1. 22 January 2023: Mimesis and Mimicry
- Caroline van Eck (Cambridge): Introduction. Camouflage and Mimicry as travelling concepts from the life sciences to the humanities
- Niki Hadikoesoemo (University of Amsterdam): Ancient Performativities: Mimesis, Mime and Mimicry in the fifth and fourth century BCE
The oldest member of the mimesis word group, the noun mimos, was first attested in the fourth century BCE and designated a type of performance as well asperformer. The ancient mime had nothing to do with mute play, as in the modern conception of the “dumb” mimes, but rather referred to dramatic low-life sketches, and was often accompanied by musical instruments. The earliest source we have is a fragment from Aeschylus’ tragedy Edonians (57), where we hear “from somewhere unseen… frightening mimes (mimoi)” vocalising the sound of a “bull-voiced” instrument. From mimos, then, derived the verb mimeisthai, which was used widely both in the context of performance and everyday life. It had roughly three meanings: to imitate someone, to mime a person or animal by means of voice and/or gesture, and images. What these varying usages of mimeisthai have in common is a sense of the performative or theatrical. Mimicking and miming behaviour, like in impersonation (mimesin), was generally understood as the presentation of reality as phantomic, protean, plastic. In the deployment of our mimetic capacities, we, human animals, present life as a theatre or tragedy, as we readin Plato’s Laws (817b): ultimately “we ourselves are the authors of a tragedy,” to which Aristotle later added a technical definition, mimesis praxeos, in Poetics (6, 1449b24). To conclude from this however that the theatrical origins of the mimesis word group are exclusive to human animals would be a misconception. Numerous sources, such as Aristotle’s History ofAnimals, show that the performative nature of mimeisthai is omnipresent in the behaviour of and creating natural theatres among fish (not the least the octopus), birds, dogs, anteaters, and other species.Significantly, the human art of hunting and fishing started as a mimicking of the play of attraction observed in the hunting practices of fish, itself rooted in mimicry (crypsis). In this talk, taking the verb mimeisthai as my starting point, I will navigate the traveling concepts of mimesis, mime and mimicry in human and nonhuman animals and discuss their (dis)continuities in ancient times.
2. 5 February 2023: Camouflage and Mimicry in the Life Sciences and the Arts
- Dr Jane Munro (Fitzwilliam Museum): Darwin and the Arts
- Prof. Rebecca Kilner and Dr James Herbert-Read (Museum and Department of Zoology, Cambridge):recent developments in mimicry research
3. 19 February 2023: Empathy and Camouflage
- Prof. Michael Tomasello (Duke University/Max Planck Institute for Evolution Studies): anatural history of empathy (online interview)
- Prof. Maurice Saß (Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences):
The art of camouflage: Hunting with animal decoys in premodern and modern Europe
The aim of my lecture is to examine the history of illusionistic hunting techniques by looking at built and painted animal decoys that were used for camouflaging, driving and luring in premodern and modern Europe. In a first step, I will propose a heuristic typology of hunting animal decoys according to their design and function. Special attention will also be paid to the different types of hunting mimesis that were involved in the use of the animal decoys and the visual attraction of the decoys to living animals. The efficiency of this hunting camouflage art not only gave rise to insightful speculation about how it worked, but also formed the basis for a variety of comparisons with the illusionary power of visual artists. The paper thus focuses on an episode from the shared cultural history of hunting and art, in which both prove to be eco-techniques for the production, configuration and appropriation of"nature" and are linked by a usurpatory understanding of mimesis. Hunting decoys are an emblematic reflection of the longue durée fascination with mimetic processes, human capabilities of illusion and, in general, the technical superiority of homo faber over other animals.
4. 26 February 2023: Camouflage and Evolutionary Aesthetics
- Prof. Lorenzo Bartalesi (Scuola Normale Pisa): Camouflage and Evolutionary Aesthetics
5. 28 February 2023: Camouflage Research in the Arts, Sciences and Warfare: a State of the Art
- Session organized with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Wende Museum Los Angeles, and Centre for Modern Conflict, London.