Dr André Krebber (University of Kassel, Germany / IASH Fellow):
»Owlet Moths, … [with] Hair like Hungarian Bears«: Recovering Animal Particularity and Environmental Uncertainty
The environmental crisis has raised our sensibility for the unpredictability of nature. Animals seem to be particularly vivid reminders of such nonhuman self-activity. My talk will explore natural beauty as a feature to come to terms with this agency by way of the work of early modern ethologist Herman Samuel Reimarus (1694-1760) and his theory of animal art drives and the naturalist art practice of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and her investigation of the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies. Reimarus’ work presents animals as entities mediated by species-specific and individual traits and spontaneity, whereas Merian’s images present a universalized understanding of the process of metamorphosis while retaining the individual particularity of the objects against their classification. My assumption is that natural beauty provides an empirical manifestation of such self-activity in nature and allows us to come to terms with the current uncertainty in our relationship to nature.