Princes Park or Feeding Time For The Unemployed
A woman in her mid to late 50’s hands over some monkey nuts. “Here have some of these,
you can leave the shells, it’s good for their teeth.”
She says she likes to come here and feed the squirrels most days as it beats daytime tv.
Although it takes an hour's journey by train she prefers it to her local park in Sudley.
The young people there are intimidating.
Holding out the nut, I instinctively start making kissing sounds to attract these bushy tailed-like rats.
The first one comes up to me, very reluctantly, but through fear of giving away half my finger too
I let go of the nut, just before his mouth opens, dropping it on the nose.
Urban wildlife enthusiasts generally discourage the idea of feeding squirrels; one reason being it may
upset the balance of their digestive system and eating habits.
“One of them will only eat brazil nuts, he throws away anything else. It’s starting to cost me a fortune
as the prices have gone up to £3.99 a packet!”
It can also render them into dependants as they begin to associate people with food.
“I think they recognise my pink coat.”
Soon word must have got around as the more confident of them started coming towards me from all angles. It was a perfect opportunity to take pictures of their cute, unreadable faces. There was an artist, Tue Greenfort, who set up similar exploitative ‘traps’ for urban foxes. This involved a meaty treat and a flash camera. Photos of their shocked faces appear like celebrity scandals, ashamed of being caught freegan-eating a frankfurter from the bin. Apparently, they adapted themselves so as to avoid being pictured thereafter, perhaps illustrating that inherent wileyness wins out against any kind of Pavlovian conditioning.
The old Master Slave Syndrome in animals
Then afternoon folded into evening as the strategically placed trees failing to conceal a row of flats welcomed back its inhabitants. Looking upon this, it was difficult to measure if in our generosity we were domesticating and enslaving these non-humans, or whether they were - like humanness - altering and appropriating the surroundings provided. What does remain evident though, is that it's rarely the animal who is interested in the human. The park then functions as a pre-defined place to afford some sort of part-time karmic notion of generosity, enjoyment and interest towards non-humans. This is why even in a Disney film (where anthropomorphism is always prevalent) like 'The Sword And The Stone', in which Arthur is turned into a squirrel and involuntarily attracts a female squirrel companion, might be more insightful about human/nature than you'd first presume. Why is it that she can only be imagined like that of a foreign child, as if like Arthur she is also in a guise? Or another question might be; what does it mean when becoming-animal is also becoming-fear? Which is expressed outwardly with humanly characteristics by him when she looks upon him as a squirrel? Similarly, why else would those hilarious home videos of pets appearing to give-off attitude to the world around them be so popular?
A thought can be found in a type of Heraclitus paradox. It is in relation to the animal that socialised humans express their own relation. Often when seeking to construct and accumulate more identifiable ones (the loving lap dog, the work horse...) which are actually only characteristics and extensions for humanly functions. In doing so, the world becomes translated within our language. In vain.
When asked what other type of animal I would like to be (one of those stupid questions you ask each other when restless) I always opt for the cat... or squirrel. Not because they have innate capabilities which I envy, as in when people claim they wish to fly - far from it, we're able to fly through thought and machinery anyway - but because their social functions participate in the kind of human activities that I already enjoy.
Even so, people will habituate however they can and in the end it is the animal who must conform. No more a domestication than a domestication of spaces. No more a wildlife than a displaced wild, responding to a sobering modern life in their own way; these are the beings we inhabit.
Princes Park or Feeding Time For The Unemployed
A woman in her mid to late 50’s hands over some monkey nuts. “Here have some of these,
you can leave the shells, it’s good for their teeth.”
She says she likes to come here and feed the squirrels most days as it beats daytime tv.
Although it takes an hour's journey by train she prefers it to her local park in Sudley.
The young people there are intimidating.
Holding out the nut, I instinctively start making kissing sounds to attract these bushy tailed-like rats.
The first one comes up to me, very reluctantly, but through fear of giving away half my finger too
I let go of the nut, just before his mouth opens, dropping it on the nose.
Urban wildlife enthusiasts generally discourage the idea of feeding squirrels; one reason being it may
upset the balance of their digestive system and eating habits.
“One of them will only eat brazil nuts, he throws away anything else. It’s starting to cost me a fortune
as the prices have gone up to £3.99 a packet!”
It can also render them into dependants as they begin to associate people with food.
“I think they recognise my pink coat.”
Soon word must have got around as the more confident of them started coming towards me from all angles. It was a perfect opportunity to take pictures of their cute, unreadable faces. There was an artist, Tue Greenfort, who set up similar exploitative ‘traps’ for urban foxes. This involved a meaty treat and a flash camera. Photos of their shocked faces appear like celebrity scandals, ashamed of being caught freegan-eating a frankfurter from the bin. Apparently, they adapted themselves so as to avoid being pictured thereafter, perhaps illustrating that inherent wileyness wins out against any kind of Pavlovian conditioning.
The old Master Slave Syndrome in animals
Then afternoon folded into evening as the strategically placed trees failing to conceal a row of flats welcomed back its inhabitants. Looking upon this, it was difficult to measure if in our generosity we were domesticating and enslaving these non-humans, or whether they were - like humanness - altering and appropriating the surroundings provided. What does remain evident though, is that it's rarely the animal who is interested in the human. The park then functions as a pre-defined place to afford some sort of part-time karmic notion of generosity, enjoyment and interest towards non-humans. This is why even in a Disney film (where anthropomorphism is always prevalent) like 'The Sword And The Stone', in which Arthur is turned into a squirrel and involuntarily attracts a female squirrel companion, might be more insightful about human/nature than you'd first presume. Why is it that she can only be imagined like that of a foreign child, as if like Arthur she is also in a guise? Or another question might be; what does it mean when becoming-animal is also becoming-fear? Which is expressed outwardly with humanly characteristics by him when she looks upon him as a squirrel? Similarly, why else would those hilarious home videos of pets appearing to give-off attitude to the world around them be so popular?
A thought can be found in a type of Heraclitus paradox. It is in relation to the animal that socialised humans express their own relation. Often when seeking to construct and accumulate more identifiable ones (the loving lap dog, the work horse...) which are actually only characteristics and extensions for humanly functions. In doing so, the world becomes translated within our language. In vain.
When asked what other type of animal I would like to be (one of those stupid questions you ask each other when restless) I always opt for the cat... or squirrel. Not because they have innate capabilities which I envy, as in when people claim they wish to fly - far from it, we're able to fly through thought and machinery anyway - but because their social functions participate in the kind of human activities that I already enjoy.
Even so, people will habituate however they can and in the end it is the animal who must conform. No more a domestication than a domestication of spaces. No more a wildlife than a displaced wild, responding to a sobering modern life in their own way; these are the beings we inhabit.
above: collection of found 'Google Images' far right: from personal collection |
|
2014
