Interspecies Café is an extension of SUPERFLEX’s practice exploring our symbiotic relationship with the natural world through Interspecies Living. Here you can listen to podcast episodes in which experts have conversations at the crossroads between science and art.
Challenging the idea of nature as a voiceless entity, PhD Fellow at University of Copenhagen Katarina Hovden proposes recognising the rights of Nature in law.
Despite the fact that life has existed long before human legal systems, law has perpetuated the idea of nature primarily as a resource to serve human needs and interests. Through a critique of the dominant legal system and by recognising the rights of Nature, Katarina urges us to reframe our role as humans in the web of life. This requires us not only to acknowledge that our actions have consequences in ecological, social, and planetary systems, but also to consider what it would take to live in responsible and caring relationships with the rest of Nature.
Rikke Andreassen is a professor at Roskilde University, where she researches different questions related to equality. Providing a historical overview of how perceived categories of difference have been understood and developed over time, Rikke questions our understanding of "the Other" and contemplates potential directions for the future.
In considering interspecies relations, Rikke highlights the importance of listening. She shifts the question from how we can communicate with other species to what we can learn from each other if we set aside our assumptions of knowledge. In this way, Rikke encourages us to give greater consideration to the perspectives of those who have been marginalised.
Alex Jordan is a Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. His research interests are focused on the topics of animal perception and collective behaviour, including that of marine species.
Questioning ideas around self-consciousness and evolution, Alex argues against a hierarchy of species which sees humans at the top of the ladder. Instead, we must look past the artificial separation between the human and non-human. He insists that we should not use the human experience as a scale for comparison; just because something is different to our own experience doesn’t mean that it should be considered lesser.
Tommy Rosenkilde is a certified hypnotherapist specialising in neuropsychology. Using the power of guided imagery, he invites you to go deeper into your own mind. In three sessions, Tommy will transport you to an imagined future world, shifting your perspective in an attempt to think more like a coraline algae, fish, or polyp. These short journeys provide insights that can inform our actions in everyday life.
Credits
Interspecies Café is supported by Statens Kunstfond, Bygningsstyrelsen, and Roskilde University.
Sound engineer: Kruzh'em