Daisy // Developing ideas and research
Looking at the post on critical animal theory that Simona posted there where a couple of books written by Aph Ko suggested, so I found an interview with her. http://laikamagazine.com/interview-aph-ko-and-syl-ko/ “‘Animal’ is a category that we shove certain bodies into when we want to justify violence against them,” writes Aph with this divide between the human and non-human animal with race and societal class. Which fits in with this idea of the fox as a symbol of hunting which historically was an elitist white male upper class sport. Is the domination of the fox representing this class domination and with the banning of fox hunting we see society trying to redistribute the power from top through to the working class.
Trying to situate my work I like the idea of using the fox
as the vessel of this human societal structure. Looking more into the symbolism
of foxes in some cultures foxes are shown as spirit guides with them even being
shapeshifters taking human form. So, using the footage that I have been looking
at it reverses the roles.
I have been collecting footage that could be seen from the
perspective of a fox to play around with and I’m testing whether I will put it
in a sequence with the wild fox slowly becoming more human until it turns into
the human or have this split view between the humans eyeline and the foxes
eyeline.
Developing my ideas using the symbolism of foxes I liked the
idea of the fox representing this coming of the working class from the fringes of
society and wilderness representing the separation but still conforming to fit
within the disjointed society. Looking through this the loneliness of the
fox didn’t seem to fit in and finding more footage of foxes I have come across
a few containing foxes and their cubs however foxes are solitary creatures so
the only time they are in this sort of ‘packs’ is when they have cubs. This
sort of reminded me of how it seems when family and friends have had babies,
they feel this sense of separation from their environment whilst existing
within it like the fox in the video. I want to play with this disconnect of
self from body and environment using the fox as this shapeshifter going through
the monotony of an everyday activity of going shopping.
