DESIGN FOR ANIMALS

“the only way that nature operates – against itself.” - D&G - as it is not an ‘it’ demarcated from other things.

The nonhuman is a silent unknowable falsehood — the pure potentiality for all combinations

Within the posthuman art is always more than one — superjets.

Monster’s popularity in art — aboration and hybridity.

Terratological naming in medecine after animals — Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development.

Imagination is materially real — all fictive art is as affective and real as science. Modes of perception are neither fictive nor true. 

Orientale Shorthair  “The Oriental Shorthair is a breed of domestic cat that is closely related to the Siamese.Orientals are social, intelligent, and many are rather vocal. They often remain playful into adulthood. Despite their skinny appearance, they are athletic. They prefer to live in pairs or groups and also seek a lot of human interaction.”

My cat is named Bruce Lee. He is now 5 years old. I inherited him 2 years ago from my stepfather. He has always been an indoor cat. For me it was always hard to understand why people would keep animals inside at all time, it just seemed cruel. My roommates and me, agreed on letting him outside. This turned out to be harder then we thought.

He has completely lost his natural instinct when he is out in the free. He has no interest in other cats or running around, he does not want to explore the scenery. The only thing catching his attention in the garden is the grass. He would eat all of it if we would let him. But this causes Bruce to throw up, a lot.(Cats, not only eat grass to throw out hair that they swallow when they clean them self, but also to ingest enough folate.)

It is almost impossible to get Bruce back to following his natural instincts. Because he is a highly breaded race he has a lot of health issues. His eyes are sensitive especially in sunlight, he gets sick very often and he is allergic to pollen and bees. But most of all he would stand no chance in fighting against a big badass tomcat from the neighborhood. 

So I came up with the idea “back to being a cat”

Cat owners could team up and bring their animals together. All of this would happen outside, even in the forest. Of course they shouldn’t be trained to be more “wild”, that would just be ironic. But the owners could support them. There would be cats involved into these groups that are already able to catch mice and climb trees, so they could learn from each other. Getting outside and in touch with nature would maybe make Bruce become more resistant. And most of all it would get these indoor cats to be interactive with other cats.

I tried to arrange such a meeting. No one wanted to bring their cat because they were too afraid of loosing their pet to its actual environment. So the interest in supporting an animal  and bringing it back to his natural habitat is smaller then the own need of “forced” companionship whit this animal. I would lie if id say id not miss Bruce Lee if he would go into the wild forever. I understand this friendship and bounding between animals and humans.

But from this class i have learned for my self that human interference with animals only caused trouble for the animal kingdom. So my solution in really helping an animal is to support it in problems caused by Humans. For example: Birds and windows

Birds fly into windows so often. Most of the times their beak gets hurt so badly that they are unable to eat and starve. Technology wont come up with a solution for this problem fast enough. So what could help? I have realized that there is no ambulance for hurt animals or even emergency rooms. Thousands of animals could be saved if there were such institutions.

Maybe if we would save more animals and less humans there would finaly emerge a natural balance between humans and animals!

In research on the problems of specific animals it quite fast became clear to me that (from my perspective) most of these problems are rooted in the existence and doings of the human specie:

Dogs going crazy from inbreed, deer, rodents, and reptiles dying under speeding cars, entire species growing extinct when their natural habitat is turned into raw material extraction sites or human habitats, poultry and other farmed animals killing each other in too close captivity, invasive species (transported by humans, becoming a problem for their new surroundings and themselves) overfishing, pollution, poaching, global heating, etc. are all problems which would not exist and most likely would cease to do so in the absence of the human specie.

Designing a way to help, in these cases would therefor demand either

a) a tool/way to commit omnicide (without causing ecocide)

b) a way to severely diminish the population of humans on planet earth and a following radical change in lifestyle and ideology

c) ???

Housing shortage:

For the hermit crab there are certain problems with growing older and bigger; he has to change his house. Since he grows the most of his life, it is an ongoing challenge to find a house that fits and often he has to fight with his fellow hermit friends over the housing with the best properties. In addition humans also harvest sea shells.

What could be done:

The history of cats and trees goes long back. Cats as well as dogs evolved from the tree dwelling Miacis. This creature lived 40 million years ago. However cats inherited much more of Miacis than dogs: Their body structure is perfectly adapted to climbing. Their muscular back stabilizes the body during climbing a tree, their long tails allow them to balance easily. The muscles in their legs support them jumping. At the same time – due to not connected omoplates – their bodies are perfectly flexible. Their paws can adapt effectively to uneven surfaces (palms up and palms down). Last but not least, their claws are as sharp as a needle. The cat’s need to climb a tree is one of its biggest issues. Most of the kittens climb trees without being able to get down from it. Why is that so? Why do cats have such strong needs to climb trees?

Researchers suppose it is due to predatory that cats often climb trees. A cat is rather small sized, it might be predator to some animals  but it is after all prey to larger animals. This is why cats when feeling threatened climb trees. Considering visual perception of cats it is rather unlikely that they try to have a better overview on prey on the ground. Successfully haunting birds mostly occurs while the bird is on the ground. Another likely explanation for climbing trees is marking and enlarging the territory: The cats paws has lots of glands leaving an olfactory trace while walking or climbing.

 Solution 1:

 The hard way:

Even though it does not solve the cat’s problem, it seems necessary to point out to one of the main problems of the human existence: Their utter need of solving everyone’s problems before facing their own. I therefore suggest: Stop trying to solve problems of creatures unless you know they want you to. History teaches us that interfering in nature’s way causes more problems than it actually solves. Therefore: mind your own business!

Solution 2:

 Second world: