“There is grandeur in this view of life” art contest

The New Scientist blog CultureLab held a contest to “use Darwin’s remarkable concluding sentence –

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

– in your own work of art. We wanted to see the cleverest and most creative ways that you could incorporate Darwin’s words into a song, poem, painting, video or anything else you could imagine.”

They’ve announced the winners (which include an image of embryological development, a video sequence of ink in water, a poster showing “how long it would take a million monkeys typing at random to produce Darwin’s concluding sentence,” a wooden clog tree sculpture, and a stop-motion animation of a “quirky illustration of endless forms growing and changing”). They each receive a special edition of On the Origin of Species featuring a cover by artist Damien Hirst. A few runner-ups are listed to, including music by Mark Pallen and David Haines.

But wait a minute, wasn’t Darwin wrong, according to New Scientist? Ugh, no.

Hat-tip to Glenn Branch.