The Learned Pig

Art – Thinking – Nature – Writing

Tag: ethics

  • Turning Tables

    Turning Tables

    An in-depth essay on the work of artist-activist Kathryn Eddy, from Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s new book, Listen, we all bleed, published by New Rivers Press, November 2021.

  • Breathing Trees

    Breathing Trees

    On a writing residency in the Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon, Gavin Van Horn embraces the vital possibilities of more-than-human perspectives.

  • Compassionate Climate Activism

    Compassionate Climate Activism

    Vermont-based environmental and social justice advocate Chris Gaynor on the compulsion to protect, educate and care for our species.

  • Animals Out of Place

    Animals Out of Place

    There’s a post on Instagram; a photo mottled with gallery reflections, close-up and a little oblique. It shows a vintage glass slide of a zookeeper and his charge. It’s not the best image but has an instant power. The keeper, wearing a peaked cap and a stern expression, holds high a short, straight chain. On…

  • Art in a deteriorating world

    Art in a deteriorating world

    An epistolary exploration of art’s moral responsibilities   “In the era of not yet, barely daring to guess of how soon,” wrote Welsh-British writer Horatio Clare about the melting sea ice, the planet’s air conditioner, in his book Icebreaker, published less then two years ago. Now the scientists dare to guess, and red lights on…

  • Carnevale

    Carnevale

    On the morning of April 21st, my phone showed several missed calls. My colleague Cath had been burgled in the early hours. We spoke briefly as she waited for the police to arrive, and then a text came through, ‘The car’s gone, I’m catching the bus.’ I text back, ‘Forget it, we can postpone’. She…

  • What is it like to be a pig?

    What is it like to be a pig?

    Most people know little about the characters and habits of the farm animals that live around us, often hidden away from view in large industrial sheds. What are they like, how do they live? Through careful observation we can learn more. Take, for example pigs. Pigs are quite like dogs – friendly, playful, tactile, really…

  • How do we improve the lives of pigs?

    How do we improve the lives of pigs?

    Ever since the idea of ‘intensifying’ pig production began to be discussed there has been a lively debate surrounding the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of taking pigs from outside and housing them indoors. Abigail Woodsi has written an historical account of the development of intensive pig production where she has drawn on records to display the…

  • The Unending Cycle

    The Unending Cycle

    For Ayesha I look into Haruki’s eyes and discover something that disturbs me profoundly. There is a familiarity. In the aftermath of The Demolition Of My Construct (my break-up), I must admit I am suffering from a fear of intimacy with anyone, anything. Even these fluffy felines, Haruki and Mowgli. What I see in his…

  • The Second Body

    The Second Body

    At 6 a.m. on a Thursday morning in November it was completely dark outside, but the butcher’s shop was strip-lit and the raw meat area was full of busy young men. It was difficult to see exactly what they were doing – the men were large and they were moving quickly in a small crowded…

  • The CleanMeat Revolution

    The CleanMeat Revolution

    In The Box Gallery at the heart of We The Curious – Bristol’s centre for science and technology – is David Lisser’s exhibition, ‘The CleanMeat Revolution’. From the vantage point of a fictional future, the exhibition looks back at the period around 2030–2080. The show presents artefacts excavated from an imagined past, documentation of protests…