record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00926
Thesis Title
TAKE me BACK to JUPITER!: An Artistic Investigation into Non-Human Consciousnesses through Interactions with Lesser House Fly (Fannia canicularis) and Common Green Bottle Fly (Lucilia sericata) in a Digital Game Environment
Author
Drew Thornton
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
Master of Biological Arts
Year
2019
Number of Pages
61
University
University of Western Australia
Thesis Supervisor
Dr Ionat Zurr
Supervisor e-mail
ionat.zurr AT uwa.edu.au
Other Supervisor(s)
Language(s) of Thesis
English
Department / Discipline
Biological Arts
Copyright Ownership
Drew Thornton
Languages Familiar to Author
English
URL where full thesis can be found
dthornton.ucc.asn.au/files/MBiolA_dissertation.pdf
Keywords
biological art, nonhuman consciousness, multispecies ethology, interdisciplinary research, diptera, philosophy, video games
Abstract: 200-500 words
TAKE me BACK to JUPITER! is an interdisciplinary research project and interactive biological art installation piece, entailing the construction of an immersive virtual reality console for flies. During the exhibition of the work, human and fly participants undertake a cooperative play activity in the form of an arcade-style video game, also titled "TAKE me BACK to JUPITER!" This project mobilises knowledge of dipteran perception and behaviour, as in Land & Collett 1974, Zeil 1986, and Eichorn et al. 2017, as well as antecedent works like Uexküll 1940 and Fabre 1912. The work’s artistic lineage is found in works such as Helyer’s 2007 "Host", Youngs’ 2013 "Museum for Insects", and Bowen’s 2007 "Fly" series. Motivation for this project is founded on a dissatisfaction with academic responses to the question of animal consciousness. The feeling is that neither science nor philosophy offers an acceptable approach to intuiting the subjective experiences of non-humans; anthropomorphism and reductionism are equally flawed. The proposed artwork is both an academic response to the literature’s conflicted accounts of consciousness, and also an effort to untangle the complexity of interspecies relationships in a time of ecological upheaval. This work’s objective is to challenge conventional perspectives on the conscious status of animal minds, by creating an audience experience where individuals interact with a familiar species in a novel context. Human players of "TAKE me BACK to JUPITER!" are given cause to ask: is the fly a free agent—and hence second player of the game—or is its behaviour deterministic, effectively no different from the rest of the game’s coding? Embedded in the work are performative interspecies relationships, in the form of acts of care, control, collaboration and play. Through this, the work speaks to our relationship with nonhumans at a personal scale, where the stakes are as low as the outcome of a video game (and as high as the fate of the entire world). Good luck, pilot!