Building Bridges across the Binaries: The Dialogue between Humans and the Street Cats / Seçil Erkoç

2022 Online Symposium of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy
Dates: 17-18 June 2022
Theme: Diversity of Environmental Philosophies in Asia
"Building Bridges across the Binaries: The Dialogue between Humans and the Street Cats of Istanbul in Kedi" / Seçil Erkoç
Abstract: As a geological epoch, the Anthropocene spotlights the expansive influence of humankind whose intervention in the regular functioning of the ecological dynamics has triggered environmental crises all around the world. Living in such strange times, especially considering the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, it is not peculiar to witness how the agential facilities of a virus have been able to dethrone the image of an all powerful human ‘subject’. Hence, instead of sharpening the egocentric outlook, it is important to establish an egalitarian and nonhierarchical set of connections with the more-than-human world. Within this perspective, the reformative capacity of art and creative mediums cannot be ignored since they enable humankind to develop a more constructive dialogue with the nonhuman - without necessarily otherizing them but attempting to see the world from their perspective. Limiting the scope of this study to Asian Environmental Philosophies and their creative reflections in art forms, it is intended to analyse Ceyda Torun’s Kedi (2016), which is a documentary delineating the stories of the street cats living in Istanbul. The geographical location of the city itself also proves functional because Istanbul operates like a bridge connecting Asia and Europe to each other. In this manner, illustrating the permeable boundaries of human-cat ‘intra-actions,’ Kedi underlines the need to develop more eco-centric visions. Focusing on the encounters between the human and the nonhuman inhabitants of the city, therefore, this study not only brings theory and the practice together, but it also aims to elucidate the diversity of non-anthropocentric representations in Turkey.
The Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy (NAEP) was founded by a group of scholars in the field of environmental philosophy in Asia in 2019 with the goal to support works related to environmental philosophy within Asian traditions of thoughts broadly conceived or related to grassroots perspectives on environmental issues in Asia. Visit the NAEP website: asiaenviphilo.com
More information about the 2022 Online Symposium of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy, the program and the booklet of abstracts can be found here: asiaenviphilo....
This video was posted with the permission of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy and the presenter, Seçil Erkoç.
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