Other: Art Made Together with Non-Human Animals
"The Turkey Trot" and "Interspecies Protocol"
By Danusia Young (04/07/10 17:28:06)
Related animals: Anemone, Clownfish, Lion, Turkey

Both of the chapters from “The Man Who Talks to Whales” by Jim Nollman are very interesting and extremely informative. The main points that he makes about us as human loosing the connection with outside world (nature) and stopping our understand of other species are very attention-grabbing. He points that as children we are more open to the world around us and more willing to listen and observe. Most of children when they are free to play, their first choice is often to flee to the nearest wild place—whether it is a big tree or brushy area in the yard or a watercourse or woodland spot. But some where between childhood and our adult life the connection with nature and other species vanished and the beginning of a long, sad divorce from nature started. Nollman blames our serious lack of interspecies communication and environmental degradation on the science, industrial revolution and deceptive information that we are encircled with. Through his new relationship with the turkey he tries to demonstrate that “the scientists had always been misleading us by perpetuating the delusion of the dumb animal” (14). But as we can read in the first chapter he learned how to communicate with the turkey through his music. It proves that the turkey not only responded to the certain high pitch music notes but after a while was also waiting for his new friend to sit with him. Indisputable, as Nollman indicates, animals create melodies, harmonies, and rhythms that evoke rich emotions and are very sensitivity to surroundings and human species.
Tough, we also crossed our interspecies protocol boundaries (the thin line of understanding, trust and respect that help us to coexist together and share the same environment) there is still a chance to start over. Human have to discover again the reach spiritual union with animals, learned their language and start to live in intimate contact with nature as our ancestors did before. We have to restore the interspecies protocol that once existed between lions and Bushmen.


The Man Who Talks to Whales: the Art of Interspecies Communication (Book) [Write Comment]