From petishism to rewilding: Representations of wildlife in interactive media

Abstract

Safari Central, an augmented reality app that seeks to ‘rewild’ (or reconnect) wildlife with people, lets users take photographs with six virtual animals that are based on real-life animals. I argue that these representations of animals are an example of petishizationPetishism includes overidentifying with an animal, an emphasis on dominance over animals and over-representing of certain traits of animals. I trace these qualities of petishism across three other popular forms of interactive media that have the same goal of facilitating care (Tamagotchi, Pokémon and Zoo Tycoon) to discuss the ways in which Safari Central replicates earlier designs. I argue that to better facilitate care between people and animals, designers of interactive media should consider alternate conceptions of care and use Julie theory of performance ethics. Performance ethics understands animals’ performances as communicative transactions and positions humans as listeners. I conclude by proposing alternate designs that incorporate performance ethics and alternate conceptions of care into interactive media.