The Animal Gaze

About

Recent years have seen the development of a field in the humanities called animal/human studies, a field that ranges across literature, philosophy and fine art to sociology, history and geography. This area of study is used to question and inform theory, debate and discourse in relation to the understanding of the relationship between non-human animals and humans, morally, ethically, philosophically, and creatively. The Animal Gaze examines new ways in which animals appear in contemporary art and the contingent ethics and aesthetics to which such practice may be subject. Representations of animals that regularly appear elsewhere in the visual culture of our own species are avoided (no animals as decoration, nor status symbols and vehicles for ancient mythology or totemic ritual). Instead, The Animal Gaze shows stances outside anthropocentrism, deconstructions of species taxonomy, constructions of the idea of difference and documentation of the consequences of indifference.