Letters to our multispecies kin
12 writings to other animals
This video was produced after a workshop about imagining multispecies worlds, and its text was written by its participants. The film is a work of collective imagination that reflects with curiosity, kindness, and awe over a series of relations the participants had with other animals.
The film was screened for the first time at Teatro Ca’ Foscari a Santa Marta, Venezia.
Video credits
Writers - Giorgia Bolognesi, Viviana Cescati, Gloria Dapporto, Dianora Hollmann, Lorenzo Morra, Miriam del Pino, Giulia Repetti, Anastasia Sinitsyna, Matilde Spagnolo, Sofia Zerlotti, Letizia Traina, M. Martelli
Voice Actors - Giorgia Bolognesi, Viviana Cescati, Lorenzo Morra, Giulia Repetti, Anastasia Sinitsyna, Matilde Spagnolo, Nóra Ugron, Corina Preda, Katia Pascariu, Teodora Retegan, M. Martelli, Aron Nor, Mina Mimosa
Script Editor - M. Martelli
Art Director and Illustrator - Mina Mimosa
Director, Editor and Animator - Aron Nor
About the workshop
The “Imagining multispecies worlds” workshop was held online, in the spring of 2022 by Maria Martelli, with students of the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, at the invitation of Federica Timeto and Miriam De Rosa. Its content was based on our videos at just wondering... and the themes we approached in them while its title, “Imagining multispecies worlds” was inspired by the book of researcher & designer Michelle Westerlaken. It spanned over more than two months, with five encounters in which we discussed and explored multispecies imaginaries.
You can check the syllabus here.
The workshop was supported by Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.
Writings from the workshop
In the first session of our workshop, we discussed the educational space itself. We began with the video on Paulo Freire, reflecting on the educational process, the critiques he raised with his revolutionary critical pedagogy, and then, the residual anthropocentrism. We’ve been thinking of questions such as: How did you encounter anthropocentrism in the educational space? Or while growing up? When did you start noticing it? What is history's role in shaping and legitimizing anthropocentrism? What do you think the human behind anthropocentrism looks like - is it a human just like you (of your age, status, gender etc.), or different? What would a non-anthropocentric education look like?
What might it mean to be in a constant walk/crawl/flight towards multispecies justice? In our workshop, we've been exploring this idea, along with others, trying to both understand and envision more just cities, one hundred years from now. Some of the questions we considered were: What could it look like, if everyone started working towards multispecies justice right now? How could other animals be recognized and represented? How would they participate? How would things be materially distributed? What would work and leisure look like?
In one of the later sessions of our workshop, we've been discussing and analyzing how animal oppression is connected to certain forms of human oppression, and thus, how animal liberation is entangled with human liberation.