MODEN:Start/EXHIBITIONS/domestikation: Difference between revisions

We found it made sense to show our coat of arms together with the Book of Moses quote to demonstrate the effect and importance of domestication not only for plant and animal evolution and diversity but also for cultural history and the evolution of political, social and religious systems.<br>

PS: It also seemed a good joke to have a Bible quote in the "Medusensaal", right in the old sanctum of the evolution biologist and declared "Anti-Pope" Ernst Haeckel.<br>

===Kalkül und Leidenschaft (Reason and Emotion) installations===

In order to balance the scientific presentation of information and artifacts in the showcases, we felt the need to devise and design a number of scenic installations that allowed for a more emotional access to the topic and that were also a possibility to use artistic means to investigate the cultural implications and "epiphenomena" of domestication. Even if we wanted them to appear very different from the showcase displays, we still wanted to use an aesthetic derived from those of natural history collections with their regard for morphological comparison and emphasis on (natural) diversity. The four installations were created as rather rough appearing wooden walls emphasizing the idea of a village square with adjacent cottage or barnyard buildings. The four topics were

====Competition (''Wettkampf'')====

[[File:Felixsattler domestikation medals detail.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Elisabeth Kaufmann & Felix Sattler: Kalkül und Leidenschaft II: Spiel und Wettkampf  (''Wall of Fame'')]]

Animal races, fights and shows have a long-standing history in many cultures. Some are even constitutive for a people's social fabric. One of the most notable investigations has been Clifford Geertz ethnographic work on the cock fights in the Balinese society. His findings have been important for developing general theories of play such as of Roger Caillois and others. The "Reason and Emotion" series is far from being an adaption of Caillois’ four categories of play for the theory and practice of animal domestication. However we were somewhat inspired by his approach, which especially shows in our "agon" installation (= competition, Caillois used Greek names to label his categories).<br>

For us it was important that animal competitions had an ambivalent concept about them that appears sometimes "technical", i.e. it is argued necessary for breeding and pedigree assessment, while at the same time being very colourful and highly ritualized events. For example, the often exciting betting that powers (not only) German horse-racing, is deregulated by the government because it is not regarded as play but as a necessary process in breeding assessment.<br>

It felt amusing that animals were decorated with pretty much the same-looking types of awards that are also granted to human competitors. We believe that especially some of the medals ("Schweinemedaillon" / "Medaillon of Pork") appear actually quite grotesque with their laurel wreaths and national colours. We hope that these might explain more about our relation with domestic animals and their almost seamless inclusion into our meritocracies.