Zohreh Baghban
鈥淔ingery Eyes鈥�- Human-ability in the More-than-human World
This paper explores how 鈥榝eeding鈥� prompts to generative AI鈥痵ystems might constitute a form of domestication of the non-human in the way we verbally interact with and 鈥榯rain鈥� our 鈥榠ntelligent鈥� others to generate various content (such as the translation of text into image). My paper addresses this new dynamic interplay between human and the more-than-humans through the lens of my own creative practice. I will examine the different stages of my interaction with the generative AI in the process of collage making. What interests me is the encounter with nonhuman intelligence, and the degree to which it helps my PhD project (concerned with creative writing鈥檚 capacity to imaginatively adopt animals鈥� perspective). I will argue that creative associations with nonhuman intelligence offer a potent vehicle in imaginatively enabling an audience to inhabit 鈥榦ther鈥� perspectives. I will explore the significance of a potential analogy with the training of a pet dog. I am interested in how, in striving to domesticate the generative AI for creative purposes, the line between the owner and the creator, the organic and the technological, the human and the nonhuman gives way. This process relates to Donna Haraway鈥檚 ideas about 鈥榠nfoldings of the flesh鈥� – and I argue it is particularly enacted in the creative industries.鈥疘 will present several of my collages, including 鈥楩ingery Eyes鈥�, titled after Haraway鈥檚 term for technology鈥檚 mediating influence in the act of looking. She talks of鈥榲isually fingering鈥� a digital image. Her point links this mediated act of looking with 鈥榯ouching鈥痑ll the important ecological and political histories and struggles鈥� – leading her to ask 鈥榃ho should eat whom鈥� in the more-than-human world. By looking, we touch technology, culture, and politics of interspecies before we judge what we see. In the act of looking through an 鈥榦ther鈥� perspective through my collages, I will argue my creative actions approach what Joseph Anderton suggests is a 鈥榞ulf between the human and the world of nonhuman animals鈥� so often figured in terms of language and subjectivity. I collage where writing fails.鈥疢y paper explores how and why I am 鈥榙omesticating鈥� a non-human pet to aid this process.
Zohreh Baghban is an Iranian postgraduate student writer and artist, undertaking a funded PhD at De Montfort University.鈥疕er project concerns creative writing鈥檚 capacity to imaginatively adopt animals鈥� perspective to generate a bio-ethical understanding of UN鈥檚 Sustainable Development Goals (2, 12, and 13) in Climate Change, sustainable consumption, and food security to impact non-scholarly audiences.鈥痁ohreh's work uses theoretical and empirical research to reinstate animal welfare as a key component