Performing social unease
Biston betularia carbonaria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59391/w09pxy37Keywords:
social unease, performance art, moth, 4E cognitionAbstract
By drawing insights from artistic practice and utilizing conceptual and methodological approaches from the philosophy of embodied cognition, my purpose is to investigate the transformative possibilities embedded in creatively exploring social unease. To do so, I will present an art project, Biston betularia carbonaria, which involves the performative activation of a cast of a moth chrysalis through the waving of a flag and the ignition of a black smoke grenade. Biston betularia is a lepidopteran of the family Geometridae; the most widespread species is the typica, whose white color, in the course of its evolution, has enabled it to camouflage itself on birch trunks and thus escape predators. In nineteenth-century cities, air pollution caused by industrialization darkened the bark of trees, therefore promoting the survival of the melanic species called carbonaria, characterized by its black color. As pollution diminished, the typical form gradually regained its status as the dominant species.
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