Desiring a Connection with Others: Learning from and with dogs through artistic research

The animal, and the questions that pertain to it in respect of its often-complex relationship with humanity, are of significance when considering agency, equality and effective co-dependencies. How human animals respond too, and treat non-humans, particularly those invited into our homes to be companions, has pertinency within the assembly of interspecies constructs. That non-human animals are always the observed (Berger, 1980) must be re-examined, re-addressed and re-balanced for it influences how humans consider other species as bodies of lesser value. This article explores the intricacies, complexities and productive abundancies in my artistic research project, Be Your Dog, which aims to do just. It discusses gender perspectives and specificities, the formation of the dog pack and its individual components, and the sway of the gallery on artistic relevance in this project that explores how to establish equality through interspecies synchronicity and empathy within a creative act. Available online in English and Spanish, and in print in Spanish.N/