Ahumanism, art, vampyroteuthis infernalis, and you: An animal act by vilém flusser and louis bec

This article explicates Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec’s thought experiment Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Eine Abhandlung samt Befund des Institut Scientifique de Recherche Para-naturaliste (1987) in the context of zoose-miotics, ethology, and Flusser’s broader philosophical inquiries into culture, nature, and art. Flusser chooses to mind-read and ventriloquize the vampire squid, a cephalopod who inhabits an aphotic world of complete darkness and isolation from humans. Flusser makes the squid an actant in his complex fable that plays against an environmental literature that attributes emotions and consciousness to animals, but only rarely to invertebrates who disgust humans due to their distance in evolutionary branching. Why, Flusser asks implicitly, do we exclude from such theory-of-mind considerations those as-pects of human consciousness responsible for amoral, ahuman phenomena such as Auschwitz and nuclear weaponry? What corresponding phenomena for these can we posit in the animal mind? The result is a reconsideration of the function of art, culture, and communication.

Files

Metadata

Work Title Ahumanism, art, vampyroteuthis infernalis, and you: An animal act by vilém flusser and louis bec
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Thomas O. Beebee
Keyword
  1. art
  2. zoosemiotics
  3. ahumanism
  4. fable
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Colloquia Germanica
Publication Date March 2021
Related URLs
Deposited July 24, 2024

Versions

Analytics

Collections

This resource is currently not in any collection.

Work History

Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added Vampyroteuthis_infernalis_and_You.docx
  • Added Creator Thomas O. Beebee
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated Keyword, Related URLs, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • art, zoosemiotics, ahumanism, fable
    Related URLs
    • https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/27089520, https://mcl.as.uky.edu/colloquia-germanica
    Publication Date
    • 2021-01-01
    • 2021-03
  • Updated Related URLs Show Changes
    Related URLs
    • https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/27089520, https://mcl.as.uky.edu/colloquia-germanica
    • https://www-jstor-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/27089520