Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the words of Montgomery (1995: 575): '[T]he real event, the only event, is the
physical presence of the animals.' This physical presence can be disturbing,
threatening, appealing or amusing, but it is usually challenging.
Animals are enrolled into these networks of animal display through the
enclosures of the zoo; the zoo speaks through them and for them, yet they are still
actors within this network (e.g. Callon 1986). Their enrolment is always uncertain,
and the animals still have the power to surprise us with how they act. Their
corporeality reminds us that they are mortal as well as immortal; they are embodied
animals as well as information. Their behaviour can challenge our understanding of
them as species and as individuals, and it is in this experiential space that we are
confronted by the agency of animals. The bear that rocks incessantly despite being
moved to what is viewed as a superior enclosure contests our understanding of its
behaviour and challenges the sign beneath which it stands (Wilbert 1998). Animals'
bodies can attract and repel us at the same time. They can avoid our gaze or they
can court it. They can also return it:
The eyes of an animal when they consider a man
[sic]
are attentive and wary.
…The animal scrutinises him across a narrow abyss of non-comprehension.
This is why the man can surprise the animal. Yet the animal—even if
domesticated—can also surprise the man. The man too is looking across a
similar, but not identical abyss of non-comprehension…. A power is ascribed
to the animal, comparable with human power, but never coinciding with it.
(Berger 1980:2-3)
Despite their subjugated position within the networks of the zoo, animals are
nevertheless active subjects embodying a form of agency in their ability to continue
to challenge, disturb and provoke us. This agency is one of the reasons why visiting
a zoo can be an ambiguous experience, with pleasure and excitement mixed with
fear and nostalgia. It is also one of the driving forces behind the developments of the
electronic zoo. Unlike the experiences promised at the electronic zoo, however, the
traditional zoo is ultimately an embodied encounter between humans and animals
within a shared, albeit unequally constructed, space.
(Dis)placing animals in the electronic zoo
The developments of the electronic zoo promise a new cycle of accumulation for
natural history, with once-living animals, now immortalised through various
technologies, being mobilised, stabilised and combined into existing assemblages of
natural history. The electronic zoo creates new geographies of animal capture and
display in the process of bringing nature from far afield to the centre of the city.
The developments in film technology, digital imaging and visual presentation offer
the opportunity to revive the networks of natural history; new telecommunications
networks intersecting with existing ones to offer new spaces and times, and new
forms of human interaction, control and organisation which are continually
