The object of this thesis is to explore the connections between race, gender and equestrianism. This aim stems from personal experiences of becoming a “horse girl” in a Swedish horsebackriding context, which indeed is lined with racialized and gendered norms. I am inclined to understand how equestrianism, i.e. horseback riding practices and communities, often comes to be considered as white and (un)obtainable for some and not others. Through interviews with nine equestrians located in the United States and observations in their stable environments, the thesis seek to investigate how gender and racial norms appear and materialize, and thus shape the interviewed participants lived experiences in horse human environments. Through a theoretical framework of Sara Ahmed’s elaboration on phenomenology, Karen Barad’s term intra-action and Donna Haraway’s figuration companion species, the thesis discusses the multi-layered and complex ways in which race and gender is produced in and produces equestrian spaces and practices. The analysis shows that equestrianism is habitually oriented around whiteness, shaping the proximity between some (and not other) human and horse bodies in the regional landscape where the participants reside. Horses are both organized in and organize the contours of the city, entangled in the politics of racial segregation and the materialization of classed environments and neighborhoods. Equestrian communities, especially those that practice the disciplines of dressage and show jumping, repeatedly welcome and extend certain human (and non-human) bodies while stopping and questioning others. Further, different equestrian spaces materializes in differentiating and multi-sensoric ways, making certain color schemes, tactile sensations of textures and scents appear as racialized and gendered, and in turn forms the premises of belonging. The thesis then displays the political and affective connections between human and non-human bodies, objects and rooms in the specific context of equestrianism, and argues that such aspects must be understood as co-produced rather than separate entities. The discussion thus complicates binary dichotomies such as nature and culture, human and non-human and matter and discourse, showing how such aspects instead are entangled in the production of equestrianism and racialized and gendered “difference”.

De sista årtiondena av 1900-talet har avståndet mellan föreställningar om stad och natur ökat när globalisering har format staden till en plats för kapital och konsumtion. I spåren av dessa stadsomvandlingar har det uppstått sociala miljörörelser vilka på olika sätt velat påverka staden i en annan riktning. I denna uppsats analyseras intervjuer, deltagande observationer och materialitet kopplade till föreningen Bagisodlarna som anlagt och sköter om en skogsträdgård och hönsgård i södra Stockholm. Studiens resultat visar hur skogsträdgården och hönsgården skapar identitet för de engagerade men också påverkar Bagarmossen och andra stadsdelar. Undersökningen visar hur gröna identiteter relaterar till frågor om beredskap, lokalsamhälle, miljöfrågor och demokrati i olika meningsskapande nätverk.

Vi vill med det här kandidatarbetet problematisera människans distanstagande från dess släktskap och samevolution med djur och maskiner. Tillsammans med bland annat Donna Haraways cyborgfenomen, följeslagande arter och snörlekar vill vi påvisa samhörigheten mellan medvetna varelser. För att skapa nya förhållningssätt och perspektiv för släktskapet använde vi oss av naturliga användargränssnitt, artificiell intelligens, designfiktion, Haraways snörlekar och kvalitativt undersökande som tolkande undersökande. Med de här begreppen som grund i undersökningens gestaltande har vi undersökt kommunikationens kritiska roll i relationer mellan medvetna varelser. Vi har med hjälp av naturliga användargränssnitt undersökt tillvägagångssätt för att påvisa människans samevolution med maskiner och hur människor kan förstå dem som jämställda varelser i samhället. Vi förstår även naturliga användargränssnitt som exemplifiering för att argumentera medvetna maskiner som, likt människor, en jämställd varelse i samhället. / In this Bachelor thesis we want to problematize denial of human relations with animals and machines. With, among other things, Donna Haraways cyborg, companion species and string figures, we want to show the fellowship between aware creatures. To create new approaches and perspectives for the relations between humans, animals and machines, we use natural user interfaces, artificial intelligence, design fiction, Haraways string figures and qualitative research to look into this thesis problem area. These ideas and concepts, as roots of this thesis, was used to form and design the thesis artifact. To show communications critical role in relations between aware creatures. We have, with natural user interfaces, researched approaches to show human relations and fellowship with machines. But also how to understand them as equal creatures. Natural user interfaces is also used in this thesis to show an example of how to discuss artificial intelligence as equals to humans in society.

[pt] Esta pesquisa aposta nas relações de aliança e contaminação interespécies (humano-animal) como forma de sobreviver criativamente neste mundo em crise. Diante da urgência de encontrar outras formas de viver a vida e habitar a Terra, o objeto escolhido para a pesquisa é o tecido social, poético e sensorial do Santuário animal Vale da Rainha, refúgio dedicado ao resgate e acolhimento de animais de produção vítimas de maus-tratos e descartes. Por atenção às práticas em curso no Santuário, busca-se multiplicar versões para as histórias dos animais que ali se encontram, sob a hipótese de que as histórias normalmente contadas a seu respeito são desatentas às suas formas criativas de ser. Parte-se do conceito de version da filósofa e psicóloga belga Vinciane Despret, explorando-se em especial, nas práticas que ele recobre, exercícios de tradução experimental interespécie. Sob o ponto de vista implicado no conceito de version, a tradução é entendida como forma de produzir sentidos a partir de diferenças nascidas no encontro entre humano-animal, opondo-se assim às práticas tradutórias que operam sob a lógica da sinonímia intermundos e que tendem, muitas vezes, à igualação do não igual segundo parâmetros antropocêntricos. A pesquisa pergunta: como as traduções interespécies conduzidas como versions podem transverter histórias frigorificadas (animais de corte) em histórias vivas e abertas (espécies companheiras)? Como através dessas traduções é possível reviver relações emaranhadas – e nada óbvias – antes apagadas, silenciadas, dessensibilizadas? Como essas histórias podem criar, nos termos de Donna Haraway, response-ability, isto é, tornar-nos mais hábeis para responder de modo responsável e inventivo às vidas não humanas que nos cercam? Ao lado das proposições de Vinciane Despret, têm importância especial aqui os conceitos de espécies companheiras e fabulação especulativa, de Donna Haraway. O trabalho se origina dos encontros com os animais do santuário, três em especial: a vaca Gaia, a búfala Chacrona e o bezerro Nandi. A escrita da tese busca materializar em sua própria trama o trânsito não hierárquico entre saberes preconizado por Despret e por Haraway - saberes práticos, científicos, filosóficos, poéticos. Nos experimentos de tradução interespécies propostos, mostra-se como uma ecologia da atenção e do cuidado subverte a lógica binária dos discursos apocalípticos e salvacionistas – e se revela em um ativismo sensível. / [en] This research bets on the interspecies relationships of alliance and contamination (human-animal) as a way to survive creatively in this world in crisis. In face of the urgency to find new ways to live life and inhabit Earth, the chosen object of study is the social, poetic and sensorial fabric of the Vale da Rainha Animal, a refuge dedicated to rescuing and caring for livestock animals victims of mistreatment and disposal. In attention to the current practices at the Sanctuary, this work aims to multiply versions for the stories heard about these animals under a hypothesis that the stories traditionally told usually neglect their creative ways of being. The starting point is the Belgian philosopher and psychologist Vinciane Desprets concept of version and this work explores specially its practices: exercises of interspecies experimental translation. From the perspective implied in the version s concept, translation is understood as a way to produce meanings for the differences risen from the human-animal encounter, and it opposes translation practices based on the logic of interworlds synonymy that frequently tend to the levelling of non-equals based on anthropocentric parameters. This research asks: How can interspecies translations, performed as versions, convert frozen stories (livestock animals) into live and open ones (companion species)? How can these translations make it possible to relive relationships that are entangled – and not at all obvious – and previously erased, silenced, desensitized? How can these stories create what Donna Haraway called response-ability, that is, make us more able to be responsible and inventive in the response to the non-human lives around us? Alongside Vinciane Despret s propositions, Donna Haraway s concepts of companion species and speculative fabulation have special importance. This work originates from the meetings with the sanctuary s animals, three in particular: the cow Gaia, the buffalo Chacrona and the calf Nandi. The writing of this thesis aims to materialize, in its own plot, the non-hierarchical flow among the knowledges advocated by Despret and Haraway – the practical, scientific, philosophical and poetic knowledge. The interspecies translation experiments proposed show how an ecology of attention and care subverts the binary logic of apocalyptic and salvationist speeches– and reveals itself as sensitive activism.

This thesis is an exploration of the humanimal entanglements between humans and pigeons in the urban setting. It traces human-pigeon histories from pigeons’ domestication forward to the contemporary conceptions of pigeons as a pest animal. Pigeons are made visible in all of their cultural, socio-political, and symbolic and aesthetic dimensions, exposing their deep entanglements with humans across space and time. Using a combination of multi-species ethnography through ‘flaneur’ walks in Uppsala, Sweden and conceptual frameworks drawn from post-humanism, philosophy, and animal studies, pigeon-human relationships are problematized. The pigeon's ability to interrogate dualistic paradigms of nature/culture, wild/domestic, and human/animal are explored. It is argued that pigeons are active in the co-constitution of the urban space alongside humans, and are participating in reciprocal humanimal relations - they are not simply objects to be acted upon but have their own agency. From pigeons we can learn valuable stories about ourselves, and the more-than-human world.

“Doctor Moreau and The Hunt for The Ethical Figure. From unsuccessful man-making to respectful relations with Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway and H. G. Wells” In H. G. Wells’ science fiction novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), a scientist on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean attempts to create humans from animals. Wells draws on Charles Darwin’s theories on the origins of species and the descent of man to create a horror story in which the uniqueness of the human is called into question. This study uses the novel to investigate the re-emergent interest in human-animal relations, within the natural sciences as well as the arts and humanities, in the past twenty years. In what is often termed “the Animal Turn,” theorists such as Jacques Derrida and Donna Haraway, who are at the centre of this study, have dedicated a significant amount of their work to the animal question and in particular to the ethics of inter-species relationships. Furthermore this essay stages the interaction of fiction and theoretical discourse in an analysis that probes challenges inherent to the relations of humans to other species, such as the practice of eating meat, the killing of animals, and animal rights. Moreover, it considers how the figure of the animal has been used to define the human, as well as to dehumanize people in the justification of abuse and persecution. However, human-animal ethics also has positive connotations, discussed through the figures of positivity and possibility in play, sharing, contact and responsive responsibility. Taking its inspiration from Karen Barad’s method of diffraction, this study foregrounds new pattern-making while exploring how Derrida’s and Haraway’s strategies for formulating a new ethics are present in their use of tropes and figures. / Science fiction-romanen The Island of Doctor Moreau skrevs 1896 och handlar om hur en vetenskapsman på en avlägsen ö i Stilla havet försöker skapa människor av djur. Författaren H. G. Wells inspirerades av Darwins teorier om arternas uppkomst till att skriva en skräckberättelse där mänsklighetens unikhet sätts ur spel. Den här studien använder Wells text i syfte att undersöka hur relationen mellan människor och andra arter har kommit att få ett nytt intresse inom en mängd olika vetenskapliga, praktiska och konstnärliga ämnen i slutet av 1900-talet och början av 2000-talet, något som har kommit att kallas ”The Animal Turn”.  I centrum för studien återfinns teorier formulerade av filosofen Jacques Derrida och den feministiska vetenskapsteoretikern och biologen Donna Haraway. Båda två har ägnat stor del av sina respektive arbeten åt djurfrågan, framför allt med enträget intresse för hur ett etiskt förhållande mellan arter kan se ut. Studien låter romanen och de teoretiska texterna samverka i en analys som diskuterar utmaningar i människa-djur-relationer – som köttätande, dödande och rättigheter. Människan har till exempel använt sig av djuret för att definiera sig som människa, men också för att dehumanisera andra människor, och därmed kunnat utnyttja eller våldföra sig på dessa människor. Men människa-djur-etiken har också positiva aspekter: kontakt över språkgränser, att tillsammans utgöra världsmedborgare som alla består av och är beroende av varandra, att dela lek och arbete, att se och upptäcka den andre.  Med inspiration från Karen Barads användning av metoden diffraktion vill den här uppsatsen utforska Derridas och Haraways strategier för att formulera en ny etik genom bruket av figurer och troper.

本論文旨在重新思考人與動物之間的倫理關係，企圖擺脫西方哲學傳統之下人類中心的立場。透過哈洛威《同伴物種宣言》與《當物種相遇》中同伴物種的概念來閱讀馬泰爾的《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》，這樣的倫理關係得以透過建基於「關係性」上而實現，而非以西方哲學傳統下的人／動物之二元對立為基礎。在這樣的倫理關係中，人與動物在會面時透過「回視」達到溝通。也在會面中，人與動物與彼此「成為共在」，並且共同形塑彼此的主體性。此外，《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》中可見擬人化的口吻敘述老虎理查‧帕克的故事，本文將解釋在這種擬人化中可以看見同伴物種倫理的實踐。 本論文由五個章節組成。第一章包含《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》相關評論，並回顧西方哲學傳統之下人與動物的關係。第二章意圖闡明在哈洛威脈絡之中同伴物種的概念，尤其是「關係性」和「成為共在」。透過檢視Pi和理查‧帕克在救生船上的種種細節，本文認為Pi和理查‧帕克的關係可被視為同伴物種的關係。第三章聚焦在「回視」的動作，作為同伴物種間建立雙向溝通的方式。本文也將透過「回視」深入分析Pi和理查‧帕克溝通上的（不）可能性。第四章將《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》中兩個版本的故事讀為兩種動物敘事的並置。兩者皆從擬人化的角度去敘事，但是其中一個版本透露出同伴物種倫理的實踐，另一個版本則回歸到傳統人類中心式的解讀。第五章為本文之總結，主張蘊含同伴物種倫理的動物敘事能夠幫助我們理解如何透過關注生活中真實存在的動物去重新思考人與動物之間的關係。 / The thesis aims to rethink an ethical relationship between humans and animals that is separated from the anthropocentric stance in the Western philosophical traditions. Reading Yann Martel’s Life of Pi in light of the ethics of companion species in Donna Haraway’s The Companion Manifesto and When Species Meet, I would like to contend that this ethical relationship take shape while it is founded on relationality, instead of the human/animal dichotomy. Acts of respect need to be exerted by human and animal participants when they meet. And in the meeting, they become with each other in the relationship in which their subjectivities are co-constituted by each other. The narrative of Pi living with Richard Parker employs a kind of anthropomorphism endowed with ethics of companion species. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is a review of research on criticism of Life of Pi and discussions of human/animal relationships in the Western philosophical framework. Chapter Two aims to elucidate the concepts of companion species in Haraway’s context, including relationality and becoming-with. By examining the details in Pi and Richard Parker’s life on the lifeboat, I argue that they are in a companion-species relationship. Chapter Three focuses on the act of respect, the practice for the companion species to evoke mutual responses. The (im)possible communication between Pi and Richard Parker will be analyzed. Chapter Four reads the two versions of the story of Life of Pi as a juxtaposition of two kinds of animal narratives. Both told from anthropomorphic perspective, the story with the animals is registered with ethics of companion species while the story without animal returns to the traditional anthropocentric interpretation. Finally in Chapter Five, I conclude that animal narrative that is entailed with ethics of companion species enables us to rethink the human/animal relationship by attending to real animals which are physically beside us.

Donna J. Haraway ist eine US-amerikanische Biologin, Wissenschaftsphilosophin und Literaturwissenschaftlerin, die an den Departments History of Consciousness und Feminist Studies der University of California lehrte. In dieser Position hatte sie die erste explizit der Feministischen Theorie gewidmete Professur in den USA inne. Haraways Arbeiten bewegen sich in einem thematischen Schnittfeld von feministischer Erkenntniskritik, Cultural Studies, politischer Theorie und Biowissenschaften.

Donna J. Haraway ist eine US-amerikanische Biologin, Wissenschaftsphilosophin und Literaturwissenschaftlerin, die an den Departments History of Consciousness und Feminist Studies der University of California lehrte. In dieser Position hatte sie die erste explizit der Feministischen Theorie gewidmete Professur in den USA inne. Haraways Arbeiten bewegen sich in einem thematischen Schnittfeld von feministischer Erkenntniskritik, Cultural Studies, politischer Theorie und Biowissenschaften.

This thesis project aims to discuss the conditions and importance of water as a dynamic body in our environment, as water is affecting life on Earth on all levels. By focusing on the Baltic Sea, a sensitive body of water, I am exploring the acoustic characters of the sea dynamics through sound recordings at three bays in the Stockholm Archipelago. How can an acoustic exploration of the Baltic Sea dynamics mediate a sensitive relationship to our marine environments? Sound defines environments and gives indications of their current state. In this project, I intertwine an artistic approach involving our senses with scientific research of measuring to further an understanding of the relationship between humans and nature. The project explores water and sound in two parts, first as a method for listening to the sea, second as a spatial composition created for a sensory experience of the sea’s endless motion. It is my hope that my installation can stir emotions and create an understanding for the environmental challenges facing the Baltic Sea and inspire action towards prosperous natural environments where we live with and not apart from nature.