Art and Animals and the Ethical Position

The creative arts have an interest in animal studies, the subject of the nonhuman animal and what marks and positions it as such. In recent years, artworks and exhibitions have contributed increased criticality, probing enquiry and poignant and provocative analysis to this engaging field. Increasingly, ethical considerations inform artistic research, including concerns for the acknowledgement and avoidance of anthropocentrism, the denial of the reduction of nonhuman bodies to symbolic representations of human values, and a recognition of the agency of the nonhuman animal to contribute more than its image. Interspecies potentialities have come to the fore as a consequence of this engagement with ethical contemporary practice.

The aim of this Special Issue is to offer a perspective on contemporary interspecies artistic research that aligns with an ethical and moral methodology. The journal contains texts written by artists from the perspective of their own practice within the subject, and from their position as artistic researchers within the field. It will convey a sense of what artists are currently exploring, and in significant ways, to provide a unique and analytical snapshot of related and inter-related concerns. Written from the artists’ own perspectives, as those who are methodologically submerged in the discourse through artistic research, the contributions will offer critical insight into ethical considerations and their application through an interspecies dynamic.

Angela Bartram is Guest Editor of the Special Issue.