Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

POST ANIMAL

The 'post-animal' references the point in time where humans began to separate themselves from nature. Catherine Ingraham states that the three time periods responsible for this shift in ideology are the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and contemporary time.

The Renaissance is a period where we began to blur the boundaries of humans and animals. Due to the inventions of perspective and mathematics, humans begin to sublimate the identity that mixed them up with animals1.

With the Enlightenment, humans become further separated from animals because of biological and historical definitions. Our self-consciousness and ability to organize information sets us apart from animals.

The contemporary definition of animal actually states that an animal is any living thing other than a human being. We have now completely lost our animal hood and we begin to view ourselves apart from nature and we become dissolved in functionalist ideals such as modernism.

As a result we now have the post-animal human and the post-animal animal. Post-animal human life has lost its animalness but gradually acquired a biological identity that is now given equal, or even advances, status compared to human intellectual and spiritual life. Where as the post-animal animal life has lost biological status and a complex identity, as well as in many cases, life itself. Animals, even wild animals, are universally seen by humans as valuable primarily for their potential contribution to human life2.

Citations
Ingraham, Catherine. Architecture, Animal, Human: The Asymmetrical Condition. 2006, London: Routledge, pp.18
Ingraham, Catherine. Architecture, Animal, Human: The Asymmetrical Condition. 2006, London: Routledge, pp.17