THE TRAP

As a device to catch prey, a snare is useless in isolation. The trap reconfigures its own context to suit a desired outcome. However, the surrounding environment is only one factor among many constituting a trap, embodied in both its material form and local situation. Anthropologist Alfred Gell describes the trap as a container for human agency and a nexus of interspecies relationships, an “evocation of complex intentionalities” that shifts from the symbolic to the operational: a “representation that functions as a prosthesis”.
As a processual assemblage, the trap ought be further explored as a model for discovering trans-species contact and, more generally, for developing empathy with the other, especially beyond the familiar context of predator-prey. The trap allows for multiple natures of intelligence to function alongside each other and exemplifies the temporary fusion of human and non-human to accomplish collective action.