Cat play article now freely available online

My 2009 article "Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play (exemplified by the playfulness of Muki and Maluca)", published in Sign Systems Studies, is now freely available online as PDF download.

Delphi study on play

I have completed the first part of a Delphi study I am participating in, as an invited expert on play.

Video clip 'Wolf play' to be featured in Discovery documentary

Today I was contacted by October Films (London, UK) concerning a TV series they are producing for Discovery International. They have requested to make use of my video clip "Wolf play" (recorded in Polar Zoo March 2010 and currently shown some 55.000 times on YouTube), and I have granted them license to do so. I have requested the end credit (to be shown in the final credit sequence) "Morten Tønnessen (http://UtopianRealism.blogspot.no/)".

The documentary series is called "Deadly dilemmas" and is expected to air in Europe on Discovery Channel in early 2014.

Causerie on play published in Norwegian magazine

A short text by me, written upon invitation, has been published on the Norwegian Christian magazine Kors:vei [literally "cross-road", or "stations of the cross"], in its #2/2013 (page 4). Titled "Om lek og blodig alvor" [On play and /bloody seriousness/], it treats play as the origin of cooperation and what is much worse. A couple of references are made to observations described in more academic fashion in my academic journal article "Abstraction,Cruelty and Other Aspects of Animal Play (Exemplified By the Playfulness of Muki and Maluca)" (Sign Systems Studies 37(3/4): 558-579).

The whole text - in Norwegian - is posted in my Norwegian-language blog Utopisk Realisme.

Wolf play video

My video clip "Wolf play" on YouTube is regaining frequent views somewhat again, after it spiralled to ca. 30.000 views ahead of last Christmas, only to nosedive at New Year. Currently it has been viewed 33.144 times, 1.457 of which the last 30 days.

Views per day, the last 365 days.

Bear video

Here.

Cf. my recent post Bear pics.

Wolf videos

Here's five videos I have recorded today, during my research visit to Polar Zoo:

Ylva the wolf wants to play fight

Howling to the wolves of Polar Zoo

Howling with the wolves in Polar Zoo

Wolves coming to join us in Polar Zoo

Wolves take off

Sign Systems Studies

The zoosemiotics special issue of Sign Systems Studies (no. 37.3/4) has now appeared (or, rather, been referred to) on its homepage. A complete list of contents is to be found here.

Selected articles:

Dario Martinelli: Introduction

Otto Lehto: Studying the cognitive states of animals: Epistemology, ethology and ethics
Karel Kleisner, Marco Stella: Monsters we met, monsters we made: On the parallel emergence of phenotypic similarity under domestication

Helena Telkänranta: Conditioning or cognition? Understanding interspecific communication as a way of improving animal training (a case study with elephants in Nepal
Morten Tønnessen: Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play(exemplified by the playfulness of Muki and Maluca)
Elina Vladimirova: Sign activity of mammals as means of ecological adaptation
Carlo Brentari: Konrad Lorenz’s epistemological criticism towards Jakob von Uexküll

A list of all published articles 1998-2006 (including two by me) rests here.

Bibliographical reference for animal play article

Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play (exemplified by the playfulness of Muki and Maluca). Sign Systems Studies 37 (3/4), 2009: 558-579.

Includes abstract in English, Estonian and Russian.

Bibliographical data for animal play article

Final title: "Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play (exemplified by the playfulness of Muki and Maluca)"

To be published (available by January) in Sign Systems Studies 37(3/4), 2009, pp. 205-223 (19 pp).

Play, love etc. - UiA Philosophy Forum in preparation

I have previously mentioned the UiA Philosophy Forum (Filosofisk Forum) - see here, and here. Today the committee of the forum gathered for the second time. We have made a draft of the spring programme, which looks more or less like this:

1) Tuesday, January 19th (16-18)
Morten Tønnessen: "Lek som sivilisasjonens opphav" (Play as the origin of civilization), followed by discussion

2) Tuesday, February 16th (16-18)
To filosofiske samtaler (Two philosophical dialogues)

3) Tuesday, March 16th (18-20)
Filosofisk samtale om tro (Philosophical dialogue on faith), led by Håvard Løkke

4) Tuesday, April 13th (16-18)
Håvard Løkke: Kjærlighet som moralsk følelse (Love as a moral emotion)

5) Tuesday, May 25th (18-20)
Public lecture with invited lecturer, in town. Name and title T.B.A.

In addition, there will be a course session in "philosophical dialogue" (filosofisk samtale) - in preparation of the February dialogue and the public event in March - February 2nd.

While events 1, 2 and 4 are "internal" (university area) events - though open to all - the 3rd and 5th event will take place outside of campus, and aim at engaging a wider audience, in each their way (strictly speaking, this may apply to event 3 more than to event 5, which will nevertheless be made available for a general audience). The methodology for the dialogic events has in the Norwegian context been further developed by amongst others Øyvind Olsholt.

Besides talking at event 1, I will coordinate contacts for event 3, where we hope to gather individuals from different faiths etc. - protestants, catholics, muslims, agnostics and atheists - for a common philosophical dialogue.

Animal play article to appear in December

I expect my article "Abstraction, cruelty and other aspects of animal play" to appear in December, in the special issue on zoosemiotics of the journal Sign Systems Studies.