Snaiad: an interview with the author and lots of exclusive art

Now that the Furaha book is in the publisher's hands, I can use the time I used to spend on new Furaha paintings on something else. That something may well involve more blog-related activities, but I am not yet certain about that; time stays precious. 

But there are a few things I have wanted to do for some time, and one is an interview with C. M. Kösemen - Cevdet Mehmet Kösemen. I have known Mehmet a long time, mostly through the internet, but we've also met in person a few times. People interested in speculative biology will know Mehmet's project to depict and describe life forms on his fictional planet Snaiad. If you do not know the project, please have a look at the current Snaiad website and the Wikipedia page. 

The interview was conducted as a written dialogue. To simplify reading, my text is shown in italics with Mehmet's responses in normal type.   

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Mehmet, does the word 'Snaiad' mean anything?  
   I wish I could give a profound answer, but I only came up with this name because it sounded interesting. The name ’Snaiad’ derives from an earlier childhood sketch where I drew animals from a planet called Snai-3. When I decided to compile Snaiad into a project I adopted this name because I wanted something that would be unique in web searches.

I wish I would have thought of that; I came up with 'Furaha' after I had visited East Africa. At the time, the word 'Furaha' was very rare on the internet, but of course the word in its original Swahili meaning is much more present now. What draws you to speculative biology art rather then, say, wildlife art or palaeoart?
   Wildlife art or dinosaur art always creates a subtle sense of anxiety in me, because in those forms of art, the aim is to be accurate and realistic. Anyone who has tried to paint a living organism will quickly learn that it is very easy to make mistakes, and the 'uncanny valley' is very easy to fall into. In contrast, speculative evolution is a fun and carefree domain of art. If you make any mistakes, they can quickly be turned into features and you can actually create new concepts from such mistakes. I think the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor said it best when he said: 'How enjoyable, how very enjoyable and luxurious it is, suddenly to emerge from the stern labyrinth of fact onto these dawn-lit uplands of surmise!'

I see; I agree that painting animals on other planets allows you more freedom than, say, painting elephants. But you have done palaeoart; in 'All yesterdays', Darren Naish, John Conway and you elevated creative ideas about dinosaurs to a new and more fun view of palaeoart. But at the same time palaeoart seems to become more rigid in that there is a strong emphasis on correct anatomical proportions, so in that sense palaeoart is not 'carefree'.
   True - even when you are freestyling in palaeoart, there is a nagging sense in the back of your mind that you are making a mistake somewhere.

How do the shapes of Snaiadi lifeforms come into being? Do they start with doodles that look interesting, or are they based on biological characteristics and principles? Or, as I expect, a hybrid procedure?
   Usually I have brought outlines of body plans and clades in my head. I just think about one and start doodling randomly. I produce small doodles usually no bigger than a few centimetres in size. If I like any of these doodles, I enlarge them by scanning and printing them and create a second magnified sketch based on the first. This goes on that way for two more iterations until I have the base layout for a complete organism ready. And then I sit down and draw, draw, draw. This said, there have been times when I have just sat down with a blank piece of paper and created a completely new creature out of nothing -no sketches, no studies-, just the finished creature flowing out of my pen onto the paper. This is a rare phenomenon, but when it happens, it is always wonderful. Actually, some of the most memorable Snaiad creatures have been created this way.

Can you give us an example of one such creature?
   Actually, the first few iconic Snaiad creatures came into being with this spontaneous process. Especially Kahydron and the Allotaur were spontaneous creations. Maybe a greater creative urge guided my hand there because they formed the basis of many creatures which followed.

How much of the physical background of Snaiad have you worked out? Is it a generally Earth-like world in terms of gravity, composition and biochemistry?
   Unfortunately, I am not well enough versed in physics, chemistry and interplanetary mechanics to work out Snaiad’s exact details. So I am conservative and keep the planet as a roughly Earth-like, slightly larger world with a different arrangement of hydrocarbon protein analogues. Some of the more erudite fans of the project have pitched in with their ideas about Snaiad’s planetary dynamics and biochemistry, and in due time I might canonise their versions of how things work.

I agree; in fact, Furaha was consciously designed as an Earth-like planet for artistic reasons, as I wrote recently; no-one knows what a methane lake looks like from a viewpoint on its shores, but everyone immediately recognises all visual effects of water. 
   I think both of us primarily focused on the creatures so we don’t 'look under the hood' of the planet so much :)

Indeed; I do like to look 'under the hood' of Furahan organisms as far as their biomechanics are concerned, but I am much less bothered by their biochemistry, the atmosphere etc. 
    Most Speculative Biology worlds choose not to present many pages of insectoids or small plants, which is understandable. But a wider view might be interesting. Will you be showing examples of plants or the plant / animals in-betweens that live on Snaiad?
   Actually, yes, there will be many pages of boring animals, small insect-like things and other creatures that live in the undergrowth. This is one of the neater things about nature. For every charismatic species, there are many 'boring' drab animals and commonplace related species that are hard to tell apart. For examples, if you look at a field guide to mammals of any region, you will see page after page of rodents and bats. The most unassuming animals are usually the most diverse. On Snaiad, there will be many small creatures that fill the niches of insects and other invertebrates and I am having a great time drawing them all, no matter how boring and insignificant.

Great! I love that idea. On your website you describe main groups of vertebrate analogues, but there do not seem to be invertebrates on that page yet. Does that mean the eventual book will contain different clades of invertebrates, each with a completely different Bauplan? If so, can you tell us anything about these completely new animal clades? By the same token, how about plant- or fungus-like clades? Do you already have a store of drawings of such life forms?     
   Yes, there will be many pictures of different clades from these additional phyla - especially a lot from the fish-like Arthrognaths. In some cases there will be wildly different body plans within a single phylum. Here are some sneak previews - stay tuned for more. There will also be lots of drawings of plants - good thing they are easier to draw and invent.

Click to enlarge; copyright CM Kösemen: "I am also working on illustrations of human colonists and non-diagrammatic, environmental scenes - stay tuned!"

I am curious to see what you will come up with! Why did you decide to have people on Snaiad? Are they there to provide observers of the animals, or do they have their own stories?
   I think people need a frame of reference to understand natural history. I want the Snaiad project to 'stand up on its two feet' like an actual book of natural history written on another planet. Thus I needed to have a human society to research and make sense of the animals on that world. 
    Of course, with our current understanding of the universe, travel to another planet and colonising it is flat-out impossible. But I have written a creative caveat around that and I think you will all be surprised when you read it. The presence of a human society interacting with the creatures on Snaiad also allows me to write many interesting stories about animals which I think will be very interesting to readers.

Once again, I followed the exact same reasoning for Furaha. In fact, my very first blog post about Furaha discussed why I decided to have humans on the planet in the first place. 
   On the Snaiad site, you speak of 'vertebrates' between quotation marks. The animals are of course not Earth vertebrates, but they have vertebrae. 
   Yes, they have backbones that resemble vertebrae as a result of convergent evolution. Differently from earth, Snaiad’s vertebrates have bones made out of hydrocarbons rather than calcium. In that respect, they are more like wood than bones.

That is interesting! You may find statements that bone is 'generally' stronger than wood, but 'generally' may not be useful in this context. Some Earth woods resemble cortical bone while others resemble more porous bone. Suppose Snaiadi 'woodbone' is as strong as vertebrate bone for the same volume. If it is like oak wood, it would weigh roughly 65% of the same volume of bone. Are Snaiadi vertebrates significantly lighter than their Earth analogues? I ask because I cannot help myself thinking about the mechanical consequences: swimming animals may need heavy 'swim weights', not light swim bladders! Likewise, flight may evolve much more readily. The ramifications are fascinating. 
   I think the density of bones is as variable as the density of bones or wood on our own planet. Now that you mentioned this, I will need to work around some solutions for how to derive bones that sink from this hydrocarbon-based tissue. The key visual I had while designing this concept was the possibility of bones that could burn and would fossilise harder.

I hadn't though of burning or fossilisation... Mind you, the relative mass of a skeleton typically increases with body size, so the weight gain would be most pronounced for very large animals. That would allow you to make them larger than their Earth analogues. Big flying animals might be much more feasible than on Earth. Snaiadi 'avians' might look down on Azhdarchids, for instance.
    Most animals you show are drawn as side or front views. I would really love to see the animals in perspective view doing something in their natural surroundings. Will there be something like that in the book?
   There will be some drawings of natural scenes and more indirect perspectives, but I just like the diagrammatic representation so much. So most of the creatures will be rendered in that style.

You do that exceptionally well, so the book will be the better for it. But please do some landscapes... 
   Alright, there will be some landscapes. Perhaps I could commission another artist to do them, giving them the schematics of my side-view drawings.

Will the Snaiad book be published by a regular book publisher, or are you going to publish it yourself, through Amazon or something similar? Can you give us an approximate publication date?
   Publishing is a very tumultuous world at the moment, so there is no guarantee on how Snaiad will be published. In the worst case, I will publish it through Amazon self publishing, but of course I would be honoured if a respectable publisher picked it up. If anyone picks up an interest for Snaiad through this interview, please let me know. At the moment I cannot give you a precise publication date, but I can assure you that almost every day new creatures and classes are being produced for Snaiad. I want to create a magnum opus, a work that generations can enjoy so I am taking my time and looking in for the long run. Thanks to everybody for their patience.

Teşekkürler! (Thank you!) 

Esas ben teşekkür ederim, iyi günler! (The pleasure is mine – have a lovely day!)

 

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Mehmet sent me a very large number of images, which is wonderful. However, I ran intro trouble putting all of them in one post, so what you see is just a first batch; the remainder is to follow shortly!

Copyright CM Kösemen: "The new illustration for Moai mapagalithops - the famous terrestrial “blumbomen” of the Mapag Isles.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright CM Kösemen: "One of the refurbished, herbivorous Allotaurs."

 

 

Copyright CM Kösemen: "Illustration of a 'pitcher serpent' - one of the many new snake-like lineages."

 

Copyright CM Kösemen: "A novel relative of kahydrons and pescidons."

 

Copyright CM Kösemen: "A fast-swimming mullojiform with a flattened, fish-like body-plan. One of the many different clades of 'fish' on Snaiad."

Copyright CM Kösemen: "Another mullojiform - a terrestrial, tree-climbing species with no exact comparable analogue on Earth."

The Book is announced!

The Book is announced! 

Yes, I do mean my long-awaited book about Furahan wildlife; for me, this is not just a book, but 'The Book'. 

Before anyone becomes overexcited, let me start by saying that it is not available yet; you will probably have to wait until November to get your copy! 

The publishing process is advancing nicely and has now reached the stage where The Book is announced to booksellers. This means you can search for it on booksellers' websites, but it will not be mentioned in every country yet. Because Crowood Press, the publisher, is in the UK, UK sellers and sites are first to mention it. I recommend 'speculative biology furaha' as a search term to find it quickly. 

Mind you, the official price has not been settled yet, in spite of you may see! 

Here are the cover and accompanying text, with thanks to Dougal for the praise! 

 

Click to enlarge; copyright Gert van Dijk

"On the planet Furaha, Gert van Dijk creates a biosphere on a new world along with its solar system. Evolution on Furaha found solutions to life’s problems that remained unused on Earth. There are in-depth accounts of habitats where marshland mixotrophs use bioluminescence to catch animals, where four-sided radial cloakfishes swim in tropical waters and where tetrapters flitter through the air, using radial flight. With over 180 stunning illustrations, this is a book that all fans of science fiction, biology and science will enjoy, and that will inspire artists to think beyond the limitations of our own planet. 

 'Major works on speculative biology are rare but Furaha is a welcome addition to the genre and gives a well-considered account of life on another planet, along with stunning illustrations. This is a must-read book, which I heartily recommend.’ ~ Dougal Dixon The father of speculative zoology"

Why Furaha is like Earth

Furaha is very much like Earth. The planet dies in fact differ from Earth in all aspects, but the departures are limited, so gravity, the temperature range and atmospheric composition are all close to those of Earth. 

I did not choose this similarity because I wanted the planet to be suitable for humans. The choice to add humans was made much later, and humans are simply there to add human interest and humour; few things are funnier that human behaviour, I think, even if you have to ignore stupidity and greed. The earlier choice to make the planet Earth-like did have a large effect on the human presence, as it meant that humans could mingle with the animals, fall into pools and could be stung, bitten and spat at by local spidrids, wadudu and kermitoids. In short, they could live on the planet, rather than be neutral observers isolated by space suits. 

 A big part of the attraction of speculative biology is that the animals, plants and other thingies are unearthly. If a high degree of unearthliness or alienness is the aim, shouldn't the environment itself be unearthly? Wouldn't an extremely low or high gravity, or temperatures hot enough to melt lead or cold enough to allow methane lakes evoke such alienness? I think the answer to that is 'yes'. But I chose otherwise. 

Mind you, extreme environments pose problems. One would be that there should a biochemistry that works in environments in which Earth creatures would freeze solid or burn to a crisp in seconds. But the purpose of The Book was to show life forms through paintings, and you do not see biochemistry on a painting. Well, indirectly you do, of course; if life forms need large areas for photosynthesis, that fact tells you something about photosynthetic efficiency; likewise, the presence of insulator coverings tells you something about metabolic temperature. But in such cases you only have to accepts that some type of biochemistry is behind what you see; you do not need details. 

Gravity wasn't the problem either, because gravity translates to mechanical stress, and designing appropriate mechanical adaptations is quite doable and can be represented well in paintings. 

Reflections off Titan. Click to enlarge. From here

The real problem is painting the mundane aspects of a creature's environment. Take a methane lake as on Titan. What colour is it? We know it is reflective, but is it transparent too? Do the degrees of reflection and of transparency depend on the angle of vision? I love painting water surfaces, so these things matter to me. On Earth, we are so used to all aspects of water, variable as they are, that I could show you a brownish flat surface with some reflexions on it and you would equate that with muddy water without even thinking about it. Staying with water, we are used to interpret wave amplitude ands wavelength, and immediately know whether a scene shows a stormy sea or ripples in a calm pond. Well, Titan's sease appear to be extraordinarily smooth (Wye et al 2009). There are waves on Titan, about 20 cm high for a wavelength of 4 meters (Lorenz and Hayes 2012). But even with that knowledge I would have to know much more about viscosity, foam, etc. before I could paint them. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to turn such data into any approximation of what the surface looks like; to do that, you need to see it. 

Use of atmospheric depth by Caspar David Friedrich, who really knew what he was doing

 

Rather less competent use of atmosperic depth in an old Furaha painting

Perhaps some planetary scientists have good ideas of what methane lakes really look like, but I do not. I guess painters have to see them before they can see them, and without close-up videos we have no idea. I could go on like this about rocks, soil and sand: does the wind produce ripples in the sand on the beach? The atmosphere is interesting too: are there clouds? What is their shape and colour? Any landscape teaching course class will introduce 'atmospheric (or aerial) depth'. That means that, if you wish to paint hills or mountains as if they are far away, you should make the colours pale, bluish, with little contrast and detail (at sunrise or sunset colours can become reddish rather then bluish). To which extent does aerial perspective apply to Titan? The physical mechanism behind it is Rayleigh scattering, and that probably works in the same way regardless of the composition of the atmosphere, but the effect may still be affected by the composition of the atmosphere. Some exoplanets may have blue skies, like Earth. This means it is reasonable to turn the colours of an alien atmosphere bluish near the horizon. But the sky right above you need not be blue itself, as we know from Mars, so the colour of the sky itself might be different. And that does not take the colour of the local sun into consideration, which might, for instance, cast such a red glow over the scenery that we would find it difficult to tell noon from sunset. 

The simple reason Furaha is so like Earth is that that choice allowed me to paint backgrounds and many details of Furahan landscapes without endless study and much uncertainty on my end. I feel that the uncertainty would also affect the viewing of the paintings. When I paint something that looks like a smooth reflective surface with some undulations, you might think it is viscous oil or even mercury, rather than what should show up as a nice refreshing Titan lake. It is much more helpful to fall back on people's expectations: when I paint a nice transparent aquamarine surface with the sun glinting off it, and if I manage to do that really well (which is not a given!) I would like people to wish they could jump into that nice tropical water. 

They shouldn't do that, of course, because of the sawjaws, but you get the drift. 

 

References

Lorenz RD, Hayes AG. The growth of wind-waves in Titan's hydrocarbon seas. Icarus 2012,  219: 468–475

Wye, L. C., H. A. Zebker, and R. D. Lorenz (2009), Smoothness of Titan’s Ontario Lacus: Constraints from Cassini RADAR specular reflection data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L16201, doi:10.1029/2009GL039588.