September 6, 2014 - 07:43
Over twenty years ago, Mary Pratt coined the term “contact zone” to call attention to the interactive, improvisational dimensions of encounters among subjects within radically asymmetrical relations of power. A few years ago, in a book called When Species Meet, Donna Haraway applied this idea to the interactions among us and our “companion species.” In a chapter called “Training in the Contact Zone,” she talked about how she and her dog learned to be responsive to one another in agility training…and then went on from there to think about varied webs of interspecies dependence: the complex interactions in ecotones, tidal marshes, our own guts…
Inspired by Haraway, I want to highlight my experience of living on our farm in Virginia this summer, what it felt like to walk out each morning among other species, so placid and self-contained.
They looked @ me, silently chewing…who were they, and what did they call me to be?
What did our encounter mean?