Other-Worlds: encounters with the visual perception of lungfishes through science and art

[Truncated] Lungfishes are large, freshwater, lobe-finned fishes that have the ability to breathe both dissolved and atmospheric oxygen through gills and "primitive" lungs, respectively. Six species of lungfishes remain worldwide; four in Africa (Protopterus spp.), one in South America (Lepidosiren paradoxa) and one in Australia (Neoceratous forsteri). Lungfishes are the closest living descendants of the ancestors of all terrestrial vertebrates, and are vital to the study of the evolution of vision in tetrapods because of their association with animals that made the remarkable transition from water onto land.

This unique interdisciplinary study explores the visual perception and experience of lungfishes through biological science and visual art, while also tracing the history of human cultural interactions with this significant animal. Scientific data generated through anatomical, electrophysiological and behavioural experimentation contributes to the emerging field of lungfish visual ecology, and artistic research provides a more sensorial speculation of the lungfish visual experience in order to reflect on how we (humans) produce knowledge of non-humans and the limitations of these methods.

To begin, a cultural history of non-human animal visual perception is investigated to understand and acknowledge the limitations of technologies and our anthropocentric perception of reality. Human narratives from the nineteenth century to present day are traced to reveal the similarities and differences in previous attempts to uncover non-human animal perceptual capabilities, with a particular focus on Jakob von Uexküll and his concept of the Umwelt. A collaborative art project titled ‘Inperception’ (2012) that endeavoured to interpret the Umwelten of Australian lungfishes through contemporary scientific knowledge and art is discussed as a case study.