Review: We Animals (2013) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Considering Animals: Contemporary Studies in Human-Animal Relations
Annals of Science, 2013
In 2005 a small group of academics gathered at the University of Western Australia for a modest yet highly significant interdisciplinary conference focused on scholarship in the emerging field of human-animal studies. A critical mass of academics from the University of Tasmania attended that first conference and pledged to host a second human-animal studies conference two years later. True to their word a second human-animal studies conference was held in Hobart, Australia, in 2007. The organisers called the second conference "Considering Animals" and the book under review here is a compilation of papers presented at that conference. The first striking feature of the book Considering Animals (hardback version), is the artwork on the dust jacket (Figure 1). While some may not pay a book's dust jacket much heed, I view Considering Animals stunning cover-art as quite a coup. In an age of publishing rationalisation and belt-tightening, I imagine that the editors must have fought hard for permission to display a colour image on the book's cover; and for the inclusion of such a large number of pictures throughout the book. If this is the case, then their persistence paid off. Not only is Yvette Watt's cover-art beautiful and thought provoking in and of itself, it also serves to remind readers that this book is dealing with a highly interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry. Human-animal studies is not only about words. It is about images, representation, art and interpretation. One of the most noteworthy features of the biannual Australian Animal Studies Group, and the Minding Animals, conferences is the extent to which visual and other creative artists contribute to the field. With the use of such powerful cover-art the editors give effect to the contribution made by creative arts to the emerging discipline of human-animal studies. The book opens with a forward by well-known ecologist Marc Becoff and an introduction by two of the book's editors: Carol Freeman and Elizabeth Leane. The remainder of the book consists of 14 papers by (often prominent) academics, all of who presented at the 2007 University of Tasmania "Considering Animals" conference.
Animal Suffering: Representations and the Act of Looking
Anthrozoös 27:1, 2014
Animal advocacy uses images of nonhuman suffering as a form of normative rhetoric and a method of persuasion. Although much attention has been given to various facets of the depiction of human suffering, images of animal suffering have, to a large extent, escaped closer scrutiny. This paper seeks to remedy the situation by investigating four issues—the risk of aesthetics, the risk of perpetuating moral wrongs, the problem of privacy, and compassion fatigue—as they relate to images of farmed animal suffering. The paper will argue that images of nonhuman suffering are in danger of being interpreted as a form of visual intrigue, and that they invite seldom-asked questions concerning the justification of the act of looking, together with the privacy of nonhuman animals. Moreover, it will be maintained that compassion fatigue commonly affects how these images are perceived. Making use of the views of Susan Sontag, J. M. Coetzee, and Stanley Cohen (among others), it will be argued that, in order to escape the problematic connotations and consequences of the aforementioned issues, a normative dimension pointing toward action must be explicated.
Spaces of Encounter: Art and Revision in Human-Animal Relations
rapport nr.: ArtMonitor 11, 2009
This PhD project explores contemporary Western human relationships with animals through a 'relational' art practice. It centres on three art projects produced by Snaebjörnsdóttir/Wilson-nanoq: flat out and bluesome; (a)fly; and seal-all utilize lens-based media and installations. Discourses on how humans construct their relationship with animals are central to all three projects. The first one looks at polar bears, the second at pets, and the third at seals, in a variety of different sites within clearly defined contexts and geographical locations. The thesis explores the visual art methodologies employed in the projects, tracing in turn their relationship to writings about human-animal relations. This includes both writings researched in the making of the works and those considered retrospectively in the reflections on each art project. These artworks engage their audiences in a series of 'encounters' with the subject through simultaneous meetings of duality, e.g. haunting vs. hunting, perfection vs. imperfection and the real vs. the unreal. These dualities are important in theorizing this relational space in which the eclipse of the 'real' animal in representation occurs and in formulating questions embedded in and arising from the artworks on the construction and the limits of these boundaries. The 'three registers of representation' , as put forward by the artists Joseph Kosuth and Mary Kelly, have further helped to frame and develop the thinking, concerning both the mechanisms within the works and their perceived effects.
The portrayal of human-wildlife interactions in the print media
Too close for comfort, 2008
In the end Steve Irwin got too close" (Sydney Morning Herald 5/9/06). Steve Irwin's untimely death generated an instantaneous and massive response by the media. The cause of his death-a stingray barb-highlights a vital part of the topic of how close we should be to wildlife for our own safety, and for the welfare of the wildlife. As working zoologists, we asked: "To what extent does the media's portrayal of human-wildlife interaction define or obscure the contentious issues in wildlife management?" We examined 287 newspaper articles over one year (7/10/05 to 9/10/06). The journalism was, by and large, informative, readable and entertaining. The usual pattern of reporting was a catchy headline, short story and/or a sensational photo. There is a paradox in our relationship with wildlife-we want to be both close and distant. Media coverage reflects this, presenting wildlife as either dangerous or loveable, depending on the reporter's 'angle'. Safeguarding the future of our wildlife will need much more than a headline with a pun and an engaging photo of a charismatic creature. In its presentation of wildlife, the media plays a powerful role that will either further its conservation or leave it as a neglected element of our heritage. From our analysis, we argue that scientists and the media can be more profitably engaged, but ultimately the conservation of our fauna will depend on well-supported and diverse teams of scientists and wildlife managers that operate on sound ecological principles, not media precepts.
2011
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10.1057/9780230306240 -Popular Media and Animals, Claire Molloy Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com -licensed to McGill University -PalgraveConnect -2013-01-05 10.1057/9780230306240 -Popular Media and Animals, Claire Molloy Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com -licensed to McGill University -PalgraveConnect -2013-01-05 xi Series Preface This is a new book series for a new field of inquiry: Animal Ethics. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the ethics of our treatment of animals. Philosophers have led the way, and now a range of other scholars have followed, from historians to social scientists. From being a marginal issue, animals have become an emerging issue in ethics and in multidisciplinary inquiry. In addition, a rethink of the status of animals has been fuelled by a range of scientific investigations which have revealed the complexity of animal sentiency, cognition, and awareness. The ethical implications of this new knowledge have yet to be properly evaluated, but it is becoming clear that the old view that animals are mere things, tools, machines, or commodities cannot be sustained ethically. But it is not only philosophy and science that are putting animals on the agenda. Increasingly, in Europe and the United States, animals are becoming a political issue as political parties vie for the 'green' and 'animal' vote. In turn, political scientists are beginning to look again at the history of political thought in relation to animals, and historians are beginning to revisit the political history of animal protection. As animals have grown as an issue of importance, so have there been more collaborative academic ventures leading to conference volumes, special journal issues, indeed new academic animal journals as well. Moreover, we have witnessed the growth of academic courses, as well as university posts, in Animal Ethics, Animal Welfare, Animal Rights, Animal Law, Animals and Philosophy, Human-Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Animals and Society, Animals in Literature, Animals and Religion -tangible signs that a new academic discipline is emerging. 'Animal Ethics' is the new term for the academic exploration of the moral status of the non-human -an exploration that explicitly involves a focus on what we owe animals morally, and which also helps us to understand the influences -social, legal, cultural, religious, and political -that legitimate animal abuse. This series explores the challenges that Animal Ethics poses, both conceptually and practically, to traditional understandings of human-animal relations. The series is needed for three reasons: (i) to provide the texts that will service the new university courses on animals; (ii) to support the 10.1057/9780230306240 -Popular Media and Animals, Claire Molloy Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com -licensed to McGill University -PalgraveConnect -2013-01-05 xii Series Preface increasing number of students studying and academics researching in animal-related fields; and (iii) because there is currently no book series that is a focus for multidisciplinary research in the field. Specifically, the series will provide a range of key introductory and advanced texts that map out • ethical positions on animals; publish pioneering work written by new, as well as accomplished, • scholars; and produce texts from a variety of disciplines that are multidisciplinary • in character or have multidisciplinary relevance. The new Palgrave Macmillan Series on Animal Ethics is the result of a unique partnership between Palgrave Macmillan and the Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The series is an integral part of the mission of the Centre to put animals on the intellectual agenda by facilitating academic research and publication. The series is also a natural complement to one of the Centre's other major projects, the Journal of Animal Ethics. The Centre is an independent think-tank for the advancement of progressive thought about animals, and is the first centre of its kind in the world. It aims to demonstrate rigorous intellectual enquiry and the highest standards of scholarship. It strives to be a world-class centre of academic excellence in its field. We invite academics to visit www.oxfordanimalethics.com, the Centre's website, and to contact us with new book proposals for the series.
Representing Zoo Animals: The Other-than-Anthropocentric in Anthony Browne's Picture Books
The Lion and the Unicorn, 2019
Anthropomorphizing nonhuman creatures is an important hallmark of Anthony Browne's picture books, in which gorillas are a striking presence. His gorilla characters appear dressed up like middle-class gentlemen or as whimsical schoolboys, or as zoo animals behind bars. These images are often anthropomorphic, zany, or surreal, constituting an outlandish landscape in which human-animal identities are defamiliarized and called into question. Whereas most of Browne's anthropomorphic gorilla figures are portrayed to creatively and playfully engage young children in their self-discovery and the world around them, zoo animals consisting chiefly of the gorilla family, with few exceptions, are represented as unenthusiastically exposed to eager human viewers. Browne's visual representation of captive animals, at one level or another, draws attention to the worrying status of nonhuman animals as enslaved, objectified, and gradually diminished in the Anthropocene, an age when human beings are the principal agent of changes mostly detrimental to the animal world and to the Earth system. The term "Anthropocene" draws to our notice that human actions have deleterious effect on rapidly shrinking range of wild species. Early in his seminal essay "Why Look at Animals," John Berger asserts that public zoos, in which animals are turned spectral, mechanical, and "immunised to encounter" (28), are "a monument" to progressive alienation of animals and "an epitaph" to the pre-industrial human-animal relationship (21). The spectrality and marginalization of animals is further extended in Akira Mizuta Lippit's insight that the image of the animal characterizes the spectacle of modernity. "Modernity can be defined by the disappearance of wildlife from humanity's habitat," Lippit writes, "and by the reappearance of the same in humanity's reflections on itself: in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and