Guest talk: Be your dog.

Abstract

Shaun Caton’s Prancing Poodles and Preposterous Pugs is a visual tour through some of his extraordinary collection of vintage and historic photographs, and an illustrated talk exploring the animal as performer for the camera, live audience, and the collective creative imagination. Looking at bizarre photographs of animals both dead and alive, Shaun will evince their forgotten stories and pinpoint the human relationships within a performance context. Jack Tan’s Four Legs Good is a live revival of the medieval animal trials, where animals who had committed some offence were charged in court, prosecuted and defended by barristers, and sentenced in full hearings before a judge. In advance of the first sitting of the Animal Court at Compass Festival 2018 in Leeds, Jack will give a presentation about the Animal Court and offer advice to all dogs present who may have fallen foul of the law on how to bring or defend a case. Angela Bartram’s Be Your Dog explores relationships beyond the hierarchies of pet and owner in response to Donna Haraway’s concept that two companions are necessary for a functional co-species co-habitation. The project saw participants and their dogs attend workshops to learn how to establish empathy, equality and connection, and strategies for dog and human to be equals with each other and to test if it is possible to establish a non-hierarchical pack. She will talk about Be Your Dog and her other work with animals including the significance of dog/human cohabitation at the end of life, using dog walking as a way to engage community, and giving access to animal theory to animals themselves. Artist and researcher Sibylle Peters will facilitate conversations.