M E M O
The project to commemorate the world’s extinct species
MEMO is an educational charity dedicated to building an ongoing memorial to extinct species.
The memorial will be a stone monument bearing the images of all the species of plants and animals known to have gone extinct in modern times. It will incorporate a bell to be tolled for all extinct species, including the great many ‘unknown’ species which it is believed perish each year unseen by scientists. The bell will be tolled on the International Day of Biodiversity on 22nd May each year.
On the outside of the monument there will be marvellous patterns of simple units based on the forms of microorganisms to be carved by thousands of secondary school children.
The ideal site for the monument is the Isle of Portland, part of the UNESCO World Heritage ‘Jurassic coast’, where an extraordinary clifftop site has been offered.
Read our MEMO Project booklet
Hear the first MEMO bell being rung on the Portland cliffs on May 22nd 2008.
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In the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, it was the giant ammonites found on Portland that led Robert Hooke to first put forward the idea, in lectures to The Royal Society, that species could go extinct. His discovery was made just as his friend and architectural collaborator, Christopher Wren chose Portland stone for the rebuilding of St.Paul’s Cathedral, so beginning the intensive quarrying of the island.
Unbeknown to Hooke, his discovery was also made just as the Dodo was dying out on Mauritius, among the first of nearly 850 species in the extinct category of the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered species. The world’s biologists believe we are witnessing a period of Mass Extinction yet the images of these 850 species have never been collected together in one place, in any medium, anywhere.
Like Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke was both scientist and architect. Following their example, the MEMO project seeks to bring together the sciences and the arts, in the sober but magnificent purpose of commemorating those species lost in modern times.
To help make MEMO a reality, go to our Friends and Founders page and follow the link.
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