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Reflection

I struggle a lot during this project, the research part is not my strongest and also, having an open brief as this one, is hard for me, one of the main reasons I really enjoy illustration is the briefs, they say exactly what is expected of me, but saying that I saw a good improvement since we started especially the last brief, it saied what was expected of us and was good to have a guide.

At the beginning of this project took me some time to find something that I truly cared about and after that, I struggled to find legetimed readings, it did not help that I don't particularly enjoy writing, but when I finally did it I learned a lot. When I decided to expand my research from bullfighting to animal rights and welfare it allowed me to research more about peoples reasons behind acts of violence towards animals. Reading such as The Welfare of Animals by Clive Phillips and Man’s Dominion… a short history of speciesism helped me realise how long we have been taking advantage of animals and how society and religion influence people and justifies does act.

Another thing that I started to notice is that,  more often than not, the animal rights activists are non believers, which in the end makes sense as most religions believe that animals are here to serve humans, also, today we have resources and more ways to share, people no longer rely on only one or two ways to communicate or to share information, today we have plenty of sources, and if people still are choosing to be ignorant and to look to the other way, that is a reflection of their character, to me ignorance is no longer an excuse, to me show that people simply don't care. I am glad that I chose to work whit this subject, I learn a lot about peoples intention, about our history and how peoples believes still are and a huge excuse for animal harm. I do believe in my generation and future ones, I see more and more animal advocates, I seem majors companies introducing vegan opinions I see governments (Portuguese) improving and reinforcing laws and my only hope is that arent too late.

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Animal Harm by Angus Nurse

Animal Harm: perspectives on why people harm and kill animals by Angus Nurse is a book that explores the reasons behind animal harm. I focus in chapter 6, Animal Harm, Culture and self-expression. I chose this particular section of the book, because the culture focus, my intentions to understand what drives people to protect a part of their culture that kills and potentially tortures innocent creatures. Nurse opens the chapter by explaining the importance of animal harm and killing in certain cultures and hoe people believe that those practices are actually part of their identity. He goes on explaining how native Americas believe in leaving in harmony with the animals, so killing them for food beames a ritual, in a way to me, it is more is a form of respect for the animal, more often than not, the animal in question is free, yes is kill for food, but the rituals are a form to thank the animal. Angus Nurse talks about how animal harm represents a form of cultural self-expression and how the law protects certain acts, thas exactly what is happening in Portugal, the main reason to why bullfighting is still so embedded in our cultures is the law, how it protects this practice even knowing that it goes against the animal protection act. He mentions several cultural protection activities such as whaling, reindeer husbandry in the artic, seal hunt in Canada and a few other, which to me is enraging how a government can protect such act, especially when they are endangering species such as whales also, why don't we talk about this echoes more often,  this practices have to stop. "Thus the simple justification of animal harm as culturally important does not excuse it when animal law is violated" (Angus Nurse, 2013) I found this quat important especially because it is something mentioned through all the book, to me shows that Nurse main interest is not animal well being but the law. Over and over again, he says how bad some practices are but not because it hurts the creatures involved but because is against the law,  yet he does have some valid points and does explain the views and believes of the people how harms animals but I don't think the law should be the main reason. Another thing that I notice is how heavily based in U.S.A the book is, and the main subject (in this chapter) are indigenous people, which comes across as the author having a vendetta against them, something that put me off a bit. Overall the reading did give me something to think and open my eyes to sever practices that I had no idea that still existed. This chapter made me more aware of how people put their beliefs above everything ells, and how we try so much to protect culter and dos see how it does har and how it destroys what it is around us.

Reference: Nurse, Angus. (2013) Animal harm: perspectives on why people harm and kill animals. Routledge

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The bull

The bull is a lino print that I did in response to Sue Coe’s work, but instead of having a can os a hurt bull I wanted to show a majestic animal covered in blood. Once again to me didn’t work. I do like the print, especially the texture that I manage to achieve with the red ink, but I am not sure if it transmits any message at all. I want people to understand how this sensitive intelligent animal is hurt mainly for our entertainment.

So, to push my work forward decided to do an animation. I will be able o play with the style but also it will help me to show a clear message.

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Man's Dominion... a short history of speciesism

Man's Dominion... a short history of speciesism is chapter five from the book Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. This chapter explores the origins of speciesism by dividing it into three parts, pre-Christian Thought, Christian Thought and The Enlightenment and After, Singer is able to expand and analyze each "era". In the first two parts of the chapter, we quickly realise that religion and god was the centre of people daily life. Greeks were divided into rival schools with different beliefs but the most influential was Plato and his pupil Aristotle school, they believed that animals existed to serve humans, an ideology reinforced later by religion. Christianity had the belief that humans were created in the image of God which made us the centre of the universe, so every other creature were created to serve humans. there were some exceptions, Leonardo da Vinci was an animal advocate but unfortunately, was mocked by his peers. The Enlightenment and After was my focus point. The first ever law advocating for the animal right, in 1822 Richard Martin successfully propose to punish people who arm others pets, which did not benefit the animal necessary, yet was a start, he also founded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to reinforce this law. Was in 1871 that scientist started to accept the theory of evolution which kickstarted a revolution and humans and animals were finally on the same levels. However, animal cruelty never stop, people still make excuses for their actions, this book was written in 1975 and to this day the excuses are the same; " they need to eat meat to survive", "they don't feel pain". Humans are entitled, but I am hopeful, more an more people are opening their eyes.

Reference: Singer, Peter. (1975) Animal Liberation. United States: HarperCollins.

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The Welfare of Animals by Clive Phillips

The Welfare of Animals is a book about animal welfare and the relationship between animals and humans written by Clive Phillips. The book is simply presenting data, statistics and research, in a clear form allowing the reader to create their own opinion. The book opens by presenting different definitions of welfare; Environment, Feelings, Experiences, Needs and desires. I found interesting how in the end the one that benefits from all these different definitions is us, and from the beginning we use them to excuse cruelty and to mask what meat production really is: animals are viewed as products, and in the end the people behind it are in for the money, they are obligated to change certain animal welfare aspects because is the law, but they do not really see the animals as a living being. Clive Phillips moves on to analyse the relationship between animals and humans through history. It is fascinating how humans became more and more entitled, how the respect and admiration earlier civilisations had towards animals is lost as humans became more independent and ambitions. We can see this in art, during the Palaeolithic period animals were the main, if not the only, subject of the cave paintings but as time passed animals started to be a small detail in the background or even not existent, instead humans started to be the main focus of paintings and sculptures, especially men.

As captivating all the subjects covered by the book are, my main focus was chapter 4, Animal Welfare and Animal Rights. In the beginning, we learn a bit of history, and I was quite surprised to learn that the united kingdom founded the society for the protection of cruelty to animals was founded in 1824 but was only in 1980 that the society actively worked on animal welfare, I had the impression that animal activism started in the year 2000, which to me reflects the lack of interest that the general population had. I understand that between the 1960s and 1990s there were several important and revolutionary campaign going on but I also believe that if we had worked on animal welfare in the 1960s, today would be more advanced. Clive Phillips also explains the difference between animal welfare and animal rights, he gives a very good example; " animal welfare advocates may believe that animals may legitimately be sacrificed in experimentations to find a technique for improving animal health, if it improves the welfare of the other animals sufficiently, whereas animal rightists would oppose such sacrifice" (2009), my interpretation is  animal welfare does not condone animal experiments or the meat industry were animal rights do, so my question is, it will ever be possible to find a common ground? will ever animal welfare and animal rights have the same goal? I honestly have no idea, but seeing as society is evolving and changing, possibly being vegan will not be considered as an "extreme" as it is still considered today.

"History suggests that these people will be seen in the future as the social reformers of their day, in the same way, that female emancipators and slave trade campaigners are now viewed as a necessary part of the social revolution of our democracies" (Phillips, Clive 2009)

Reference:

Clive, Phillips. (2009) The Welfare of Animals. Available: https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-9219-0 (Accessed: 18/4/2019)

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Sue Coe is an Illustrator born in England in 1954. Her work is primarily created true drawing and printmaking, It is hilly political, covering animal rights, marginalized people and criticism towards capitalism.

Sue Coe main influence for her animal rights works is from her own childhood. She grew up next to a slaughterhouse and was exposed to the horrific images of animal slaughter sense young, one could expect Coe to develop and indifference towards the animal cruelty, but instead simply influenced her to became vegan and a supporter of the anti-animal cruelty activists. In an interview in the PRINT magazine (April 1, 2012) pp. 21,  when asked if her artwork helps her cope with what she witnessed during her childhood, Coe says that instead of helping her coping it actually  about "retraumatizing" the public in hopes of more and more people witness the cruelty and horror. It's a Picnic, it is a good example of the "retraumatizing" that Coes mentions. In this image, we can observe the contrast between the freedom and happiness of the humans and the suffering of the animals in captivity. By placing this tow concepts side by side, does show how people easily ignore the suffering of animals to live a guilt-free life. In a more closed observation of the image, we can see the speciesism being represented by the people enjoying the cooked chicken while playing with a happy dog. This is a very strong image, makes you reflect over the social rules reinforced by society, how it is ok to have several cows in a very small place only to be killed later but if the scenario is recreated whit a pet, is seen as a cruel and inhumane act.

Reference:

artnet. (2019) Sue Coe. Available: http://www.artnet.com/artists/sue-coe/ (Accessed: 11 March 2019) Coe, Sue. (1992) It's a Picnic. Available at: https://www.pafa.org/collection/its-picnic (accessed: 11 March 2019)

Heller, Steven. (2012) 'Witness to slaughter', PRINT, Vol.66(2), pp.20-22. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=8d60f8dc-5d67-49ff-ad1a-7c6cb41b7ee5%40sessionmgr104 (Accessed: 9/4/2019).

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Do Portuguese animal rights movements reinforce speciesism?

It was hard to find good sources for my research, bullfighting is not a subject that people writing about too often and when they do is nothing academic inclined. I decided to refocus it and started to research animal rights in Portugal and I found an interesting article by Luis Rodrigues Cordeiro,  Hidden and unintended racism and speciesism in the Portuguese animal rights movement the case of bullfighting. Cordeiro brings to the light an interesting but controversial agenda supposedly created by the animal rights movements in Portugal, which is a separation of animal farming and bullfighting, in their campaigns. Luis Cordeiro starts by explaining that the intense bullfight campaign by Portuguese animal right movements have shifted the citizens' focus and might have created a form of separation between animals used for food and animals used in bullfighting, which it is hypocritical as they described the "sport" to be cruel, inhumane and something that has to be spot but in the other hand we have the consumption of meat and dairy which has been considered a mere "optional lifestyle, rather than a moral option". This implies that the consumption of meat is needed for survival which is not true, according to Luis Cordeiro, "animals used for food are a form of entertainment to the extent that they are consumed for pleasure and not because individuals need to eat them to survive". This does give a lot to think, but  I do understand the reason behind it,  it is easier to attack a minority group than the vast majority of the Portuguese population. Furthermore, as bullfighting popularity have been declining fast,  in 2018 where only 173 Bullfighting shows which have been declining since 2009 where there were 313 shows, there is a great amount of pressure to actually end the practice, but does not excuse the urgency of both cases because, in the end, the point is to stop animal suffering which exists in both bullfighting and animal farming. Another factor that contributes to speciesism in Portugal it actually the Portuguese government, as there is a law that protects animals from unnecessary harm, it even has a specific section about animals in entertainment, where individuals or corporations have to acquire an authorization from the government to use animals for the purpose of entertainment except for bullfighting as it is considered to be part of the culture, this creates confusion and normalises the act of meat consumption which adds to the separation of the species and  all this focus on Bullfighting does create an excuse for people to direct their anger to a specific problem, rather than the overall "picture", end the animal suffering.

"In other words, the idea being offered is that supporters of bullfights are immoral, whereas others are just living their lives."(Luis Cordeiro, 2015)

I found the article really interesting reveals some issues that I never thought about, but in the end I can not give all the credit of speciesism to the animal rights movements, is mainly because of culture, convenience and lack of knowledge that people are still considering the consumption of meat an dairy to be essential, as for Bullfighting, I do believe that it will eventually "die", it is a practice hated  by most of the population and more and more people are not accepting their excuses.

Reference:

BASTA. 2019. A Abolição. Available at: http://basta.pt/abolicao-touradas/ (accessed:10 March 2019) BASTA. 2019. Plataforma BASTA. Available at: http://basta.pt/ (accessed:10 March 2019) BASTA. 2019. Touradas atingem mínimos históricos em Portugal. Available at: http://basta.pt/touradas-atingem-minimos-historicos-em-portugal/ (accessed:10 March 2019) Cordeiro, Luis Rodrigues. (2015 ) 'Hidden and Unintended Racism and Speciesism in the Portuguese Animal Rights MovementThe Case of Bullfighting', Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory (Vol. 62, No. 144) pp. 1-18. Available at: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5c50d992-625d-4f7a-aa25-c26851698db0%40pdc-v-sessmgr01 (accessed:11 March 2019) Diario da Republica Eletronico. 2014. Lei n.º 92/95. Available at: https://dre.pt/pesquisa/-/search/562269/details/maximized?print_preview=print-preview (accessed:8 March 2019)

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Why are Bulls So Aggressive? by Talal Al-Khatib

After a lot of research, I found this article on the website Seeker. The text was published in 2015 and was written by Talal Al-Khatib a writer for Discovery News. The short article is mainly about the behaviour of the bull and the tactics used to chat it to be more violent.

Al-Khatib started by mention some tragedies in bullfighting and how the increased in deaths is affecting its popularity even with the people who support the tradition. Before moving to the main part of the article, he also does a brief mention of the controversy involving bullfighting, the war between activist against animal cruelty and the traditionalist who believes that bullfighting is a form of art.

The writer brings the question "But why are bulls so aggressive?" (Al-Khatib, 2015), as he goes to explain next, the answer is, bulls aren't actually aggressive, they are breed and put in certain condition to create the "perfect" bull for the arena. Al-Khatib explains how they achieve it, by breeding the animal for that intent and then select the calf that shows more violence and insulates the animal from the herd. "Because bulls are herd animals and naturally social, the isolation they face prior to an event can also contribute to their aggression"(Al-Khatib, 2015), so with that information one can deduce that the torture of the animal starts way before the arena, depriving a social animal of their herd can drive an animal to a state like depression, a good example are rats, prior acquiring my rats I researched their behaviour and what do I needed to provide to give them a good life, I found that a lonely rat can become depressed which can even shorten their lifetime.

I found the reading really interesting, Al-Khatib manages to stay partial and provides information allowing you to take your own conclusions, also, debunk some myths and assumptions that people have about the bull, which can be a gentle animal if raised to be one, similar to "dangerous" dog breeds, if the animal is raised to be kind and gentle it is what is going to be. In my opinion bulls are a gentle majestic animal that does not deserve the torture that they go through simply to entertain.

Reference:

Al-Khatib , Talal (2015) "Why Are Bull So Aggressive?", Seeker. Available at: https://www.seeker.com/why-are-bulls-so-aggressive-1770146826.html#mobile-nav-wrap   (Accessed: 10/12/2018)

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Forcados by EDUARDO LEAL

I am finding hard to push forward my research, there is not much information in the university library research and the one that it has, is mainly about Spain and there is none about Portugal.  I tried to shift my research and see the articles about Spanish bullfighting. Well, there isn't much information there, I can't seem to find a book about the subject either, so once again I decided to “break my research", and I started to look up any information about the bull itself or the reason behind the traditions, was here that I found this photographer. 

Eduardo Leal, it's a  documentary photographer from Portugal, Porto. His main focus is on South East Asia but he also worked for several years in South America.

The works that I was interested was his "story" about Forcaodos. In his website, he has a short explanation of the role that the Forcados have in bullfighting but I found more information about his experience and views in a short interview in The British Journal of Photography. Eduardo Leal explains that he does not support bullfighting, but as he mentions in the interview,  "forcados have always captured my attention"(2014), he continues with, "I remember stopping in front of the television to look at these crazy men wrestling bulls and wondered what motivated them."(2014) He also explains how Forcados did not trust him right way, and how he needed to gain their trust, which does not surprise me, usually the role of Forcado is something that passes on through generations, and whit the decrease in popularity of bullfighting, Forcados tend to be more and more exclusives.

When seeing his images feels like I’m invading someone privacy, they show intimacy and the struggles of this old tradition.

His photographies show the before, during and after the “pega”

Reference:

Anonnymous. (2014) Eduardo Leal, The British Journal of Photography, Vol. 161, Iss. 7826, pg. 24. Available at: https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.mdx.ac.uk/docview/1695231335/fulltextPDF/95193CFBDBBB4804PQ/1?accountid=12441  (Accessed: 09/12/2018)

Leal, Eduardo. (2018) Eduardo Leal. Available at: http://www.eduardoleal.co.uk/  (Accessed: 09/12/2018)

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This week I have been creating some Images to support my theme, my idea is to “improve” them digitally so I can screen print them.

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Gentle Giant, it was initially supposed to be a series of posters promoting the gentle nature of the bull, but I was not entirely satisfied with the results. The colour did not work the way that I wanted them to, and the message wasn't strong.

so I decided to move on and experience a bit more, hopefully, my research will help me find what is the best media to pass my message.

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Chaging the project

I decided to change my project, I reach a point where I didn’t know what to research or simply what to do whit it. Astrology and Zodiac signs are interesting themes but have not only been explored by countless people but, also, I’m not very into to it, which makes hard to find the motivation to continue, instead decided to work with something that has been in my culture for centuries which is Bullfighting.

My idea is to create posters to support the campaign against it but use a different strategy. I want to people to seed the gentle nature of the bull and try to erase the idea that they are violent animals, to do that I want to start by finding out where exactly this tradition started and  "follow" it through the centuries until today.

At the moment we (my generation) are trying to put a stop to it, which is proving to be a challenge, people keep looking at it as something that is part of our culture, which to me is not really an excuse, so I plan to research and find  other traditions that no longer are celebrated or simply stop to be acknowledged in Portugal so I can find a way to "fight" it  and to show that traditions can be changed and improved.