Humans on View at London Zoo

LONDON (AFP) – London Zoo unveiled a new
exhibition — eight humans prowling around wearing little more than fig
leaves to cover their modesty.

The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human
beings as they frolick throughout the August bank holiday weekend.

"We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague
species and to communicate the importance of man’s place in the planet’s
ecosystem," London Zoo said.

Man is a plague species? Is that like "Language is a
virus"? Or are they speculating that humanity is actually an infection
on the body of Gaia?

Seeing
Humans in the zoo would be more interesting if they paraded a
steady stream of animals by the cages to laugh and jeer
at
the hapless hominids.

Humans on display, like the Calvin
Klein models on display
24-7 in a giant doll house in Times Square, strike a nerve because they
expose the voyeuristic core of most popular entertainment. From the Homeland
Security fanatics to the paparazzi, to celebrity blogging, to reality
TV, we are obsessed with spying on each other. Human lives laid bare
to the unflinching gaze of a rapt audience is the ultimate entertainment.

This is definitely the wave of the future, but watching
people in such a limited, low-tech setting as a zoo is way too retro
to catch on in a big way. Micro cameras, floating camera platforms,
live embedded feeds and stealth surveillance techniques will be much
more popular with the mass audiences of the future. Still, the fig leaves
are a nice touch….

from APF