The Nonhuman Turn Conference

Last week a conferences about nonhumans took place  at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I listen to a couple of talks that were difficult to understand as they were very philosophical.  In the plenary with Jane Bennett, "Systems and Things: a materialist and an object-oriented philosopher walk into a bar..," my mind wondered a lot, but I appreciated when she said that the categories of "good" and "evil" need to be reconsidered. I too believe that people, objects, nature, etc., cannot be categorize that easily. In the Q&A, Bennett also grabbed my attention when she mentioned that we need to understand ourselves as being more than just human. To think of ourselves as worms, metals... because this will help to a more sustainable society that affects less bodies (both animate & inanimate).

The panel on "Animal" was lovely. Marilyn Cooper presented Talking with Animals. Cooper told a story of a wildlife photographer encounter with a leopard seal. For some reason, the leopard brought different degrees of "dying" penguin bodies to the photographer... maybe as gifts? But I wonder if they were a sign to what could happen to the photographer if he got too close. Either way, the leopard seal was communicating with the photographers through gesture. Cooper contrasted this story, with one about two humans trying to communicate through their broken English. The two people used English words in an order that did not make any sense. Both cases of communication were left unclear. But Cooper made a point that animals communicate between each other and with others. 

The next person up was Donovan Schaefer, who presented, Compulsory Affectivity: Affect, Animality, and the Nonhuman Turn. Schaefer talked about isolation is a form of torture to argue that we need affect in our lives... or was he saying that about animals? His talk, to me, was interesting in that most of the time I was not sure if he talked about an animal or a human. Shaefer mentioned that we need to touch to feel affect, and that isolation is torture because there isn't anything to touch or feel or make connections. His talk is still lingering in my mind.  Mostly because it made me think if of animal habitats in zoos... and how all the artifice stuff and the outdoor (soil, bushes, grass, trees) in the space is helpful to the animals because of the texture. I would love to read his paper again to break it down more.

The plenary ended with James K. Stanescu, Animals, Assemblage, and Abstraction: Towards a Dark Ethics before opening to Q&A. Stanescu talk was just as informative and great as the first two. I like his idea abstraction will bring us back to the animal. Stanescu talk reminded me of Mullan and Marvin, Animal Skins because it reminds me that "animal" is a cultural construct, and we have to be careful on how we respond to animal. This is another paper that I would love to read to break down more. 

A Musical Zoo Elephant