Kiwi!

rjzimmerman:

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Couple of Kiwi items.

First, Smithsonian (link) tells us that the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute celebrated the hatching of a  kiwi. The kiwi is bird that is native to New Zealand’s North Island. The kiwi is endangered. Its populations have been declining because of predation by dogs and habitat destruction by human land developers. Here’s a photo of the baby kiwi:

Second, the Smithsonian article told me about a animation video that I hadn’t heard of or seen. It’s called Kiwi!, and was created in 2006 by Dony Permedi, a student in the New York City School of Visual Arts, as his Master’s Thesis Animation. It’s less than three minutes long. I had to think about it after I watched it.

Here’s what I’m guessing. Kiwis can’t fly, so this Kiwi is altering its environment by nailing coniferous trees on the side of a cliff. When he finishes his chores, he puts on aviator head gear and jumps off the cliff, passing along the tops of the trees as he falls. But he’s flying. A tear comes out of his eye as he falls/flies. The animation ends watching him disappear into the fog at the bottom of the cliff, and we hear a “thunk” noise. Once I figured that out, I watched it again, and the video was more than creative. Now it’s sad. But still creative and fun to watch.

There’s a version out there in which the music is replaced by the song “Mad World.” I watched that, but I didn’t get the connection between that song and the kiwi.