CHICKTROPOLIS

The project is an ironic investigation of how humans relate to farm animals — more specifically, how the ongoing spatial separation between humans and the animals they rely on for food and other forms of agricultural work can make animals seem to be nothing more than utilitarian machines. The everyday life of the average human is almost completely disconnected from the land and animals that support them. The constructed distance between the human “us” and the animal “others” is increasing to the point that distinctions between machines and animals look blurry purely from distanced detachment. From our removed perspective, the extreme demand for cheap food production and the diversion of the pet economy distorts animals until they look more like anthropomorphic projections to entertain and decorate. My aim for this semester is to create a semi-public space that inhabits free range chicken in an ethical manor combining living spaces for humans. People should see what they eat and understand where their food comes from.