FRART Traces of Extinction: The Worlds of Jaguars

FRART Traces of Extinction: The Worlds of Jaguars1. Introduction

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This project explores a simple and dizzying question: what does "the world" mean to a jaguar? Drawing on Jakob von Uexküll's concept of Umwelt and Matthew Fullers' reflections on Art for Animals, it engages with the aesthetic, ethological and political dimensions of jaguar perception.

The research brings together a transdisciplinary and transcultural team, integrating non-Western cosmologies and epistemologies, to examine what we humans have defined as the jaguar's world—and to design artworks dedicated to their attention, alongside exercises in sensory translation between jaguar and human perspectives.

A key part of the project takes place in Brazil, in partnership with Panthera and their research site Fazenda Jofré (Mato Grosso), where artworks will be installed for the jaguars. Field notes and experiences will then be collectively discussed to explore sensory translation devices from jaguar to human perception.