E-Concept: De-peripheralisation
Solving the Issue of Peripheralisation
The human gaze enacts anthropocentrism by privileging certain beings over others and alienating natural agencies to the outskirts, becoming the backdrop to other 'superior' life on earth. This mode of peripheralisation inadvertently propagates ontological violence against nonhuman ‘beings’ and represses their autonomy.
Hence, de-peripheralisation signifies a gateway out of a highly divisive and marginal world view that tends to focus on the human subject and relegate the natural world to the periphery. Adopting a de-peripheral vision effectively enables the object to move out of the peripheral space and end the polarisation between human and nonhuman. In doing so, we move closer to embodying an absolute Being that is ecologically sensitive and enmeshed with manifold Worlds.
Scholarly Article:
Manfred Kuhn's concept ‘peripheralisation’ describes the marginalisation and economic polarisation between metropolitan and rural areas as a form of socio-spatial inequality. I took an ecological adaptation of this concept as a pragmatic solution for the divisive relationship between culture and nature, using it as a mechanism to reverse and undo human-centrism via the negative prefix (“de”).
Image
From an eco-critical lens, the peacock is emblematic of de-peripheralisation, occupying the central gaze as a traditionally subservient object, further extending its presence to the periphery. In this way, we can see how de-peripheralisation seeks to transcend binary oppositions and empower an animal ‘being’ to depart from a singularly confined space.
External Video:
Sarah Laanani (z5260338)
