Andreyev, Julie

My thesis project focuses on using visual arts practice and storytelling to represent more-than-human animals traditionally categorized as “livestock.” Through volunteer work and relationship building at a farm sanctuary, and respectful creative processes, I am strengthening interspecies friendships and encouraging more empathetic connections with more-than-human animals. Integrating critical animal studies, empathy studies, storytelling, drawing and printmaking methods, I aim to inspire others to reconsider their relationships with commonly recognized farm animals such as sheeps, gooses, pigs, cows and chickens, and recognize them as unique individuals with agency and inherent value. I value my relationships with the animals who inspire my artwork. First and foremost, my practice is rooted in sincere love.

Scientist Rob Williams is concerned about the Enbridge, Kinder Morgan and Vancouver Airport proposals that will increase tanker traffic along BC’s coast. Accompanying video is accessible here: https://ecuad.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/ecuad:16859

Canine Haiku: Yellow Ball is part of an ongoing series of experimental performances called Canine Haiku; interspecies new media projects in development that combine aesthetics and ethics to draw attention to intentionality and expressiveness of canines, which contributes to enhanced regard for other-than-human beings and our shared ecologies. In Canine Haiku, recorded vocals of Tom [canine collaborator], haiku poetry, and computational autonomous systems, propose depictions of canine, human, computer relational space. The project is informed by practices of Zen, Beat poetry, jazz and Japanese music, computational aesthetics, and scholarly research in critical animal studies and philosophy. During a performance, the custom software [made using Max/MSP] selects and plays a canine vocal track that, in real- time, triggers visual effects and sonic ‘instrument’ accompaniments based on expressive characteristics of Tom's voice. Accompanying video is available here: https://ecuad.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/ecuad:16863