My say on "How to Make the World Better for Nonhuman Animals"

Marc Bekoff has initiated a collection of up to 12-word-long statements on "How to Make the World Better for Nonhuman Animals", posted in his Animal emotions blog at Psychology Today.

The text includes this contribution from me:

Acknowledge that all animals relate to signs, and respect their semiotic agency. -- Morton Tønnessen, Norway; Recent co-authored book (Open Access): Animal Umwelten in a Changing World: Zoosemiotic Perspectives (Tartu University Press 2016)

Video greeting by Marc Bekoff now on YouTube

Ethologist Marc Bekoffs (professor emeritus at Colorado University - Boulder) video greeting to the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference 2013, which took place August 22nd, is now available on YouTube, on the YouTube channel of Minding Animals Norway. It is called "How to live peacefully with other animals: Marc Bekoff's video greeting" and is some 4 minutes long.

Bekoff to contribute to Norwegian animal ethics conference; concept in English online

The program of the Norwegian animal ethics conference 2013, which will have the theme "Dyrs natur under press: Hvordan vi former ville dyr i vårt bilde" [Animals' nature under pressure: How we shape animals in our own image] and take place in Oslo August 22nd, is in progress. Among the news:

* Marc Bekoff will contribute with a video greeting

* Veterinarian Randi Oppermann Moe and sociologist Ketil Skogen will give lectures

Updates will be announced on the conference website.

Furthermore, an English language version of the thematic concept of this year's conference has been published online. But PS: The conference language is Norwegian.

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.

MAO update

The preparation for the Oslo Minding Animals pre-conference event, scheduled for October 14-15, is progressing. We have invited Marc Bekoff on condition of funding and he has tentatively said yes. The next immediate task is to apply for funding from two different sources, in May and June.

Update on the Minding Animals event in Oslo

Plans for the Oslo event in the Utrecht pre-conference lecture series of Minding Animals International is progressing. Today I talked by phone for the first time with Rhys Evans of the Equine Research Network and The Norwegian University College for Agriculture and Rural Development. The two are us are for now the only members of the organizing team. We are currently writing a memo with some initial decision points concerning the one-day event, which will take place Tuesday October 25th 2011 and involve plenary speeches, round table discussions (on human-horse and human-wolf relations) and group work. The overall theme for the event will be "shared worlds".

In the meantime, Minding Animals International has gone public with a list of cities where pre-conference events are being planned or considered.

Minding Animals International is proud to announce that several events are being planned before the next Minding Animals Conference.

Events are at various stages of development, and workshops, lectures, exhibitions or seminars in at least Abu Dhabi, Brisbane, Cape Town, Christchurch, Delhi, London (x2), New York, Oslo, Rennes, San Francisco, Sydney (x2), Wollongong, Uppsala and Utrecht, are now being considered.

The First Pre-conference Event is an expert meeting scheduled for Utrecht on 29 and 30 November, 2010, followed by a Second Event in Sydney on 3 December, 2010, a public lecture by Professor Marc Bekoff.