ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a contemporary reworking of the ideas of biologist Jacob von Uexküll from the perspective of audio-visual practice. Specifically, this will deploy observations from my own collaboration with Peruvian puppeteer, José Navarro – audio-visual work that has been shown publicly in festivals across Europe and the Americas. Three pieces – Seaworld, La Città Reale and Amazon Visions – engage with the animal world, respectively featuring sea creatures, insects, and a combination of different mammals, fishes and insects living in different habitats. A reflective practitioner’s account of films shot over almost a decade will serve as a vehicle to engage with Uexküll’s notion of umwelt for both non-human and human animals. This chapter will argue that much of Uexküll’s account of the interdependence of multi-species umwelt still stands up today, serving as a robust riposte to anthropocentrism, while also suggesting new directions for the application of his work within audio-visual practice.
