Animals and processing of data. The animal turn in media studies

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Rieger
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269221844

Collaborations across species are about to challenge well-established taxonomical and epistemological divides between humans, animals, plants, cultural artifacts and increasingly mediated environments. An anthropocentric position, which has emphasized humankind’s island position and man’s pre-eminence above other livin beings, does not longer work under these new conditions. As a result of the interdisciplinary Human-Animal-Studies, or post- and transhumanist approaches within various fields of theory, plus changing understandings of agency, new concepts of collaboration and communication begin to take shape. Consequently, individual species within the kingdoms of plants, fungi, insects, or microbes as well as technological artifacts are increasingly being reflected upon as actors. With this shifting focus on non-human actors, the presumably obsolete concept of holism reemerges as a fruitful construct. All of the above results in what can be described as the ‚Multispecies Turn’ within contemporary culture. It is located in diverging social fields such as hard and soft sciences, arts, politics, and society. Media studies, as a branch of the humanities with a focus on cultural techniques, can play a crucial role with regard to this Turn, as it often reflects on collaborations which take place with the help of media technologies or within medial environments of various living and non-living actors. Be it dogs as sensors for cancer diagnostics or bacteria’s DNA as data storage – biological actors have already surpassed technological variants in various fields of hard sciences. But what is happening between the species also needs theoretical reflection – a deficit which is also mirrored in the establishment ofnew fields of research such as Animal-Computer-Interaction. While working on exemplary phenomena, the final goal of our research is to close a theoretical and epistemological gap while also addressing the ethical and political implications of these new environments.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants