BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Beyond the Pain Principle: The Animal that Therefore I Am Not - Gi
 ovanni Aloi\, Queen Mary\, University of London
DTSTART:20100504T153000Z
DTEND:20100504T170000Z
UID:TALK24507@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Anthony Podberscek
DESCRIPTION:The paper questions some rather well established attitudes and
  approaches that have shaped the field of animal-studies over the past ten
  years in order to identifying new methodological productivities suited to
  a different understanding of animals and our relationships with them. The
  main argument revolves around a possible re-considering of the concept of
  Speciesism within a different arena from that of ‘animal rights’ foll
 owing the perspective that Speciesism has consistently informed\, shaped\,
  and defined our attitudes towards animals in a multitude of fields. In de
 constructing the concept of Speciesism as defined by Peter Singer\, we fin
 d that through the arguments in which the generic term ‘animal’ is per
 sistently used\, this stands simultaneously for a plurality of animals at 
 once\; a compound body\, a chimera. However\, this is one where all body-p
 arts seem to belong to different mammals\, at times birds\, but never inse
 cts\, reptiles or amphibians. The concept of ‘pain’ has played a defin
 ing role in the Specisistic argument leading to the distinction between an
 imals that can express pain in similar ways to humans\, from those that se
 emingly do not express pain.  Following Emmanuel Kant’s idea that we do 
 not have knowledge of the objects in the world as they are in themselves\,
  but only as they appear\, mediated by our sense organs\, the text challen
 ges the appropriateness of this approach within the arena of animal-studie
 s in order to decentre ‘the mammal’ and to identify alternative modus 
 operandi.\nThe paper also looks at the prominence of the ‘return of the 
 animal gaze’ as initiated by Derrida\, posing the question of how do we 
 relate to the inscrutable\, multifaceted eyes of insects? How do we unders
 tand amphibians\, or how could we understand them differently? What are th
 e productive opportunities involved in these encounters\, exchanges and re
 lationships?\nThe work of a number of new and exciting artists will be con
 sidered in order to map alternative approaches and methodologies.\n
LOCATION:Centre for Animal Welfare & Anthrozoology Seminar Room\, Veterina
 ry Medicine\, Department of
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR