Therianthropy on OCTOPUS!

Therianthropy, a radio version, by Apian (Laurent Güdel, Robert Torche, Ellen Lapper, and Aladin Borioli), is a 14-minute sonic ethnography, mixing a narrative, spoken by and music. Listeners experience Randolf Menzel’s dream and question if bees dream as well.

The piece was recently republished as part of Joanna Zielińska’s SONIC SPACE on ΟCTOPUS. OCTOPUS is a biannual, bilingual, online journal of contemporary art history and theory, cultural theory and criticism published by EMΣΤ, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens. Follow this link for more info about the SONIC SPACE: https://octopus.emst.gr/​articles/​sonic-space/

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Note annexe

Film still from Therianthropy, the film, ongoing.

Dr. Randolf Menzel is a German zoologist who dedicated his life to the world of bees. At the beginning of his career, he was dreaming of becoming a bee. At night, and sometimes during the day, he became his own subject of research. These experiences helped him to build a better understanding of what it is like to be a bee, and gave him leads to his scientific inquiries. In return, his discoveries in the lab were enhancing his dreams.

Dream worlds are a central part of humans and most likely other-than-humans’ lives. Neuroscience has shown that they are central to the human brain and its evolution, and not mere epiphenomena. Within these dream lands, time is telescoped, our sensorimotor system is numb, and language is liquefied, offering a space to try specific hypotheses.

Therianthropy is also an ongoing film project, which aims to build a liminal space, based upon Dr. Menzel’s accounts: a dream world where viewers foray into the world of bees.

The piece was originally produced by Josh Farmer (NTS) and broadcast on BBC 3 in 2021 as part of New Creatives London. The New Creatives is a talent development scheme that offers commissioning opportunities for emerging artists to create new artistic works in film, audio or interactive media, designed for BBC platforms. It is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts, and is led by ICA London.

A special thanks to Joanna Zielińska, Theophilos Tramboulis, and all the team at ΟCTOPUS and EMΣΤ, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens.