Animals on display in an Age of Extinction

Abstract

The examination presented in this PhD dissertation unpacks the significant but changing role of animals, as living beings and in the forms of museum objects, souvenirs, and symbols. The main theoretical frameworks derive from crossdisciplinary, post-humanist perspectives, which have highlighted the agency and role of more-than-humans as important and valuable companion species. In line with these perspectives the aim throughout the dissertation is to draw forth the important role of more-than-humans (including animals and objects) as actants with their own cultural biographies and thing power. In this relation, particular attention is given to visual and material representations of the Atlantic puffin and the extinct great auk within the context of art, tourism and museums. The investigation reveals, for example, how the Atlantic puffin as a living animal, material object and visual symbol has increasingly been activated within the context of Arctic tourism in Iceland. Another aim of the dissertation is to shed light on how current human induced environmental challenges, such as climate change and animal extinction, have impacted and changed our human/more-than-human relations. Furthermore, how these changes are met and engaged with through visual and material representations within the context of art, tourism, and museums. The dissertation contributes to the emerging field of multi-species studies, across disciplines, which include animal studies, post-humanist studies and more-than-human studies. The four case studies shed light on the complexities, challenges, and politics of representing human/more-than-human entanglements in our present epoch, frequently described as the Age of Extinction. An epoch, which demands continual challenging of traditional, dualistic boundaries and divisions to raise fruitful discussions and, not least, to discover collective solutions. Throughout the dissertation museums, and other cultural spaces, are regarded as important arenas where discussions and critical reflections can take place on urgent dark ecological matters of our times, such as rapid animal extinction.