The Incredible World of Birdbugs | Speculative Biology
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
- Have you ever wanted to learn how an alien bird-bug plays the horn? An exploration of Ripley’s incredible speculative biology project ‘Birgworld.’
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Artist’s Tumblr: / iguanodont
Artist’s Twitter: / iguanodentist
The Birg Project is a worldbuilding series that brings to life an expansive alien ecosystem, but also delves into the most minute cultural details of its central intelligent species. Created by the brilliant artist Ripley, The Birg Project doesn’t just explore the biology of its titular aliens, but also imagines how they put on clothes, how they play the horn, even how they sneeze.
Also called ‘Birdbugs,’ these extraterrestrials superficially resemble a cross between Earth birds and Earth bugs - and have developed a level of intelligence similar to our own.
So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll explore the incredible world of the Birgs. Now, let’s explore this alien planet on both a macro and micro scale…
0:00 The Birg Project
1:13 Birg Biology
3:33 Domesticated Species
6:12 Wild Creatures
10:24 Defiance of Nature
13:40 Birg Culture
17:38 Allure of Freedom
20:36 Support the Artist
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow, Majestic Hills, Floating Cities
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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#CuriousArchive #SpeculativeBiology #Worldbuilding 
Развлечения
It’s so damn refreshing to see alien media having a much more focused narrative, and focusing on the itty bitty details of their life. I love it
Right. But they forgot to show 100% uncut birg f*cking... OOOS i mean, "dating, mating, and reproduction"... I wanna see mating dances and the complete fertilization process 😂
Despite the bizarre arachnid-like shapes, they're extremely adorable.
The baby birgs are adorable.
do you disagree with the cuteness of jumping spiders?!
It's you!!! :3
That's racist.
the fur probably helps
At the start of the video: "They do look quite alien."
By the end of the video: "They're so cute, I love them!"
What a fascinating race, and the artwork is awesome.
I wonder if we can bang them
I know the art reminds me a lot of the Dark Crystal
the odd to adorable arc is real indeed
This is without a doubt, one of the most vividly detailed speculations of an alien race I've ever seen. Her art is gorgeous.
If you like this, you should check out CA's video on the Birrin. Its another very similar art project with an alien race.
Yo you gotta check out Birrin
The "hmm" look of the Birgs at around 2:51 is just perfection, exactly how you'd imagine a confused alien to look
Also it looks like he or she could also be expressing shame or guilt, but that's just my interpretation
@@theprehistorichubert9448 Like "Holy shit, I just killed that other alien"?
@@James-ph4mx ye, maybe
Jar Jar Binks looking mofo
to me it sort of seemed like a, "I'ma pretend I didn't see that" kind of vibe. perfect for what it is
Awesome. When you got to the sea part I thought "Shouldn't there be crab like creatures? Seems like such a success that almost all planets would have a similar design", and 2 seconds later it popped up.
All things, eventually, lead to crabs
humans 500 mil years later 🦀
Carcinization strikes again!
And the suddenly, crab seeds…
@@shinobi-no-bueno ruclips.net/video/ykWPyaqbebo/видео.html
So pleased to see that this finally come out! Ripley is incredible at rendering anatomy that feels alien but not overworked, just textured and lumpy and strange in that way actual organisms are. Their watercolor artwork tickles my brain in the same way Moebius and James Gurney's Dinotopia does.
Oh my god. One of my favorite worldbuilders on a video about the other? Tis' amazing!
JAY EATON!?!
The Birdbug project is one of my favorite speculative projects out there. Everything is so detailed and the Burgs really seem like alien animals that you could find in some remote corner of the universe, so similar to us but also so different.
I would think they're absolutely in the top three of best sapient aliens around, with the first being the Birrin, and I have no idea who the third would be.
@@AethuvielFor Me, #1 is the Birrin, #2 is the Birgs, and #3 is the Precursors when they’re not mechanical
The art is gorgeous, scaling, depth, textures, animations… she’s done an incredible job.
I once came up with a spec zoo idea involving organisms known as "Birdbugs", hence I was shocked when I got a notification with creatures having an identical name and similar features.
It's funny when people think up the same fictional thing independently.
@@rootfish2671 Convergent evolution, you might say.
Parallel universes I suppose. Maybe the creator is you from another universe.
@@gloomyallo1830 I bet some nerd is gonna reply to this with the joke having clearly gone over their head and proceed to explain what convergent evolution is.
@@gloomyallo1830 did someone say crabs?
I’ve been following the creator of the birgs on tumblr for years, and seeing you make a video on them is so exciting!
Is there more of this project by chance? I really liked it.
@@radudancoroian5169 pretty much all that I’ve seen of this project has been on tumblr. You can probably find a lot on Twitter as well, but it’s easier to look into the world of birgs on tumblr
This has low key become one of my all time favorite channels. As a total biology nerd who loves the potential of life these speculative biology series are so interesting and fascinating but I'd never be able to find these kinds of things on my own thanks CA for scratching my science itch better than anywhere else.
The stylization helps make these aliens super cute and readable, really feels like a living world!
The Nausicaa inspiration is really cool, I just read the manga at the start of this year and it has so many beautiful illustrations and world building details. The movie definitely has the better pacing, but it is fun for a long, adventurous, and rather depressing tale.
Please take a look at Jay Eaton's Runaway to the Stars.
It features several interesting alien species cohabiting with gene-spliced humans in space habitats.
The series is very unique for its slice of life approach to alien lifeforms.
Check out All Tomorrows
YES. Fantastic worldbuilding. Machines with guts inside, modified humans, ASL adapted to beings with 4 fingers (and beings with less fingers wearing prosthetics so they can "speak" ASL), foster program for alien kids... It's just goddamn amazing.
the fan works escially where they nave the species interact with each other in person alot more its makes it all the more tragic when a star wars or mass effect feeling galaxy begins to slowly be killed off by a unfeeling AM like menace.@@Onwaxwings
I am mad and astonished at the same time; mad, because another idea for alien species is "taken", astonished, because the project is so beautifully made.
Podobny pomysł na fizjologię obcych można znaleźć na kanale Biblaridion.
Ripley did such a fantastic job making the Birg's look both decidedly non-Terran, but also extremely expressive and personable. I also hugely appreciate how she has imagined "scaled-up" insectile anatomy, or at least "insectile" by human standards. She has very cleverly worked out ways around the longstanding problems of speculative creature making that involve bringing invertebrate anatomy to vertebrate sizes :D
I think this might be my favorite yet. So much speculative biology is like "here's meat-monsters on a tidally locked planet OH NO mecha-empire attacks!"
Instead we get these spider-rabbits growing truffles and taking really long naps.
so what about
teeming universe?.
Yesss the Birgs! God. Hopefully you go through Jayrockins Runaway to the Stars species or even Charseraphs Crowns. To be honest got a goal of my own speculative species ending up on this channel someday. The inspiration is real. To have a world so rich.
Babe wake up, curious archive is speaking about another alien species
Their stories of the statues’ singing being the voices of passing ghosts really sold me on them. I also like their funeral rights, the statues are a really beautiful idea. The feathervane trees are also beautiful (in a different way). I really like these guys
I had never heard of birgs 22 minutes ago but now I would literally die for them
The watercolor art is beautiful. Mega impressive how she brought such a strange (and cute) species to life so well.
I think this project really stands out from most others you covered in terms of building a biology and a culture that feels believable and 'complete' There are so many clever ideas here.
@Zekeriya Şentürk Please stop bothering other people. Your behaviour is horrible.
@ze Bruh what
I haven't been this enthralled by a project since the Birrin. Good find.
Did you like Rust and Hummus?
What an absolutely stunning and fascinating piece of worldbuilding this place is. I'd love to play a game or watch a series set on this planet.
Does anyone else want to see a crossover between Birgworld and the Yaetuan sagas? Or is it just me?
i mean... I can't get enough of the BIRGANG. I keep coming back to this video every couple of days, and I'll be damned if this unbelievably comprehensive, meticulous, beautiful, wonderful piece of art didn't, after too many years and false starts, FINALLY and unwittingly inspire me to put pen to paper on a bit of world-building writing ahead of book I swore I'd write 30 times over by now. So... read my expressive mandibles: THANK YOU, BIRGS! YOU AMAZING LITTLE DERPY FUZZ-NUGGETS OF ARTISTIC MUSERY!
Worldbuilding is arguably just as important as a narrative in any story. A fleshed out world will give the characters actions and motivations more weight and flavor, especially with context of that characters beliefs or culture. Ripley is no doubt going to go places in that department.
Reminds me of the good old birrin day’s
Great video man keep it up im always excited for speculative alien project’s
Who would win birdbugs vs birrin ?
@@Bake-kurijra birrin definetly
@@Bake-kurijra Birrin stomps no question. They're much more advanced. But honestly, I feel that the two races would honestly try to create peace, at least for a while.
@@kade-qt1zu somebody write a fan fiction where the birrin land on the Burg’s home world.
@@Bake-kurijra Birrin solos
I've been doing a spec bio project where most multicellular life is derived from colonial organisms, but I have yet to publish it. I've been working on the species adjacent to coral that have a metallic shell rather than a calcium shell.
OOOOOH THAT SOUNDS SOO COOL!
That’s pretty cool
Ohhhhh I had an idea like that once! You went the metals route to :)
@@ethanlackey8048 funky snail go brr
@Saturn That sounds awesome. Keep up the great work. 😃😁👍👍
the birg are rather cute which is surpsing consider they have the same mouth as one of the most phobia inducing species on earth.
though i wonder if the birg have the same sense of "cuteness" as humans as it essentially was a survival mechanicsm to make us protect and care for our offspring so traits like big eyes and big heads were desireable to us and it seems this holds true for the birgs children bigger eyes and heads as well.
It's likely a very universal trait to find big eyes and heads cute because your eyes and brain need to be a certain size to function properly. So it's common for infant animals to have these traits no matter the species. Birgs likely have a similar standard of cuteness as we do.
@@catpoke9557 I'd argue its actually, at-least partly, an accident on evolution's part. Your eyes don't grow in size nor shrink, but your head grows. Baby heads start as small as possible to make birthing easier, resulting in their eyes looking real big. I'm just a layman though, so its only speculation, but it makes sense to me.
@@drvurruct2274 yes, but the point is it is evolutionally harder to make a growing eye (and head) so they start proportionally bigger
@@AbsoluteHuman For humans and a decent amount of mammals yes, but it's certainly not a universal requirement for life. A single cell bacterium doesn't have offspring with large eyes and small head.
@@The_WhitePencil that's not true for every animal but still a trend even with fish and insects. So rather common.
2:41 I suddenly love the idea of hyper intelligent non earth species, making Emojis 🤣
This feels very inspired by French comics. The art style, the attention to detail, the Western influences, I would not be surprised if the artist was very influenced by Moebius.
Artist here! You’re right on the money :)
I’ve seen comments like this on other unrelated videos, so obviously there is something that can be observed of art in this style, but I’m not entirely sure how one identifies those similarities. Out of curiosity, what makes an art style reminiscent of French graphic art?
@@Nidhwal8me wait a minute, are you the actual Ripley who created the birdbug world building project?! :D
yes, that’s me :)
@@Nidhwal8me oh my… I can’t believe I am communicating to you, without using tumblr.
For some reason I love these dorks a ton, they may not be remotely humanoid but to me it adds to their charm! I’ll try to make an animation in the future with them, maybe not this year but I kinda have an idea of slices of daily life between different birgs around their home!
also thanks for noticing my comment, hope you have a good life :>
God I’ve been following Ripley for a long time, even had the pleasure of working with them, and it’s so funny to hear birgs monotonely called “this creature.” Sire that’s just a good friend.
this has got to be my favorite speculative biology project, even more than birrin. I just love how deep it goes into the similarities and differences between birg and human societies, and the attention to detail, down to the ‘cosmetic scarring’ that they have, makes me so unbelievably happy. I also love the idea of walking seeds. I love this so, so much. And the art is absolutely beautiful too.
This appears to be as well done as the Birrin. I wonder if at some stage there could be a crossover. If this is happening at about the same time, it would likely be the Birrin who visit first as they already have spaceflight. Their worlds are almost opposites as well, with Birg being a highly seasonal with deep winter and Birrin being largely scorched desert with little seasonal changes.
That would also be very interesting for their contrasting themes. The Birg Project seems to focus largely on the Birg’s attempts to coexist with their environment whereas the Birrin Project is portraying the Birrin’s struggle to overcome it. I would honestly love any kind of crossover between these two.
I'd love to see you take on Tribbetherium's "Hamster's Paradise!" It's basically Serina with hamsters instead of canaries, but it has a lot of interesting concepts, such as the planet having two suns and thus a yellow sun-red sun- night cycle, reptile-like hamsters that evolve into basically tiny hummingbird-dragons, and my favorite bit, the Harmsters, which are basically LOTR orcs if they were adorable murderous genocidal fluffballs.
Heyyy, fellow Hamster's Paradise fan! :D
@@Cinemamuffin are the creator of hamster’s paradise, or just a fan them?
@@gavinrichards101 Oh goodness no, I didn't make it! I'm just a fan!
@@Cinemamuffin sorry I’m just confused, even I missed spelled my comments. Speaking about it, you weren’t the creator of hamster’s paradise on RUclips I see. then does he has a RUclips channel?
I fell in love with Ripley's artstyle so long ago. I am glad more people are going to experience this in the coming months
Have you thought about taking a gander at Jay Eaton's work. While the project they work on isn't finished, I think it's interesting.
I beg you to check out Jay Eaton's world that is the premise for "airsled" and the upcoming "runaway to the stars" graphic novels. If you love the amount of detail packed into this project, you'll love Jay's work.
i've been following this project for a good while now, so it's super exciting to see it covered in one of these videos! i think the birgs were part of what got me into speculative biology ngl
Just found out about this from Reddit and as a world builder I'm super impressed. I like the idea of raising live stock for the mites or what ever living on them more so than the live stock it's self.
A herder will have to be careful about managing numbers and breeding rates of both animals.
It's been a bit since I saw a project this good. It really gave me chills
finally! I was wondering when you would cover the birgs, I've been following this project/this creator for years and I'm so glad to see their work getting the attention it deserves 😊
This is the most amazing speculative fiction world I’ve seen to date! It’s so pleasing and full of life. I love it
Yesssss! Ive followed this artists tumblr and twitter for a long time, and im deligthed to see it being showcased on curious archive! Their work is one of the most intresting and inspirational projects ive seen, and probably one of the most thorough ones too! Everything from clothes patterns, jewlery, status, traditions, instruments, diets, animals and plants and the relation between these things, everything has been touched upon, even if just briefly! Its those little things that really makes the bigger picture, and etches it into my mind as its own living world!
I really enjoy when authors also try their hand in "speculative social sciences", it makes the birg so unique (also the Singing Statues has to be a Spongebob reference/inspiration heh)
Ah yeah! I’ve been following iguanodont for some time and it’s awesome to see the Birdbugs being talked about on this channel. Another Spec evo project I’d recommend checking out is Runaway to the Stars by Jay Eaton, it’s crazy in-depth and is gonna be made into a comic I'm pretty sure.
Ironically I’m doing some spec evo (I’m still far from finished and seeing how long it’s taking me, I’m not expecting to publish anything soon) and some of my creatures are physically and/or behaviourally very similar to some of the Birdbugs’ even though I hade never heard about Birdbugs before.
Precisely the “equine” limvolans, herbivorous quadrupeds with a long proboscis usually used to browse trees. I say equine to separate them from another group of quadrupedal limvolans which evolved independently, I have yet to give them a formal name.
Scientific name idea for the species. Eoequinus
this has got to be one of the most detailed projects you've covered!! i'm very impressed by the amount of work it must have taken to create all of the art and make a fully fleshed out world with societies and cultures as intricate and dynamic as our own!!!! 🤩🤩🤩
I'm soooo happy to see the Birgs here on your channel. LOVE what you do to share these beautiful projects.
These videos are great to listen to while I work on my own worldbuilding project
15:12 As someone who uses mobility aids, it's always so wonderful to see spec evo/world building people considering mobility aids and the like for their creations! I personally haven't seen it done that often, so I'm so excited to see such thought and detail put into them in this project!
If y'all like this I think you'd like Jay Eaton's Runaway To The Stars which has a lot of focus on little cultural and physiological details of the aliens. The Birgs are also pretty similar to the Centaur aliens with their linear respiratory system and 6 limbs.
Birgs are the most cliche spec evo animals ever, centauroids
@@rommdan2716 Bro you can't be that creative with limb count if you're going for realism.
@@40watt53 4 it's more than enough IMO, everyone is using 6 like a hivemind
@@rommdan2716 4 is MORE than enough? Cut off your arm then, coward.
@@40watt53 Have you ever heard about Lamias?
This and the Birrin Project are some of my most favorite speculative evolution projects out there. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy anything to do with evolution, but I am far more interested by anthropology. Tbh, this project feels *less* like speculative evolution than it does speculative *anthropology* and I enjoy that so much.
It is so cool seeing one of my friend's works being covered here!
Those human-like eyes and fluff make them considerably less creepy. I do wonder how they put all those layers of clothes on though.
Aww their trunk horses watch the children birgs along with their own. That's so cute! Why is this so cute!?
My guess is that like medieval armor in the human world the birgs need multiple members to put on clothes.
YESSSSSSSSSS, Hey CA, I just want to say that this channel fills me with so much imagination that I had thought was lost to troubling times.
The Birgs are both fascinating and completely adorable.
The Birdbugs in the spaghetti western outfit wielding guns sold me on loving these creatures. This is now my favorite Speculative Biology.
Bird bugs? I don’t know what that is but I’m happy to find out
There cute aren’t they
The cultural details of this project is pretty amazing
This with the Birrins are the bests speculative projects for me
Okay I absolutely love the Birgs. They´re so precious
Duuude! This is awesome! Thank you, Mr. Curious :) You bring a lot of Joy into my fridays haha
"Which is good because all speculative settings should have some form of crab." YOU GOT THAT RIGHT #CrabSupremecy #EvolveToCrab
Thank you for playing the sneeze animation multiple times I love it so much look at that little guy!!
Oh wow! It's so cool to see the birdbug project get a feature here, I've been following it for years!
Ooh i love speculative fiction stuff with both a focus on biology and more cultural stuff! I’m not very science minded so most of my wordbuilding is more culture, art history based stuff, but this is inspiring me to work a little bit on my flora and fauna.
Wonderful, do you think you could cover "runaway to the stars"? It has a lot of unique biology and lore to it:]
I would love a video on it too
This has to be one of my favorite projects covered on this channel.
been following this artist for years, it's been amazing to see the project unfold
Alien daily life needs to be more speculated.
this art is beautiful 🙏🏽
There was so much thought put into this project! The inclusion of mobility aids made me so happy! I love this so much
".. even how they sneeze."
THIS IS THE MONA LISA OF OUR LIFE TIME. LOOK AT THAT SNEEZE
I remember seeing a picture on a spec evo server of a wierd alien bug with a colorful coat next to some yellow plants. We were really curious to know what proyect was that. Now all my questions are awnsered!
It seems that six limb aliens are now the grey little aliens
Well, at least six limbs isn't as big of a limiting factor.
@@kade-qt1zu I Know, but i would like more complex designs.
Ya I know. Cute right
@@dalaillama4209 Birrin.
@@dalaillama4209 Well in this case they actually have a good reason for the six limbs. That being that they evolved from insect-like creatures. So I'd say it's more unique than the usual design.
I love this speculative biology stuff you do, CA. I absolutely adore it.
Worked with this artist over the summer. She's one of the coolest people I've ever met 🙂
I keep meaning to do a speculative biology project of my own design...
I've done a few sketches, but want to keep the biology following the same evolutionary rules as here on Earth, so need to do a lot more research to create some general cladistic hierarchies, then identify the few lineages I intend to focus on.
Do you intend to make it public? If so I would love to know where to find it.
@@Rum-Runner Absolutely. Though at the current rate, it'll be 2024 before it's finished, I'm hoping to both self-publish it as a book & set up a website.
@@Ninth_Penumbra Wonderful! Yeah don’t worry about how much time you gotta take. I’m sure if you’re taking your time to include every detail it’ll turn out great. When you finish would you mind posting here where I could find it? Cant wait. Good luck!
I love these designs!
This is a really interesting divergence from most speculative biology projects I've seen. The ecosystem - while elaborate and well-thought out in its own right - functions to give context to the lifestyles of the birgs, rather than simply existing for its own sake. While this principle of storytelling within a speculative ecosystem isn't unique, this project feels markedly more intimate, almost domestic in its presentation than most.
O YO BIRDBUGS I LOVE THIS ARTIST! Similar vien ‘runway to the stars’ by jay eaton is also a really good speculative bio project for those interested
About time! I sure would like to see more speculative biologists artist going to more details like this more often. Myself, I often wanted to do a project like this. But I always have gotten too busy in my own life and bits and pieces of a similar idea have always been staying on the shelf or hanging on my wall. I get weird ideas like if you were putting on a pair of pants that was made for a dinosaur, would the pants have a third leg for the tail. And if you were wondering through alien library, how bizarre would it actually be to look through a anatomy book, or even something about their art. And if you were lost in a habited alien world would it actually be safe to eat the food, or to even be physically touched. I think there's a lot of amazing ideas like this that people just kind of secretly think about and never really seem to work on any great detail. But I see it as a very untapped source.✌️
👏🤩👽 Marvelous Worldbuilding Lore, Bestiary Critters Folks and interesting artistic references!! I love this kind of stuff thank you to bring this Feathered Arthropods !!
I'm so glad to see your new video at last. I swear, I practically hold my breath in between them.
This is now officially my most favourite speculative biology project ever.
It's weird how difficult it is for us to imagine, not a species, but a SOCIETY different than our own. So these birds act just like humans but have different ways of doing it.
there's another video from this channel
about speculative biology of alien civilization who's far from human habits
Attempt #4
*Pretty please do a video for the creatures from "Made in Abyss".*
You keep asking . He’s not going to do it
THE SINGING GIANTS ARE A SPONGEBOB EPISODE. Whether this was intentional or not, the idea of ancient giant instruments is awesome. I love Birg
Wow! So awesome. I love seeing all that you have to show, keep up the good work. I especially enjoy the costumes that the Birgs wear. It almost feels like it could be real
Curious Archive really should post more updates in the community to us, so that we will know what kind of videos will be released next.
Yes more
I'm going to have to bookmark this and watch it several more times. I did not anticipate the birgs being so darn adorable, and the minutely-detailed consideration of their lives and cultures is satisfying to a degree I rarely find in speculative sci-fi.
Love the speculative biology content, thanks for posting!
I can't hear the name 'bumble bird' without thinking of the Calamity boss that formerly shared the same name.
It's possible that these birgs actually exist which is cool to imagine
This project looks great. How about a shared universe with the Birgs and the Birrin?
Been watching your videos for a while now. Love your channel. Keep up the exceptional work.