Toward interspecies art and design prosthetic habitat-structures in human-owl cultures
Version 2 2024-06-13, 17:46Version 2 2024-06-13, 17:46
Version 1 2022-09-29, 23:34Version 1 2022-09-29, 23:34
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-13, 17:46authored byD Parker, S Roudavski, B Isaac, N Bradsworth
Abstract
Urbanization severely reduces opportunities for nonhuman habitation and undermines nonhuman subjectivities, aesthetic experiences, behaviors, traditions, and cultures. In response, humans need to reimagine cities as places for interspecies cohabitation. In this article, a team of architects and ecologists demonstrates that such reimagination depends on the cultural behaviors of multiple species. The authors illustrate the implications of this dependence by designing and discussing nesting structures for the powerful owl (Ninox strenua). The project shows that prosthetic habitats can serve as useful provocation for thinking about interspecies cultures. The authors use this work to propose productive avenues for further research.