RESPONSE TO SHUKIN READING (Introduction and chapter 4)

In the introduction reading of Shukin I enjoyed the fact that the author highlighted many of the ethnographers that we have been speaking in class. Agabem, Foucalt, Derrida and many other ethnographers were mentioned in this reading. She reexplained their argument as well provided her insight or questioned someone else's theory. What I particularly like about this article is that she speaks about two different aspects about 'animal' and 'capital'. On page 16 she says,

The ring in this book's title intimates, with simultaneously ominous and hopeful repercussions, that animal and capital are increasingly produced as a semiotic and material closed loop, such that the meaning and matter of the one feeds seamlessly back into the meaning and matter of the other.

Looking at the chapter 4 reading, Shukin continues discussing about 'animal' and 'capital' but in terms of biopolitics. For me the reading was a bit confusing, but she did not fail to address her arguments further. She is trying to focus on the life of the animal and again refers to the ethnographers listed above.

Looking at the films from Wednesday class, I enjoyed the Parenthesis film. I thought of it as kaleidoscope in that the author wanted to portray as sometimes viewing a film closed minded...and not seeing the bigger picture. The film had no narration just pictures and sounds; the only picture seen was of one animal. My question is, was this the point of her film, that some people only look at animals one way? Whether they would studying them or conducting an experiment, what purpose did this show, or was that the purpose to see right through the lens that we normally do not see?