Abstract
In this study, I explore an ethos beyond care by investigating photographs of bird-window collision, a phenomenon referring to birds’ unwanted death due to the transparency of glass walls or windows. In doing so, I conduct the following. The first is to generate a narrative of bird collision based on my field trip, through which to explore the relationship between photographs of the collision and its implications as what I call as the images of absence. Instead of simultaneously witnessing the very moment of collision in situ, the trip often ends up by confronting the visual traces afterwards. Such a temporal gap is pathetic but inevitable, and implicates the perennially deferred relationship between human and the colliding birds. After speculating about the field photographs, I ring together two different books in order to explore the loose relationship between care and indifference beyond the often morally driven Anthropocene claims: Living as a Bird by Vinciane Despret and Does the Earth Care? by Mick Smith and Jason Young. What is brought forth through this cross-reading activity is a revised conception of care, which is not always enacted in reference to ethical criteria and remains either silent or non-communicative between species.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—-Art for Sustenance
KEYWORDS
Photographs, Images, Bird Collision, Absence
