Multispecies Storytelling

Multispecies Storytelling is about becoming with. Becoming with is not a finite state, but rather a constant growing web of relations due to interacting, understanding and learning. It forges a world for non-humans to exist independently of humans. Non-humans are removed from the narratives that suggest they are only important in relation to what human's desire in turn giving them agency and purpose. This allows for the story of non-humans to be told without human intervention. This also feeds into the argument that telling non-human stories from the human perspective can be considered selfish, entitled or dismissive. Multispecies Storytelling allows room for humans to learn from as well as understand non-human without impacting on them, instead, it allows them to be co-authors of history. A student added that non-humans have lived along-side us for a while and just as we have put meaning to things like birthdays, Tuesdays or even Ground hog day, who is to say that other species haven't assigned some type of meaning to things too. I thought the idea of other species having their own destinies was interesting as I never think about non-humans beyond what they can and can’t do for humans. I was immediately reminded of an experiment done by CrowBox. The experimentation platform designed a bird feeder with the loose intentions of autonomously training Corvids to help collect garbage or sort through discarded electronics. It uses a system of four stages that eventually lead to the corvids depositing coins they found on the ground in exchange for peanuts. Posed as an ‘elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human ‘, the long-term goal for this exchange is to eventually put Corvids to work. It is interesting to think of the relationship between giving other species agency and intervening on the lives of other species to better the quality of life for humans.