Speculative Taxidermy

One finds in the programme of the Panopticon a similar concern with

observation, with characterization and classification, with the analyti-

cal arrangement of space. The Panopticon is a royal menagerie; the ani-

mal is replaced by man, individual distribution by specific grouping and

the king by the machinery of a furtive power. With this exception, the

Panopticon also does the work of a naturalist.

—MICHEL FOUCAULT, DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH

So it is that we have cornered the animals by limiting their sense of depth.

We have corralled them under the concept animal. What depth they do

have is dismissed as lesser than that of humans, or so foreign as to be un-

translatable and not worth pursuing in our human endeavors. This flatten-

ing of animals’ worlds into a thin layer of animal world as a life on the

surface of things has legitimated any number of cruel acts against animals.

—RON BROGLIO, SURFACE ENCOUNTERS: THINKING WITH ANIMALS AND ART

THE EYE OF POWER

This chapter further traces the search for a genealogy of speculative
taxidermy by focusing on natural history and the importance of its

2

A NATURAL HISTORY PANOPTICON

Power, Representation, and Animal Objectification