The World as it Was: A Traveler’s Guide to Extinction

My Artist’s Book imagines the Earth from the perspective of an old, well-traveled man, after climate change has ravaged ecosystems and habitats–causing mass-extinction and societal collapse. The old man discovers a journal in the wasteland and decides to chronicle the animals he saw–through sketches and anthologized stories–during his adventures around the world, in order to preserve the memory of what the world was. In addition to these sketches and stories, below can be found the sounds that each animal in the journal makes. I thought it would be valuable to not only provide a visual connection to these animals in the form of sketches, but an auditory connection as well. It is much easier to form a connection to something–whether animate or inanimate–if it stimulates multiple senses, and that is the goal with the online component of my project. The links below are in the order that each animal appears in the book itself.

Grey Wolf: https://youtu.be/JQUHDWHa7WQ

Sockeye Salmon: https://youtu.be/d1kDNzWgHxY

Gorilla: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx3HyDOX334T1jK84fvHkhz6QmwG5HlYHI

Grizzly Bear: https://youtu.be/YexQcXnVSzg

White Rhino: https://youtu.be/mV4bSEPYuPM

Brown Bat: https://youtu.be/Vybrn2xwbkM

Elephant: https://youtu.be/ewluik4oEAg

Bengal Tiger: https://youtube.com/shorts/XxLcTqRoN4o?feature=share

Monarch Butterfly: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxuWcqqfNEa9jfzXc-rsvEJH7PINl-UV7r

Blue Whale: https://youtu.be/Qseb4IVnOv8

Follow this hyperlink to read Joe Sharak’s project statement