About

Perhaps never more than now, in a time of ecological and pandemic crisis, do the words of Lisel Mueller ring true. Animals are entering our lives. Or perhaps coming back. Animals, of course, have always been a part of our lives, but in post-industrial countries many humans are a generation or two removed from a life intertwined with non-human animals. Today, the presence of non-humans is perhaps felt more keenly as humanity begins to understand the fullness of our impact upon the environment and other species within it.

Recent art exhibitions such as ZKM’s Critical Zones, FACT Liverpool’s And Say the Animal Responded? The Serpentine Gallery’s General Ecology research project and Animalesque at BALTIC all highlight a growing interest in deepening the connection with our animal kin. In academia, Animal Research Nexus is a unique example of a large-scale project that brings together researchers from humanities and social sciences disciplines to address policy and practice around the use of animals in research. In the field of applied ethology, the expansion from a unique focus on how to limit the negative experiences of animals to also including positive animal welfare represents an important shift in the scientific attention to animals.