We tend to think culture belongs to humans. We think of language, traditions and shared memory as things that make us uniquely human. But filmmaker Tom Mustill looks at what we are learning about how other species communicate, learn from one another and pass knowledge on. His work asks what changes when we see animals not simply as nature, but as having cultures of their own. Emergence Trust supports Tom to work alongside FishEye Collaborative, which is developing new ways to discover and record communication between fish. He is using this research to create ‘Pure Joy’, a new kind of film experience that brings the cultures of other animals into human storytelling.

We tend to think culture belongs to humans. We think of language, traditions and shared memory as things that make us uniquely human. But filmmaker Tom Mustill looks at what we are learning about how other species communicate, learn from one another and pass knowledge on. His work asks what changes when we see animals not simply as nature, but as having cultures of their own. Emergence Trust supports Tom to work alongside FishEye Collaborative, which is developing new ways to discover and record communication between fish. He is using this research to create ‘Pure Joy’, a new kind of film experience that brings the cultures of other animals into human storytelling.

We tend to think culture belongs to humans. We think of language, traditions and shared memory as things that make us uniquely human. But filmmaker Tom Mustill looks at what we are learning about how other species communicate and pass knowledge through generations. His work asks what changes when we see animals not simply as wildlife, but as beings with cultures of their own – cultures that exist alongside and sometimes intersect with ours. Emergence supports Tom to work alongside FishEye Collaborative, which is developing new ways to discover and record communication between fish. He is translating this research into Pure Joy, new kind of film experience that tests what human storytelling becomes when other animals are understood as cultural beings too.