Animal Influence I - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

animals. What science is helping us decipher is why
that fact cannot be dismissed. We are made to
understand each other. It is not too much of a
stretch to see why understanding what Henry Beston
called, “other nations” might be important as well.
Artists using new media have begun to
incorporate the growing body of research from
emerging studies in animal behavior, cognition,
consciousness and connected disciplines and, in
so doing, to ask and attempt to answer a broad
array of questions about animals. Our goals were to
draw out themes in content and methodologies
informing artistic investigations in this area and
make more visible and accessible to the public
what is often a unique blend of processes,
concepts and ideas from many sources. It is these
unique, innovative and valuable influences this
project sought to document, enhance, and
encourage. While the change in human attitudes
towards animals has been documented in news
media as well as in more academic venues, the
idea that animals might possess emotional, moral,
cognitive lives is an idea that has been, in the past,
either dismissed or associated with metaphorical or
symbolic approaches. This emphasis and its
combination with technological and media
approaches to communicating that emphasis
sparked a search for new, provocative, and yet,
accessible experiences supporting and
encouraging interest and involvement in these
ideas.
Three large areas of interest overlapped in
all our chosen speakers and exhibitors: perception,
agency and consciousness/compassion. Our
rationales for selecting people working on these
interdisciplinary investigative areas were threefold.
First, we wanted to offer a welcoming space in
which new media artists could share their novel
approaches and methodologies in developing
work based on non-human behavior and
perception. Second, we were interested in
contributing to ongoing knowledge, discussion, and
debate in the arts, humanities, social sciences and
public discourse concerned with new scientific
findings about the cognitive, social and creative
behavior of animals, and how those activities may
influence human-animal relationships. In fact, a
commitment shared by myself and Interactive
Futures was to highlight new ways of thinking and
being with animals respecting that they, like us, are,
as philosopher Tom Regan, says, “subjects of a life.”
That commitment guided all of our major and
detailed decisions during the year and a half
leading up to the event. One example of this: the
entire conference was vegan. Our third rationale
was to generate in our participants and audience
11
new interdisciplinary approaches to investigating
and representing knowledge about animal’s roles in
biodiversity that might engender unique solutions to
environmental and other problems.
The actual outcome of planning for a large
multi-faceted event, as anyone who has done so
even numerous times, is never quite the same as
one envisions it will be. In the case of IF’11: Animal
Influence, in my opinion, it was better. This was due
to the generous spirits and hard work of many
people. We were grateful to the support of ECU’s
new Vice President Academic and Provost, David
Bogen, for his interest and support. Both Maria
Lantin and Julie Andreyev were consummate
professionals and shared the tasks at hand
throughout the year and a half leading up to the
fall of 2011, all while continuing to fulfill their
multiple duties at ECU. We were particularly lucky to
have two graduate students at ECU who provided
faultless assistance and without whom IF’11 may
not have actually happened. Our Curatorial
Assistant, Elisa Ferrari, and our Production Assistant,
Stephanie Johnson, were consistently assiduous
and gracious throughout the many months,
dealing with everything from artist’s statements to
finding environmentally sustainable coffee cups.
Lara Fitzgerald at Gallery Gachet in downtown
Vancouver was an excellent partner for the second
exhibition. Designer Sandra Hanson and our Web
Assistant, Zoe Lee, were particularly helpful in
generating promotional materials, both online and
off. Our intern, Huan Ming, was indispensible
before, during and after the event. A number of
technical staff at IDS and ECU provided much
needed assistance for live streaming, video
documentation (which can be seen here,
http://vimeo.com/channels/interactivefutures),
exhibition installation, performance technical
assistance, digital presentation assistance, and a
myriad of other jobs without which we could have
not have brought any of this off. Hats off to them
and to the many ECUAD student volunteers who
stood at doors as human greeters, picked up food
for the morning coffee breaks, hung banners and
helped to set up food for the opening and closing
receptions. The food and monetary donations from
a number of Vancouver vegan food establishments
and animal rights organizations allowed us to fulfil
our commitment to keeping the entire project
vegan, and, I might add, absolutely delicious!
When first considering names for the
keynote at the workshop of IF’11: Interactive
Futures, Marc Bekoff’s was at the top of the list.
Internationally known biologist and author of 22
widely read books on animal consciousness and
cognition and agency, he was a perfect first