Meeting on second Norwegian animal ethics conference; revised theme

Wednesday last week I took part in a phone meeting with the other organisers of the second Norwegian animal ethics conference - Dyreetikkonferansen - which will be arranged August 22nd in Oslo. Several details remain to be figured out, but we are expecting to get much in place the next few weeks.

Brief report from the workshop "Agency in health care: Phenomenology and experience"

The scientific workshop "Agency in health care: Phenomenology and experience" was arranged at University of Stavanger's Department of Health Studies on Monday April 15th, with myself in a coordinating role. Besides functioning as the chair of a discussion session, I briefly opened the workshop (in the absence of Head of Department Kari Vevatne). I had also been taking care of several practicalities, and served as Stephen and Paul's host during their 2-day visit. The workshop featured lectures by Paul Thibault, Stephen Cowley, Febe Friberg and Sissel Eikeland Husebø - see program booklet. Some 12-15 people were present at one point or another, and discussions were fruitful, with practically all participants taking part.

An open lecture by Stephen Cowley, "Interactivity - implications for language and cognition", given Tuesday April 16th, was attended by some 10 people.

See also:

Announcement, program booklet for Stavanger workshop; discussions to be chaired by me

UiS workshop on agency in health care scheduled for April 15th

Spartacus issuing press release on Norwegian HAS anthology

Today Spartacus forlag/Scandinavian Academic press distributed a press release announcing the Human-Animal Studies anthology Hvem er villest i landet her: Råskap mot dyr og natur i antropocen, menneskets tidsalder [Who is wildest in this country here? Brutality towards animals and nature in the Anthropocene, the age of Man]. This book, which I have co-edited, will be published Wednesday May 15th, and on the same day there is a release event in Oslo (4 pm). The full text of the press release is available in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme.

The publishing house has further updated the book's webpage with link to the event 15/5, and also links to the press release on its press page. A printed version of the press release is being published during this week, and review copies distributed.

Opening of art exhibition: News story published in local newspaper; radio website

Monday April 13th the local newspaper Agder published a news story titled “Magedans på kunstutstilling” [Belly dance at art exhibition], on the opening of “Asylum (midt iblant oss) [Asylum (right in our midst)]” on Utsikten art center on April 11th. Quote in translation (for this post in Norwegian, see my Norwegian blog Utopisk Realisme): 

The art exhibition was opened with a causerie by philosopher Morten Tønnessen, who shared his thoughts on what it means to have your life on hold without being able to realise your potential and realise your dreams. 

The same news story, also by journalist Tor Magne Gausdal, was published on April 12th on the website of  Radio Kvinesdal. Gausdal is also the man behind a photograph from the opening, published on both of the mentioned sites, where I appear (right).

Opening of the art exhibition "Asylum" at Utsikten

April 11th I took part in the opening of the art exhibition, or more specifically video installation, "Asylum (midt i blant oss)" [Asylum - right in our midst] at Utsikten art center in Kvinesdal, Norway. The exhibition is on display until May 16th.

As my opening words, I read the philosophical causerie "Å ha livet på vent" [Having your life on hold]. The exhibition features video recordings from a Norwegian asylum center. The opening of the video installation was well visited, with some 50-60 people attending, about half of them with a background as asylum seekers. The program of the opening further included conversation with the artist, Eli Glader, belly dancing, and an informal panel discussion in which I also took part.

The next day, April 12th, I repeated part of my causerie for some 20 hotel guests around lunch time.

The manager of Utsikten, Torill Haugen, found me via my commercial philosophy site, Spør filosofen [Ask the philosopher].

Acknowledgement in Barbieri article(s) on language

I am mentioned in the Acknowledgements of the following article(s):

Barbieri, Marcello 2010. On the Origin of Language: A Bridge Between Biolinguistics and Biosemiotics [p. 221, Acknowledgments]. Biosemiotics 3.2: 201-223. Reprinted in slightly revised version as Barbieri 2012. 

Barbieri, Marcello, 2012: “Organic Codes and the Origin of Language” [p. 471, Acknowledgements], in L. Swan (ed.), Origin(s) of Design in Nature (= Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology 23), 445-473. Dordrecht: Springer.

Quote from Barbieri 2012:

I am deeply grateful to Noam Chomsky for suggesting various changes in the first draft of this chapter and for discussing them at length. I also wish to thank Natalia Abieva, Prisca Augustyn, Gérard Battail, Paul Cobley, Stephen Cowley, Almo Farina, Chris Ottolenghi, Liz Stillwaggon-Swan and Morten Tønnessen for their most appropriate notes. The manuscript of this chapter has been circulated to 60 members of the Biosemiotic community, and I wish to thank all of them for their comments.

"Beyond sentience" article due November 1st

The article "Beyond sentience: Biosemiotics as foundation for animal and environmental ethics", which I am co-writing with Jonathan Beever, will be due November 1st, according to our recent email exchange with the editors of the book project Animal meta-ethics: New directions in animal philosophy.