Ethos: The Practical Ethics Blog

Who’s Looking?

A collaborative, multi-disciplinary investigation of human relations to chimpanzees.

The exhibition is open to the public from 1200 to Saturday, November 3rd through Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery (South Gallery)
Center for the Arts
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT 06459

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 to 4:00 pm.
Directions: www.wesleyan.edu/cfa/directions.html.

‘Chimpanzees, more than any other non-human animal, stir something deep and conflicted within us. This appears to be the case whether the encounter is live or whether it is mediated through representations. During the month of November 2007, Who’s Looking? will provide the Wesleyan community with opportunities to explore our complex relations to our next of kin through photographs, film, theater and words’

The exhibition includes photographs by Frank Noelker Chimp Portraits 2002-2006, and a photo installation by Lori Gruen A Family Portrait 1920-2007.

Panel Discussion: Friday, 03 November 2007, 1130-1330. .
‘Re/Presenting Animals’ with Kari Weil, Cynthia Freeland, Frank Noelker, Allison Argo
Usdan University Center, Room 108

Please visit the Who’s Looking website and have a look. See too the article on Who’s Looking, ‘Emotions Stirred at Multi-Disciplinary Investigation of Human Relations to Chimpanzees’, in the Wesleyan Connection. In addition, Lori Gruen and Frank Noelker have related websites at http://first100chimps.wesleyan.edu, and www.franknoelker.com.

cheers, Bill

William Lynn :: Nov.21.2007 :: Art, Ethics, Human-Animal Studies :: No Comments »

Here is another feast for the eyes that I am late on. J Henry Fair’s photographs of industial scars combines both politics and art. This photo spread from his work is entitled Visions of Excess and appears in the August 2007 edition of Harpers Magazine. You can see more of his work in the Practical Ethics Gallery and at www.industrialscars.com.

cheers, Bill

William Lynn :: Nov.19.2007 :: Art, Environmental Studies, Geography :: No Comments »

Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture is a wonderful, online journal from the UK that routinely publishes work from the animal humanities. Do check it out!

cheers, Bill

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Antennae is currently accepting submissions for publication over the year 2008. We are looking for work fitting the following topics:

Mechanical Animals
Death and Decay (also including plants)
Animals: The Beautiful and the Ugly
Metamorphosis
Intelligent Design?

Submissions are open to visual arts, academic and non academic text. We are also very interested in receiving suggestions on other topics that may be of interest to our readers.

All the very best,

Giovanni Aloi
Editor of Antennae Project
Lecturer in History of Art and Media Studies
www.antennae.org.uk

William Lynn :: Nov.19.2007 :: Art, Environmental Studies, Human-Animal Studies :: No Comments »

I apologize for being a bit late on this, but I have been traveling.

Robert Hite is an amazing artists and I encourage you to see his work live if you can. If you can’t physically get there, you can view more of his art in the Practical Ethics Gallery or at his own roberthite.com.

cheers, Bill

William Lynn :: Nov.16.2007 :: Art, Environmental Studies, Geography :: No Comments »

Animal and Earth Advocacy: Links of Life

Saturday

February 23, 2008

Montana State University Billings SUB

Sponsored by

International Conference for Critical Animal Studies (6th annual)
Green Theory and Praxis
MSU-B Philosophy Faculty

Organized by: Dr. Lisa Kemmerer (MSU-B), lkemmerer@msubillings.edu

Just out of the starting gates of the 21st century, the world is experiencing tremendous change. From devastating hurricanes and earthquakes to an increase in endangered species, from severe drought to diminished and depleted forests, from the collapse of fisheries to global warming. What specific problems face nonhuman animals and the earth? How are environmental problems linked to animal exploitation? What shared issues unite environmental and nonhuman animal advocacy? How might animal and earth advocates address these shared global concerns through education, the arts, ethics, justice, culture, science, history, technology, policy, media, economics, and spirituality?

We invite proposals from all community members, including but not limited to nonprofit organizations, political leaders, activists, professors, and students. We are especially interested in topics reaching across the disciplines of environmental and animal advocacy. Paper presentations should be fifteen to twenty minutes in length.

Deadline for proposals: January 1, 2008. Please send no more than 500 words.

We are receptive to different and innovative formats, including, but not limited to roundtables, panels, community dialogues, theatre, and workshops. You may propose individual or group ‘panel’ presentations, but please clearly specify the structure of your proposal. Preference will be given to papers focusing on links between environmental and nonhuman animal advocacy (the program theme).

Accepted presenters will be notified (by email) January 15, 2008.

Please send proposals, abstracts, and biographies electronically to Dr. L. Kemmerer at lkemmerer@msubillings.

William Lynn :: Nov.12.2007 :: Human-Animal Studies :: No Comments »

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts in Portland, Maine. The theme of the conference was “coding” and I spoke on a panel with Ronnie Copeland and Bill Lynn. Ronnie presented, “What’s in a Name? Animal Fantasies and Animal Autobiographies or Blatant Anthropomorphism? Naturalist Novels of Nature Fakers? Sentimental or Subversive?” Bill presented a paper entitled, “Coding Wolves.” I presented my paper, entitled, “The Speaking Animal: Graphic Novels and the Voices of Nonhumans.” (An abstract of each paper is available on the SLSA website, along with a full program of the weekend’s events.)

Our presentations generated a dynamic and spirited discussion about the authenticity of the animal voice in fiction. Some audience members clung to the notion that anthropomorphism is a dirty word. This perspective is not uncommon, so while it was frustrating to have to defend the concept of inhabiting the mind of an animal, it was also useful to be reminded that anthropomorphism is a tool which meets resistance, even within the animal studies community. Those voices of dissent against our panel represented people who believe that the nonhuman experience of life is so foreign to our own that it is impossible for us to relate to them in any genuine way. I find this perspective very limiting, both artistically and politically. The audience members seemed to suggest we don’t have the imagination to explore what it might be like to be a nonhuman. I agree that a dog has a very unique way of seeing the world because of his or her reliance on olfactory sensations, but it would be sad to think we couldn’t even imagine such a unique way of seeing. The disquieting perspective of our human audience members relied very heavily on the differences between humans and nonhumans, and all but extinguished the similarities. This world view has the potential to extend beyond the creative realm and enter into very real policy concerns. How could we pretend to make laws, policies or decisions that claim to be in the animals’ best interests, if we cannot imagine what those interests might be? This is a circular and dangerous form of logic that can potentially threaten the limited progress we’ve made on behalf of animals.

Nevertheless, this discussion was just the start of a compelling weekend which brought together scholars from many different disciplines. With many thanks to conference organizer Susan McHugh (University of New England), animals played a significant role in panels and presentations throughout the conference.

Lisa Brown :: Nov.10.2007 :: Art, Human-Animal Studies :: No Comments »