‘Do mice think in Italian?’ is a group of films, drawings, drawn
wallpaper and performances exploring language, uncertainty and
humour. They were made at the British School, Rome. The visual
sources for this work were found in a wide range of artefacts;
frescoes, archaeological objects, sculptures and monuments in
and close to Rome. Specifically, the project attempted to
reconcile and transform a soft brand of analytical philosophy
which asks what is the nature of consciousness, can it be
described objectively, how is meaning formed, how does language
work exemplified by W.V.O. Quine in ‘Word and Object’ 1960 and T
Nagel in ‘What’s it like to be a bat?’ 1974. On another level it
reflected upon the language and conventions of academic learning
and research. For the performances a quasi-academic lecturer
gave a digressive talk on moth behaviour, assisted by
caterpillars. In the films and drawings, characters, usually
animals, often in clothes and speaking or behaving like human
beings used simple language to re