In "An animal myself," a deeply felt essay in the
Aeon.co website, Portland, Oregon writer-teacher Erica Berry reflects on her experience when she garbed herself in the skin of a bear, whether linguistically, virtually, or in costume: "[The] ways in which we make ourselves nonhuman have always reflected back our own yearnings and repulsions. We are as much running towards one cultural narrative – what the animal we are embodying ‘means’ – as we are running away from another: our sense of what the human ‘I’ means."
IMAGE CREDIT: COURTESY ZEPPET STUDIOSVery similar parallel experiences were reported by Daniel Pimentel, a University of Oregon professor of immersive media studies, from the accounts of participants in a gamified research called "Project Shell" about what putting themselves in virtual animal bodies did to their brains. Taking on the body of a loggerhead sea turtle, the participants left the game with new environmental attitudes, increased compassion, and a willingness to donate to marine conservation efforts.
From such experiences and her own, Erica Berry realized this: "There was so much I did not know about how to best occupy a body on our warming Earth. A squirrel vaulted off a power line, her tail fluffing into a perfect parachute. I marvelled at her; I wanted to be her, but then she was gone and I was left with the warm animal of myself."
Read in full Erica Berry's essay "An Animal Myself" in the Aeon.co website now!
