Ways of Seeing 2

I have been thinking about the singular world view of humans and the widely held assumption that our social systems, communication and brains are superior to that of all the other creatures living on this planet.. I am interested in the subtle and non-comprehensible ways in which the world, unseen to human eyes, goes on around us, I see it as millions of parallel dimensions existing alongside one another.

I am interested in exploring the interaction between humans and animals, and in particular, the place where two worlds collide. It's that space that interests me, the gaze of one set of eyes to another, of two species connecting on different tracks. This connection happens from time to time and tends to give the feeling of having experienced a 'moment' with another creature, but animals are living a different by set of rules to us and the emotional connection we put onto these situations is something quite different to the reality of what actually happened, here lies my interest in the point in between, the point where it is possible to connect on some level.

In this way, I also think it is possible to consider this point of connection in terms of the object and the viewer. It's the place where a connection is made, a meta-physical space, nothing touching anything else, just a recognition of some sort happening, sparked by the meeting of two sets of world views, in the case of viewer and object, the object; inanimate yet communicative, represents the view/interests/personality and emotions of a non-present participant while the viewer looks on through eyes soaked in their own life experience.

In human and animal interaction both bring their own sets of life experience to the table, none more valid than the other and each putting their own way of seeing things onto the situation, in an effort to understand it. The idea that one possesses the capacity to reason while one does not is questionable and I am unsure that it even matters when one discards the singular Biblical worldview of human superiority and accepts that there are many ways of seeing.

http://www.kunsthalle-bern.ch/en/agenda/exhibition.php?exhibition=131
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=634
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Burnett_Tylor

A Bird in the Hand

If you get them at the right time of year, many birds are easy to catch. For an agile hunter, a small boy for example, there isn't much of a problem in collecting eggs and chicks from the nest; some adults can also be snatched by hand. Commercial hunters in the nineteenth century reported that Passenger Pigeons - once their eggs had hatched - could be plucked right off the nest.

Even among birdwatchers there are those who feel the need to possess the birds, if only symbolically. To have them is to tick them off your list. And the best list is 'the life list'- the record of all the species you have ever seen.

What is it, this urge to own another living creature? And why is it that we understand so well the universal symbol of the bird being set free from the cage?