NYUAD

Animal Perspectives
Spring 2021
Last Revised: March 19, 2021

Meeting Times: Mon/Wed 1:15PM-2:30PM

Classroom: REMOTE / ONLINE
Course Number: CCOL-UH 1039
Credit Hours: 4
Prerequisite: None

Professor: Alexis Gambis

Email: alexis.gambis@nyu.edu
Office Hours: By appointment (please email to schedule)
Based at NYU Madrid (CET + 3hrs Gulf Time Zone)

The course will be taught virtually. Here are some guidelines for the course:

● Announcement of class material will still be sent Wednesdays via email & New Classes.
● Film viewings will all take place via the Labocine.com platform. Starting on week 9, all
video exercises will be done using personal cameras and mobile phones.
● Video exercises should be submitted on Wednesdays / 10am by Google Drive or
WeTransfer.
● This revised schedule may be subject to change based on further updates from the
University.

Course Description:

Throughout history, humans have repeatedly turned to animals to address some of the
fundamental questions in biology. Select species coined model organisms have been widely used
to probe into questions of development, behavior, evolution, disease and recently been
summoned to demystify cognition and perception. Our fascination and horror have also led us to
anthropomorphize non-human species in order to create frameworks through which we
understand and relate to them. This course will tackle a number of biological paradigms where
the animal has been a central figure. What determines the animals we use as subjects in research?
What are the ethical and moral implications of animal-based experiments? And how have
discoveries been communicated (or not) in the scientific community and popular culture. As a
final project, students will pick an animal exploring its representations in scientific and artistic
practices. Through the making of a short film, they will give the animal a unique perspective and
an opportunity to speak back to us.

Teaching Methodology

Lectures will be highly interactive leading up to discussions stemming from research papers,
films and other audio/visual material presented in class. Students are encouraged to participate
and think critically about experimental data presented to them. They will be asked to compare
and contrast animal representations in various fields from science to art to philosophy. They will
debate whether there is a similar sense of animal ethics and responsibility in artistic and
scientific practices. Animal-based research will also be contextualized in terms of the broader
scientific pursuits. How does popular culture and media cover animal-driven breakthroughs and
its relevance to our human existence?

Visual material - artwork, raw data and film - will complement the lectures and in-class
discussions. For example, the discussion of the fruit fly model organism (recently awarded the
2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their contribution to understanding biological
clocks) will be discussed in the context of an eclectic range of visual material including larval
tissue microscopy videos, clips from David Cronenberg’s The Fly movie, and a Jackson
Pollock-reminiscent digital illustration (from HHMI Biointeractive) depicting the flight paths and
speeds of fruit flies in a wind tunnel.

At the end of the semester, students will be asked to make short films in which a chosen animal
reflects on its role in its environment or society, questioning its service or sacrifice for scientific
and/or artistic goals.

Assignments, Deadlines and Grading

All assigned work will be discussed or turned in on Wednesdays. Failure to turn in assignments in
class (written or video) will lead to a grade reduction. Mid-term and visual narratives are graded.
All other assignments (reflections, video exercises) are given full marks if turned in by the
deadline. Video exercises will not be accepted if not presented during class time.

1/ Reflections & Video Exercises

For the first 8 weeks, students will be asked to write weekly one-page reflections in which they
will be encouraged to not only synthesize assigned readings and (artwork/film) viewings but
critically assess the assigned material as a whole. These reflections are to be submitted via email
on Wednesdays (first 8 weeks). They are not graded but if they are not turned in after class, this
will impact your final grade .
Audiovisual exercises will allow students to translate their knowledge and opinions into visual
storytelling. They correspond to “visualized” reflections and do not need to be polished. Students
will tell animal stories blurring the lines between documentary and fiction. These videos will
replace reflections after the midterm (Week 8) and should be no longer than 2-minutes in
duration. They should be submitted no later than the day before presentation (Tuesdays at 5pm)
via email, Google Drive or New Classes (to be queued up for Wednesday class). Failure to
submit or present in class will lead to a reduction in grade. Late submissions are not accepted.

Photo Exercise 1: The Tale of An Observed Animal

Video Exercise 2: A Model Organism Speaks Back to Us
Video Exercise 3: Chimera Portraits: hybrid creatures, hybrid narratives
Video Exercise 4: Animal Share a Story (Real or Fiction)
Exercise #5: Final Project Pitch Session
Final Animal Perspective Films

2/ Mid-Term
Students will have an midterm covering 8 weeks worth of material covering the principle of
model organisms, what assays are tailored to animal research, why animals are necessary for
understanding human biomedicine, and the ethics and artistic interfaces of such activities.

3/ Visual Narratives
Students will write two essays (5 pages/double-spaced/no images/without bibliography).

#1: “The Highest Animal” (inspired by Mark Twain’s “The Lowest Animal”)
#2: Human-Animal Chimera : Reality or Myth?

4/ Final Film & Paper

Each student will be asked to choose an animal and explore their use in scientific and artistic
practices. The film and paper should address issues such as biological applications, bioethics and
the pros and cons of animal-based experimentation. It should also contrast how this same animal
is used in artistic disciplines. Every student will be asked to provide a voice and vision to a
unique animal. This “new way of seeing” unavoidably is influenced by an anthropomorphic lens
and is part of the exercise. Students can source from the video exercises and visual narratives for
the final film and paper.

Each student will hand in at the end of the semester a ‘Short Film” (between 3-5 mins) and a
5-7-page “Written Report”. The film screening, participation in Q&A session and timely delivery
of material are mandatory for completion of the final project.
5/ Grading
Attendance & Participation: 20 %
Weekly Reflections & Video Exercises: 20 %
Mid-Term: 20 %
Visual Narratives: 20 % (10% each)
Final Film & Report : 20 % (10% film, 10% paper)

Note about absences: The final grade would drop 10% with three absences, 20% with four, and
so forth. This is regardless of excused or unexcused absences. An excused absence requires
notification before class and a medical note delivered to the professor. The student that has
missed class is responsible for catching up on the material that was presented in class.

Learning Objectives

Students will gain a broad understanding on how animal-based research has been instrumental in
understanding human development, behavior and disease. We will also explore the use of
animals for scientific and artistic purposes evoking recent controversy of animal-based
experimentation and art.

The objectives are the following:

1. Understand the importance of model organisms in scientific research
2. Weigh the pros and cons of animal-based research
3. Discover the worlds of myth, culture and art surrounding animal representations
4. Highlight the necessity of visual imagery and narrative in scientific communication

Additional Class Material (chronological / by release date / partial )

Material for class is cited by week in the Course Schedule but it will also be sent out on
Wednesday after class a reminder for next week’s assignment. Note that small revisions may
occur and will be mentioned in the email. The weekly material consists of films, video clips,
scientific articles, and websites/blogs.

It is important to carefully submit reflections, visual narratives and video exercises on time as
they are integral to Wednesday’s class discussions. Failure to do so or late submissions will lead
to a grade reduction.

Below is an additional list of material either presented in class or suggested for outside of class.
A suggested list of films and readings to complement course material will also be provided
during Spring break.

Science Video Resources & Website

❏ Labocine.com : A Science Film Magazine Platform
❏ HHMI Biointeractive: free science education resources (video, illustrations, study texts)

Science Journals, Magazines & Newspapers

Nature, Cell Press, Journal of Visual Experiments, New Scientist, The Scientist, Scientific
American, Quanta, Wired, The New York Times, The Guardian

More Articles, Reviews & Book Chapters

❏ The age of model organisms (Rowland H. Davis, Nature Review Genetics, 2004)
❏ The future of model organisms (Aitman et al. Nature Rev. Genetics, 2011)
❏ Breakthrough as gene-editing technique restores sight to blind animals (Hannah Devlin,
The Guardian, 2016)
❏ Virtual Reality for freely moving animals (Stowers et al., Nature, 2017)
❏ The Non-Human Rights Project: Conferring personhood to non-human animals (Tatiana
freiin von Rehinbaben, Stanford Press, 2017)

Films (ordered by release date / select list / available upon request)

Short Films & Scientific Videos

❏ Animals (Etienne-Jules Marey, France 1891, 5 min)
❏ Cheese Mites (F. Martin Duncan, UK, 1903, 1 min)
❏ The Acrobatic Fly (F. Percy Smith, United Kingdom, 1910, 3 min)
❏ The Vampire (Jean Painleve, France, 1945, 13 min)
❏ Stop or Go: With Doctor Norton Zinder (NetScience, USA, 1968, 22)
❏ The Worlds of Dr. Vishniac (Donald F. Hornig, USA/Russia, 1972, 20 min)
❏ Blank (Boris Hars-Tschachotin, Germany, 2010, 7 min)
❏ Micro Empire (Clemens Wirth, Austria, 2012, 2 min)
❏ The Death of an Insect (Hannes Vartiainen, Pekka Veikkolainen, Finland, 2012, 7 min)
❏ Silent Passengers (Hirofumi Nakamoto, Japan, 2012, 15 min)
❏ The Coral Reef Are Dreaming Again (Lucas Leyva, USA, 2013, 3 min)
❏ Other Voices (Sarah Enid Hagey, USA, 2013, 6 min)
❏ Primate Cinema (Rachel Mayeri, USA, 2013, 11 min)
❏ Making of the Fittest: Evolving Switches/Evolving Bodies (HHMI, USA, 2014, 16 min)
❏ Beetle Bluffs (Anna Lindemann, USA, 2014, 12 min)
❏ Animated Life: Seeing the Invisible (Flora Lichtman, Sharon Shattuck, USA, 2015, 7 min)
❏ Monkey Love Experiments (Ainslie Henderson, Will Anderson, UK, 2015, 9 min)
 ❏ A Fly Called Fig (Samuel Ridgeway, UAE, 2015, 4 min)
❏ The Return (Shaima Al Ameri, Fatma Al Ghanem, UAE, 2015, 30 min)
❏ Abu Dhabi (Miraflor Santos, UAE, 2015, 6 min)
❏ Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations on the Dreamlife of Beasts (Brian M. Cassidy,
Melanie Shatzky, Canada, 2016, 14 min)
❏ The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani, Qatar, 2016, 69 min)
❏ Shaheen (Samuel Ridgeway, UAE, 2017, 10 min)

Feature-length films
❏ Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, France, 1966, 95 min)
❏ The Fly (David Cronenberg, USA, 1986, 95 min)
❏ Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, USA, 2009, 68 min)
❏ Sweetgrass (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 101 min)
❏ Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou, France, 1996, 80 min)
❏ Project Nim (James Marsh, USA, 2011, 100 min)
❏ Bestiaire (Denis Côté, Canada/France, 2012, 72 min)
❏ Life of Pi (Ang Lee, USA, 2012, 127 min)
❏ Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes (Nancy Andrews, USA, 2015, 86 min)
❏ The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece, 2015, 119 min)
❏ Rats (Morgan Spurlock, USA, 2016, 84 min)
❏ Kedi (Ceyda Torun, Turkey 2017)

Supplementary Videos/Figures from research articles (general descriptions)

❏ Drosophila (fruit fly ) Behavior & Developmental (Microscopy)
❏ C.elegans (nematode): Feeding, Foraging and Mating
❏ Mouse Activity in Behavioral Assays
❏ Virtual Reality for freely moving animals (series of vignette videos)

Evaluation of Participation and Attendance

To ensure the integrity of this academic experience, class attendance is mandatory, and
unexcused absences will affect a student’s semester grades. Students are responsible for making
up any work missed due to absence. Assignments not turned in on time or repeated absences in a
course may result in a lower and possibly failing grade.

Academic Dishonesty Policy:

Academic dishonesty is a serious offense! The work you submit must be your own. Academic
dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, copying answers from another student, allowing other
students to copy your answers, communicating exam answers to other students during an exam,
attempting to use notes or other aids during an exam, or tampering with an exam after it has been
corrected and then returning it for extra credit. If you use someone else’s work and incorporate it
into your writing, you must identify the original source. This includes ideas that are not yours, as
well as phrases, sentences, passages, images, graphs, diagrams, and web links. Anything that is
not originally yours MUST be cited. Any cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you are
having difficulties or do not know how to properly cite other people’s work, see me or the
instructor, use library resources or visit the writing center to obtain additional support. If
academic dishonesty is suspected, it will be dealt with in adherence to the official guidelines of
NYU Abu Dhabi. For additional information, see:
https://nyuad.nyu.edu/students/campus.life/policies/policy.academic.integrity.html
 Course Schedule

*** Remote classes / video conference ****

Jan 18- May 10, 2021
_ ___________________________ _

Week 1 (Jan 18-20) Our Praise of Model Organisms

● What is a model organism?
● Animal traits that ‘matter?’
● Shifting (scientific) values and new rankings
(Jan 18)
In class - Exercise (Monday): What animal would you be if you weren’t human? Explain its
characteristics (scientific, artistic, personal, other) that make it appealing to you?

assigned (Jan 20):

❏ Essay:“The Lowest Animal” – Mark Twain (1896)
❏ Article Another Nobel Prize for the Fruit Fly (David Bilder, The New York Times, 2017)
❏ Article/Podcast: Biologists Search for New Model Organisms (E, Singer, Quanta, 2016)
❏ Film: Honey, Rain & Dust (Nujoom Alghanem, UAE, 2017, 87 min)
❏ Film (optional): The Fly Room (Alexis Gambis, USA, 2014, 81 min)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #1
_ ___________________________ _

Week 2 (Jan 25-27) Subject or Actor in the Experiment

● Experimental habitats for animals
● Recording & measuring the animal experiment
● Who controls the experiment?
assigned (Jan 27):
❏ Film: The Secret of NIMH (Don Bluth, USA, 1982, 84 min)
❏ Population Density and Social Pathology (John Calhoun, Sci. American, 1962)
❏ Article: Mice Take Selfies of Their Own Brains (Jessica Wright, Sci. American, 2016)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #2
_ ___________________________ _

Week 3 (Feb 1-3) See Me Grow & Learn

● Ancestral forms hidden in our early life
● We don’t build from scratch
● Templates for new designs
Class Visit: Claude Desplan “Animal Perspectives on Color Vision” (Feb 3)

assigned (Feb 3):

❏ Book (Chapter excerpts): Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Sean Carroll, 2006) - Chapter
1-2 (p17-52)
❏ Film: The Seahorse (Jean Painleve, France, 1929, 12 min)
❏ Film: The Making of the Fittest: Evolution of the Skittleback Fish (HHMI, USA, 2014, 16
Film: BBC-Earth , Life Story Ep05 - Courtship - Puffer Fish (From Netflix) (David
Attenborough, UK 2015, 3 min)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #3 (optional)
❏ Due in class: Visual Narrative #1 “The Highest Animal” (inspired by Mark Twain’s “The
Lowest Animal”)
_ ___________________________ _

Week 4 (Feb 8-10) Do I Behave Like You?

● Where did you learn to behave that way (acquired vs.
innate behavior)
● Learning by recording actions...and playback!
● Can I read your mind through your actions?
assigned (Feb 10):
❏ Book: Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, 1915)
❏ Video: TED-Ed: The Cockroach Beatbox (Greg Gage, USA, 2011, 6 min)
❏ Tutorial: RoboRoach Experiment #1 /­ Neural Interface Surgery (Backyard Brains, 2010)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #4
_ ___________________________ _

Week 5 (Feb 15-17) I Think ... so I Am … Human or Animal?

● Understanding animal senses, perception and the limits
● Animal as a model for human intelligence
assigned (Feb 17):
❏ Book: Timbuktu (excerpts) (Paul Auster, 1999)
❏ Article: What is it like to be a bat? (Thomas Nagel, JSTOR, 1974)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #5
_ ___________________________ _

Week 6 (Feb 22-24) Go Ahead, Experiment on me, your (distant) Cousin!

● Is it ethical to use animals in research?
● Guidelines for animal research
● Differences in moral judgment on animals in research
assigned (Feb 24):
❏ Review Article: Beastly Conduct: Ethical Issues In Animal Experimentation (Arthur
Kaplan, 1993, Annals of the NYAS)
❏ Film: Project Nim (James Marsh, 2011, USA)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #6
_ ___________________________ _

Week 7 (Mar 1-3) Hybrids: (un)Natural Creatures

● Wild-type, variation and/or mutant?
● Gene modification & precision-editing.
● Transgenics Species: State of the “art?”
● Human-animal mosaics and chimeras.
March 3: Heather Dewey-Hagborg
assigned (March 3):
❏ Review Article: Human-Animal Hybrids and Chimeras: What’s in a Name? (Shane
Patrick McNamee, JAHR, 2015)
❏ Review Article: Bio Art: From Genesis to Natural History of the Enigma (Eduardo Kac,
MIT Press, 2015)
❏ Op. Article: The Chimera Question (Vivek Ramaswamy, The New York Times, 2007)
❏ Due in class: Reflection #7
_ ___________________________ _

Week 8 (Mar 8) MID-TERM

Mid-term sent on March 8 / Due by end of day

_ ___________________________ _

SPRING BREAK
March 9-15 (Tue-Mon)
No class (March 10, 15)

Assignments Over Break

Photo Exercise #1 (over break): The Tale of An Observed Animal (Due March 17)
Read: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1887) (Review March 22)
Visual Narrative #2: Human-Animal Chimera (Due April 1st)

Start thinking about your final Animal Perspectives projects

_ ___________________________ _
Week 9 (Mar 17) Photo Exercise #1: The Tale of An Observed Animal
Present the first audiovisual assignment in class.
_ ___________________________ _

Week 10 (Mar 22-24) Umwelt & the Very Particular Animal Experience
● Biopolitics: animal as a substitute for human discourse
● New perspectives …. new empathy?
● Raising consciousness about our shared environment.
● Anthropomorphic lens: animals and the human imagination

assigned (March 24):

❏ Review in class : Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1887) - March 22
❏ Book Review: Can Fiction Show Us How Animals Think? (Ivan Kreilkamp, The New
Yorker, 2015)
❏ Article: The "Eyes" of Algae offer a view of man (John Noble Wilford, The New York
Times, 1985)
❏ ITEOTA 360 Experience: See The Worlds Through the Eyes of An Animal (2016)

March 24 / Editing Tricks with John Burkhart

___________________________

Starting Week 11, Wednesdays are devoted to showing video exercises and pitch session

Week 11 (Mar 29-31) Hey Human, Bring Me Back from the Dead!
● Why save endangered species?
● Human’s role in animal preservation
● Resurrecting extinct animals
March 29: Guest Lecture - Carlos Guedes
assigned (Mar 31):
❏ Article: Should we bring extinct species back from the dead? (Science, 2016, David
Shultz)
❏ Film: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, USA, 1993, 127 min)
❏ Presented in class: Video Exercise #2 ‘A Model Organism Speaks Back to Us’

Due Visual Narrative #2: Human-Animal Chimeras (Due: Thursday, April 1st)
_ ___________________________ _
Week 12 (Apr 5-7) No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
● Animal mimicry: learning from animal behavior and tricks
● Genes with attitude: From one animal to the next.
● Designing the perfect artificial system.
● Robots: tools to investigate animal behavior

April 6 / 7pm GST: Recorded conversation / Charles Siebert (NY Times Writer, Parrots
with PTSD)

assigned (April 7):

❏ Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945)
❏ Article: Artificial Intelligence Helps Build Brain Atlas of Fly Behavior (Kristin Branson,
HHMI, 2017)
❏ Presented in class: Video Exercise #3 ‘Chimera Portrait’
_ ___________________________ _

Week 13 (Apr 12-14) No Animals Were Harmed in the Making of this Movie
● Filmmaking with animals.
● Code of Practice for the welfare of animals in film.
● Various roles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
April 12: Guest Lecture: Ozge Calafato “Animals in Cities”

assigned (April 14):

❏ Article: Animals in Film: Ethics of the Human Gaze (Randy Malamud, 2010)
❏ Film: The Story of the Weeping Camel (Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni, Germany,
2003, 93 min)
❏ Presented in class: Video Exercise #4 ‘Animals Share A Story’
_ ___________________________ _

** Individual Meetings with students about topics of interest

** Schedule time **
_ ___________________________ _

Week 14 (Apr 19-21) Animal Speak Back at … or … For Us

● Giving a voice to the voiceless.
● Animals watch movies & species-specific cinema
● Animals with a movie-camera & direct (human) actors
April 19: Recorded conversation / Rachel Mayeri (Primate Cinema)
assigned (April 21):
❏ Book: I Am A Cat (excerpts) (Natsume Sōseki, Japan, 1095)
❏ Book: Anima (excerpts) (Wajdi Mouawad, Lebanon/Canada, 2017)
❏ Short Films
❏ CatCam (Seth Keal, USA, 15 min, 2010)
❏ The Great Silence (Allora & Calzadilla, Puerto Rico, 2016, 11 min)
❏ Insan (Alexis Gambis, UAE, 2017, 13 min)
❏ Capucine (Nieto, France/Japan, 42 min, 2010)
❏ In class: Exercise #5 Pitch Session “Pitch Your final project in a few minutes”
_ ___________________________ _

Week 15 (Apr 26) Shapeshifters, Spirit Animals and Other Transformations

● Humans behaving like animals
● Channeling animal suffering & cruelty.
● Rituals & spirituality.
assigned (April 26):
❏ Short Film: Primate Cinema (Rachel Mayeri, USA, 11 min, 2013)
❏ Short Film: Lamina (Christian Tschanz, Switzerland, 2012)
❏ Article: Abraham Poincheval lives inside a bear for two weeks (Design Boom, 2014)
❏ Nagualism. Carlos Castaneda The Words Of Don Juan Matus- The Rule of the Nagual
(6,9,176-181)
__________

Week 15/16 (April 28 - May 3) - Film Screening of Final projects w/ Q&A

assigned (April 28 / May 3):

❏ Final report due (May 3)
❏ Video files submitted and presented in class (send prior via Classes/G Drive)
❏ Q&A post-screening w/ each student filmmaker

_ ___________________________ _