Conference review - Sydney

The summary of the workshop The history, philosophy and future of ethology (Sydney, Feb. 2011), earlier published in the March News Bulletin of the Australian Animal Studies Group, is also available at the homepage of Ecological humanities, along with a sample of post-conference appraisals.

Summary of Sydney ethology workshop

The Sydney workshop The Sydney workshop The History, Philosophy and Future of Ethology (Feb. 19-21) is summed up in an entrance in the March News Bulletin of the Australian Animal Studies Group.

Excerpts:

The February workshop was an intensive, intimate three day discussion that brought together a range of guests from various disciplinary backgrounds. Growing out of a panel on ― Ethology and Continental Philosophy ― at the Minding Animals conference in Newcastle, 2009, it further developed the conversation at this border, as well as engaging with other related disciplines – including neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, film-making, Egyptology, zoömusicology and literary studies.
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Norwegian biosemiotician Morten Tønnessen illustrated his use and development of Jakob von Uexküll‘s Umwelt theory to understand contemporary wolf management.

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The obvious profit so many took from the three days of discussion bodes well for future interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange at this crucial meeting point of philosophy, ethnology and ethology.

Brief report from the Sydney workshop

I am currently in Katoomba, the Blue Mountains, where I will spend a week writing, after having spendt two days in neighbouring Blackheath already.

The workshop The history, philosophy and future of ethology took place at the campus of Macquarie University in Sydney Feb. 19-21. My presentation was given Feb. 19 at approximately 2 pm, and I chaired a session Feb. 21 in the afternoon.

I have had the pleasure to meet and spend time with a number of interesting scholars, including the other international guests (Dominique Lestel, Jeffrey Bussolini, Gary Steiner, Brett Buchanan), the organizer Matthew Chrulew and Gisela Kaplan, to mention but one of the other speakers. Actually, the 15 or so talks were pretty much all good - which is not common at interdisciplinary conferences and similar events. I usually have to bring a book.

There were up to 30 people attending, speakers included.

In Sydney, Australia

At this prolonged moment I am in Sydney, Australia. I left Norway Tuesday 15th and flew here via London and Abu Dhabi (my first 'visit' to the Middle East - unfortunately I did not have the time to step outside the airport). 17.000-18.000 km later, on Thursday 17th, I was here (my first visit to Australia).

The workshop "The History, Philosophy and Future of Ethology", organized by Matthew Chrulew of Macquarie University - who I got to meet yesterday - starts tomorrow and lasts for three days. I will meet the other foreign guests for dinner in a couple of hours.

Sydney programme

In the draft programme of the forthcoming workshop "The History, Philosophy and Future of Ethology" (Sydney Feb. 19-21), my talk "Bad dog: An Uexküllian analysis of Norwegian wolf management" has been scheduled for Saturday Feb. 19th at 2-3 pm. Brett Buchanan, the author of Onto-Ethologies: The Animal Environments of Uexküll, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze, will moderate the session.

On Monday Feb. 21st I will moderate a session (1.20-2.40 pm) where Thom van Dooren and organizer of the Sydney workshop Matthew Chrulew will present papers.

Abstract to Sydney ethology workshop

Bad dog: An Uexküllian analysis of Norwegian Wolf Management

Morten Tønnessen

The title of my PhD project is “Umwelt transition: Uexküllian phenomenology – An ecosemiotic analysis of Norwegian wolf management”. The starting point for my research is the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944), which I interpret as a genuine theory of phenomenology. Core notions of phenomenology – ‘subjectivity’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘intentionality’ included – therefore have to be understood in a more-than-human sense.

What is “subjective biology” today? In my work, the concept of Umwelt transition represents an Uexküllian notion of environmental change. This might be revisionist, since Uexküll himself envisioned a harmonious nature in balance. While I find it necessary to revise Uexküll on this point, on other points, I hold, it suffices to apply his theory. One example is his notion of Berufsumwelten (the Umwelten of professions), a subcategory of human Umwelten – in my work I depict e.g. the Berufsumwelt of Norwegian sheep farmers. On yet other points, Uexküll’s theory needs clarification. Two important precisations (conceptual clarifications): an Umwelt is organism-specific, rather than species-specific; and must be taken to refer to an existential realm/”inner states”. Umwelt theory also needs to be developed. Focusing on universally applicable Umwelt terminology, I introduce various notions of aggregate Umwelten (Umwelt trajectories, total Umwelten and common-Umwelten), the concept of existential universals, and a distinction between communal being and distinctive being.

The time frame of my case study is 1845-2010. It thus spans both historical extermination campaigns and the current management regime aiming at conservation. I conceptualize the formal and the informal human interaction with/intervention in wolf ecology, and the wolves’ response. To what extent is the wolf a favored species, in practice? By contextualizing such a question, I pinpoint characteristics of the semiotics of the ecological crisis. One assumption is that humankind’s domestication of animals and plants can be taken as archetypical for our attempted planet-scale taming of the wild. My analysis is conducted by way of an Umwelt mapping of the lifeworlds of wolves, sheep and people, with emphasis on historical Umwelt transitions. In the process I present maps of the ontological niches of these three creatures.

In Scandinavia, in part invasive monitoring justifies questions such as this one: Is a wolf wild as long as it does not know that it is being thoroughly handled? My field trips to Polar Zoo and Langedrag Nature Park and Mountain Farm suggest that socialized wolves come in many forms. What is it like to be a wolf? And what is it like to be a dog?

Preliminary conclusions:

1. The Scandinavian wolf/sheep strife is largely a symbolic construction (cultural analysis is key).

2. Ecological and cultural developments have basically decoupled (there is, in other words, a cultural drift towards pure symbolicity).

3. The long-term goal of wildlife management should be to restore its independent viability. One success criterion: to minimize anthropogenic mortality.

4. My case study demonstrates that Umwelt theory is applicable in a modern ecological setting, but in need of updating and further development.

Sydney workshop approaching

Some time back I received a 4-page Ethology workshop summary from organizer Matthew Chrulew. The workshop, “The History, Philosophy and Future of Ethology”, an International Collaborative Workshop, is to be arranged February 19-21. Abstracts are due January 25th. An edited volume is planned. "Bad dog: An Uexküllian analysis of Norwegian wolf management" is thus after all likelyhood set to materialize not only as a talk, but further in writing.

Excerpts of the summary:

The reflexive and critical reflection of the history and philosophy of ethology bears an obvious relationship to its object, the practice of the science of animal behaviour itself; and the latter relies on such historical and philosophical reflections for its own self-understanding and development. But as Buchanan (2008) and others have shown, Continental philosophy has its own debt to the early ethological work of Jakob von Uexküll (1957) and others that has yet to be fully understood (Deleuze & Guattari 1987, Merleau-Ponty 2003). While phenomenology has traditionally focussed solely on human experience, a critique of such anthropocentrism in favour of immanence and biological continuity opens pathways for distinctive empirical, qualitative descriptions of interspecies forms of life (Abram, 1996; Bussolini 2000; Lawlor 2006). Meanwhile, the field of biosemiotics or zoosemiotics, following the work of Thomas A. Sebeok (1972, 2000), Uexküll and others, has its own set of tools and questions, rarely considered by other science and humanities genres, with which to approach the questions of animal life (Tønnessen, 2010).

Our historical moment is one that combines, on the one hand, the breaking down of barriers between the human and the nonhuman, and on the other, the intensification of our anthropocentric use of animal bodies. It is in this context that what is called “the question of the animal” has become an important question in the humanities. Yet while an insistence on animal subjectivity is foundational for much of this discourse, there is a continuing poverty of truly interdisciplinary work that questions how such subjectivity is imagined and comprehended. This workshop will bring together scholars who work in and among disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, ethology, neurobiology, science studies, literature, biblical studies, Egyptology, film and music. It will allow local researchers the opportunity to participate in a discussion with distinguished international visitors. It will provide a space for interdisciplinary discussion at the cutting edge of the history and philosophy of ethology, and related fields of animal philosophy and ethics. An edited volume arising from these conversations is planned.

Programme. The workshop will be held in the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at Macquarie University in Sydney. It will be held over three days, from Saturday-Monday 19th-21st February, 2011. The workshop is funded by the ISL-HCA programme, with additional funding provided by the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion. International speakers are Dominique Lestel (ENS, France), Brett Buchanan (Laurentian, Canada), Gary Steiner (Bucknell, USA), Jeffrey Bussolini (CUNY, USA), Morten Tønnessen (Tartu, Estonia). International guests will speak for 45 minutes, local participants for 25-30 minutes. There will be extended question periods as well as opportunities for group discussion. Please notify of attendance and forward final paper titles and 500 word abstracts by Tuesday 25th January.

As mentioned in the quoted text, the workshop is funded by (ISL-HCA), meaning the International Science Linkages: Humanities and Arts Programme of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The ethology workshop was one of 13 international colloborative workshops to get funding in 2010.

Australia plans

The title of my talk at the international collaborative workshop on the history and philosophy of ethology, to take place in Sydney February 19-21, will be "Bad dog: An Uexküllian Analysis of Norwegian Wolf Management". 45 min.

I have arranged flight tickets - will be leaving Europe February 15th and return March 4th (in Australia February 17th - March 3rd). The workshop organizers provide me with accommodation in Sydney for February 17-22, the remaining 9 days I intend to spend in the Blue Mountains, working on completing my thesis.

Academic news in brief X

1. The Sydney workshop 'History and philosophy of ethology', to be arranged at Macquarie University, has been rescheduled to February 19-21st, 2010 (cf. previous post). I have started pondering what more I can get done while in Australia.

2. The editorial work with the Special Issue of Hortus Semioticus 'Semiotics of Nature' is about to be concluded - the issue is now entering production.

3. I have started writing my thesis (though that threshold qua point in time could be defined in various ways).

4. The last week I have started planning the remaining field work and research stays of my case study on Norwegian wolf management. First out is a trip to Langedrag mountain farm and wildlife park (captive wolves) and Rendalen, Hedmark (sheep farms).

5. My debate article 'Forskningens formål' (The purpose of science) was printed in the Norwegian national daily Aftenposten August 6th. Norwegian text here.

6. The same day I sent a chronicle entitled 'Ulven på Sørlandet' (The wolf in the South) to the regional newspaper Fædrelandsvennen. This is my first comment to the wandering wolf that has been visiting our region (where there have not been wolves since the mid-80ies, as far as I can remember) the last few weeks, and the calls for its death.

7. Tomorrow I am heading for Bergen, where the 60th International Congress of Phenomenology is taking place the next few days (cf. previous posts).

8. I have arranged tickets for my next visit to Estonia, which will take place September 5th-9th (5-8 in Tartu, 8-9 in Tallinn).

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Last 'Academic news in brief': No. IX.

Philosophy/history of ethology workshop materializing

The Sydney workshop on ethology that I was invited to not so long ago got funding, and will materialize. This will be my first visit to Australia (and the second continent I visit on the Southern hemisphere).

NAME: History and philosophy of ethology -- International
Collaborative Workshop

PLACE: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

LIKELY TIME: February 22-4, 2011

Thanks to Juipi Chien (Taiwan) for making connections between people...