By Vincent Reijnders. Introduction This paper will present the findings of a field trip to Rotterdam Zoo. It will embed the observations into a broader, theoretical framework on thinking about zoos. The observations are analysed from a multitude of perspectives; including thoughts on looking at animals and the animal gaze, zoo design, the tension between…

By Leonie Brasser. Introduction Blijdorp is one of the largest, and with about 1,5 million visitors a year, most popular zoos in the Netherlands. ‘Special Encounters’ is its central slogan and with its own specific history, being ‘the zoo in which Bokito once escaped,’ Blijdorp proved to be very interesting for my research. Since the…

By Melissa Geerars. According to John Berger, zoos “cannot but disappoint” (28). In the zoo, each animal is framed by a cage, and the visitor goes from cage to cage, like visitors in an art gallery. However, every time, the visitor is disappointed, because often they are just lying around, or even out of sight,…

By Lauren Hoogen Stoevenbeld. There is something strange going on when a research project becomes almost like a school trip. Upon hearing that three of my fellow students and I were going to visit a zoo to do research, my friends wished us a nice day and said they hoped we would have sunny weather,…

By Eamonn Connor. Zoochosis We are met by a bright white sign: ‘Malaise bonte marter – Yellow-Throated Marten’. A previous visitor has scratched the surface of the sign, cleaving through the didactic and severing the head of the oblivious specimen drawn perched on a branch in South-East Asia. The description at Artis Zoo reads: ‘Most…

By Chihhen Chang. The visit to Artis Royal zoo is, unsurprisingly, a disappointing experience. The lethargy of displayed animals and their inurement to disturbing zoo visitors like me, who always anticipate more from them, evoke bad feelings, a phenomenon art critic John Berger convincingly interprets in his influential essay, “Why Look at Animals”. He starts…

By Tess Post. A manifestation of bourgeois desire Upon entrance of Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for ‘nature is the preceptor of art’) I am immersed in different, seemingly eclectic, architectural constellations, ranging from neoclassic to romanticist designs. A blurry mess of frantic toddlers, panicking parents and smoking tourists is set off against a majestic entrance…

By Roos Brands. It is 13:45 when we arrive at the entrance of Artis on 23 March 2018. With a thick pack of clouds overhead and a temperature of 5°C, Chih-Hen, Eamonn and I shiver with our tickets ready on our phones as we wait for Tess to get a discount with her UvA student…