b'Short Essays Philippa UdenA Trip to Paignton Zoo03/10/2019Submitted for the third-year optional module Wild Performances.Short EssaysPhilippa UdenOur vision: A world rich in wildlife and wild places is theto navigate the contradiction between humanitys role as first sentence in the Paignton Zoo souvenir guide. I visitedprotector and oppressor. As outlined in their Souvenir the zoo on the 3rd October 2019 with peers, tasked withGuide, the aim of Paignton Zoo is to conserve and protect looking at how the registered conservation charity Whitleyanimals, plants and their environment (2019: np).Wildlife Conservation Trust promotes its conservation aims within the zoo. Having previously enjoyed zoo visits and immersion exhibits both in England and abroad, I assumed that a self-aware visit to Paignton Zoo would be interesting and exciting. However, after locking eyes with caged animals and grappling with the uncomfortable ideology that animals are always the observed (Berger 2009: 16), I felt tension which has left me reluctant to visit again. I will analyse my experience at Paignton Zoo, commenting on the theatricality of my encounters and how it catered more for human enjoyment than promoting conservation.The way we encountered animals was disturbingly theatrical, which I think is due to the origins of the immersion exhibit. Its founding as zoological gardens means Paignton Zoos legacy is rooted in the capture of animals for research and entertainment. In Immersed with Animals, Nigel Rothfels looks at the development of the zoo in Western society, including his case study of Carl Hagenbecks park, where visitors could observe exotic animals and even peoples in their native habitats [] without ever encountering a bar or visible barrier (2002: 209). Comparing this to Paignton Zoo, the theatricality comes from similar origins. Like Hagenbeck, Whitley held animals within a private collection for research, until opening to the public for a fee in 1923. Although Paignton Zoo has made commendable progress with conservation partnerships across the globe, the theatricality of the zooIronically, several pages later, it claims Human beings are experience fails to bring the issue closer to home for thehaving a devastating impact on the planet (2019: np). John Western visitor.Berger looks at our interactions with animals, arguing that animals exist in a duality where they can be subjected and The viewing window that overlooked the tiger enclosureworshipped, bred and sacrificed (2009: 7) by humans. With was framed with information and had fake grass stuckthe duality in my head that animals are being protected along the bottom. The tigers were presented to us throughand subjugated, my encounters with the animals seemed to a fourth wall, like a camera or proscenium arch. I struggledexist in a contradiction which Ursula K. Heise presents:39'