Karen Piddington

Biography

This practice-led research investigates how contemporary artworks can rethink human–nonhuman relations through moving image, sound and sculpture. Central to the project is the concept of ‘becoming-animal’, explored as a mode of perception and experience that unsettles the identity distinction between human and nonhuman animals. Through immersive and sensory strategies, the research examines how alternative forms of interspecies coexistence might be imagined beyond hierarchical models of human dominance.

Grounded in practice as research, the project unfolds through making and reflection, where artistic processes generate questions and possibilities that are critically examined through theory. Drawing on animal studies and posthuman thinking, particularly the work of Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz and Donna Haraway, the research explores how human and nonhuman lives are entangled and how more inclusive forms of coexistence might emerge.

The work is informed by lived encounters with nonhuman animals in local ecologies around Brighton and Hove. Through intuitive filming, sensory immersion and experimental editing techniques including layering, repetition, distortion and sonic manipulation, the research creates ambiguous spaces where identities and perspectives become fluid. By positioning video-making itself as a site of ‘becoming-animal’, the project invites viewers into immersive multispecies worlds that foster awareness of interdependence and coexistence.