Musings on History, Collections, and the 21st century Museum

What is the role of collections in a 21st century museum?

Collections in twenty-first century museums allow scholars and the public alike to reexamine material and information of the past and encourage the audience to reorganize its categories of knowledge to better fit with its experience.  A successful exhibition will prohibit the audience from fitting an experience into a limited information framework which can allow for the formation of misconceptions to arise and proliferate. 

Reorganizing thought with regard to objects and information in this manner allows scholars and the public to learn about a history, a moment, a culture, a person and to rectify misconceptions which may have come about from exhibitions or publications of the past. 

Twenty-first century museums have the capability to not only prohibit the audience from misunderstanding information but also to change viewers’ misconceptions and allow the audience to form new ideas.  For example, in 1991 scholar Svetlana Alpers discussed how exhibitions can have a “museum effect” in which objects previously seen as artifact can, via a successful exhibit, be re-categorized as art in the minds of viewers.

Moreover, the preservation of objects and ideas allow for continued analysis as the theories and approaches change with modern thought and technology.  What was thought about a collection twenty years ago has certainly changed with the advent of digitization and other processes which uncover new information from objects. 

Through this re-examination of the past, modern museum exhibits collections have the power to lend insight into current social, political, and economic issues and even shed light on the future to come. 

What do you feel are the most important elements in exhibit development?

I feel that the most important aspect of exhibition development is the functional phase which presents material and ideas planned in the conceptual phase to the audience in an understandable and exciting manner.  For me, the most crucial and thus, the most difficult elements of exhibition development is creating an educational plan that speaks to a wide and general audience and designing a physical exhibition that is stimulating, engaging, and innovative.  It is at this stage that the conceptual idea must be easily transferred to viewers with various backgrounds, educations, and reference points.

What relevance do history museums have to contemporary audiences?

The theories and philosophy inherent in the humanities and social sciences lay the groundwork for thought in science and technology disciplines.  It is important to re-examine history in an effort to continually theorize on the past, thus informing and changing present-day thought.  

A quick discussion on Marxism and Art

Marxism is a social and economic theory which informs art history, history proper and all disciplines that involve history.  With regards to art history, Marxism considers the relationship between everyday people and art by way of attempting to place art in the context of its users or consumers.  The use of Marxist theory to study art history became popular in the 1970s when scholars shifted from using political and military historical methodologies to a social historical lens in an effort to locate the experience of, not just great men or authors of history, but of the proletariat.

Marxist theory is based upon the idea that all human life is governed by material concerns.  According to Marx, all of society consists of two elements.  The individual experiences alienation and repression by way of the “superstructure” and its relation to the “base.”  The “base” describes and contains all forces related to production, e.g. the employer/employee relationship and all relationships between those who own and control forces of production and those who enact production. The “superstructure” is created by the aforementioned relationships and consists of culture, religion, institutions, ideas of the state and systems of power.  The imbalance of power between the “base” and the “superstructure” causes alienation from labor and production as the proletariat is identified by his job, not just socially, but also through self-identification.  This mutually self-determining problem is cyclical and difficult to break and allows for a “false consciousness” to veil the negative qualities of this relationship.  The “false consciousness” is a process in capitalist society which is intentionally misleading to the proletariat and leads to commodity fetishism in the lower classes.  In this way, the individual resolves the experience of alienation and repression through a false belief in a natural law, thereby creating a fundamental need to compete with others.

The creation and existence of art, which in Marxist thought is a manifestation of human desire and imagination, allows for the “base” to be transformed by conscious-altering ideas.  Therefore, art is an avenue by which the individual can break through the debilitating fog of “false consciousness.”  Art can create a state of conscious-altering in a society which can then initiate a revolution.  The avant-garde, then, rises to protect culture against capitalist forces.  By encouraging individuals to think outside of the limits to which their thoughts are regulated by the systems of power, art serves to eradicate the “demystification” present in capitalist society. 

For example the early twentieth-century Art Nouveau, Art Deco and most specifically the Arts and Crafts movements were essentially a revolution against the cheap Victorian style which was dominated by mass-produced objects. High artistry and high quality of workers’ craftsmanship came to dominate these movements in contrast to capitalist mass production valued previously.  The works of Toulouse Lautrec and Mucha from this time period illustrate the rejection of Victorian ideals and social norms in favor of a new, avant-garde style.  This art came in an era when factory workers rebelled against the wealthy industry owners determined to keep them underpaid and without any rights.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. In the Salon at Rue des Moulins,1894. Charcoal and oil on canvas, 111.5 x 132.5 cm. Musée Toulouse-Lautrec

Alphonse Mucha. Salon des Cents XXeme Exposition (Salon of the 100, 20th exposition), 1896. Poster, 43.2 x 63.6 cm. Musée des arts décoratifs.

 More recently the pop art works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein of the 1960s which commented on mass production (Warhol with his multiple screen prints and canvases and Lichtenstein with his repetition of dots) went hand-in-hand with the 1960s counter-culture of revolution and the 1968 worker revolts and student sit-ins motivated by a general dissatisfaction with the operations of society.  Warhol’s 100 Campbell’s Soup Cans sought to critique capitalism, an economic system which was beginning to show its drawbacks during the 60s.  By using the image of a quotidian object, one which contained no seeable aesthetic value, Warhol questioned the relation between desire and availability and how market forces affect the individual.  His use of the repeated form and method of production commented on the systems of mass production. 

Andy Warhol. Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962. Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases, each canvas 20 x 16". The Museum of Modern Art.

Roy Lichtenstein. Reverie, 1965. Screenprint on smooth, white wove paper, 30 1/8 x 24". The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.

 Contemporary artists Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst continue to deal with capitalist tendencies in their works which comment on the commoditization and fetishization of high art.  Koons’ kitschy works and Hirst’s seemingly absurd conceptual art (e.g. the tiger shark submerged in formaldehyde) sell for abominable prices despite their departure from canonical art ideals.  Hirst's spotted paintings also seem to follow Lichtenstein in that the repetition and variety of his subject lead one to think about mass production, the choices made for the everyday people by the elite class, and questions the concept of freedom.  Their works and those of others can be said to relate to current revolutionary trends in “going green," being more aware of our wastefulness of resources, and lessening our carbon footprints as they critique the unnecessary and frivolousness within modern society. 

Jeff Koons. Elephant, 2002-04. Stainless steel with transparent color coating, 38" x 30" x 20". Exhibited at Sonnabend Gallery, Fall 2004.

Damien Hirst. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991. Steel, GRP composites, glass, plexiglass, fourteen-foot tiger shark, and formaldehyde solution, 84" x 204".

Damien Hirst. Thiosalicyclic, Acid Pharmaceutical Painting, 2004-05. Oil on canvas, 57" x 45". Exhibited at Gagosian Gallery, Spring 2005.

Many twentieth and twenty-first century scholars use a Marxist lens to study the art of the last one-hundred and fifty years.  Scholar Solomon Maynard states that the application of Marxism in the discipline of art history was never carried out by Marx himself and cautions that doing so can lead the student in an endless amount of directions.  T.J. Clark uses a Marxist standpoint to re-examine Manet’s Olympia in “Olympia’s Choice” in which he determines that Olympia is art which illustrates how capital is made into an image. 

Edouard Manet. Olympia, 1863-1865. Oil on canvas, 130.5 x 190 cm. Musée d'Orsay. 

 Meyer Schapiro is also a Marxist theorist who uses this social art historical methodology to interpret Monet’s A Painting of Shoes and concludes that the artist’s status in society proves that the shoes belong to the artist not to a peasant woman. 

Through the work of these scholars and artists it is evident that as long as the society operates under capitalistic ideologies, Marxist theories are indispensable in the study of, not only economics, but also art, culture, and society.

Press Release: Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library exhibit

 

Part 2--Hugh M. Comer Civil War Libaray exhibit

My last blog post discussed the acquisition of the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library at the Mildred Huie Museum.   There, I discussed one of the library's books that I will be highlighting in my Curator Talk on November 17, 2012 at 3 p.m.  Now I would like to introduce the remaining books to be highlighted in the exhibition.

The three books to be highlighted at the exhibit.

These next two texts are a set of volumes I and II whose citations are as follows:

Henderson C.B., Lieut.-Col. G.F.R. Stonewall Jackson and the American
Civil War, Volume I. Longmans, Green and Company: New York, 1905.

Henderson C.B., Lieut.-Col. G.F.R. Stonewall Jackson and the American
Civil War, Volume II. Longmans, Green and Company: New York, 1905.

Volume I is comprised of the following chapters:
Chapter I.  West Point
Chapter II. Mexico, 1846-47
Chapter III Lexington, 1851-61
Chapter IV Secession, 1860-61
Chapter V  Harper's Ferry
Chapter VI The First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run
Chapter VII Romney
Chapter VIII Kernstown
Chapter IX McDowell
Chapter X  Winchester
Chapter XI Cross Keys and Port Republic
Chapter XII Review of the Vallery Champaign

The Illustrations in Volume I:
Portraits:
Stonewall Jackson, Lt.-General
Stonewall Jackson at the age of 24 (from a daguerreotype)

Maps:
The City of Mexico
The United States, 1861
Situation, Night of July 17, 1861
Dispositions, Morning of July 21, 1861.
Bull Run
Sketch of West Virginia in 1861
The Valley
Situation, Night of March 21, 1862
Battle of Kernstown
Situation, April, 30, 1862
Battle of McDowell
Situation, May 18, 1862
Battle of Winchester
Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic

Volume II is comprised of the following chapters:
Chapter XIII The Seven Days. Gaines' Mill
Chapter XIV The Seven Days. Frayser's Farm and Malvern Hill
Chapter XV Cedar Run
Chapter XVI Groveton and the Second Manassas
Chapter XVII Harper's Ferry
Chapter XIX Sharpsburg
Chapter XX Ferdericksburg
Chapter XXI The Army of Northern Virginia
Chapter XXII Winder Quarters
Chapter XXIII Chancellorsville
Chapter XXIV Chancellorsville (continued)
Chapter XXV The Soldier and the Man

Illustrations in Volume II:
Maps:
Environs of Richmond
Battle of Gaines' Mill
The Seven Days. June 26-July 2, 1862
Battle of Malvern Hill
Evirons of Warrenton
Battle of Cedar Run
Situation on August 27 (sunset), 1862
Situation on August 25 (sunset), 1862
Positions on August 29, 1862
Groveton and the Second Manassas
Positions on August 30, 1862, in the Attack on Jackson
Positions on August 30, 1862
Harper's Ferry
Sharpsburg
Positions during the Attacks of Hooker and Mansfield at Sharpsburg
Ferdericksburg
Hooker's Plan of Campaign
Battle of Chancellorsville

The contents of the books can be read in its entirety online here.
Both volumes in the Mildred Huie Collection contain much foxing, however, all fold-out illustrations are intact with not the slightest tear.  Both are covered in a red cloth binding with much shelf wear around the edges.

Title page of Volume II.

Map "Environs of Warrenton (Virginia)" from Volume II.

In the January 1899 issue of The Sewanee Review, S.S.P. Patterson wrote that Henderson's volumes are the "most impartial work yet published on the civil war in America."  Patterson concluded his review of the texts by stating that "[Henderson's] book leaves one almost with the impression that if Jackson had lived the Southern Confederacy would have established its independence." The books are written by an author with a military background, thus the information presented is most detailed and correct.  However, a disadvantage in writing the books from the author's militaristic perspective is evident in his usage of incorrect grammar, especially split infinitives.  No matter, this biography successfully catalyzed Stonewall Jackson's legacy as a legend and hero.

Henderson's books will be exhibited along with a 30"x25" portrait of Stonewall Jackson painted by Mildred Huie's Aunt Marion "Ju Ju" Weigle, (1880-1930).  This portrait has hung prominently in the families' homes since it was painted around 1919.  According to family lore, Stonewall is a distant relative of the Weigle family (Mildred Huie's materal family), though I have been unable to connect the geneology even after extensive research.

Marion "Ju Ju" Weigle. Stonewall Jackson, 1919. Oil on canvas. 30" x 25" Mediterranean House Private Collection.

Also, exhibited with the Library are a Confederate Uniform, and letters from Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy to Mildred Huie's great-grandfather, Col. James "John" Michael Weigle, (1842-1907).  A special presentation by "Voices of the Civil War" local actor, Harry Paisley in which he reads excerpts from selected texts, will be performed at the opening of the exhibit on November 17 at 4pm.

The books in the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library at the Mildred Huie Museum are significant to the historian and research novice with its comprehensive array of important texts.  These texts are also an asset in that most in this collection were written before the epidemic of revisionism set in in the late 1960's and beyond.  Thus, the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library are wonderful reference books, in addition to the reading entertainment they provide.

The Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library Exhibit at the Mildred Huie Museum

Curating the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library permanent collection at the Mildred Huie Museum has been a rewarding experience that only the community's enjoyment can measure.  I would like use this blog to detail my experience in curating the collection's permanent space and the upcoming November 17, 2012 exhibit which will welcome the Golden Isles community to peruse its spines.

Initially, I was approached last year by a colleague who knew of a local woman looking to donate her late grandfather's collection of Civil War books.  Mr. Hugh M. Comer, of Macon, Georgia, was a railroad photographer and historian who also took interest in researching the War Between the States from a Southern perspective. His compilation of Georgia railroad photographs and manuscript, "Railroad Abandonments in Georgia," (1985), is part of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History Archives and Library.  It is in this compilation that Comer's two passions united to form a richly documented amalgamation of the histories of the U.S. Railroad Era and the country's bloodiest war. 


A 2005 Calendar dedicated to the memory of Hugh M. Comer by the Atlanta Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.

Comer's Civil War library was amassed mostly in the mid-sixties.  He signed his name and dated the inside cover of each book upon its addition to his shelves.  Comer's granddaughter, Catharine Johnson, can remember her grandfather's fascination with the Civil War and seeing his collection grow across the entire wall of his library in his Macon home. 

Mildred Huie Museum Director, Millie Wilcox, Curator, Dayna Caldwell, and Hugh Comer's granddaughter, Catharine Johnson.

When Comer passed in 2001, his Civil War library became the property of Johnson.  She determined that dissembling her grandfather's carefully acquisioned library was out of the question and began searching for an institution to which it could be donated.  Through our mutual contact, Ms. Johnson and I were introduced, and I immediately recognized that there is a place for this library at the Mildred Huie Museum.  The museum which houses a permanent collection of historical paintings by the late artist and historian Mildred Huie, also boasts a collection of rare books on the history of the Golden Isles and an archive of historical figures who have left footprints on the area. 

Thus, it is so that the Mildred Huie Museum now houses the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library with 170 books.  Realizing what a treasure trove this collection is, I developed a lending program such that visitors may remove certain books from the premises to enjoy at their leisure.  Two local organizations who might find the availability of this library an asset are the Sons of Confederate Veterans and The Civil War Round Table of Coastal Georgia.  I am in the process organizing future programs in which these groups can speak and meet at the museum for special presentations. 

Currently, however, I am focusing on the November 17th exhibit The Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library: In Remembrance of Sherman's March to the Sea.  Two days prior to the opening of the exhibit, November 15, 1864  is remembered as the day General W.T. Sherman began his devastating march from Atlanta, Georgia, destroying the civilian landscape until he reached Savannah on December 21, 1864.  I decided to showcase the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library beginning on that day, not to commemorate this atrocity but remember the significance of this military action with regard to the changes occurring in the narrative of the modernizing United States. 

The exhibit will highlight three books which I think to be important in tying together the historical aspects of the library (i.e. Mr. Comer's provenance and the date of Sherman's March to the Sea) to the Mildred Huie Museum permanent collection and institution objectives.  This is the element I most enjoy about curating; determining connections between objects and ideas and presenting them to the public in an interesting, relateable and easily understood manner. 

The first book that I have selected is a first edition penned by Sherman himself.  The citation is as follows:

      Sherman, General William T. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman Written
            by Himself: Volume I. D. Appleton and Company: New York, 1875.

Covered with a blue cloth binding, Volume I is comprised of 405 pages which do not possess much foxing on them aside from the occasional spot.  Twenty-five thousand sets were sold at $7 per set in 1875, and Sherman was paid $25,000.  In his notes at the beginning of Volume I, Sherman writes that it was his purpose to include maps throughout the text, however, the cost of engraving was too much.  He goes on to say that the narrative can be followed by each reader using standard maps found in every library.  The book is comprised of fourteen chapters listed as follows:

I.     Early Recollections of California--1846-1848
II.    Early Recollections of California (Continued)--1849-1850
III.   Missouri, Louisiana, and California--1850-1855
IV.   California--1855-1857
V.    California, New York, and Kansas--1857-1859
VI.   Louisiana--1859-1861
VII.  Missouri--April and May, 1861
VIII. From the battle of Bull Run to Paducah--Kentucky and Missouri--1861-1862
IX.   Battle of Shiloh--March and April, 1862
X.    Shiloh to Memphis--April to July, 1862
XI.   Memphis to Arkansas Post--July, 1862, to January, 1863
XII.  Vicksburg--January to July, 1863
XIII. Chattanooga and Knoxville--July to December, 1863
XIV. Meridian Campaign--January and February, 1864

The contents of  Volume II are listed next.  It is unfortunate that the Hugh M. Comer collection does not possess this second volume as Chapter 20 is entitled "The March to the Sea--From Atlanta to Savannah--November and December, 1864," and would have been an exceptional book to highlight throughout the exhibit.

Sherman is known for his role in modernizing warfare, yet his barbaristic and destructive tactics have classified him not only as a hero but also a demon.  Thus, this text was very controversial when it was published in May of 1875.  It was considered the first authentic contribution from a Southern military source and recounted a subjective version of events not approved by all readers.  After receiving dozens of letters demanding a revision, Sherman refused to reprint the text, though he did acquiesce by stating his intention of adding an appendix of letters in the Second Edition which would be comprised of letters whereby others would have the opportunity to recount their own versions of events.   The Library of America describes the Second Edition below:

      "Sherman collected material for the "second edition" but did not work on
       it until after his retirement from the army in 1884. To the 1875 printing he
       added a second preface, two new chapters, one at the beginning and the
       other at the end, an appendix to volume I, two appendixes to volume II,
       and an index. Sherman corrected further factual errors and made a few
       revisions. Portraits were also added, as well as maps that had been unavailable
       at the time of the 1875 printing."

This rare volume in excellent condition lends to an understanding of this complicated man and his legacy on the foundation forming of the United States as it is known today.  We at the Mildred Huie Museum are delighted to share this text and many others from the Hugh M. Comer Civil War Library with the public. 

In my next post, I will discuss the two other texts to be featured at the upcoming exhibition along with other interesting items and happenings to take place in relation to this exhibit.

 

Sources:
http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=89

Navajo Textiles: Autonomy and the Marketplace

(abstract)
             Consumers expect a certain level of honesty and frankness from retailers and dealers when they enter the marketplace to search for an item to purchase.  However, many uninformed buyers do not comprehend the forces behind the quality control and the labeling of merchandise.  For example, what exactly is a Navajo rug described as being a Classical revival or a Newlands Rug and how important is the identity of the weaver to the valuation of a weaving?  These labels affixed to past and contemporary Navajo weavings lend to the complicated dichotomy of the weaver-market relationship.  By tracing the history of Navajo relations with outside markets, it becomes evident that weavers have remained autonomous despite centuries of influence and interaction with foreigners.  The incorporation of new colors, materials, and patterns and re-interpretation of existing styles attest to the fact that Navajo weavers have consistently maintained traditions of adaptation and integration, while negotiating the marketplace, and subsequently retaining their autonomy.  In interviewing contemporary Navajo weavers of the New Lands style, I explore another method of analysis that incorporates first-hand accounts of the art form today and how weavers view their interactions with the marketplace.

Once leaving the hands and looms of their creation, however, the textiles are brought to the art or craft market where, I argue, this autonomy is lost.  The art market, which operates under the guise of multicultural liberalism, removes the associations of autonomy and replaces them with a broader idea of “Indianness.”  Incorporating the indigenous theory of Jodi A. Bird, this label of “Indianness” only acts in reaffirming colonial injuries and allows for United States Empire to persist over Native American communities.  The Navajo textiles, thus, operate as tools for the persistence of oppression despite the art market’s attempt to incorporate the items into a multicultural and liberal institution. 

            A recent trend in the art world is to view Native American objects as art as opposed to artifact or craft.  Valuing the aesthetic qualities of Native American art rather than its cultural elements has the ability to finally break from the idea of Native American art as artifact and not as art.  A change in valuation such as this would assist in removing the “Indianness” label of Navajo textiles which the marketplace affixes.

The issues raised in this essay determine that the undervaluation of an art form and the undermining of its artist are at stake.  This essay acts as a call to attention with how institutions, retailers, and academics approach Navajo textiles in order that negative connotations and oppressive labeling may be shed.  Devoid of this information, the art world risks removing itself from the dialogue of comprehension in which it engages with Navajo arts and aesthetics.  In effect, the publication of this essay will demonstrate the necessity for an engagement of erudition and cultural understanding in order to transform the relationship between Navajo weavers and other Native American artists and the art markets in which they participate.  This research will inform scholars to remain cautious in their future explorations of the way Native American art is viewed by outsiders and to approach the subject with a multidisciplinary methodology. 

Mary Yazzie. New Lands Rug. Sanders, Arizona, 38"x 54".

Donna Haraway: Humans and Cyborgs: A Necessary Relationship

          In her 2000 lecture entitled “Birth of the Kennel: Cyborgs, Dogs and Companion Species” Donna Haraway discusses the significance of “dogs emerging out of cyborg materialization and figuration”[1] to the human existence.  This lecture introduces a different way to discuss the relationship between man and machine.  Whereas previous discourse has focused on this relationship as man creating machine, Haraway suggests that in some respects, machine has helped to create man.  She traces how the human relationship with machines evolved into one consisting of man and cyborg and eventually man and companion species. 

Haraway defines the cyborg in many ways but for the purpose of her lecture, she surmises that a cyborg is a hybrid of machine and organism.  She describes this relationship between man and cyborg as deriving from the usage of organisms as meat and lab animals and other practices consistent with informatics and biologics.  Haraway states that this “cross species relationship is mediated by entire cultural apparatus including enterprised-up relationships to biomedicine, veterinary practice, reproductive technologies, and pedagogical doctrines.”[2]  It can be said that humans must create life in an artificial way and in this construction, humans use other organisms as tools.  However, Haraway maintains that this human-cyborg relationship does not end here but continues to transform as indicated by the relationship between humans and companion species.

According to Haraway, humans and domesticated animals are coevolved significant others to each other in complex and asymmetrical ways.  To illustrate her point Haraway tells her listeners that human did not create the domesticated dog.  Haraway instead suggests that “dogs created themselves and adopted humans as part of their reproduction strategy.”[3]  In fact, dogs allowed themselves to be domesticated in an effort to procreate in a more efficient and safe environment.  Haraway asserts that “technology [has] not invade[d] nature but dogs have… appropriated higher reproduction for their own breeding [purposes].”[4]  An analysis of this relationship between humans and companion species necessitates a definition of this phrase.  Haraway states that she “uses the term[inology] ‘companion species’ as an interrogative term[inology] about [the] historical emergent with other animals who are not meat, lab, or wilderness animals or vermin.”[5] 

After establishing the evolution of this relationship between human and companion species, Haraway notes the importance of discerning its qualities between those of a relationship between animal and human or human and cyborg:  “The particular cross species relationship… is about the specific historical circumstances of contemporary companion animal culture in the cyborg-ized and heavily informatics and biologic saturated world.”[6]  In an effort to describe how this cross species relationship has established both participants out of the kind of relationality in question, Haraway introduces an idea of choreography and its actors. 

Borrowing from a contemporary of hers, Haraway equates this cross species relationship to choreography between different actors.  Not only are the actors participating in the choreography or relationality, but she states that “actors are the product of the relationality.”[7]  It is significant to note here that to Haraway, life is a verb and its actors are not always human.  She asserts that actors do not enter into a relationship with pre-determined ideas or with intentions of forming boundaries.  These actors are essentially created out of their relationships with each other.  Their positions and functions in the environment are defined by their relationality to each other.  Haraway connects this idea back to her human-machine relationship: “The kind of sociality that joins humans and machines is a sociality that constitutes both. [Thus] who humans are ontologically is constituted out of that relationality.”[8]

 Haraway believes that humans must create life in artificial ways.  She argues that not only are humans using other organisms as tools to artificially construct life, but in addition, humans are influencing the lives of organisms and vice versa.  As evidence of this theory, Haraway draws on the relationship between human and cyborg and illustrates how it has morphed to create a relationship between humans and companion species.  The progression and trajectory of these relationships has allowed Haraway to analyze their nature.  She concludes that the relationality between actors in a relationship (be it between humans, organisms, cyborgs, or companion species) actually constitutes their existence.  The need for relationships between actors and the subsequent influence on each other proves the necessity of the existence of the actors themselves. 

Bibliography

Haraway, Donna. Birth of the Kennel: Cyborgs, Dogs and Companion Species, 2000, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yxHIKmMI70&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=1.

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[1] Donna Haraway, Birth of the Kennel: Cyborgs, Dogs and Companion Species 2000 7/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI5Jy1bOxb0&p=C017E496EEE63132&playnext=1.

[2]  Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 4/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZuDbyjizQ&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=4.

[3]  Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 3/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JD2eKIZfQ&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=3.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 4/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZuDbyjizQ&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=4.

[6] Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 3/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JD2eKIZfQ&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=3.

[7] Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 4/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeZuDbyjizQ&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=4.

[8] Haraway, Birth of the Kennel 7/9, [Video] Retrieved September 27, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI5Jy1bOxb0&p=C017E496EEE63132&index=7.