Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HIS MASTER’S VOICE A white dog with brown ears sits in front of a gramophone, head directed to its brass-horn and slightly tilted to one side. The original painting was purchased in 1899, along with its full copyright, by the emerging Gramophone Company from the artist Francis Barraud. Text by Concepcion Cortes Zulueta Francis Barraud His Master’s Voice, Oil on Canvas, 1899 His Master’s Voice 28
T here seems to be some confusion regarding the early history of the painting: if it was made while Nipper, the dog, was still alive; if it is based or not on a photograph; what was Barraud’s initial plan; what was the phonograph, then replaced by a gramophone, supposedly playing, or whose idea was its final title, among others. What remains obvious, though, is the worldwide diffusion of an image that acted and has been used both as a brand and as an advertisement by several companies, past and present. Apart from the mystery surrounding its historical details, the legend accompanying this domestic scene shared more or less the same features everywhere. In fact this myth is what fascinates me the most. As for its overall content I feel inclined to keep the version offered by my Spanish parents, born in the fifties, when feigning ignorance I asked them if the phrase “la voz de su amo” - literally, “his master’s voice”- sounded familiar to them. Both burst out: “of course!”, talked about records and then took turns to explain the touching story of the dog who froze close to a gramophone playing the voice of his late master, seemingly recognising it and maybe trying to make sense of what was happening. Besides the cuteness of the little dog, it is plausible a considerable chunk of the strength and virality of the picture lie in the questions pointed out by those two words, seeming and maybe. Do dogs identify the sounds coming out of gramophones as someone’s voice? Many people, common people, guided by the slightly cocked head and their own experiences would answer positively, stating that dogs do identify people’s voices in recordings and react to them, in some way or another. But are dogs able to understand these recorded sounds as such, and not as an actual person? To what level do they understand what is happening? This is, in fact, a more complex issue. In any case, the development of devices that recorded our audiovisual environment prompted comparisons between our senses and perception, and those of animals. For example, to what degree they were tuned to each other, if animals saw, heard and perceived as we did or not. Recorders interposed another step between the actual world and perception. A level which could be easily manipulated and played with, fabricating products, such as photographs, films or audio-recordings, that in some circumstances even posed as reality. But knowing what a gramophone was and what it did, kept ourselves aware and complicit with its secrets, and safe not 29 to be fooled by the machine. However dogs, poor little dogs, were suspected of not being so smart. So maybe Nipper did recognise his master’s voice, and sat there interested, wondering, head titled to one side. Nevertheless, apparently he never reached any final conclusion. For what we know, he may be puzzled by the event in the same way that he may not recognise his own reflection on the brass-horn, or in a mirror. This scene was a harmless alternative to persuade about the fidelity of the recorded sound without the risk of offending the intelligence of the human - male?- customers, and strengthening simultaneously their confidence and dominant position back at home, sweet home. Maybe this was not just a portrait of man as master of animals and creation. After all, one could be the master not only of his own dog, but also of servants, children, wife and the whole household. The success of the main strokes of this scheme can be validated by the existence of recent variations, very similar although focused in sight instead of hearing. Like two 2011 Samsung Galaxy commercials that show a hen and a little girl deceived by the smart-phone vivid images. The hen, brooding the eggs in a screen, and the girl dropping the gadget inside a goldfish bowl trying to save a clownfish that was not really there. There are also plenty of Internet videos with dogs tilting their heads when faced with persons in online video-chats. This may be possibly because we find that charming, as well as the floppy and genetically selected neotenic ears that may partially cause so much tilting in order to avoid the obstruction of the sound waves. Beyond the puzzlement that we attribute to the dog, there is another strong emotional content in the painting. Is Nipper aware of what death is? Is he mourning his beloved master? Perhaps to feed our human pride we would feel tempted to answer that he is, but we don’t know for sure. On the other hand if the depicted vignette were a scientific experiment to check if Nipper possessed a death concept, nowadays it probably would have been considered as ethically unacceptable like the experiment in which Colin Allen and Mark Hauser described and then challenged, consisting on studying the reaction of a female monkey when listening to a recorded call of her dead infant. However, the brown and white dog can be labelled as an update of the Victorian topic of the mourning dog. A topic also found in other times and cultures. For instance, in Japan, where a statue remembers Hachiko the faithful.
Page 1 and 2: Antennae Issue 23 - Winter 2012 ISS
Page 3 and 4: EDITORIAL ANTENNAE ISSUE 23 T his i
Page 5 and 6: 83 Jumbo: A Capitalist Creation Sto
Page 7 and 8: actually ethical, juridical and pol
Page 9 and 10: A merican popular culture has quiet
Page 11 and 12: animals represent to the audience?
Page 13 and 14: Fig. 1. including sources such as t
Page 15 and 16: This lack of human/penguin interact
Page 17 and 18: gorillas were associated directly w
Page 19 and 20: References Anderson, John R. (1990)
Page 21 and 22: Regione Lombardia L’Agricoltura C
Page 23 and 24: Concern about the impact of livesto
Page 25 and 26: Ed Edwards and Dave Masterman The G
Page 27: translates into context for the bov
Page 31 and 32: P revious academic research looking
Page 33 and 34: Leo Burnett France 500 Black Jack,
Page 35 and 36: DDB Berlin The Golf GTI Edition 30,
Page 37 and 38: David&Goliath Fast and Fuel Efficie
Page 39 and 40: Kessanlv Bovril by Electrocution fr
Page 41 and 42: progress and humanitarianism. It wa
Page 43 and 44: Fig 1. VCCP Muller “Thank You Cow
Page 45 and 46: Fig. 3 TBWA/Chiat/Day New York Sad
Page 47 and 48: (Lerner and Kalof 1999), the four a
Page 49 and 50: I often wonder what the meetings at
Page 51 and 52: Representations of animals in adver
Page 53 and 54: In the second section of the Wester
Page 55 and 56: number of animal species, because i
Page 57 and 58: 2006. Image showing advertisement f
Page 59 and 60: Morrisjones & Company Unique Partne
Page 61 and 62: he same issue of the monthly magazi
Page 63 and 64: alleged Nazi dietary habits. The ma
Page 65 and 66: Fig.2. Stonyfield yogurt carton fro
Page 67 and 68: Fig. 4. & 5. The Miracle of Milk an
Page 69 and 70: Fig. 6. Down to Earth, Stonyfield F
Page 71 and 72: Fig. 8. Michael Mercil The Virtual
Page 73 and 74: Fig. 10. Michael Mercil The Virtual
Page 75 and 76: Fig. 12. Michael Mercil Michael Mer
Page 77 and 78: farming, the animals have disappear
Page 79 and 80:
incorporated subsumption of Stonyfi
Page 81 and 82:
Brooke’s Soap Monkey Brand Wont W
Page 83 and 84:
It is tempting to take for granted
Page 85 and 86:
Fig. 1. The iconic Jumbo broadside,
Page 87 and 88:
Fig. 2. Funny Folks, 1882. McCaddon
Page 89 and 90:
Fig. 3. Clark’s O.N.T. Spool Cott
Page 91 and 92:
and claw” movies and other cultur
Page 93 and 94:
(and thus all the more persuasive b
Page 95 and 96:
T his ad for Armstrong tires depict
Page 97 and 98:
Referring to real rhinos might have
Page 99 and 100:
perpetuation of the self image of t
Page 101 and 102:
The Human Portrait Portraiture is d
Page 103 and 104:
Fig. 7. Joe Zammit-Lucia Hunted, ph
Page 105 and 106:
Fig. 9. Animal Portraiture Exhibit
Page 107 and 108:
Fig. 10. Animal farmed for his fur
Page 109 and 110:
particularly highly disturbing imag
Page 111 and 112:
Pope-Hennessy, John. 1979. The Port
Page 113 and 114:
Thinkbox Harvey, 2010 Thinkbox ent
Page 115 and 116:
Y&R Chicago Welcome to the Saddest
Page 117 and 118:
Y&R Chicago Welcome to the Saddest
Page 119 and 120:
Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson hav
Page 121 and 122:
Campagne Per Gli Animali Buona Pasq
Page 123 and 124:
A lready very early on in the histo
Page 125 and 126:
Schwarzer Kater Garantie für gute
Page 127 and 128:
Laboratories Ed. Mottier Colle M El
Page 129 and 130:
PKZ Burgher, Kehl & Co, 1913 PKZ L
Page 131 and 132:
Télévision Ducastel Satisfaction
Page 133 and 134:
WPA Brookfield Zoo WPA ads edit ou
Page 135 and 136:
displays as a modern entertainment
Page 137 and 138:
into the home pest removal also con
Page 139 and 140:
Fig.2 Advertisement for Mortein Plu
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
centre of a large social media camp
Page 147 and 148:
construct subject positions that co
Page 149:
Antennae.org.uk Issue twenty-four w
show all

Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?