\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA Maryland Institute College of Art graduate student made a remarkable discovery of a hominin tooth during a scientific expedition in Kenya, changing the trajectory of the trip and her work. A team of artists with different backgrounds traveled to Kenya to observe a scientific expedition. The group included Thomas Gardner, director of the graduate program in social design at MICA, and graduate student Anjali Bidu. “We were there with an open mind and really thinking about possibilities, and so then, when Anjali made this incredible discovery, it set a whole lot of things in motion, which was just extraordinary,” Gardner told WBAL-TV 11 News. Bidu, who was responsible for documenting fieldwork during the expedition, joined researchers on a hike to search for fossils. During the hike, she noticed something unusual among the rocks and sand. “I noticed something that looked a little different from the rest of the rocks in the sand that is on the ground, and I picked it up, and I noticed that it was a well-preserved tooth,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. The discovery turned out to be a hominin tooth from an early human species dating back millions of years. Scientists and researchers cheered and clamored to examine the find. “I remember a couple of scientists and researchers, they’re coming and asking me what department I was from in science, and I was like, ‘I’m actually a designer. I’m here as an intern to document this expedition.’ They were pretty shocked and were like, ‘Wow, that’s a pretty remarkable discovery for somebody’s first expedition from outside the field of science,’ so yeah, it was pretty intense,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. The experience inspired Bidu to shift her thesis to focus on the discovery and its impact on her practice. She reviewed her notes and documentation, turning them into a book and creating an accordion display to share her insights with other designers and scientists. “Keeping an open mind and looking for collaborations with scientists because I think we need to stop viewing art and science is completely separate disciplines because there are crossovers in so many different ways,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. The pilot program that facilitated the trip is now expanding to offer more opportunities for students and researchers. “A discovery like this sets in motion an entire apparatus of work. There will be researchers who are working on this specific find, on this discovery for years involving millions of dollars of research,” Gardner told WBAL-TV 11 News. Gardner explained that design can take many forms, such as websites, posters, policies, processes, or protocols, and hopes people will see design as a way to engage with the world. The team, including Bidu, plans to return to Kenya this summer and visit Botswana as well.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tBALTIMORE \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A Maryland Institute College of Art graduate student made a remarkable discovery of a hominin tooth during a scientific expedition in Kenya, changing the trajectory of the trip and her work. <\/p>\n
A team of artists with different backgrounds traveled to Kenya to observe a scientific expedition. The group included Thomas Gardner, director of the graduate program in social design at MICA, and graduate student Anjali Bidu. <\/p>\n
“We were there with an open mind and really thinking about possibilities, and so then, when Anjali made this incredible discovery, it set a whole lot of things in motion, which was just extraordinary,” Gardner told WBAL-TV 11 News. <\/p>\n
Bidu, who was responsible for documenting fieldwork during the expedition, joined researchers on a hike to search for fossils. During the hike, she noticed something unusual among the rocks and sand. <\/p>\n
“I noticed something that looked a little different from the rest of the rocks in the sand that is on the ground, and I picked it up, and I noticed that it was a well-preserved tooth,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. <\/p>\n
The discovery turned out to be a hominin tooth from an early human species dating back millions of years. Scientists and researchers cheered and clamored to examine the find. <\/p>\n
“I remember a couple of scientists and researchers, they’re coming and asking me what department I was from in science, and I was like, ‘I’m actually a designer. I’m here as an intern to document this expedition.’ They were pretty shocked and were like, ‘Wow, that’s a pretty remarkable discovery for somebody’s first expedition from outside the field of science,’ so yeah, it was pretty intense,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. <\/p>\n
The experience inspired Bidu to shift her thesis to focus on the discovery and its impact on her practice. She reviewed her notes and documentation, turning them into a book and creating an accordion display to share her insights with other designers and scientists. <\/p>\n
“Keeping an open mind and looking for collaborations with scientists because I think we need to stop viewing art and science is completely separate disciplines because there are crossovers in so many different ways,” Bidu told WBAL-TV 11 News. <\/p>\n
The pilot program that facilitated the trip is now expanding to offer more opportunities for students and researchers. <\/p>\n
“A discovery like this sets in motion an entire apparatus of work. There will be researchers who are working on this specific find, on this discovery for years involving millions of dollars of research,” Gardner told WBAL-TV 11 News. <\/p>\n
Gardner explained that design can take many forms, such as websites, posters, policies, processes, or protocols, and hopes people will see design as a way to engage with the world. <\/p>\n
The team, including Bidu, plans to return to Kenya this summer and visit Botswana as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Maryland Institute College of Art graduate student made a remarkable discovery of a hominin tooth during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[31],"tags":[154257,154242,154239,154250,154253,4286,154249,70102,154243,154247,129694,154245,154252,154241,154255,80,154256,154244,154238,154258,10963,96,154251,39498,47362,759,154246,73063,20993,154248,154240,154254,6634],"class_list":["post-312243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kenya","tag-ancient-hominin-tooth","tag-ancient-tooth","tag-anjali-bidu","tag-art-and-science","tag-bidu","tag-botswana","tag-design-and-science","tag-designer","tag-early-human-species","tag-fieldwork","tag-fossil-discovery","tag-graduate-student","tag-hominin-fossil","tag-hominin-tooth","tag-incredible-discovery","tag-kenya","tag-kenya-expedition","tag-maryland-institute-college-of-art","tag-mica","tag-mica-student","tag-million","tag-news","tag-pilot-program","tag-researcher","tag-researchers","tag-science","tag-scientific-expedition","tag-scientist","tag-scientists","tag-social-design","tag-thomas-gardner","tag-wbal-tv","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}