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

developed for this exhibition, is a wonderful
example of these traits and their essay here submits
insight into their particular take on how complex our
relationships with the very individual personalities of
the domesticated animals we live with can be.
My colleague at ECU, and Artistic Director of
Interactive Futures, Julie Andreyev and her body of
work called Animal Lover, based on her two dogs,
Tom and Sugi, was an important addition to the
exhibitions. Julie has been working on this body of
work for the last several years and each new piece
has been an exciting and meaningful addition.
Combining excellent use of videography, social
media, interactive installation and computer
algorithms, her thoughtful investigations prioritize
what her intimacy with them has taught her to
consider: their creativity, intelligence and emotional
capacity. The exhibit at Gallery Gachet included
Wait, an interactive installation featuring Tom and
Sugi. It investigates with the participant just how
fraught that simple word can be.
Joanne Bristol’s work has long engaged with
her relationship with her cat, Sabre, and
interspecies communication and cohabitation.
Currently working on a PhD at the Bartlett School of
Architecture at the University College of London,
Joanne’s work in the exhibit, tune in turn on drop in,
embedded the participant in a feline purring
environment, allowing sound to construct an aural
feline space in which we could ponder that unique
and yet familiar sound of contentment. Her essay,
included here, encourages us to rethink notions of
space and the built environment though the
consideration of animal co-habitants.
Known for his photography and video work,
Chris Jones’ interactive installation, Natural Law,
combining the sound of a dolphin whistle inaudible
to human ears, a spectograph showing a visual
representation of its sound and an audio recording
of the UN 1982 Convention on the Law of the Seas
being read aloud, offered audience members an
aural environment of discontent.
Another denizen of the sea, the seal, is the
first person visual narrator of Marten Sims video, Seal
Sees the Sea. The video is shot from what might be
the viewpoint of one of Vancouver, BC’s Harbour
Seals as they swim around the 22km seawall from
Burrard Inlet to Kitsalano Beach Park. The playfulness
of this approach also reveals to us how our daily
activities encroach on the home and lives of other
creatures.
Another artist I have been following for many
years is the videographer, Sam Easterson. Known
for his early animal borne imagery, Sam
discontinued that work in 2006 and now plants
cameras in natural environments. Having worked as
a video naturalist, he is now works as Senior Media
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Producer at the Natural History Museum of Los
Angeles, where he is developing video content for
the NHM’s new Nature Lab. Julie Andreyev’s
incredibly interesting interview with him in this issue
gives insight into his thoughts about the goals of his
work, both personal and professional. He says:
I believe my job is to help people
empathize with animals (and plants) by
giving them an intimate view of their
lives. …Obviously, you can often get a
better idea of who a person is after
you visit their house. For me, the same
thing is true of non-human animals.
Two videos, Nest Cams and Den Cams, of
numerous animals in their nests and dens,
welcomed visitors to the exhibit and the ECU
concourse gallery, making it clear who exactly
were the real V. I. P’s of the Animal Influence
project.
The work of Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir & Mark
Wilson is well-known by most readers of Antennae,
so we were very happy to be able to exhibit at
Gallery Gachet the challenging 3 channel video
and audio work, between you and me. Its
involvement with issues of representation and
subjection of animals offered viewers means by
which to consider the conflicting roles animals play
within cultures.
A different perspective on animals and
cultures can be found in the work of Merritt
Johnson. Though Merritt’s important body of work
includes video, installation and performance, we
included two of her incredibly powerful and visually
stunning 2D works, the painting Escape Attempt
and the drawing on paper Camouflaged Buffalo.
Her essay in this issue, as she so slyly puts it, “…is an
attempt to relate the important information” since
she explains writing these stories is not the same as
telling the stories from Turtle Island she told us last
Fall at IF’: Animal Influence. Merritt told us old stories
about the many animal nations of Turtle Island and
how we have always been very dependent on their
good graces. Contrary to Chomsky’s founding of
modern linguistics on the idea that
speech/language is what separates us from other
animals, Merritt says, “[m]y position is that our
inability to understand does not preclude their
ability to speak.”
The Buffalo Nation and the Bear Nation are
featured in Merritt’s essay and work, as they are,
from a different perspective, in the well-known
Canadian photographer and videographer Sandra
Semchuck’s work. Sandra’s work has long been
involved with issues around the natural environment
and our relationships with animals, especially those