DOG TEETH'S MANIFESTO: CANINE SUGGESTIONS FOR ART

DOG TEETH, as a project, exists to make space for marginalised voices and the art made by those of us for whom living is taboo. we want to hear from those who, like us, are interested in the destruction of anthropocentrism. below are our priorities, codified into six major values for ease of understanding despite our natural aversion to relying too much on the codified. this is a living document, so forgive any editing mistakes and know that it will almost certainly change and grow as DOG TEETH does.

I. WEIRDING THE WRITTEN WORD

our duty is to queering art: in this age of rising fascism, data scraping for A.I. models, & narratives of art-as-tool-of-purity, the ability to engage with & reflect the taboo, the gory, the sexual, the embodied, the non-normative, the transgressive, freak shit is VITAL. we want to create space for the marginalised to own their pain, their joy, their being, & show it off without shame. we want to disturb, to reach inside ourselves & poke at the uncomfortable. we want to exhibit the strangeness of joy, the comfort found in pain, the radical acceptance of one another that is possible; we want to present the potential of another world - of many other worlds - & encourage readers to engage with unfamiliar ontologies with radical curiosity. come! be unabashedly cringe! come be gorgeous & gory & horny & animal & human! we want to give everyone the opportunity to engage with something that resonates with them, either because it reflects them, or because it doesn't. a dog does not know shame - it knows only when it has been kicked, & reacts to self-preserve. give a dog space to run & roll & slaver & piss un-kicked & it will never flinch again.

II. INHUMAN HEART

know that DOG TEETH was founded by a non-human creature with a commitment to making space for others like it. we will accept words from anyone with a story we want to help them tell, but we will always make room for those outside the human:non-human binary. donna haraway says 'we have never been human'; eva hayward's tentacularity is her term for interstitial joinings & sensual, transdisciplinary transformations; mel y. chen describes animacies & a constant enfoldment of matterings. we are a string on a complicated web; we are, & have always been, as haraway puts it, cyborgs, & we cannot & must not be separated from the fingery eyes (another hayward-ism) of other species, or of complex & consciously binary-shucking identities. we have been starving & starving & starving & we are starved now: but we find food in each other. we have been kicked ; the world is inhospitable: but our first duty is always to the world our pack & the protection of its most vulnerable members against death & oppression.

III. ACCESS TO ART

it matters what we use to think other matters with, as haraway puts it, and the tools of DOG TEETH's distribution are something we have put a lot of thought into; the internet is not, as nothing is, without its flaws. it has great capacity for use as a tool of surveillance & oppression, & for the continued enforcement of dangerous societal 'norms', both violent & subtle. for DOG TEETH's purpose, however, the internet is a wonderful avenue for sharing the collaboration of art & vulnerability that has been shared so graciously by its contributors far easier than if the project was distributed in print. of course, there are elitisms & gaps in access to online copies of DOG TEETH, but we can at least commit to our project being free-to-access, always, & as easy to access as is possible given the circumstances. the project is produced voluntarily & without budget, by artists who are willing to share their art with DOG TEETH because they resonate with it, & i will be extremely grateful for that support for the rest of my days. you can show a dog whatever art you like, & it might not recognise exactly what it sees, but it will see.

IV. COLLABORATION BETWEEN CREATURES

DOG TEETH as a project is a collaborative effort & we are always seeking new interlocutors to make art with; we always want that art to be challenging, to be fresh, & to make us FEEL. we consider ourselves community-minded & always always always want to be open to communication & discussion & projects as a space for activism, camaraderie, & problem-solving. latour said 'strength does not come from concentrations, purity & unity, but from dissemination, heterogeneity, & the careful plaiting of weak ties.' DOG TEETH will always be a place for plaiting ties, no matter how tenuous the link may seem. alesia maltz says that 'we should endeavour to produce art that: a) invigorates by encouraging b) identifies dormant potential c) identifies hidden beauty'. DOG TEETH, i hope, can embody all these things, & use that energy to drive further creation of both art & community spaces. if you link arms with the dog beside you, do you become one dog? or two? the thing that is created through your union - is it yours? or yours? either way, it can only belong to itself, & to the world into which it was born.

V. RADICAL ACCEPTANCE

following II. INHUMAN HEART, DOG TEETH will always be a safe harbour for the promotion & prioritisation of marginalised voices. We work under the premise of radical acceptance of identity; you are what you feel, & who are we to attempt to define those feelings from the outside? creation, as we have established, is a communal act: this is true as much for the creation of self as it is for the creation of art, & of place. we will always affirm & engage with our pack with hospitality & love where they want it. We are pro-sex work; anti-racist; trans-inclusive; queer-inclusive; anti-ableist & in favour of the abolition of the family, the state, borders, prisons, & all authoritarian structures of power. We want to hear from the sick, the mentally ill, the fat, the non-human. We want to network with voices who feel the same way we do, & we will not publish works from those who hold our contributors & our ethos in contempt. no one is perfect, & we will always hold space for growth & change, but we want to be in community with beings who will come kind-hearted & wagging-tailed & curious into our space.

VI. DO IT SCARED

DOG TEETH is a d.i.y'd, anti-elitist, anti-capitalist project; our neocities site was coded by me (with thanks to sadgrl's tutorial!); our issues are designed after paper zines & put together with no real experience but a lot of love by me; we only ever offer extremely minimal edits if we think it 100% necessary. we don't care what your art looks like as long as it resonates. this whole thing is shoestring & grit because i wanted to make somewhere people could share their art & see others doing the same & know that support & another world is possible - we just have to make it. when i think of DOG TEETH, i envision a pack of long-furred dogs, pelts of all colours, streaming through an open field under the bright stars like water; a river beneath the wetness of a fully visible, shining galaxy.

YOU ARE A PRECIOUS ANIMAL: LIVE! SEEK PLEASURE! MAKE ART AND DO WHAT YOU WANT FOREVER!

sources

  • donna haraway: a cyborg manifesto
  • donna haraway: sf: science fiction, speculative fabulation, string figures, so far
  • hayward and weinstein: tranimalities in the age of trans*life
  • alesia maltz: stories of welcome blanket makers: towards a philosophy of craft
  • sadgrl's neocities layout builder

    • want a more accesible version of this manifesto with copyable links, or just want to have it to paw? download the pdf version here!

    we are always open for collaboration and communication! submit to us! reach out to us if you have a cool project idea or you wanna talk more about our ethos or if you just wanna say hi! you can sign our guestbook or see our socials in the nav bar above - let's create community! <3