The Paleontology of Chris Wildrick Is Overrated: Dinosaur High School, performed at Process, Performance & Projection III, Carbondale, IL, SIUC Faculty Exhibition, Paducah, KY, both 2005; original data analysis 2005; several other performances in Ithaca and Syracuse, NY in 2008-present; updated analyses 2009.
Dinosaur High School asks the question: If Dinosaurs were in High School,
who would they be? What High School social group would each species belong to?
Would a Duckbill be a Jock, a Geek, or a Goth? How about a tryannosaur, or a
triceratops?
Chris has spent the last several years studying to become a self-taught professional
paleontologist. His focus is Dinosaur Aesthetics--the way we, as individuals
and as a society, construct our images of what dinosaurs looked like. Dinosaur
Aesthetics involves the way we imagine their skin to be patterned, posture,
attitude, and so on. Chris decided to focus on our perception of dinosaurs'
relative social status and identities in this project.
Many participants have asked which High School Social Category is most analogous to which Dinosaur Species, and why. The data from this survey has been extensively analyzed, and the quantitative and qualitative analyses can be found below.
You can download files (some of which are fairly large) of the completed analyses of the data here:
Quantitative Data Part 1: Distribution of Votes for Species' Social Categories (pdf)
Quantitative Data Part 2A: Distribution of Votes for Attributes by Species and Social Category (xls)
Quantitative Data Part 2B: Summary of Distribution of Votes for Attributes by Social Category (pdf)
Qualitative Data: Participants' Extended Descriptions of Selected Attributes (doc)