E-concept: De-peripheralisation
Solving the Issue of Peripheralisation
Via a mode of centralisation, the human gaze enacts anthropocentrism, privileging certain beings over others and alienating the natural world to the outskirts as merely a backdrop to other ‘superior’ lives on earth. This mode of peripheralisation inadvertently propagates an ontological violence against nonhuman modes of ‘being’, represses their agency and autonomy.
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 article discusses the implications of peripheralisation in exacerbating socio-spatial inequality. His concept ‘peripheralisation’ explains the marginalisation and economic polarisation between metropolitan and rural areas. I took an ecological adaptation of this concept as a pragmatic solution for the divisive relationship between culture and nature; a mechanism to reverse and undo human-centrism via the negative prefix (“de”).
Images
External Video:
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.
Sarah Laanani (z5260338)
