Abstract This paper argues against empathy, and in favour of alterity as a basis for an animal-inclusive ethics. Taking up the conception of empathy posited by Elisa Aaltola’s Varieties of Empathy, I put it to the test with the ultimate limit case: the octopus. If, as Aaltola contends, we can feel-with a nonhuman animal through […]
Abstract The artwork feeler forms part of mOwson&M0wson’s ongoing artistic research into motherhood and the reproductive manipulation and control of non-human life forms. An iteration of the work is currently in the exhibition Octopus Encounters: An Immersive Library of Octopus Encounters at GLASMOOG. This paper will show and discuss the research and making of feeler. […]
Abstract I would like you to imagine a future world where octopus, tired of waiting for humans to gain the intellect to effectively communicate with other species of animals, have developed a language simple enough for humans to recognise and understand, a form of mental telepathy. What would it be like to have a conversation […]
Abstract NEOZOON ́s lecture focus will be their artistic film work and the investigation of speciesism BY using social media and pop cultural elements. For Okto-Lab, the Collective developed the 2-channel installation CEPHALIZATION, which deals with human octopods that consume themselves while telling disparaging jokes. The aim is always the modification of established visual patterns […]
Abstract In this presentation, I focus on the analysis of animal agency in the 1970 – short story „Aquário (Nápoles)“ (Aquarium (Naples)) by Brazilian writer João Guimarães Rosa. In this story, the narrator describes a moment observing one octopus in an aquarium in the city of Naples, specifically: how the animal acts after being poked […]
Abstract According to ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, the appropriateness of an animal’s environment—including not only the locale and resources, but also the existence of and company of others—is important for the animal’s survival and essential for the animal’s chance at thriving. In my presentation, I will consider the octopus world vis-a-vis Aristotle’s biological sources, exploring […]
Abstract In “Why look at Animals?” John Berger asked in his famous essay from 1977, in which he analysed the estrangement of humans and animals in the culture of capitalism. His criticism of the zoo as a place in which non-human animals are reduced to exhibition objects is still read and shared today. Interestingly, aquariums […]
Abstract The world provides us with many sensory experiences, and we sometimes think that these are universal. But no, every species samples some modalities, dimensions and experiences, and octopuses’ are somewhat different from ours. Octopus eyes and human eyes are structurally very similar, but the use of vision is not always parallel. We have colour […]
Abstract Octopus encounters in Western popular music of the 1960s: well-known is “Octopus’s Garden” (The Beatles, Abbey Road, 1969). Around the same time, “Cement Octopus” (Malvina Reynolds/Pete Seeger, God Bless The Grass, 1966) and “Octopus” (Van der Graaf Generator, Aerosol Grey Machine, 1969) feature very different cephalopods.Meanwhile, Jean Painlevé’s 1967 film Les amours de la […]
Abstract Rachel Bailey takes up the challenge to respond to the famous 1814 woodblock-print by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) that depicts a sexual encounter between two octopuses and a female diver, popularly known in English as the “Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”. The image is as shockingly repulsive as it is arousing, with […]
Abstract There are many octopuses in the literary world of English novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-66). From the monstrous metaphor of Empire inherited from the late 19th Century, through to The Octopus and England (1928) critique of sprawling suburban architecture inherited from his friend Clough Williams. In Waugh’s novel though there are other octopuses – living […]
Abstract My presentation focuses on the monsterization process of a deep-sea dwelling animal, the giant squid. Today, the giant squid is usually understood as an animal that has evoked terror in humankind since the dawn of history and that the tales of these deep-sea monsters spread to the public domain from seafaring tales. In this […]
Abstract It is well known that the octopus is a master of deception: they can adopt the form of a stone, for example, to hide from irksome sights. But they are not simply content with being invisible and watching their surroundings through a watchful eye. They are also masters of metamorphosis, heroes of metis, capable […]
Abstract See with the skin, smell with suckers, change colour for social interactions and sense the world with a brain distributed across the body. These octopus abilities shape a mind that is possibly one of the most different non-human forms of intelligence to our own. The octopus inspires us to explore altered ways of being […]
Octopuses in Interdisciplinary Perspective A Virtual Conference30/31 October 2020 Schedule Day 1 Day 2
Eight flailing arms that hold enough brain power to make their own decisions, and certainly to command their own movements; a slimy, stretchy skin; no bones to inhibit movements; black ink to cloud herself. Octopuses couldn’t possibly be farther away from our own bodily and mental experiences. Yet the research on the life functions in […]
We think of science and art as antagonistic domains. Scientists aspire to make their knowledge production impartial, objective, and they deploy standardized methodology and procedures in the pursuance of this aim. Artists, by contrast, are seen to represent their own partial, idiosyncratic vision, that relies on subjective introspection, experience and sensitivity in following what they […]
The objects are as nondescript and indistinguishable as their fleeting presence on the screen, weren’t it for their sheer amount. When you concern yourself with octopuses, you start to see them everywhere; Amazon appears to agree. At first, the little, fluffy, colorful incarnations of octopuses that Mike Singe dug up are amusing, flabbergasting maybe, given […]
Octopuses find their homes in confined spaces. this makes them convenient to catch. In an early engagement of his with octopuses, Shimabuku would draw on ancient Mediterranean and Japanese fishing traditions, offering up vessels — amphoras, clay pots, vases — strung up on long lines of rope to unsuspecting octopuses for shelter . . . […]
“I got to know the octopus in the year 1911: I was nine years old and drove with my family to Roscoff, where the marine biology station consisted of a large aquarium that you could gaze into. I was so fascinated that I wanted to study zoology (…) The octopus became the theme of my […]
Octopuses get strung up on cloth-lines to dry out in the sun. they are being beaten, kneaded, massaged and wrung, to soften their meat. they are being cut up, eaten whole, alive, cooked, deep-fried in batter or raw. they are being tossed alive in boiling water. they are even cut up and eaten alive, wiggling […]
For some people, octopuses are already brothers. Among the sea nomads of Indonesia, every newborn has an octopus as a twin brother. rituals are carried out to appease the brother in the water and prevent misfortunes. When dishonor occurs, Jakarta is portrayed as the apocalyptic revenge of the brother octopus. Florian Kunert traces the relationship […]
The life of octopuses ends within senescence, a phase of terminal decay unrelated to disease. Skin retracts from around their eyes, white lesions build on the body that fail to heal, they stop eating, movements become uncoordinated and their activities undirected. In female octopuses this phase has a tragic-heroic quality. After mating, she carries her […]
“I work on octopuses and squids and things like that, when I’m not eating them. Q.: did you say you eat your experimental subjects? A.: oh, when my wife and I were first married, I had a job on the staff of naples Zoological Station in Italy, and we were very impoverished. So of course, […]
It all begins with a solitary act of recognition and mourning. Preparation of the dead, a white shroud, the living human body offered up in silent acknowledgement for the contempt she was made to endure as part of her death to serve as culinary delicacy. A melting of bodies as re-passage into remembrance that recovers […]
In the 1970s, a philosopher famously pondered if and how the question “What is it like to be a bat?” can be answered. The newly emerging academic field of human-animal studies would lead extensive debates about the possibility, limitations, relevance and necessity of knowing what it is like to be another animal for understanding our […]
Does octopus thinking look anything like? Neurobiologists might point to the construction of the nervous system, and especially the network of neurons, the system’s powerhouse cells that trigger and coordinate actions of an organism. to illustrate and exemplify the systems’ organization and functioning, they create schematic drawings that trace and represent the individual cells and […]
Research on the bioacoustics of octopuses is slim. Even more opaque than the usual puzzles about octopuses – where we have data and knowledge that however we find difficult to make sense of – it is neither clear whether octopuses can hear nor whether they emit sounds or not. Both possibilities are respresented in the […]
“My granddad was a holy man. He used to ask me who my favourite saint was. He said you could tell a lot about someone if you knew that. So I’d say Kraken, because I wanted to be a good boy, and that was the right answer to most . . . religious questions. And […]
“The question “What is it like to be another animal?” has often been rhetorically leveled against insinuations that we could know what the world might feel like for an other animal. One cannot help but get the impression that it circumvents the more uncomfortable question what it is like to be another animal in captivity? […]