Spirit Zoo Logic

<p dir="ltr">Research Structure </p><p dir="ltr">Spirit Zoologic employs 3D animation to create a collection of animal apparitions that respond to humanity's need to symbolise profound experiences of loss, fear, love, and death. Drawing from John Berger's "Why Look at Animals?", this practice-based research examines how capitalism has fractured ancient human-animal relationships, reducing animals to spectacle or commodity. The work manifests digital creatures—both endangered and stable species—that function as contemporary totems, addressing imbalances around power and the sacred during times of collective crisis. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Contribution </p><p dir="ltr">This research proposes "Spirit Zoologic" as a framework for understanding human-animal relationships through digital mediation. By positioning 3D animation as a site of interspecies encounter, it challenges Berger's assertion that modern animals disappoint through lost autonomy, suggesting digital spaces might restore reciprocal engagement. Through each creature's haunting question "will you miss me when I'm gone?", the work establishes new vocabularies for discussing extinction, presence, and absence in the Anthropocene. </p><p dir="ltr">Research Significance </p><p dir="ltr">Spirit Zoologic addresses species extinction and environmental crisis through digital culture, proposing that stories become mythologies that outlive their tellers. The work suggests digital technologies can serve as meaningful encounter spaces rather than mere documentation tools, creating liminal boundaries between presence and absence, real and digital. This research offers new methodologies for processing collective grief while questioning whether digital apparitions might restore sacred human-animal connections in an era of ecological collapse.</p>