Panel 10: Plants and the Nonhuman
ECOMEDIA IN THE ANTHROPOCENE (THE 2018 ASLE SYMPOSIUM)
A NEARLY CARBON-NEUTRAL CONFERENCE
Panel 10: Plants and the Nonhuman
“To Instill a Love for Them: Plant Cinematography and Botanical Ethics”
John Ryan (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Arts at the University of New England in Australia; Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, University of Western Australia)
“The Nonhuman Gazes Back: Ecological Potentials in the Pixarvolts, Mother!, The Ornithology, and iAnimal”
Inez Zhou (Research Fellow, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UC Santa Barbara)
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Thank you, Inez, for a fascinating and wonderfully produced talk on the non-human gaze in ecomedia.
You mentioned the emergence of empathy through VR. I couldn’t help but think of Derrida’s essay ‘The Animal That Therefore I Am’ and, in particular, the effects/affects of the non-human gaze. Derrida characterises the cat’s gaze as uncanny, disarming yet frighteningly intimate.
I wonder if you would care to speculate about the broader implications/resonances of the non-human gaze. How might ecomedia incorporate non-anthropocentric points-of-view to foster empathy, ethics and values? What are some of the potential pitfalls of recasting the perspective as such (i.e. anthropomorphism)?
Thanks again for your talk, John
Hi John!
Thank you for your comments! I’m so sorry for coming late to the discussion because of some personal matters.
Yes, Derrida’s essay is one of the foundational pieces to think about the nonhuman gaze. In my short talk, I kind of circumvented this intricate topic — the encounter with the other’s gaze — and the inevitable anthropocentrism/anthropomorphism involved in assuming the other’s perspective. It is, of course, often problematic, especially when humans are the exploitative (and violent) one in this power relation. But I want to postpone our critical impulse toward them and explore their pedagogical(?) potentials, so my talk and examples are trying to think about the question you are asking, how ecomedia, or eco-lens, can explore the nonhuman POV to foster ecological affects, ethics, and values. However, I don’t want to make quick conclusion and only want to throw a few cases to sparkle the thinking on what we can still incorporate and experiment on the perspectivist lens. Aside from the crucial role of vision in narratives and perceptions, I have a few speculative ideas: 1) humans and nonhuman animals share many basic emotions and instincts, so “anthropomorphism” may also be fuzzy when it comes to emotions evoked in the human animals; 2) we can always learn to become and become-with the other and unlearn some of the established boundaries; 3) seeing through the nonhuman perspective to look at ourselves is one effective way toward the multinatural world, for it diversifies the worldly agents, and most directly fosters our self-reflection and self-examination.
Thank you! Inez
John, Thanks so much for your interesting talk on botanical documentaries. I wonder if you could say more about the reasons why what you call a “flora-centric excision” has proved so appealing to filmmakers. Are there particular ideologies of plant-human relations that need to be understood and overcome before filmmakers can move to a more ethical whole-plant perspective?
Caren Irr, Brandeis University
Hello Caren,
Thanks for an interesting question! In terms of botanical documentaries and floracentrism, I think that there are a number of factors at work. The first is technical: the opening of the flower lends itself to time-lapse whereas such a perspective on the roots or the whole plant would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to acquire while maintaining a coherent visual narrative. The second is biopolitical: the flower, with its Linnaean sexual inflections, as a galvanising organ; the flower as a biopoliticised metonymy for the whole plant and its interrelations. The third is scientific: botanical documentary on the whole reflects a taxonomic ethos that depends on extracting (i.e. excising) certain species and certain plant parts (i.e. flowers) to impose order on a seemingly chaotic biological system. There are probably other factors as well.
Many thanks,
John
Thanks for this response. Your point about a taxonomic ethos is so important, and it raises really interesting questions about what kind of narrative might prove at least partially adequate to complex biological systems. I wonder if Koyaanisqatsi-like experiments of the 80s and 90s need to be revived.
Hi Caren,
That’s an intriguing point – perhaps non-linear narratives would offer a starting point. But I suspect there are forms of moving image narrative yet to be devised for the task. It’s interesting, then, to consider the emergence of image technologies such as time-lapse in relation to early twentieth-century developments in botanical science. I suggest that the recent rise of the field of plant cognition and behaviour presents a timely opportunity for advancing the moving image in new directions.
John
Hi Inez,
Thank you for this talk, it’s impressive that you bring together such different film examples to support your argument. I am also interested in the formation of a cinematographic eco-awareness and capturing the non-human perspective is an important aspect of that. If you have further observations on how to create that through visual narrative other than the application of POV shots I would be happy to hear more.
Hi Ekin,
Thank you for your comment and question! The examples I listed earlier in my talk, like Isle of Flowers or Plastic Bag, are nice cinematographic narratives centered on a nonhuman subject that raises eco-awareness. I bet many examples exist in cinemas and literatures alike. Common narratives such as time and space juggling, montage, close-up, etc., are all excellent techniques to tell ecological stories.
I’m interested in POV shots, for it’s experimental in cinematic techniques; for it’s harder for us to jump out of the observant perspective to which we are more accustomed and to really try to envision the other’s perspective; and also, for it’s inherently paradoxical and impossible. They also form the narratives, often implicitly or silently. However, I’m still exploring the films and cinematic ways that can push this topic further.
Hi John, Thank you for your engaging presentation. Your presentation brought to mind a live stream I noted in another post–that of our campus corpse flower’s irregular blooming: https://youtu.be/7F8pocGVKCw. Your talk also seemed to connect with the memoir *Lab Girl* by Hope Jahren and the tree narratives she presents. Thank you for your informative talk. If I’m getting it right, our greenhouse’s livestream might be a more botanical ethical way to approach plant cinematography?
Yes, that’s a great example of the kind of intermedial plant cinematography I have in mind – thanks! The whole plant is included in the frame along with its biocultural environment (not excluding people walking by).
Excellent! Thank you.
I Inez, Thank you for your intriguing presentation–truly virtually produced. I’ll just piggyback on JOhn’s question–also wondering about how ecomedia might incorporate non-anthropocentric POV to foster empathy, ethics, and values. Joe and I really enjoyed the Pixarvolt *Over the Hedge* and its comic origin (as well as *Chicken Run* and *Wallace and Gromit*). I’m looking forward to watching *The Ornithologist* and appreciated your reading of the film. For a question, I’ll just piggyback on John’s question–also wondering about how ecomedia might incorporate non-anthropocentric POV to foster empathy, ethics, and values.
Hi Robin!
Thank you for all the great animation recommendations. I mostly enjoyed Chicken Run, and would look forward to watching the other two. I expect to analyze the nonhuman perspectives more closely in many of the animal animations without centering on the anthropomorphized narrative/view. In this talk I just brought up one promising shot from Finding Dory based on such a realistic setting.
For your question, I would just use the same ideas in my reply to John here. I think my talk is grappling with the question you are asking, how ecomedia, or eco-lens, can foster ecological affects, ethics, and values through nonhuman POV. But I don’t want to make quick conclusion and only want to throw a few cases to sparkle the thinking on what we can still incorporate and experiment on the perspectivist lens. Aside from the crucial role of vision in narratives and perceptions, I have a few speculative ideas: 1) humans and nonhuman animals share many basic emotions and instincts, so “anthropomorphism” may also be fuzzy when it comes to emotions evoked in the human animals; 2) we can always learn to become and become-with the other and unlearn some of the established boundaries; 3) seeing through the nonhuman perspective to look at ourselves is one effective way toward the multinatural world, for it diversifies the worldly agents, and most directly fosters our self-reflection and self-examination.
I look forward to reading your books on these topics and knowing more relevant films to inspire this approach!
Whoops! That should read, Hi Inez!
Hi John:
As Robin ( I am her co writer) mentioned, the corpse flower exhibition is always a big hit for audiences. The one thing video can’t do, however, is project the odor of the plant. Smell O Vision, or Scratch and Sniff ( thank you John Waters) would be essential. Do you have any further thoughts on the absence of certain senses when we watch botanical docs?
Hi Joseph,
That’s a great question. I think visual and sonic indicators can be used to point to smell, taste and sensation where these senses are necessarily absent from the medium. The oscillation between direct sensory experience of an environment (i.e. touching a plant) then draws from, and is inspired by, the moving image, and conversely. For instance, close up shots of the texture of leaves might lead one to seek out the real plant and experience the unmediated sensation.
Hi John:
The Corpse Flower will bloom again right around July 2 , according to Steve Malehorn, manager of the campus greenhouse. He described the odor of the plant “as ripe road kill in a hot dumpster,” under the right conditions. He also points out that the plant is now endangered, since it only grows in Sumatra, and that island’s rainforest is being destroyed to create palm oil plantations.
Thanks for that information, Joseph. I was thinking about the corpse flower last week as I passed through Sumatra. Steve’s description also brings to mind the importance of multisensory memory narratives to rounding out one’s experience of a plant mediated in images and sound.
Hi Inez:
Thanks for your piece. Robin and I have grappled with these themes for a long time in our work in eco-criticism and animation. Some key films that explore your theme are The Secret Of Nimh, Mr Bug Comes to Town, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and of course, The Ant Bully.
The recent live action White God would be another example, but we also see human beings from the point of view of another mistreated dog in Sam Fuller’s White Dog.
Thanks for your presentation.
Hi Joseph,
Thank you for all the great recommendations. Sorry to say that I haven’t watched any of them, but would be excited to explore them soon. I also see the strong connection between animation and ecocriticism, and would most look forward to reading your works on it. I’m also aware of the rich texts of nonhuman perspectives in animal animations. Here I only included a striking one from Finding Dory, because of its underwater angle, its implicit “critique” to children, and its realistically based setting. Hope to explore more great shots from the above films and learn more of your critical opinions soon!
Hi John,
Thank you for your insightful and in-depth talk on this very needed topic! The documentaries are beautiful. I’m fascinated by your use of Alaimo’s trans-corporeal subjectivity also onto the moving image, the application of intermedial ethics, and the “co-poiesis” of flower and moving image. I wonder if you could talk more about these points from cinematic critique? This “co-poiesis” also reminds me of Jean Painlevé’s masterful documentaries of sea creatures. I’m also intrigued by how to further conceive the time-lapse in it. Finally, I’m curious about how you would take the trendy discussions of plant agency, complicated life, “language,” etc. in relation to the vegetal ethics.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks Inez for these very thought-provoking questions! I must admit, I am still working out the ideas of co-poiesis and intermediality in terms of plant cinematography. But, in a nutshell, I would suggest that these principles allow us to think through the ‘making’ of film and plant as relational (where both bodily forms emerge in dialogue with one another) rather than seeing film as a representation of the plant only. Time-lapse — if it is to be described as ‘life’ – then is necessarily enmeshed in an ecology with the plant. And that would confer some agency to the plant through an intermedial co-poiesis involving the bodily significations of vegetal life. An ethics would recognise this situation as in fact co-poiesis, as a making together, thus moving film toward a greater sense of ethical engagement with plants as embodied beings.
Thanks for your presentations, John and Inez.
THis is Kiu-wai Chu from Western Sydney University.
They are both fascinating and offer interesting points to ponder on nonanthropocentric perspectives towards the more than human world. And thanks to all the insightful comments and questions down here, I guess I dont have much to add, but a general one for both of you which is your thoughts on the role of human narrations in botanic and VR documentaries which rely heavily on the visual. I haven’t seen Kingdom of Plants yet, but Plastic Bag is pretty interesting to me. But in both of them, I’d assume Attenborough and Herzog’s narrations are to a huge extent a crucial factor in guiding our perceptions towards the subjects of the films. Would you say that is something ecodocumentaries should try to resist, in order to reduce the anthropocentric tendencies in representing the world?
Best,
Kiu-wai (Panel 4 Global Politics and Narratives)
Hello Kiu-wai!
Great question. I certainly agree that over-narration can push a plant film toward the anthropocentric and the aestheticised. Attenborough, for instance, uses a lot of inflated language about the decoding the secrets of ‘the kingdom’ of plants (also drawing from scientific tropes of course). I would suggest that less anthropocentric, and more phytocentric or biocentric, intermediation would foreground the natural sounds of plants and botanical environments. The third film I covered in the talk — Our Botanical Biosphere — does a good job at that.
Dear Inez,
Thank you very much for your wonderful talk. I really like it. In my analysis on Naomi Kawase’s film The Mourning Forest (but this is a different film from the one I presented in this symposium) I analyzed how she presented the forest’s gaze.
I m also curious whether you have seen Lucrecia Martel’s ZAMA yet? There is a strange scene in which a llama gazes at the spectator. It’s definitely worth-checking out.
Dear John, thank you for your wonderful talk. As my PhD research is about the cinematic forest, I have come across your work and Marder’s work many times when researching on plant life theories. Thanks for your wonderful collection that you co-edited as well.
My question is, do you think whether these vegetal documentaries (which most of them obsess with flowers) reinforce the obsession of individuality and subjectivity? And if it reinforces such notion, does it goes against the structure of plant lives which, as I understood, celebrates plurality and network? Moreover, does the intermedial vegetal ethics address this binary of individuality/network? Thank you very much.
Dear Graiwoot,
Thank you for your very interesting questions! In response to your first question, yes. A highly individuated form of subjectivity — based on the sexualisation of identity — emerges from these flora-centric time-lapses. These films can be read in terms of Linnaean reductionism as well, in which life hierarchies are constructed from sexual attributes. You’re correct, and I would suggest that pushing time-lapse in a more vegetally ethical direction would require attention to plant lives within ecological networks. An intermedial vegetal ethics sees the individual plant (and its parts) within an ecology of agents, including the film itself.
Thank you very much, John. It’s an amazing subject. I’m looking forward to your future writing.