Wild Minds

This symposium is focused on the ambiguities and co-operations that define our relations with other species. Bringing together filmmakers, theorists, curators and those working directly with animal groups, the symposium combines presentations, conversations, film screenings and notes on performance. The various presentations consider processes by which co-presence, proximity, encounters and (impossible) relations with ‘wild minds’ are established: from the origins of wildlife photographic representation, the generational transformation of zoos and animal conservation, one-to-one encounters and the image-making solutions of contemporary artists' film and other cinema. Participants share from their research, experience, theoretical frameworks and practical references, traversing livelihoods and project-based work with other creatures.  

The symposium is convened by Phillip Warnell (artist-filmmaker, Kingston University)  

Speakers include Jean-Christophe Bailly (poet and philosopher, author of The Animal Side), Michael Lawrence (Sussex University, editor of Zoo and Screen Media: images of exhibition and encounter), Charlotte Corney (Director, Isle of Wight Zoo), Honor Beddard (Wellcome Collection Curator), Éléonore Saintagnan and Grégoire Motte (filmmakers), Ben Rivers (filmmaker and programmer), Fevered Sleep (performance company), Myrto Farmaki (filmmaker), Lynn Turner (Goldsmiths University, editor of the Edinburgh Companion to Animal Studies) and Filipa Ramos (Writer, editor of Animals, Whitechapel Gallery Docs/MIT).  

The symposium programme includes a UK premiere of Les Bêtes sauvages (The Wild Beasts, 2015) by Éléonore Saintagnan and Grégoire Motte. In this short film, society’s impact on the animal kingdom and the animals’ unique ways of adapting are revealed in three dramatized tales of the feral. 

The symposium is followed by a screening programme co-curated by Phillip Warnell and Ben Rivers.

31 Mar 201711:15 am | ICA Cinema, London
https://www.ica.art/whats-on/symposium-wild-minds

from left to right: Éléonore Saintagnan et Grégoire Motte; Honor Beddard, Charlotte Corney, Filipa Ramos, Phillip Warnell, Fevered Sleep, in conversation at the ICA
http://www.phillipwarnell.com/Research