Avril Pundzius

The Tarantula Hawk: an Informational Zine

My project is about portraying insects, specifically stinging hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants), in a more empathetic and positive light. An area of debate of my topic that interests me is how insects are generally perceived and treated by people; I want to explore and challenge negative vs positive conceptions of these animals compared to others.A need I perceived was a lack of understanding and acknowledgement of insects’ existence and their importance in our environment. The goal of my project is to challenge the usually negative knee-jerk reaction towards insects and to instead foster a different kind of relationship towards them, whether it be fascination, respect, neutrality or other, to lead towards an understanding of their importance in our natural world. My initial project concept was a series of posters depicting various insects from the Schmidt pain index accompanied by the descriptions of their stings from the index and illustrative visual representations of these intricate and colourful descriptions, but I have pivoted my outcomes to accomplish my goal through a series of informational, explorational zines that can fold out into larger decorative posters.