INTERSPECIES COMMUNICATION AND DIALOGUE
Notably, communication in the animal world and between animals and people does not usually involve written language or even much that is spoken. Subsequently, Kerulos research and teaching invokes the sensed, felt, and directly experienced world.
Kerulos engages in projects and programs that include revitalizing indigenous ways that facilitate interspecies communication and culture for greater understanding that is then translated into everyday living. At the same time, scientific theories and language can guide us together on the journey back to ways of being and knowing that transcend across all boundaries toward a species-inclusive knowledge system.
An expanded knowledge system requires a comparable expansion of language and expression and exploration into diverse modalities of communication. "Now that science concurs with what we know intuitively—that all animals, including humans, share with us capacities for emotions, memory, intelligence, community, joy and suffering—we have new opportunities to connect scientific knowledge with other, more ancient, ways of knowing. Inter-species communication is not only possible, it is essential for reconnecting with nature from whom we have become so devastatingly estranged." ~ Gay Bradshaw.
We also need new ways to communicate about and with animals with each other. Deke Weaver is a writer, performer, and video and graphic artist. An assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, his performance art Polar Bear God is one example. Deke writes: "Metaphors connect the deeply felt personal story with broader 'ways of life.' We are beginning to realize that we have to change our ways of life. By 2050 climate change and our exploding population will push one million species of animals and plants into extinction. The lions and tigers and bears of our ancient stories will be long gone. Central to our myths, embedded in our language, rooted in our imagination."
Kerulos engages in projects and programs that include revitalizing indigenous ways that facilitate interspecies communication and culture for greater understanding that is then translated into everyday living. At the same time, scientific theories and language can guide us together on the journey back to ways of being and knowing that transcend across all boundaries toward a species-inclusive knowledge system.
An expanded knowledge system requires a comparable expansion of language and expression and exploration into diverse modalities of communication. "Now that science concurs with what we know intuitively—that all animals, including humans, share with us capacities for emotions, memory, intelligence, community, joy and suffering—we have new opportunities to connect scientific knowledge with other, more ancient, ways of knowing. Inter-species communication is not only possible, it is essential for reconnecting with nature from whom we have become so devastatingly estranged." ~ Gay Bradshaw.
We also need new ways to communicate about and with animals with each other. Deke Weaver is a writer, performer, and video and graphic artist. An assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, his performance art Polar Bear God is one example. Deke writes: "Metaphors connect the deeply felt personal story with broader 'ways of life.' We are beginning to realize that we have to change our ways of life. By 2050 climate change and our exploding population will push one million species of animals and plants into extinction. The lions and tigers and bears of our ancient stories will be long gone. Central to our myths, embedded in our language, rooted in our imagination."
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"Science in service to animals"
