Has Animal Studies reached its limits? In this special editorial Giovanni Aloi outlines the constraints of the field in its current state, and points us toward the next big thing on the academic horizon. Available for download now.
THESE ANIMALS ARE TYRED
Automobile tyres tread the roads in animal form once reconfigured by South Korean artist Ji Yong-Ho. Human/Animal hybrids also figure into the artist’s fascinating works, which you can see here.
DEAD WRONG?
Running shoes so advanced they could kill your dog? A 2013 advertising campaign ran in Canada that implied just that. Pearl Izumi, sponsor of the message, found that tails weren’t wagging but fingers were — the campaign was pulled after serious backlash. The company apologized profusely and published an informative video on how to protect your pet from exhaustion. Proof that when a team of marketers treats the death of an animal as a joke, it makes a statement, though perhaps not the one intended.
IT’S A DOG’S (REALLY VIOLENT) LIFE
In their new video Pitbull Terrier, members of South Africa’s rap/rave phenomenon Die Antwoord take the shape of animals to portray male/female stereotypes of sex and violence.
The video and lyrics leverage the pitbull, the ultimate animal ‘brand’ symbol of power and rage among adherents of machismo urban culture.
In a world populated by human/animal hybrids, the lead dog in the video howls, “I’m an animal, love me, I kill you”, as he engages in a spree of brutal acts. Lines become blurred: is this a man acting like a ‘savage’ dog, or a dog acting like a savage man?
You may not like this clip (it’s gory and NSFW), but nearly 12 million pairs of eyeballs on YouTube have voted otherwise since its debut in May, 2014.