Memorial
These are aggregated notes relevant to the interspecies grief and memorialisation project.
This note engages with the topic of grief, as a subset of Emotion.
Objective
Consider grief in more-than-human contexts.
Reflection and mourning do not prevent action, instead they inform and direct the response.
Definitions
Grief: the reaction to loss.
Possible interpretations:
- a natural human reaction
- a psychiatric disorder
- a disease process
This is from Archer, considered in application to humans only and focusing on a loss of a close relationship.
Archer, John. The Nature of Grief: The Evolution and Psychology of Reactions to Loss. London: Routledge, 1999.
For the debates in the medical contexts, see:
Stroebe, Margaret S., Henk Schut, and Jan Van den Bout, eds. Complicated Grief: Scientific Foundations for Health Care Professionals. London: Routledge, 2013.
On emotions as a form of judgement, including grief in chapter 1, see:
Nussbaum, Martha Craven. Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
For Animals
'Ideal definition' of grief: "Grief can be said to occur when a survivor animal acts in ways that are visibly distressed or altered from the usual routine, in the aftermath of the death of a companion animal who had mattered emotionally to him or her". (not so sure: visible to whom? what is the 'usual routine' in a disturbed world? what is a 'companion animal'? how does one know what matters emotionally? How can a definition of grief can be made defensible from critics seeing it as narrow and post-constructed to meet the needs of a pre-conceived argument?)
This is from King, Barbara J. How Animals Grieve. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013.
Components and Context
"The term grief can be defined as a type of stress reaction, a highly personal and subjective response that an individual makes to a real, perceived, or anticipated loss. Grief reactions may occur in any loss situation, whether the loss is physical or tangible, such as a death, significant injury, or loss of property; or symbolic and intangible such as the loss of a dream."
Distinguish between:
- bereavement - an objective state of loss (and all lifeforms can experience such losses)
- grief - a subjective response to loss (and all forms of life have a form of subjectivity, or so one can argue)
- mourning - a process of adapting to loss (cf. grieving, grief work); this can also refer to the social aspects of grief such as norms, patterns of behaviour and rituals. So, from here it appears that grief is always in some aspects social
Doka, Kenneth J. “Grief and Bereavement.” In Encyclopedia of Bioethics, edited by Stephen G. Post, 1028–31. 1978. Reprint, Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2004.
Key Questions
- Can grief be collective? And therefore: multi-generational, multi-species, etc? Cf. that above grief is presumed to be 'personal' - presumed to be confined to an organism and to a human organism at that.
- Does grief depend on consciousness and self-awareness? Can living beings such as ants or bacteria experience grief (an an equivalent thereof)? I would say that an ant returning after a day of foraging with some mates carrying heavy burden of food for the nest will exhibit erratic and stressed behaviour finding the nest destroyed (burned, etc.). They would run around trying to figure our what is to do, then settle somehow, following the patterns on grief. Or not?
- Does grief have ethical valence? Is it a good or a bad thing or it depends?
- Is it OK to alleviate grief? When?
- Is it OK to instrument grief, e.g., for some useful action in the world, when?
- Is it a paradox that grief prevents normal functionality and should be alleviated but on the other hand grief can encourage action and then should be agitated for? Some counterintuitive consequences here...
E.g., Singer would argue that: "The aversive aspect of pain, and its tendency to cause distress, are found in states that are not painful, such as hunger, cold, fear, and grief. Therefore, our definition of suffering may be extended to include these conditions. In all such cases suffering requires a subjective state with an aversive aspect." Can we say that all life has such states (not what sentientists would underwrite, but...), cf. Subjectivity, Sentience Book Project.
Singer, Peter. “The Significance of Animal Suffering.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, no. 1 (1990): 9–12. https://doi.org/10/b6c8s5.
Grief and Nature
What or who are 'grievable'? Cf. the note on Agent
Head, Lesley. Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
Gillespie, Kathryn. “Witnessing Animal Others: Bearing Witness, Grief, and the Political Function of Emotion.” Hypatia 31, no. 3 (2016): 572–88. https://doi.org/10/gp8fzd.
Crownshaw, Rick. “Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief Ed. by Ashlee Cunsolo and Karen Landman (Review).” American Imago 77, no. 1 (2020): 232–45. https://doi.org/10/gnj3f9.
Batavia, Chelsea, Michael Paul Nelson, and Arian D. Wallach. “The Moral Residue of Conservation.” Conservation Biology 34, no. 5 (2020): 1114–21. https://doi.org/10/ggvkrz.
Chapter 8 on Emotion discusses grief:
Gruen, Lori, ed. Critical Terms for Animal Studies. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
There is a chapter on grief and other relevant thoughts in:
Rose, Deborah Bird. Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011.
Cunsolo, Ashlee, and Karen Landman, eds. Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017.
Buhner, Stephen Harrod. Earth Grief: The Journey Into and Through Ecological Loss. Campbellfield: Raven Press, 2022.
Extending the definition of trauma to include climate-related anxiety and “ecological grief” over existing and past losses (ways of life, livelihoods, ecosystems, species)".
'Ecological grief': Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency | Greenland | The Guardian
Erin Fitz-Henry, “Grief and the Inter-Cultural Public Sphere: ‘Rights of Nature’ and the Contestation of ‘Global Coloniality,’” Interface 9, no. 2 (2017): 143–61.
Cases
Can one grieve for nonhuman and abiotic or hybrid entities such as ice? The answer is that there are clear precedents.
How to Mourn a Glacier | The New Yorker
Sideris, Lisa H. “Grave Reminders: Grief and Vulnerability in the Anthropocene.” Religions 11, no. 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10/gjjkhc.
Jamail, Dahr. The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption. New York: The New Press, 2019.
Gibson, Julia D. “Climate Justice for the Dead and the Dying: Weaving Ethics of Palliation and Remembrance from Story and Practice.” PhD Thesis, Michigan State University, 2019.
Animal Feelings
Safina, Carl. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. New York: Henry Holt, 2015.
Bekoff, Marc. “Animal Emotions: Exploring Passionate Natures.” BioScience 50, no. 10 (2000): 861–70. https://doi.org/10/d55vpf.
King, Barbara J. How Animals Grieve. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013.
Rituals
Mourning, remembrance, heritage.
Interesting as a possible area where design can contribute.
Brewster, Shelby. “Remembrance Day for Lost Species.” Performance Research 25, no. 2 (2020): 95–101. https://doi.org/10/gmwqgk.
References
Johnston, Jay, and Fiona Probyn-Rapsey, eds. Animal Death. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2013.
Pribac, Teya Brooks. Enter the Animal: Cross-Species Perspectives on Grief and Spirituality. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2021.
Footnotes
Soundscapes
Bernie Krause
Jim Nollman
"In 1978, Nollman founded Interspecies, which sponsors artists’ efforts to communicate with animals through music and art. Its best-known project is a twenty-five-year study using live music to interact with wild orcas off the west coast of Canada."
The Nature Of Music: Jim Nollman - Youtube
Jean-Michel Maujean
Jean-Michel Maujean - Bio (myportfolio.com)
Hollis Taylor
Is Birdsong Music? An article in the Conversation based on Hollis Taylor's book.
Taylor, Hollis. Is Birdsong Music?: Outback Encounters with an Australian Songbird. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017.
David Rothenberg
When We Talk About Animals: Ep. 23 – David Rothenberg on playing music with whales and nightingales
Rothenberg, David. Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013.
Rothenberg, David. Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution. London: Bloomsbury, 2012.
Rothenberg, David. Thousand Mile Song Whale Music in a Sea of Sound. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Rothenberg, David. Why Birds Sing: A Journey Through the Mystery of Bird Song. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Rothenberg, David, and Jane Raese. Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2006.
Darewin
DAREWIN, whale and dolphin communication
When We Talk About Animals - Ep. 17 - Fabrice Schnöller on free diving with sperm whales
Discuss the notion of 'Interspecies' in general
Links:
On art: Interspecies Art
On culture: Culture
On design: Interspecies Design
In teaching: Interspecies Design Studio
Key Issues
The need to extend beyond species and - especially - beyond animals.
Relationship to all oppression, as discussed in the Intersectionality discourse.
Alexis, Nekeisha Alayna. ‘Beyond Compare: Intersectionality and Interspeciesism for Co-Liberation with Other Animals’. In The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics, edited by Bob Fischer, 502. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Thus, the challenge in interspecies approaches is not only to acknowledge the relatedness of all species or beings but also to see them in a way that does not a priori preferences some (humans) over the others.
Definition
Interspecies refers to relationships between forms of biosocial life and their political effects.
Livingston, Julie, and Jasbir K. Puar. ‘Interspecies’. Social Text 29, no. 1 (106) (2011): 3–14. https://doi.org/10/b8587n.
This concept makes sense as a deliberate contrast and a way of resisting the hegemonic and anthropocentric interpretations of what is important. In this, it is in parallel to interracial, international, etc.
Interspecies focuses on life and emphasises the life in common. It focus on politics accepts conflicting as well as mutualistic interests and does not presume an overarching benefit. In this, it is process-oriented and encourages inclusion, solidarity and empowerment.
In ecology:
- interspecific interactions = community
- intraspecific interactions = population
Andel, Jelte van, and James Aronson, eds. Restoration Ecology: The New Frontier. Malden: Blackwell, 2006.
Limitations
There are significant limitations to the notion of interspecies anything. This is to do that speciation is a particular historical event more clearly associated with protists and protozoans, after the Great Oxygenation Event. Archaea and bacteria do not really have species, or at least there is a strong argument that they do not because they trade genes horizontally so much. Cf. Quammen, Dorian Sagan, Lynn Margulis the idea of 'superorganism' (Lamza).
Interspecies prioritises species, why not other taxa or groups? Maybe genes? Biologically, one could refer to different entities of natural selection. Politically, one could refer to traditions, powerful groups, law and, therefore, politics.
Disambiguation
Some researchers use the terms 'interspeciality' and 'interspeciecism' to refer to the capabilities of bio-technologies and the production of hybrid beings that emerge from reproductive technologies, molecular science, genomics, genetics, transplant medicine, nanoscience and robotic surgery.
Interspecies Communities
Goodale, Eben, Guy Beauchamp, and Graeme D. Ruxton. Mixed-Species Groups of Animals: Behavior, Community Structure, and Conservation. London: Academic Press, 2017.
Interspecies Solidarity
Interspecies Solidarity:
- an idea
- a goal
- a process
- an ethical commitment
- a political project that
Interspecies solidarity "can help foster better conditions for animals, improve people’s work lives, and interweave human and animal well-being".
Interactions of multiple species can lead to 'interspecies work'. (here the focus is on sentient species)
Coulter, Kendra. Animals, Work, and the Promise of Interspecies Solidarity. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Interspecies Justice
Interspecies deliberation is an extension of notions such as interspecies dialogue.
Meijer, Eva. When Animals Speak: Toward an Interspecies Democracy. New York: New York University Press, 2019.
Vink, Janneke. The Open Society and Its Animals. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Issues:
- animals and different humans
- animals and future humans
- different types of animals
- beyond animals
Interspecies Information Systems
Linden, Dirk van der. ‘Interspecies Information Systems’. Requirements Engineering, 2021. https://doi.org/10/gmmvps.
In a common understanding: an information system is a socio-technical system that include humans, technology, information, and actions humans take based on that information.
In interspecies information system human and animals are actors and stakeholders. NB: the typical focus is on animals.
Zoosemiotics
Zoosemiotics looks at interspecific communication and language.
Martinelli, Dario. A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010.
Interspecies Cooperation
Cf.
- Solidarity
- interspecies mutualism
- coevolution
There is quite a bit on microbial interspecies interaction and cooperation (that is if one can call them species).
Mueller, Natalie G., and John C. Willman. ‘Domestication as the Evolution of Interspecies Cooperative Breeding’. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 2024, e22042. https://doi.org/10/gt5qp7.
Sueur, Cédric, and Michael A. Huffman. ‘Co-Cultures: Exploring Interspecies Culture Among Humans and Other Animals’. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2024. https://doi.org/10/gt5qqm.
Melis, Alicia P., and Dirk Semmann. ‘How Is Human Cooperation Different?’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365, no. 1553 (2010): 2663–74. https://doi.org/10/dd5dv6.
Sachs, Joel L., Ulrich G. Mueller, Thomas P. Wilcox, and James J. Bull. ‘The Evolution of Cooperation’. The Quarterly Review of Biology 79, no. 2 (2004): 135–60. https://doi.org/10/d62463.
"Human-wildlife cooperation occurs when a human (Homo sapiens) and a wild, free-living, non-human animal actively coordinate their behaviour to achieve a common, mutually beneficial outcome"
Cram, Dominic L., Jessica E. M. van der Wal, Natalie Uomini, Mauricio Cantor, Anap I. Afan, Mairenn C. Attwood, Jenny Amphaeris, et al. ‘The Ecology and Evolution of Human-Wildlife Cooperation’. People and Nature 4, no. 4 (2022): 841–55. https://doi.org/10/mjtg.
Wal, Jessica E. M. van der, Claire N. Spottiswoode, Natalie T. Uomini, Mauricio Cantor, Fábio G. Daura-Jorge, Anap I. Afan, Mairenn C. Attwood, et al. ‘Safeguarding Human–Wildlife Cooperation’. Conservation Letters 15, no. 4 (2022): e12886. https://doi.org/10/gt5q4t.
Art in Humans and Nonhumans
Ecocentric Design Aesthetics Interspecies Art
Animal Art
"I group these works into four categories: Nonhuman performance and process art, Nonhuman creativity, Nonhuman culture-community, and Nonhuman ethics."
Terranova, Charissa N., and Meredith Tromble, eds. The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture. Routledge Companions. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Jeffrey Bussolini
From his Animal Turn podcast
Bussolini, Jeffrey. “The Philosophical Ethology of Roberto Marchesini.” Angelaki 21, no. 1 (2016): 17–38. https://doi.org/10/gknw7b.
On many inter-worlds, including those of animals Souriau, Étienne, Erik Beranek, and Tim Howles. The Different Modes of Existence. Minneapolis: Univocal, 2015.
How is it different from interspecies design?
How is it different from making art with animals?
Definition
Interspecies art consist of aesthetic practices that 1) involve subjective judgements of multiple species and 2) are used by more than one species.
The Need for a Definition (Innovative Characteristics)
- Often humans co-opt animals to perform actions that humans frame as art and are meaningless to animals. In those situations animals can be the subjects of exploitation, not compensated for their time, labour, skills, etc.
Kosut, Mary, and Lisa Jean Moore. ‘Bees Making Art: Insect Aesthetics and the Ecological Moment’. Humanimalia 5, no. 2 (2014): 1–25. https://doi.org/10/gmcdf4.
- Human artist increasingly comment on the nonhuman issues. However, they do it by using human concept and import the results to become meaningful within human art worlds.
Ballard, Susan. ‘New Ecological Sympathies: Thinking about Contemporary Art in the Age of Extinction’. Environmental Humanities 9, no. 2 (n.d.): 255–79. https://doi.org/10/gmcdgk.
This can be true even if the motivation for the humans is to help the nonhumans or to attend to the intricacies of nonhuman worlds with greater attention.
McCarthy, Adele. ‘Sound Art: Challenging Anthropocentrism and the Objectification of Nature’. Philosophy Activism Nature, no. 4 (2007): 14–20.
The test case is often whether art can exist between species without humans. The implication of in the common usage of the term 'interspecies art' is that humans are involved and in fact play the controlling roles.
Fischer, Dorothee. ‘Art Between Species: Two Case Studies of Animals’ Agency in Interspecies Art’. Journal of LUCAS Graduate Conference, no. 8 (2020): 67–92.
Key Issues
- Redefine art in evolutionary terms
- Distinguish art produced by animals for human consumption from art co-produced for human/nonhuman consumption and for nonhuman consumption
- Establish art as lived aesthetics
- Establish aesthetics as a form/aspect of subjectivity Aesthetics
- Extend beyond animals
- Link art to design via such concepts as 'useful art', 'performance art', etc.
Art about or Exploiting Animals
There is a substantial amount of practice and literature that link animals in art without reconsidering 'art' in nonhuman terms, instead including animals into the sphere of human art.
Broglio, Ron. Surface Encounters: Thinking with Animals and Art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
Precedents
Interspecies art was established as a technical term in recognition of the new approaches taken in art by at least five exhibitions taking place roughly around the same time in 2009.
- U.S., Intelligent Design: Interspecies Art Exhibition
- UK, Interspecies
- Canada, Animal House: Works of Art Made by Animals
- Germany
- Tier-Werden Mensch-Werden [Becoming-Animal Becoming- Human]
- Tier-Perspektiven [Animal Perspectives]
Also, Jim Nollman and interspecies music, for example:
Ullrich, Jessica. ‘Animal Artistic Agency in Performative Interspecies Art in the Twenty-First Century’. Boletín de Arte, no. 40 (2019): 69–83. https://doi.org/10/gp4j.
Between species: animal-human collaboration in contemporary art
Work by Lisa Jevbrat, Interspecies Collaboration – Making Art Together with Nonhuman Animals field guide
References
Baker, Steve. Artist/Animal. 25. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
This is a note about 'interspecies design'.
Definition
We can characterize design practices as 'interspecies' design' when 1) more than one species participate in design activities and 2) more that one species use the outcomes of design.
One can argue that all forms of practically possible design will necessarily implicate multiple species. In that sense, all design is interspecies design.
Therefore, to make the notion of interspecies design useful as the label for a distinct cluster of practices we can choose to use this label only in application to design practices that intentionally involve or emphasize and seek to centre the involvement and contributions of multiple species as well as harms and benefits to species beyond humans.
[Interspecies design] is a form of design that seeks to involve and benefit both human and non-human lifeforms; to design for and with all life.
Roudavski, Stanislav. “Interspecies Design.” In Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene, edited by John Parham, 147–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Need
Need to conclude with the relevance for design.
Ethics is an open work.
Existing ideas in critical and post-colonial discourse point to the fact that it is impossible to avoid harm, domination, and oppression unless all those at risk are included into the process of making decisions. Who and how can be included is an open challenge. Also, what languages or tools can be used.
Synonyms and Antonyms
Forms and Versions
- multispecies design
- more-than-human design
- ecocentric design, different because 'interspecies design':
- prioritizes the process while 'ecocentric design' focuses on goals
- focuses on life while 'ecocentric design' considers ecosystems that consist of situated living and nonliving entities
- respectful design
Parallel Concepts
- symbiotic design
- reconciliation ecology: “the modification of anthropogenic systems to support biodiversity without compromising direct use”1
More-than-Human Design
Designing with and for nonhumans as well as humans.
Santos, Rodrigo dos, Michelle Kaczmarek, Saguna Shankar, and Lisa P. Nathan. ‘Who Are We Listening to? The Inclusion of Other-than-Human Participants in Design’. In LIMITS ’21: Workshop on Computing within Limits, 2021. https://doi.org/10/gkdd7f.
Rice, Louis. ‘Nonhumans in Participatory Design’. CoDesign 14, no. 3 (2018): 238–57. https://doi.org/10/gfvpfx.
Veselova, Emīlija, and а İdil Gaziulusoy. ‘Implications of the Bioinclusive Ethic on Collaborative and Participatory Design’. The Design Journal 22, no. sup1 (2019): 1571–86. https://doi.org/10/f9p9.
Linden, Dirk van der. ‘Interspecies Information Systems’. Requirements Engineering, 2021. https://doi.org/10/gmmvps.
Distinctive Characteristics
Establish a clear difference between sustainable design (Papanek, Ursula Tischner for early examples) and interspecies design or more-than-human design or better still explain that this is its natural development.
Vale, Brenda, and Robert Vale, eds. Green Architecture: Design for a Sustainable Future. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.
Szokolay, Steven V. Introduction to Architectural Science: The Basis of Sustainable Design. 2nd ed. 2004. Reprint, Amsterdam: Architectural Press, 2008.
McLennan, Jason F. The Philosophy of Sustainable Design: The Future of Architecture. Portland: Ecotone, 2004.
In deadwood increasingly used in European countries
Difficulties and Limitations
- What is not interspecies design?
- Why focus on species and not other taxa, or individual organisms, or communities and ecosystems?
Cases
This is the content that extends our article on the AI and visual abstraction.
This snippet discusses the relationship between subjectivity and — therefore — interpretation in nonhuman life, humans, and technology.
This is an elaboration of the following definition of abstraction.
Abstraction is a process that reduces the amount of information in a representation about an observable phenomenon to emphasize aspects that are relevant for a subjective purpose. In information-theoretical terms it is a form of lossy compression and occurs in human, animal and artificial forms of intelligence.
- The subjective purposes for arboreal wildlife are to find and use liveable habitat-structures. For example, the purpose of birds is to perch and nest. The subjectivity of birds is the mechanism that allows them to recognize structures using their physiological, sensory and cognitive abilities. Artificial habitat structures must be objectively and subjectively adequate to birds. This purpose is subjective in that it is different for species and individuals who might have similar or contrasting needs, capabilities, and preferences.
- The subjective purpose for human designers is to satisfy birds as clients in the conditions of incomplete understanding about ecosystem interactions and many other constrains such constructability and costs.
- Observable phenomena that are available for the analysis by human designers are habitat structures such as large old trees and patterns of habitation including perching and nesting behaviours of birds. The observation techniques include data-driven and direct observation methods.
- From this, human designers can derive the purpose for the AI agent. In our case, it is to produce shapes that preserve key features of tree geometries that populate the training dataset. The AI agent extracts these features through for the process of reduction. This reduction needs to be meaningful and beneficial within ecological and design domains.
See this for some examples to compare with:
MoMA Magazine: Built Ecologies
References and Bibliography
Roudavski, Stanislav. “Interspecies Design.” In Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene, edited by John Parham, 147–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Footnotes
Francis, Robert A., Jamie Lorimer, and Mike Raco. “Urban Ecosystems as ‘Natural’ Homes for Biogeographical Boundary Crossings: Boundary Crossings.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37, no. 2 (2012): 183–90. https://doi.org/10/df7g4m.˄