BECOMING-ANIMAL: LIVING WITH PETS - A STUDY OF DOMESTIC HOUSEHOLDS WITH PETS

Abstract

This paper serves to explore the relevance of a house as an important marker of humanity when pets are introduced into a domestic setting. More importantly, it questions if our familiarity with the house has unknowingly repressed our ability to imagine and reexamine new possibilities of utilizing the space. Our relationship with pets has all along been an ambiguous one. The issue regarding our understanding of them is a longstanding debate with no definitive stance. Hence the paper does not serve to decipher their behavior in the house but rather to fathom the observations openly. The role of pets serves as the other to humans in this dissertation, bringing unfamiliar events into the house. When this uncertainty enters an orderly domain, struggle arises as we are constantly finding an appropriate representation. Amidst this set-up, I wish to uncover peculiar scenarios at home where the identity of pets and humans are entangled in the order of the house. From there, the paper comes in to challenge the assumption of the house, fully equipped with devices, as an established domain for humans, in the way we have always readily accepted. Cross referencing the observations with selected theories, the paper attempts to unveil the deeper impacts affecting the house and humans than just trivial scenes that are put on replay daily. Following Deleuze’s theory of becoming-animal, it suggests a movement from a stable identity to one that is variable or known as deterritorialization. In this exploration, pets, humans and the house are crucially interrelated factors, affecting the stability of each other. Assessing three distinctively different domestic settings with pets, the paper hopes to present a gradual process of the deterritorialization of the house; where rules and orders are initially shaken, and to a point where they no longer dictate the space; lastly, emphasizing the potential of the house to be freed from orders. When the house no longer serves to uphold our identity, are we left vulnerable or stronger as humans? In the last event, the house transforms from a rigid space into one that is spontaneous. Through this process, the paper seeks to apprehend that new possibilities can be brought into the house by pets. Their differences from humans may bring inconvenience but with these, it fetches us unforeseen circumstances to contemplate over. Serving as a reminder that we are able to analyze and are equipped with problem solving capabilities, thus we do not necessary need to conform. Moreover the individuality of each situation is unique to the pair of human-pet users, thus the paper only aim to reflect and not to provide a standard or solution to follow.