Animalcam: Ocularcentrism and Non-Human Performance
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PHILIP AUSLANDER FIELD STATION 2 AnimalCam: Ocularcentrism and Non-Human Performance The arts section of the New York Times for 30 November characteristics of human and non-human performance 2004 serendipitously juxtaposed two articles. The first than in cyborgian hybridization. Most of the work I have concerned GuitarBot, a self-playing digital musical done in this area has been on the technological side of instrument that has performed both with human the equation (see Auslander 2001, 2002a, 2002b, and accompanists and in solo recitals. One of the latter, at the forthcoming) but I have had occasion recently to give Juilliard School in New York City, was billed as a ‘Robo some thought to the zoological side as well. 1 Recital: No Human Performers’ (Beckerman 2004). The Here, I will discuss two human-enabled performances second article was about Cavalia: A Magical Encounter by animals, both achieved through technological Between Man and Horse, an extravaganza produced by mediation. The first is the identity performed by Koko, the one of the founders of Cirque du Soleil, intended to famous ‘talking’ gorilla, on ‘her’ website (www.koko.org). show ‘the horse unfettered’ (Sharkey 2004). Together, I will argue that the website emphasizes the importance these two articles suggested the two sides of posthuman of vision to Koko, a priority she shares with humans, thus performance: the technological (performance by downplaying her status as an animal in favor of presenting machines) and the zoological (performance by animals her as (almost) human. By contrast, Stanley the dog, the other than human beings). main character of Jana Sterbak’s video installation From Neither phenomenon is new, of course. Animals have Here to There (2003), enjoys greater control over the been pressed into service as performers, often in blood technology that frames his performance and is thus able sports, for millennia, and the dream, if not the reality, of to perform a more specifically animal sensorium and machine performers has been around for centuries. But identity, albeit for an exclusively human audience. the idea of non-human performers has acquired fresh The role that Koko is made to perform on the website is currency in the age of digital technology. Now that we that of ‘ambassador for her critically endangered species’. may converse with chat bots, employ avatars to act in Like any good ambassador, Koko is able to communicate our behalf, and watch films in which human performers with her hosts: the first text on the homepage of the share screen time with CGI figures, the need to theorize website describes her as ‘a 33-year-old lowland gorilla the non-human in performance feels more urgent. To who learned to speak American Sign Language’ (ASL); date, much of the work in performance studies to take up another page identifies her main diplomatic qualification these questions has revolved around technology and the by saying, ‘she can speak to us humans in our own concept of the cyborg. More recently, animal performers language’. Koko’s ability to acquire human language is have come into focus: Performance Research devoted an emphasized continuously and the message is clear: we issue to the theme and most major academic conferences humans can no longer use our capacity for language as a in theatre or performance studies now feature at least way of distinguishing ourselves from other animals. But one ‘animal panel’ on their programs. the idea that language is a defining human trait remains Looking back from the future, I believe we will see in force nevertheless: the presentation strongly suggests that machine and animal performance are overlapping that Koko’s linguistic ability makes her more like us, not areas of inquiry, in part because the animal is always us more like her. She had to acquire human language technologically mediated in performance, if only through to effect inter-species communication – the researchers such technologies as bits and bridles. More crucially, who work with Koko communicate with her by using performing animals and machines, while different in a combination of ASL and spoken English and express obvious and important ways, raise similar theoretical no interest in learning to speak gorilla, whatever that and critical issues. For me, these issues revolve around might mean. We’re much happier to acknowledge Koko’s questions of agency, autonomy and subjectivity in putative humanity than our own animality. performance, questions that pertain equally to human While treating Koko as an honorary human may performers. I therefore prefer the term ‘non-human’ to the cause us to be more respectful of animals (or at least the term ‘posthuman’ and am more interested in the shared higher primates) and treat them as beings possessing 86 subjectivity, if not subjecthood, we continue to define animals. But Koko’s ability to observe us is important subjectivity, like language, in human terms. On the to us primarily because we want to believe that she is website, Koko is shown interacting primarily with one of us. Cary Wolfe suggests, ‘the figure of vision is . human beings, including such celebrities as Mr. Rogers, ineluctably tied to the specifically human’ (2003: 3). The the late host of a children’s television program popular emphasis on vision in the way Koko is presented allows in the US, and Robin Williams, the actor and comedian. us to regard her as (almost) human; when she looks at Her interactions with other animals are framed as human us, we implicitly believe that we are exchanging the same relationships: Michael, another gorilla (now deceased), kind of gaze – a human gaze. We do not feel ourselves to was her ‘best friend’ and she selected ‘potential mate’ be the object of an Other’s gaze, an animal’s gaze, which Ndume by means of video dating (the implication of a is what Berger is talking about. While granted a degree monogamous relationship belies male gorillas’ normal of subjecthood, Koko is not permitted to perform a polygamy). She is also shown with a cat identified as distinctly animal subjectivity, only a quasi-human one. 2 her pet. One of Koko’s hobbies is painting pictures that Given the classic status of Berger’s writing on this are described in terms of familiar stylistic categories: subject, dare I say that while I find his account of the according to the website, gorillas can produce images progressive physical and cultural marginalization of that are both ‘representational (based on what they see) animals useful and convincing, I also find his account and impressionistic (based on what they feel)’. of ocularity in human/animal relationships to be Gorillas’ sensorium is very similar to that of human surprisingly anthropocentric? In his descriptions, the beings: they see and hear well and are not as dependent exchange of gazes between ‘man’ and animal always on the sense of smell as some other animals. The works to humanity’s advantage without providing any importance of sight to the gorilla is subtly emphasized on clear benefit for the animal. In arguing that the ‘look Koko’s website as a means of making her seem human. between animal and man’ may have contributed to the She produces visual art, looks at videos of potential development of human society, Berger distinguishes mates and gazes fondly at the kitten she holds in her the human response to the animal’s gaze from that arms. Koko looks at the same kinds of things, and for of other animals by saying, ‘man becomes aware of the same reasons, as we do, and we look at Koko looking. himself returning the look’ (1980: 3). So, man gains We permit ourselves to believe that she is (nearly) one of self-consciousness from this exchange, but what does us in large part because she apparently places the same the animal get? The framing of Koko’s performance as a premium on the sense of sight as we do. Ocularcentrism gorilla ambassador to humanity sidesteps this issue: since is thus bound up with anthropomorphism, even with Koko’s animality is suppressed in this performance, her respect to Koko’s linguistic achievement, since Koko’s audience need not be troubled by the question of parity acquisition of language is confirmed visually. Although in ocular transactions between humans and animals. we human beings cannot hear Koko communicate, we The close association of the visual with the human can see that she is linguistically competent because she raises difficult questions for artistic practices, including is trained in ASL, a visual form of verbal language. performance, seeking a critical stance with respect to Our ocular relationship to Koko is different, however, anthropocentrism and speciesism. Since performances from the ocular relationship between human beings and produced by humans inevitably reflect the priority of animals described by John Berger in ‘Looking at Animals’. vision in the human sensorium, ‘it is … tempting’, as Wolfe Berger identifies a modern, technologized human gaze notes, ‘to abandon the figure of vision altogether’ (2003: that objectifies animals: ‘animals are always the observed. 3) and insist that only performances that engage other The fact that they can observe us has lost all significance’ senses can be considered truly posthumanist in outlook. (1980: 14). Berger contrasts this condition with an earlier But Wolfe is not quite ready for such a radical rejection of one characterized by ‘that look between animal and man, ocularity, and neither am I. He proposes instead that ‘one which may have played a crucial role in the development way to recast the figure of vision (and therefore the figure of human society, and which, in any case, all men of the human with which it is ineluctably associated) is had always lived with’ (1980: 26).