A street mural project bringing attention to the extinction crisis

EXTINCT: Legendary Birds is a large-scale exterior street mural. It was created as a novel method of science communication with the goal to transform the four-story wall of a building in an unused public space and encourage cultural memory of extinct indigenous animal species from Aotearoa New Zealand. Street murals as a method of science communication involves the translation of facts into a visual narrative meant to connect with people’s values, beliefs, attitudes, awareness, and understanding. For this project, we used research-based street art as a transdisciplinary method to reach a broad spectrum of people about the current extinction crisis, including those who might otherwise be disinterested or seldom-reached. A critical reflection is offered for the project’s process (tasks completed to create the street mural), design (symbolic and visual narrative choices) and reception (responses to the process and the completed art). Both the collaborative production of the street art and the artwork itself resulted in constructive community dialogue, contributing to contemplation of environmental ethics and cultural memory of extinct indigenous fauna in a spatial-temporal context.