Approaches to interspecies communication: Between the synthetic sacred and the technological bypass
Publication information:
Abstract
The sixth extinction entails the loss of more-than-human (MTH) relationships that compose our collective identities. Interspecies communication is one way to reconnect. Yet, the dominant scientific approach uses technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) which are intrinsically encoded with extractive and abstractive capitalist colonialist logics. This reinforces the severing of relations with our MTH kin. We highlight art-technology practices that resist extraction, foregrounding the sacred and healing MTH relations. As a site of metaphoric and intuitive open exploration, art can help to reorient and reconnect humanity with the sacred web of life from which much of humanity is estranged.
Presenter Biographies
Keith Williams is an assistant professor (educational studies) at Athabasca University. His work focuses on better understanding how to be good relations with our more-than-human kin. Keith draws on posthumanism, Indigenous teachings, and his lived experience with family members—human and otherwise.
Lucy Sollitt (MPhil, BA Hons) is an experienced researcher and cultural programmer, specialising in innovatively merging art, technology, and ecosystemic change - for organisations including Serpentine Galleries, Goethe Institut, Arts Council England. Lucy is Creative Director of pioneering art-tech organization, FutureEverything, the first cultural institution to bring Nature onto its Board.