Public Attunement with More-than-Human Others: Witnessing the Life and Death of Bear 71

Abstract

This analysis draws theoretical and political lessons from the experiences of Bear 71, a female grizzly bear who lived and died next to one of Canada’s flagship tourist destinations, Banff National Park. What makes this bear’s story remarkable are the ways in which her daily actions were rendered perceptible, visible, and public through a complex network of digital technologies that record, store, and transmit information. In witnessing the life and death of Bear 71 through an innovative interactive documentary created by the National Film Board of Canada, we observe transformations bound up with cultures lived increasingly through digital media and surveillance. Making sense of these transformations in part warrants an account of the role of digital technologies and the politics of (re)mediation in the practices and ethics of attunement to more than human worlds and lives. In such public environments, immediacy, proximity, and connection are increasingly achieved in and through technological mediation. At stake is a broader conjuncture wherein digital information systems augment the capacity for collective care and concern in public life while simultaneously facilitating the surveillance of and intervention into private lives.