Before and After Project

For their Before and After project Sébastien Lee-Rossing and Garraway Nance (roommates) decided to work together to make a short film that shows the Swan in their role of society as a therapist providing therapy to Hoopoe. This all changes in Cloud Cuckooland when Hoopoe's life with his wife changes as well as the therapy strategies that the Swan uses. These changes highlight the extreme metamorphosis that would occur through all the birds, through relationships, status, and personal life.

Bird Research

Swan

Location:

Species of swan appear all over the world, living in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and even Australia.

Climate Preference:

Different species of Swan have different climate preferences, ranging from the Black Swan’s preference towards warmer climates (as it lives in Australia) to the Tundra Swan’s aptitude to the cold (as it lives in the Arctic tundras of Northern North America and Northern Europe.

Food:

Swans (particularly the Mute Swan) mainly feed on aquatic vegetation, but also eat small aquatic animal life, such as molluscs, small fish, frogs, and worms. They can also graze in fields of grass.

Life Span:

Mute Swans usually live about 10 years in the wild (the oldest recorded wild Swan life lasted 19 years), but in captivity their lives can reach upwards of 30 years.

Family Layout:

Female Swans can lay 4-10 eggs upon which they brood for about 36 days. The newborns, called Cygnets, usually hatch around May/July and do not gain the ability to fly until they are about 120-150 days old. The Cygnets must learn to fly before the body of water they rely on freezes over.

Home:

Mute Swans make their homes in a large variety of places, ranging from small rivers, creeks, and ponds to large bodies of saltwater and freshwater.

Nest materials:

Both male and female mute swans take a part in the nest building process. The male swan builds a base for the nest out of crisscrossed vegetation, and the female swan uses materials such as twigs, reeds, cattails, etc. to build the body of the nest using her own body as a mold.

Different Types (colors):

Mute Swan - Cygnus olor - One of the oldest Swan species

Black Swan - Cygnus atratus

Black-necked Swan - Cygnus melancoryphus

Whooper Swan - Cygnus cygnus

Trumpeter Swan - Cygnus buccinator - Very similar to Whooper, and was almost hunted to extinction

Tundra Swan - Cygnus columbianus

Temperament:

Anything that a swan sees as a potential threat to its nest and cygnets is subject to their often extremely aggressive behavior - Swans are one of the most aggressive waterfowl species.

Lineage Research

Vikings

History:

While they are not technically pre-Western (Viking age is considered to have started in 793), their way of life was definitely different than many others during the time period. The Vikings are famous for their seafaring and countless raids on towns, cities, and countries. As a people, they were extremely diverse, and most (if not all) Scandanavian countries of today can trace their history back to the Vikings.

Location:

The Vikings, while based in southern Scandinavia, explored many regions across the globe such as Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Iran, and many others (including North America - they are considered to be the first Europeans to discover it).

Language:

Old Norse, the language of many Scandanavian people from the 7th to 15th centuries, was a North Germanic language that is believed to have been used by the Vikings.

The Vikings also had a special written language, known as runes (referred to today as ‘futhark’ for its first several letters). This was used to mark territory and glorify an ancestors bravery, among other things.

Way of Living:

Many Vikings were farmers, growing crops (barley, oats, etc.) and raising cattle, goats, sheep, horses, etcetera. Some Vikings were fishermen and hunters, they even went after whales.

Though a large part of their lives, Vikings did not depend solely on their farming. They are quite famous for performing raids on many a European town or settlement. They did not do this to gain territory or political power, but rather to earn riches through ransom, pillaging, and the slave trade.

Higher Power:

(Higher power relationship to the people as well)

The Vikings did not believe in one god, but many. Their religion consisted of the belief that there were three realms bound together by an ash tree (known as Yggdrasil) that possessed special powers. The three central realms consisted of Niflheim, Midgard, and Asgard. Niflheim was the world of mist (Niflheim translates to ‘land of freezing mist’), a realm located beneath the others, reserved for murderers and those who broke their Viking oaths. Midgard, the realm of humans, is where the Vikings believed they lived. As the name suggests, it is located in the middle of the realms. A land connected to Midgard via the ‘rainbow bridge,’ Asgard is the home of the Aesir gods (led by Odin) and sits at the top of the Viking realms. There are also realms such as Jotunheim (home to the Giants), Alfheim (home to the Elves), Svartalfheim (home to the Dark Elves), and many others.

Weapons:

The Vikings used many different weapons, and many subtypes of those weapons. The types of weapons include swords, axes, bows (and arrows), and spears. As for defense, Vikings used shields, helmets, and chain mail armor.

Present Day Compare/Contrast:

Most unique aspects of VIking culture are not seen very often in the lands that they came from. The development of the modern age has made many Viking practices obsolete (such as raiding with swords and axes - that wouldn’t be such a good idea today). Their religion, while not practiced as widely as it once was, is used heavily as source material and inspiration for modern stories. (There were several things that I did not know were adopted from the Viking beliefs that I have seen in many books until this research was conducted)