M E M O
The project to commemorate the world’s extinct species
A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME AND MADE THE FESTIVAL SUCH A SUCCESS.
IT ONLY REMAINS TO TOLL THE BELL ON INTERNATIONAL DAY OF BIODIVERSITY ON THURSDAY 22nd MAY:
8am ON THE CLIFF TOP AT THE END OF BUMPER’S LANE, PORTLAND, AND
2pm ON THE STEPS OF ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL.
SEE YOU THERE
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 extinct species on International Day of Biodiversity on 22nd May each year, and on the outside of the monument there will be marvellous patterned friezes based on the forms of microorganisms.
It is very much hoped it will be possible to site the monument on the Isle of Portland.
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 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, the first of nearly 850 known species to have gone extinct in modern times. The world’s biologists now believe we are in 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.
