, whose sludge is then sold as a fertilizer. Steam from the power plant is sold to Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical and enzyme manufacturer, in addition to a Statoil plant. This reuse of heat reduces the amount thermal pollution discharged to a nearby fjord. Additionally, a by-product from the power plant’s sulfur dioxide scrubber contains gypsum, which is sold to a wallboard manufacturer. Almost all of the manufacturer’s gypsum needs are met this way, which reduces the amount of open-pit mining needed. Furthermore, fly ash and clinker from the power plant is used for road building and cement production.”

One of the key points about the park is how the resource recycling partnerships occurred in a spontaneous, collaborative way. Natural ecosystems niches are filled in an opportunistic way, and Kalundborg was no different. Rather than beginning with a top-down design, Kalundborg’s recycling loops were identified and formed in a gradual, unplanned fashion. The environmental benefits of this efficiency are a nice plus, but the prime motivation behind the business’ recycling efforts were financial: it is simply more profitable to be frugal with energy and resource use.

By sharing information and collaborating with their neighbours, sum total of activity in Kalundborg seems to be greater than if they were operating in isolation. Rather than heating water from ambient temperature, or ordering resources from suppliers far afield, the businesses harvest the fruit of their surroundings. As with nature, there is no such thing as ‘waste’, with the residues of old processes being used to feed new ones.

The Kalundborg experiment began in 1972, and has been gradually been evolving since then. Though not a Type III system (its coal-fired power plant is clearly unsustainable in the long-run), it sets a Type II example for others to follow.

The Type III comic: reflections

Although I mostly live in a reality bubble, sometimes I step back to consider how different my comics are from everything else on the web. I mean, a 24 page comic comparing ecological succession with the human industrial system? I’m not exactly competing with the gag-a-day crowd of cartoonists!

With Type III I wanted to transcend the nit-picking debates we have on environmental issues (bottles versus cans, hand dryers versus paper towels) and look at the big picture. The very big picture.

Like St Matthew Island and Supernormal Stimuli, Type III is a comic is about many topics at once. On one level it is about the real-life recovery of nature following the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. On another level, it is an honest look at our lifestyle; a big-picture scorecard for humanity against nature’s benchmarks of success.

But on the most important level, the comic is about hope. Hope that we can work towards a Type III future. Hope from the knowledge that there are natural ecosystems which behave in the Type I and II ways (which we too-often attribute as unique failings of humans). Hope that there is room for us all in a Type III system which thrives on diversity of the weird and wonderful.

As the comic states, it’s not that Type I and Type II systems are categorically ‘bad’. If that was the case, the world would never recover from disasters like Mount St. Helens. The critical point is learning that humanity’s current Type I/II strategy is unsustainable, and needs to be transformed to Type III-like harmony as soon as possible.

View more in the Urban Times series here.

Tags: biology, cartoon, comics, ecological succession, ecology, environment, industrial ecology, industry, making of, Mount St. Helens, natural resources, nature, science, sustainability, Urban Times, volcano
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Urban Times reflections: Supernormal Stimuli

August 1st, 2012

Urban Times asked me to share some reflections on my comics. Below is the third article in this ongoing series.

The Comic Art of Stuart McMillen: Supernormal Stimuli

Stuart McMillen is a cartoonist from Brisbane, Australia who draws comics on science, society and environmental sustainability. In an exclusive series of articles, Stuart reflects upon his comics for Urban Times.

Supernormal Stimuli summary

Supernormal Stimuli describes the studies of Dutch biologist Niko Tinbergen, who sought to understand the root of animal instincts. Tinbergen’s experiments showed that instinctual behaviour could be triggered by specific sensations, such as colours, shapes or smells. Surprisingly, the animals would still respond with the full behavioural response even if the stimuli was exaggerated beyond realistic limits.

The comic observes that human beings are just as susceptible to supernormal stimuli as other animals. Indeed supernormal stimuli can be used to explain many of the problems we experience in our modern world of plenty, such as obesity. The comic concludes by pointing to an overlooked, but effective way of overcoming supernormal stimuli.

Niko Tinbergen’s experiments

My interest in this subject purely came from the studies of Niko Tinbergen. I was intrigued by Tinbergen’s experiments which fooled animals into outrageous behaviours, including:

Songbirds choosing to sit on enormous fluorescent blue eggs rather than their own small, pale blue eggs.

Geese attempting to roll volleyballs into their own nest in preference to their regular-sized eggs.

Male butterflies ignoring receptive females to instead mate with wingless vibrating dummies.

Although Niko Tinbergen’s experiments into animal behaviour are important in their own right, the way the concept doubles-back to incriminate humans is the icing on the cake. I had to draw a comic on it.

Legacy code in the genome

Humans are still struggling to wrap our heads around three facts which contradict our classical view of the world:

Earth is not the centre of the universe,

we were not created separately from the other life on Earth, and

we are not exempt from the laws of nature.

Our vulnerability to supernormal stimuli is evidence of our evolutionary heritage. Even though we live in a modern world of cities and electronics, we still carry genetic ‘legacy code’ to remind us of our past.

This legacy code (to borrow a computer programming expression), was written in a time when food was scarce, and our ancestors needed to feed on sweet, fatty and salty foods at every opportunity. The stronger our tongues registered these tastes, the more strongly we craved and sought out these foods.

It was also a time when predators and prey were too important to ignore. Moving shapes in the forest could reveal lethal adversaries, potential mates, or the next meal ticket. Because of this, the primitive ‘orienting response‘ instinct evolved to make us freeze and stare at movement. We kept motionless until we were sure the object was not a threat, and we were sure how to respond.

Both of these instincts are hijacked in the modern day food court. We tuck into foods far sweeter, fattier, or saltier than what our ancestors could have found in the wild. Meanwhile, the orienting response draws our eyes to the flickering images of televisions scattered throughout the room. The supernormal of the modern world surrounds us.

Artwork

The experiments of Niko Tinbergen were an interesting enough concept to tie the comic together, but I needed another hook. The answer: dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs are always fun to draw, but I actually came up with a legitimate way to feature them in Supernormal Stimuli via the sections on the ‘reptile brain’. Though the reptile brain concept may not be strictly true, it gives us a simple way of understanding how brains evolved from common primitive ancestors.

Beyond the dinosaurs, the comic is quite a whirlwind of activity, jumping from Tinbergen’s experiments to primitive Africa, and then to a modern city shopping mall dripping with supernormal stimuli. I’m especially proud of the final sequence: I hope we can all learn to be like “Rowdy” Rodin’s The Thinker, opening a can of kick-ass on the supernormal stimuli raptors which surround us.

For the trainspotters: Supernormal Stimuli was my first comic completed via graphics tablet and handwriting font. My earlier comics such as St Matthew Island and Purpose were drawn with pen and ink, and handwritten lettering.

Different world, same brain

It’s interesting to think of the societal changes that have occurred even in my short lifetime. When I was young, before email, we checked the mail once per day. Now we check for messages throughout the day. When we left the house, we were uncontactable. Now our mobile phones follow us everywhere. Large changes are happening to our cities, food and technology, yet genetically we are essentially identical to our 10,000 year-old ancestors.

I wonder what the implications of these shifting sands are. Whether the human mind is adaptable enough to function in situations far beyond its original purpose. Or, alternatively, whether we lose a little something the further we venture from our roots.

As always, my comic only scratches the surface of this fascinating subject. My comics can never provide a total summary of a subject, nor can they explain all the nuances and debates that surround the topic. But hopefully through 20 pages of comics, Supernormal Stimuli gives readers a distilled primer about an interesting subject that affects us all.

View more in the Urban Times series here.