The Animal Paradox
With Manuel Saiz, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Anja Dornieden & Juan David González Monroy and Jesse McLean
On Thursday 3 November the screening is followed by a conversation with Simon Dybbroe Møller and Jesse McLean, moderated by Alorah Harman
Intelligence is commonly understood as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge. For centuries, Western humanist thought has propagated the idea that intelligence is an exclusively human phenomenon and that “man” is an autonomous agent, the measure of all things. Research into plant communication and artificial neural networks has challenged this certainty, while a new, post-humanist approach has allowed for an understanding of all entities on earth as being entangled with one another. As our biological predecessors, dangerous competitors and dear companions, animals take up a special position in the symbolic structure through which humans relate to the world, a structure which is deeply technological and at the same time saturated with emotion: We love them, we hate them, we farm and eat them. The films presented in The Animal Paradox discuss the way we look at animals and how animals look at us and at the things we fabricate, and explore our persistent desire to be in full control of everything natural.
What else is on these days?
See the Thursday and Friday timetables to visit the other programmes with your Festival Pass (5-days) or Day Pass (1-day). With the passes you can also visit the festival exhibition The Curse of Smooth Operations at the IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] and Steenweg 26. For more information on the festival tickets please see here