dc.contributor.author	Wilson, Michelle
dc.contributor.examiningcommittee	Bomford, Cedric (School of Art) Corne, Jonah (English, Film and Theatre) Medoro, Dana (English, Film and Theatre)	en_US
dc.contributor.supervisor	Ciurysek, Sarah (School of Art)	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2015-09-11T21:24:08Z
dc.date.available	2015-09-11T21:24:08Z
dc.date.issued	2015
dc.degree.discipline	School of Art	en_US
dc.degree.level	Master of Fine Art (M.F.A.)	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Human animals have several very specific modes of relating with nonhuman animals. ANIMA, a body of work incorporating photographic and sculptural works, situates the viewer in two modes of relating: scientific and sympathetic. The photographs, which take on the mantel of the scientific, call into question the efficacy of rational, distanced and supposedly objective approaches to nonhuman animals. The very singular, interspecies creatures depicted, however, disrupt the solidity of this perspective on knowing. Three vulnerable and fantastical ‘deerhounds’ comprise the sculptural works. These absurdly plaintive creatures are embodiments of the consequences of a relating to nonhuman animals through infantilization and a dissolving of otherness. Through these works, and their relation to each other, the artist gestures to the possibility of alternate, ethical modes of relating. This thesis examines the limits of human language as a vehicle for apprehending nonhuman animals. It suggests that art, because of its often instinctive, provisional and affective relating, is a parallel and useful method to approaching animality. It proposes sustained and attentive relationships with individual animals as an avenue for moving beyond relationships of ‘massification’. Referencing writings from biologists, theorists, musicians and authors of fiction, as well as interspersing the text with short poetic vignettes, the author attempts to build an interdisciplinary approach to questioning what is ‘animal’, and why it has been defined as antithetical to ‘human’. ‘Heteroaffection’, ‘telepoiesis’, criticial anthropomorphism and sympathetic imagination are proposed as catalysts for an ethical way to be with, and to represent that being with, another animal.	en_US
dc.description.note	October 2015	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1993/30763
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.rights	open access	en_US
dc.subject	Critical Animal Studies, Visual Art, Fine Arts	en_US
dc.title	ANIMA: visual art as a vehicle for exploring other modes of relatedness	en_US
dc.type	master thesis	en_US

ANIMA: visual art as a vehicle for exploring other modes of relatedness

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