Blending The Space Between Species: Can We Talk About The Things That Animals Make?
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sunderland
Department Name: Sch of Arts and Design
Abstract
Aim: To explore the language used when discussing the material culture of non human animals and you generate a reference database of informed academic language to aid policy making should non human animals gain legal personhood.
Objectives:
1) To map applied arts, law, biological science and anthropological disciplinary intersections and note used language in reference to nonhuman animals and the things they make.
2) To identify communication difficulties arising from lexical inadequacy within these intersections.
3) To identify transferable language and generate a database of informed terms.
Many nonhuman animals have rich material cultures: manufacturing and using tools, objects to sleep in and even musical instruments. The latest research evidences hook tools of New Caledonian crows (Klump, et al., 2019), six-piece, honey-hunting kits of chimpanzees (Boesch, et al., 2009), voice-altering collections of leaves by orangutans (BBC Earth, 2009) and even octopus armour (The Octopus In My House, 2019). Making by nonhuman animals is now revealing itself to be widely practiced rather than solely the provision of the human animal.
Research Questions
What is an appropriate, multi-disciplinary, pan-global language for discussions by:
1) Museums and institutions reframing and revising the cultural status of existing artefacts whilst concurrently educating the public?
2) Lawyers practicing in habitat protection, animal welfare and creative property rights?
3) Bodies battling poachers, collectors and traffickers of endangered species?
Literature Review
Animal behaviourist, Frans De Waal, advocates anthropocentric realignment, asking, 'Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?' (De Waal, 2017). We should ask concurrently, 'Can we talk about the things that animals make?' What language is appropriate for the abstract thought (Seed, 2010) and aesthetic preferences displayed (Rothenberg, 2011) when nonhuman animals make?
New Caledonian crows experience fulfilment whilst making tools (Klump, et al., 2019): a core applied arts' principle, as material culture writer, Peter Korn, notes (Korn, 2013).
Philosopher, Thomas Kuhn, stated that crises ensue when scientific disciplines' paradigms are questioned (Stanford University, 2016). Ethologist, Richard Dawkins, described these crises thus 'Either the whole spectrum would have to be granted full human rights (Votes for Chimps) or there would have to be an elaborate apartheid-like system of discriminatory laws.' (Dormer, 1990) It is far preferable to filter an informed language into the public domain, than a discriminatory apartheid-system lexicon that could be misused and misapplied.
Original Contribution
An original, pan-global, egalitarian language reference database will contribute to the knowledge communication between the applied arts, anthropology, biological sciences, public and law. It could reduce confusion when discussing endangered species, their making and biodiversity collapse of their materials library. It would challenge the parameters of design and making for Homo Faber.
Objectives:
1) To map applied arts, law, biological science and anthropological disciplinary intersections and note used language in reference to nonhuman animals and the things they make.
2) To identify communication difficulties arising from lexical inadequacy within these intersections.
3) To identify transferable language and generate a database of informed terms.
Many nonhuman animals have rich material cultures: manufacturing and using tools, objects to sleep in and even musical instruments. The latest research evidences hook tools of New Caledonian crows (Klump, et al., 2019), six-piece, honey-hunting kits of chimpanzees (Boesch, et al., 2009), voice-altering collections of leaves by orangutans (BBC Earth, 2009) and even octopus armour (The Octopus In My House, 2019). Making by nonhuman animals is now revealing itself to be widely practiced rather than solely the provision of the human animal.
Research Questions
What is an appropriate, multi-disciplinary, pan-global language for discussions by:
1) Museums and institutions reframing and revising the cultural status of existing artefacts whilst concurrently educating the public?
2) Lawyers practicing in habitat protection, animal welfare and creative property rights?
3) Bodies battling poachers, collectors and traffickers of endangered species?
Literature Review
Animal behaviourist, Frans De Waal, advocates anthropocentric realignment, asking, 'Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?' (De Waal, 2017). We should ask concurrently, 'Can we talk about the things that animals make?' What language is appropriate for the abstract thought (Seed, 2010) and aesthetic preferences displayed (Rothenberg, 2011) when nonhuman animals make?
New Caledonian crows experience fulfilment whilst making tools (Klump, et al., 2019): a core applied arts' principle, as material culture writer, Peter Korn, notes (Korn, 2013).
Philosopher, Thomas Kuhn, stated that crises ensue when scientific disciplines' paradigms are questioned (Stanford University, 2016). Ethologist, Richard Dawkins, described these crises thus 'Either the whole spectrum would have to be granted full human rights (Votes for Chimps) or there would have to be an elaborate apartheid-like system of discriminatory laws.' (Dormer, 1990) It is far preferable to filter an informed language into the public domain, than a discriminatory apartheid-system lexicon that could be misused and misapplied.
Original Contribution
An original, pan-global, egalitarian language reference database will contribute to the knowledge communication between the applied arts, anthropology, biological sciences, public and law. It could reduce confusion when discussing endangered species, their making and biodiversity collapse of their materials library. It would challenge the parameters of design and making for Homo Faber.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andrew Livingstone (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Inga Hamilton (Student) |