OLAF BREUNING

THE FROG EXPERIMENT

We, humans, are without doubt the most intelligent species on the planet. However, as we know, intelligence is challenging to define. We are born on the same rocky planet as our house cats, but we know a lot more about the fabric of our existence. A few hundred thousand years ago, a plodding start resulted in a speedway of knowledge from the last hundred years until now. It is not that we are at the end of figuring things out, but we are incredibly innovative and curious considering the circumstances of our biological limitations. My cats like routine and are not interested in expanding their knowledge like many other furry friends. Astronomy, physics, mathematics, and many other categories of our foundation of understanding the world have increased in precision incrementally. Looking back only a few hundred years, we look at achievements with a smile since we know better today. “Frog Experiment” is a photograph talking about the grim fact that frogs have been used to explain electricity and other things, and now they are killed mainly by cars driving over them during mating season. In my photograph, they are dancing and having fun, free from the permanent fear of being a lab rat or, in that case, a lab frog. On a more serious note, the work talks about science’s fast and inspiring (or frightening) speed and the graveyard of past inventions.

The Frog Experiment, 2019, C-Print, 6 Ed. + 2 AP: 122 x 155 cm (48 x 61 in.)