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Images of Animals: Reading Cat as Other Minds, Object, and Representation

  • Journal of History of Modern Art
  • 2023, (53), pp.177-206
  • Publisher : 현대미술사학회
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Art > Arts in general > Art History
  • Received : May 2, 2023
  • Accepted : June 10, 2023
  • Published : June 30, 2023

Seunghan Paek 1

1부산대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore the intersections of the Anthropocene, animal studies, and visual culture through the investigation of theories and case studies of the cat. I aim to implement a claim that looks at the relationship between Stanley Cavell’s other minds, Graham Harman’s object, and Eileen Crist’s representation. First, Cavell’s other minds explores philosophical skepticism and the ordinary via the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is then put into conversation with Jacques Derrida’s speculation about cats’ gaze, and Donna Haraway’s criticism of Derrida. Second, the concept of object originates from Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology. It acts as a critical perspective to overview Haraway, who focuses on the relationship between human and nonhuman agents, as well as offering an opportunity to rethink issues of making relationships and communicating with the cat, which accompanies perception and sensation in a broader spectrum. Third, as a way to connect the notion of representation with Harman’s object, which is about imperfect knowledge of the object being encountered and remainders with which one cannot fully communicate, I will review Eileen Crist’s animal studies that cut across ecology and ethology, and the skepticisms of Cavell and Wittgenstein. If a cat does not know the fact that it is being drawn or photographed, how would one be able to claim that people and their cats are attuned to and communicate with each other? Rather, would one need a more rigorous way of investigating based on scientific understandings and facts? By critically reviewing the scientific approaches which ethology inspires, this article explores cats as other minds articulated by ordinary language and the object. In doing so, I will focus on analyzing the following two cases: a series called Magazine tac that highlights discussions of various aspects of the cat, and The Moving Dunchon Cat, which deals with cats’ migration caused by the redevelopment of Dunchon Jugong Apartment Complex.

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