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

Carol Gigliotti
Sam Easterson’s Den Cam in Forefront Interactive Futures
choice for one of the keynotes, and he graciously
accepted. My interview with him published in this
issue will give you some idea of the importance of
his presence and participation at the conference
and events. His keynote set the tone for the entire
conference and his generous and intelligent
participation, supported by many years of field
research, was crucial to discussions about these
topics. We were also pleased to be one of the preconference
events for Minding Animals 2012, of
which Marc is an organizer.
Lisa Jevbratt was another easy choice for
the artist keynote. Extensively exhibited and
published internationally, Lisa is well-known in the
new media art world as a software designer and
new media artist. In the past several years, she has
become immersed in what she calls “interspecies
collaboration,” both in her artwork and teaching.
Her newest project Zoomorph, ready in its alpha
release for this exhibition, is a suite of software filters
for video and imaging software, as well as smart
phones, simulating how various kinds of animals
see.
While conscious of remaining within the
limits of our funding sources’ regulations, we
attempted, and I think succeeded, in assembling a
vibrant interdisciplinary group of presenters for the
12
two day workshop, two exhibitions, evening of
screenings and the closing evening of
performances. Gay Bradshaw, the author of
Elephants on the Edge and director of the Kerlous
Foundation, is both a psychologist and a biologist.
Her essay in this issue strikes at the heart of how
uninformed we are on the nuances of animals’
emotional lives and the effects of their traumas at
our hands. Marine biologist, Leesa Fawcett, who is
also the Associate Dean of the Faculty of
Environmental Studies at York University, offers a
fascinating look at the intelligence and creativity in
animals that mimic. These three carefully selected
scientists were the touchstones for the audience in
my vision of the project. They represented, for me,
in their long field experience with animals
themselves, a counterpoint to the assumptions,
stories, myths, dreams, and agendas we bring to
our thinking and making about animals.
I had been following the work of the artistic
team of Cary Peppermint and Leila Nadir, known as
ecoarttech, for at least seven years. Their smart and
creative mergings of performance, technology, the
natural world and politics are always pushing the
boundaries of what it means to be human or
animal in today’s networked world. Their social
media piece, #TrainingYrHuman, specifically