Ann Barrett

Descartes’ Mechanical Daughter

clay and oil paint

10″ x 7″ x 5″

2024

In 1650, an octopus lives under a robotic fragment of René Descartes’ deceased daughter. The myth goes that Descartes so missed his daughter that he built a mechanical likeness. On a voyage, fearing witchcraft, sailors threw it into the water. In 2021, the United Kingdom declared the Octopus sentient: that through their complex nervous systems, they feel “pain, pleasure, joy, and excitement.” René Descartes was central in creating our still-held Mechanistic World View, that life is no more than a network of dead parts, operating without sentience. If something is perceived as dead, there is no prohibition against destroying it.

@annbarrett430