The Butterfly Room

by Jesus Cisneros Estrada

It was like Easter. The flower’s bloody blues and sunny violets glisten, yet one alone can see them. Appearing to aimlessly float with the wind, it calculates its next move. It’s flapping ears listening to the symphonies the breeze carries. The velvety scent of nectar that the silky petals emit draws the soul near.. Sweet and sugary, the flower’s juices flowed to its mouth. But it wasn’t quite a mouth for it had no tongue. The view of animal sensation and its focus has shifted in every era. Steven Connor goes through variations of how humans have viewed animal sensation. As it transcended from seeing animals as superior to being a symbol for the refinement of sensation. Through this course we have focused on the state of being abnormal and while most of the relationships between animals and sensation related to one sense. I want to flip the narrative as we relate the full sensation of the butterfly to that of what we consider normal. Mark S. R. Jenner allows us to look into the individualized refinement of Floyer’s sensation. Floyer’s personal sensation experience is seen as atypical as he goes to the extremes of eating ash and soot to better understand the extent of his senses. In a way he is like a butterfly as they taste, touch, and experience the world in such unique ways. Here, the butterfly–an organism so far from the human is able to relate to the abnormalities of one within the species. We are able to see that the experimentation with one’s senses allows for a greater relation to the experiences of atypical organisms. Similarly, Julia Hyland-Bruno searches to find stronger relationships between human sensation and the sensation of organisms who evolved in different circumstances. So what’s it like to experience like a butterfly?

 

 

Auditory Recitation of Abstract and References

It Was Like a Butterfly – Visual of Pieces

Visual of Flower and Butterfly Production

Auditory Recreation of Work

 

References

Hyland-Bruno, Julia. “Bird Talk.” Metaphors of the Mind, March 2019, https://cargocollective.com/mind-metaphors/BIRD-TALK

Jenner, Mark S. R. “Tasting Lichfield,, Touching China: Sir John Floyer’s Senses.” The Historical Journal, vol. 53, no. 3, 2010, pp. 647–670., doi:10.1017/S0018246X10000233.

Steven Connor. (2006). The Menagerie of the Senses. The Senses and Society. 1. 9-26. 10.2752/174589206778055691.