Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
from widely dispersed locations, concentrating and ordering these within specific
(commonly) metropolitan areas. Both are concerned with defining and describing
the kinds of spaces that animals are to occupy, and delimiting the sorts of
relationships that people have with these animals. These similarities are drawn out in
the following two sections which explore and reflect on the relationship between the
networks of the traditional and electronic zoos, developing Latour's (1987) ideas of
zoos as 'centres of calculation' which control cycles of accumulation in natural
history. Latour (1987) characterises the process of natural history as a practical cycle
of knowledge production, whereby things which are far away, invisible and
unknown are brought back to a centre where, through mapping, tabulation and
other representational strategies, they are made known, well ordered and predictable.
The 'centre of calculation' metaphor has been a productive one in the history of
natural history (Miller 1996; Stemerding 1993), with obvious appeal to geographers
(Parry 2000; Thrift
et al.
1995), and it is used here to draw attention to the similar
spatial dynamics in the accumulation of animals associated with traditional and
electronic zoos. The key transformations from the zoological institute to the wildlife
media centre revolve around the use of different visual technologies for the purposes
of enrolling animals into networks of collection and exhibition. Yet even here there
are continuities which can be followed through to interrogate the relationship
between technology and forms of knowing about nature. Recent literature on the
geographies of cyberspace is challenging the technological determinism which
accompanies discussion of the impacts of new technology, seeking a more relational
understanding of changing socio-technical relationships (Bingham 1996; Hillis
1994; Kitchin 1998). Here again a network approach can be revealing of what is
new and what pervades in these networks through which the technical, natural and
cultural are assembled (Bingham 1996; Wise 1997).
In following a Latourian approach, I seek to explore the challenges facing
traditional zoos in relation to the success of the electronic zoo. The comparison
rejects notions of a radical shift in the historical development of the zoo, exploring
the continuities and discontinuities in how these organisations mobilise, stabilise
and combine animals in the spaces of their displays. My development of this
argument uses an 'actor-network'-inspired approach
2
to understand both forms of
zoo as complex places, embedded in differing socio-spatial assemblages of people,
devices and documents, seeking through different means of representation to make
themselves spokespersons for nature. Through developments in image technology, I
argue that the electronic zoo has simultaneously been able to accelerate the
circulation of animals through its networks, concentrating value from their images,
while dispersing responsibility for their embodied form. The chapter concludes with
reflections on how these differing networks construct and constrain human experience
of animals, and on the opportunities that they present for expressions of animal
agency.
