Kattkommunikationsverktyg
The animals closest to us often leave the deepest marks. When my cat, Mirr-jam, passed away on July 4th 2023, the grief I felt was overwhelming. How could a creature who had only been in my life for a few years leave behind such a great absence? In conversations with others who had lost their cats, I realized I wasn’t alone. Our shared grief revealed a desire to better understand the cat as an individual and the interspecies relationship.
Kattkommunikationsverktyg is a project in two parts. The first is a publication based on interviews with cat owners, Kattkommunikation. Through their stories, the work explores how communication between species occurs and what values cats seem to behold. The publication also gives space for sorrow, through personal messages to cats who are no longer here. The second part is a collection of textile objects, Kommunikationsverktyg, designed to function as tactile and visual tools for interspecies dialogue. These tools are created from the cat’s perspective, shaped by their view of the world and their body language. The objects function as a language supporting tool which can be equally usable and interpretable by both cats and humans.
This project is an exploration of the relationship between cats and humans. It draws on posthumanist philosophies and post-anthropocentric perspectives, questioning the idea that humans are above animals or nature and instead suggesting we are part of a shared existence.
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