{"id":4533,"date":"2019-07-06T18:36:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T18:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4533"},"modified":"2021-03-18T06:39:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T06:39:41","slug":"learning-to-hear-the-chickens-voice-part-1-dynestee-fields-honors-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/07\/06\/learning-to-hear-the-chickens-voice-part-1-dynestee-fields-honors-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Hear the Chicken&#8217;s Voice Part 1: An Interview With Dynestee Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dynestee Fields certainly knows more about chickens than I do. In all likelihood, Dynestee knows more about chickens than you do too. But she neither majored in biology nor has any intention of going on to get a graduate degree in animal science. She studied chickens not because she likes talking about them but because she loves to hear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dynestee graduated this spring from Southern Wesleyan University, where she majored in English and minored in Media Communications. For her senior honors project, she knit her love of writing and filmmaking with her passion for animal rights and produced a short documentary entitled &#8220;The Voice of the Chicken.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Voice of the Chicken\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/emKf9O_5B-4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After successfully defending her honors project, Dynestee took the time to talk with me about her project and about its goal: to get people to see and hear the real chicken, not just the one who has been produced for our gustatory pleasure. &#8220;The view of chickens that humans have is either food or &#8216;they\u2019re unintelligent,&#8217;\u201d Dynestee told me. &#8220;The vocal repertoire is really a way to crack into their world. It\u2019s really central to understanding their world and how they look on what\u2019s going on around them.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Sircy: Let\u2019s\nstart with the name of your project: it\u2019s \u201cThe Voice of the Chicken,\u201d not The <em>Voices <\/em>of the Chickens.\u201d Why give us two\nsingular nouns?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dynestee Fields:\nTo make it less confusing. If you say, \u201cThe Voices of the Chickens,\u201d it\u2019s kind\nof like, \u201cOh, each different chicken has its own unique language or way of\nspeaking or they\u2019re own vocalization.\u201d I just said \u201cThe Voice of the Chicken\u201d\nsince they basically share the same vocal repertoire with their ancestors the\nred jungle fowl. It made more sense that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: If I studied\nthe language of chickens here in South Carolina, that language will be the same\nif I go over to India?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Yes,\ndifferent response thresholds though for the red jungle fowl because they\u2019re\nstill living out in the wild. They are definitely more sensitive if some kind\nof danger is nearby and domestic chickens are not that sensitive. They are\nsensitive, but not at that level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: So their\nresponses differ but the actual language itself might not be different?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&#8220;Chickens can see ultraviolet colors. I think that\u2019s fascinating. They can see light before most people do because of the cones that are in their eyes. So yes, they have a whole different view of things.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: What was one\nthing you didn\u2019t know before you stared the project that you discovered and\nwere surprised by?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: I didn\u2019t know\nwhat the crow meant. Most people think, \u201cOh, the rooster sees the sun. He\u2019s\ntrying to wake everybody up.\u201d But roosters use it to show dominance. They also\nare able to be identified by their crow because of the different tone-length\nand notes. So that was very fascinating to me. I was like, \u201cWow!\u201d No wonder you\nhear one rooster over here crowing and the other rooster somewhere else\ncrowing. Most people are like, \u201cAh, they\u2019re greeting each other!\u201d Really,\nthey\u2019re like, \u201cDon\u2019t come over to my territory. If you do, we\u2019ll fight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS:&nbsp; Before the project began, what was the most remarkable aspect of chickens that demanded that you study them intensely? What were you fascinated by? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: The fact that chickens can see ultraviolet colors. I think that\u2019s fascinating. They can see light before most people do because of the cones that are in their eyes. So yes, they have a whole different view of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: Literally!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: Now how did\nyou figure that out? What did you encounter that let you know that? You read a\nbook about chickens? You watched a documentary? You cut open a chicken eye\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: I wrote a\nshort story on chickens for Dr. Schleifer\u2019s creative writing class, so I had to\ndo some research for that. I looked it up and discovered that and thought,\n\u201cHey! Chickens are pretty interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: It started with a work of imagination rather than sort of like a research project! But you didn\u2019t do &#8220;The Eye of the Chicken.&#8221; You did &#8220;The Voice of the Chicken.&#8221; Why the chicken voice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Just because\nthe view of chickens that humans have is either food or \u201cSomebody\u2019s chicken.\nThey\u2019re unintelligent.\u201d So the vocal repertoire is really a way to crack into\ntheir world. It\u2019s really central to understanding their world and how they look\non what\u2019s going on around them. So that was the main thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: You\u2019re right!\nWe say \u201cchicken\u201d when we want to say someone is scared or is showing cowardice.\nIs flight or running away from something terrifying or potentially harmful a\nmajor chicken trait? Or have we just taken the 75<sup>th<\/sup> thing they\u2019re\nactually known for and turned it into who they are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Throughout my\nresearch, I haven\u2019t really seen anything about chickens running away! Even\nfilming chickens. The thing about chickens is that one will usually give an\nalarm call, they will hear it, and they will hide. They don\u2019t really hide. If\nsomething was chasing a chicken, I can imagine they would run. They wouldn\u2019t\njust stand there. But even if a hawk comes, a rooster will perhaps die\nprotecting the other members of the flock because he will fight the hawk. When\npeople say that about chickens, I really don\u2019t think they know much about\nchickens!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: That\u2019s funny.\nWhat kinds of animals eat chickens other than humans? Hawks you mention\nspecifically in the documentary. What kind of animal eats the jungle fowl?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&#8220;[I made this documentary ] [f]or people who really don\u2019t connect with chickens: people who see Bojangles, Zaxby\u2019s, Chik-Fil-A\u2026but they don\u2019t really see the real chicken. Or if they work with chickens, but the chicken that they see is the overly genetically selective breeding, you know, the chicken we\u2019ve created today, which is not the chicken of the wild. That\u2019s really who I made it for.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: Definitely\nthe hawks. There may be a ground predator. You know, I\u2019m not exactly sure. I\nstudied the chickens that have been domesticated. I studied the jungle fowl.\nBut you know the thing that\u2019s really after them are the hawks. That\u2019s what\nthey\u2019re really hiding from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DS: Who did you\nmake this documentary for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DF: For people\nwho really don\u2019t connect with chickens: people who see Bojangles, Zaxby\u2019s,\nChik-Fil-A\u2026but they don\u2019t really see the real chicken. Or if they work with\nchickens, but the chicken that they see is the overly genetically selective\nbreeding, you know, the chicken we\u2019ve created today, which is not the chicken\nof the wild. That\u2019s really who I made it for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After  successfully defended her honors project, Dynestee took the time to talk with me about her project and about its goal: to get people to see and hear the real chicken, not just the one who has been produced for our gustatory pleasure. &#8220;The view of chickens that humans have is either food or &#8216;they\u2019re unintelligent,&#8217;\u201d Dynestee told me. &#8220;The vocal repertoire is really a way to crack into their world. It\u2019s really central to understanding their world and how they look on what\u2019s going on around them.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":4537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[342],"tags":[85,82,89,372,358],"class_list":["post-4533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-studies","tag-animals","tag-conversations","tag-documentary","tag-media-projects","tag-video","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4533"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4579,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4533\/revisions\/4579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}