EAT WORDS is a Collaborative Project by Amanda Marya White and Lydia Burggraaf.

In February 2011 we began investigating the tenuous relationship between the unprecedented crow population and the local human residents in Chatham-Kent, ON. We modified food patterns into words in an attempt to formulate a conversation between the human and crow populations. We specifically choose to stencil out niceties, those words we employ in maintaining civilized relationships. To date, we have video recorded “THANKS.” “PLEASE?” and “SORRY!” The videos chronicle the unsettled eating of the crows as they negotiate the food and letters with the ever-present human population monitoring them. Our anthropocentric conception of “crow-ness” is complicated by the soothing quality of the video, this duality is reinforced by the split screen representing both our intentions with the project and the actual realization when working with wild animals.