Playing String Figures with Companion Species

Chapter 1 draws on histories and politics of pigeon-human interactions to explore basic changes in thinking and feeling, in a movement from bounded individualism to tentacular patterning. Drawing from science studies, multispecies studies, storytelling, ecological and developmental biology, and anthropology, the chapter asks how situated companion species engage each other in meaningful material reworlding. A key phrase of the chapter is “It matters which ideas think other ideas.” Focusing on an art/science project bringing together racing pigeons, engineers, artists, and pigeon fanciers, the book shows how critters render each other capable and how “becoming-with” displaces bounded individualism in theory and practice.