What Do They Notice? How Do They Feel?
Sheep Pig Goat by Fevered Sleep 2020.
Photo by Malachy Luckie.
What does a visit to an artists’ research studio in a vet school in Surrey look like when the visitors are a large group of children from a local primary school and our questions centre on some cows, some chickens and some sheep?
Where does this trip sit in the context of a history for schools and animals which reads like this; petting zoos, aquariums, city farms, wildlife parks, sanctuaries and zoos.
Where some species are picked out from others, set out, sectioned off, mapped and served up for education and for pleasure.
And when we add some performers to the experience, how can this be project be viewed as something other than entertainment?
The children who come are a contradiction of energies and emotions; they are uncertainty, and they are certain. In the lecture room where we gather to introduce each other and explain why we asked them here, I sense excitement and boredom and confusion and fear.
(I can hear the rustling of high vis jackets against the table, I can see a child weight placed forward towards me, looking me in the eyes, I can feel the metal of the table leg next to my skin, I am aware of the child sitting back in their seat, trying not to be seen, I am aware of the two children sat to my left listening intently, focusing on my mouth, I notice bitten down nails and jumper cuffs pulled to threads, I feel a gathering of breath high into my chest and throat, I sense myself assessing and adjusting to the mood in the room. I am aware of my voice rising.)
Sheep Pig Goat by Fevered Sleep 2020.
Photo by Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca.
Sheep Pig Goat by Fevered Sleep 2020.
Photo by Malachy Luckie.
I’ll describe the setting. A vet school in a university. A lecture room, a formal space for learning. Hard white surfaces, serious books, models, machines and strangers; a huge table and a lot of unknowns.
What we hope for this visit is an exchange of understanding, a dialogue of perception and prejudice, and as if often the case in our work, we approach the day with a desire to break down the hierarchy in a society which always places children as less than the adults who get to control the agenda, the space, the rules, the flow.
It’s an unrealistic goal in the time that we have, and we know that, but where there is at least the invitation, there is the hope that we can begin to imagine things in different, new ways.
This is a project all about power and empathy in relation to non-human animals, so an attempt to place the youngest humans at the centre of our understanding feels the right place to start. The invitation to the children is to help us with our research project. They have not come to be told what we know or what we’ve learned. They have come to tell us what they know and then what they notice, what they feel and what their questions are.
To begin, we ask them all the words they can think of about sheep, cows and chickens, to add to our wall of words, and they tell us.
FUR FUNNY BEAK NOSE SHEEP WOOL JUMPER MEAT CHICK FLUFFY LICK EYES TINY LAMB PECK DIRT BREATHE CUTE BIG FEATHERS STROKE COW HAPPY SOFT EAT FARM TAIL FLY EGG CHICKEN NUGGETS VET FOOD PET BAA CLUCK CALF WARM BLOOD CARE CUDDLE QUIET MILK STRAW WALK RUB HEART LOVE HUGE SMELL CLOUD KIND HOLD LIKE CLAWS TOUCH MOO FIELD FEEL CAGE PEN BREATH SCARED
Sheep Pig Goat by Fevered Sleep 2020.
Photo by Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca.
Climbing into our protective suits and shoe covers in the changing area before joining the animals and performers, we propose leaving those words behind on the wall of the lecture room and forgetting everything they know or believe they know of these animals, in order to meet them as if the first time.
This is the new setting – a number of small pens on the circumference of a circular teaching space. One for the 6 chickens, one for the 5 sheep, one for the 3 cows. Open air, roof, high groaning metal gates, steel barriers, sliding bolt locks, straw.
We invite the children to resist creating a narrative between animal and performer or even to think of themselves as an audience for what plays out, but instead to step into the performers’ skin and to borrow their eyes and ears and bodies to reimagine the animals in relation to themselves.
Can they pay attention to those animals so carefully that they can try to understand what they are feeling, or what they want? We talk about their power in those containing spaces as free humans and if it is even possible to imagine the animals as more important than or equal to them.
They are asked to consider their every movement, where they place themselves and how they watch, as well as their energy, desires, and impulses in the space. And before they enter, the children, as with all our visitors, are given a set of cards to record their questions, what they notice and what they feel.
Though they fill out many cards loaded with questions and observations, it’s the immediacy of the whispered commentary that yields the most authentic and useful responses.
How can you tell what they are thinking? Why did she come up to me? Why is she backing away? Can I touch her? How do they say yes? What is their job at the vet school? What happens to them afterwards? Do they have personalities like us? Are all sheep the same? Where do chickens sleep? What is she doing with her nostrils? Why is she staring at me? Why are her ears moving like that? Do chickens talk to each other? Why is the gate so high? Is this where they live? Is this where they sleep? Those two cows are friends. That box is too small. The sheep are scared. The cows are so big. The sheep have different faces. This space is too small. The cows look bored. The chickens look happy. I don’t think this is a kind space. She wants me to touch her. That one is in charge. This one likes me. They don’t have any toys. She is trying to smell who I am. She’s too small to see over that gate. She’s trying to see the sky. I feel sad. I feel happy. I feel excited. I feel sad. I feel scared. I feel bored. I feel disgusted. I feel sad. I feel angry. I feel silly. I feel hungry. I feel restless. I feel sad. I feel tired. I feel nothing. I feel confused. I feel sad.
They disrobe, line up and hastily depart to get back in time for the end of the school day. They leave a heap of used white boiler suits on the floor, a wall of words, and a mountain of new questions.
(I heard the sound of feet scuffing on the ground, I sensed a change of energy, I saw bodies above me, I heard high voices, I saw faces through the gaps, I was aware of eyes focused on me, I saw heads bobbing, I heard thudding feet, I smelt hot breath in the air, I heard giggling, I was aware of whispering close by, I felt the coldness of the air, I could feel the warmth of a body leaning into me, I tasted salty skin, I sensed movement behind me, I heard metal gates scraping shut).