Photo Credits: Sabrina Bühn and Franzi Kreis/im_flieger
Yesterday I was invited to discuss the mediatization of the climate catastrophe with filmmaker Zara Zandieh at Deutschlandfunk Kultur's "Lakonisch, Elegant". We discussed what the (potentially heteronormative & reactionary) impact of Hollywood-like images of catastrophe might be and how an ethics of inter-relational, postcolonial and queer story-telling needs to be developed to devise an engaging discussion of the ongoing climate catastrophe.
*Disclaimer: in the heat of discussion (and the actual hot weather) I claimed that China rudimentarily also developed a concept of "Nature" similar to that of European modernity. This, however, was a mistake, at least judging from the interpretation of Francois Jullien on that matter. I apologize!
Next week I am honored to be able to performatively research and work with David Kummer on a topic I have so far mainly touched in theoretical (as in my Backlash-book) and interventionist / activist manners: that of the transformation of our public space as the "smallest unit" of our anthropogenic environmental entanglement.
We are entangled with the spaces around us. We are the public, we have our spaces.
The public space enables us and limits us - it makes us what we are.
But, in times of ecological turmoil, are our spaces changing fast enough with us? Do they adapt (us) well to the new chaotic climates of the Earth? Or do they make us stuck in the values and practices of an old, fossil fueled and consumerist way of life?
Space is inert. We tend to become inert with it.
How can we engage it to change - with - us - and the world ?
Through a spectrum of shared bodily practices in public space, we seek to enable new modes of action and perception, which should lead to a self-empowerment of the participants and an invitation to dialogue and engagement with pedestrians. Together, old patterns of movement in public space will be questioned and a new playful and at the same time critical physicality will be explored. The developed and guided scores shall give the possibility to inscribe oneself deeply into the public space in a different way and to practice and experience a choreographic perception. The space, being transformed into a versatile adventure playground (for big and small), is meant to open utopian windows of possibility for a different "fusion" with our human-made, urban environment and the questioning of its norms.
After our week-long research we will do a public presentation on Friday the 16th of July 2021 at 17h at Im_Flieger, Bräuhausgasse 40, 1050 Vienna. More information (in German and English) here.
I am very happy to be able to further pursue one of the topics which already occupy me for years at the next Stoffwechsel-Denkkollektiv with Michael Hirsch an the entire Stoffwechsel collective. Under the title Nietzsches Neue Vorsicht I am - together with, partly, Jorinde Schulz and Michael Hirsch, pursuing a philosophy of the necessity of looking away (and thus filtering) FOR political activism in order to be effective. It is some sort of an apology of the bubble which tries to seek to develop an ethics of politically enabling acting and transforming in the very messy time called the Anthropocene. I hope I will be, at some point, able to condense this in some kind of finished & cohesive publication. The next landmark can be revisited at the public presentation after our week-long research lab. Find more information below or here.
STOFFWECHSEL Denkkollektiv #6 – Neue Vorsicht? (On Touch #2)
Di 22. bis Sa 26.6.2021 // künstlerische Forschung
Sa 26.6.2021 // 17.00 // OPEN LAB
„N e u e V o r s i c h t. – Lasst uns nicht mehr so viel an Strafen, Tadeln und Bessern denken! Eine*n Einzelne*n werden wir selten verändern; und wenn es uns gelingen sollte, so ist vielleicht unbesehens auch Etwas mitgelungen: wir sind durch sie* verändert worden! Sehen wir vielmehr zu, dass unser eigener Einfluss auf alles Kommende ihren* Einfluss aufwiegt und überwiegt! Ringen wir nicht im directen Kampfe! — und das ist auch alles Tadeln, Strafen und Bessernwollen. Sondern erheben wir uns selber um so höher! Geben wir unserm Vorbilde immer leuchtendere Farben! Verdunkeln wir die Andere*n durch unser Licht! Nein! Wir wollen nicht um ihretwillen selber dunkler werden, gleich allen Strafenden und Unzufriedenen! Gehen wir lieber bei Seite! Sehen wir weg!“
(Nietzsche, Fröhliche Wissenschaft § 321 – gegendert von KJ)
Ausgehend von diesem Nietzscheanischen Gedankenanstoß wollen wir die gegenwärtigen Probleme von Abstand und Anstand, Polarisierung und Cancel-Culture, Immersion und Eskapismus, Solidarität und Selbstaufgabe in diesem Denkkollektiv auf unzeitgemäße Arten erforschen.
Das Denkkollektiv #6 – Neue Vorsicht? (On Touch #2) ist Teil des transmedialen Forschungsprojektes Stoffwechsel – Ökologien der Zusammenarbeit.
Find a little extract of the texts I wrote for this lab here.
I have been invited to give a talk about the postcoronal outlooks and take-aways for club, night, and rave culture by the wonderful people of Kulturkollektiv CONTRAPUNKT of Innsbruck. Not an easy, but equally a very important question I am happy to rave and speculate about with the crowd in Innsbruck. Find the title and outline of the talk below.
In the words of Jara the article "is about the tricky questions regarding ethical judgements, reasonability, differing positions of the leftists towards state-imposed restrictions and the necessity to think critically about generalisations such as “the health care system” and “responsibility”.
"I have the feeling that the growing (and very worrying) polarization and nervousness of society is also a result of not looking and differentiating carefully enough. We tend to put people into abstract boxes we took from elsewhere without looking at their personal histories, experiences, fears and motivations. Social media and social distancing accelerate this superficial mode of “social boxing” a lot.
If we would instead look and talk with them, we might understand their personal relation to this unprecedented time that is stressful to us all and makes us react in various chaotic and difficult manners. We might learn to understand that person A’s particular aversion towards state restrictions stems a lot from her traumas of a past totalitarian state she or her ancestors might have suffered under. Or that person B’s very strict obedience can – among other factors – also be explained as a certain rebellion against the “I don’t give a fuck” mentality of her closest relatives. Every position, situation and fear are understandable if we take care and time to trace them back to its specific ecology. Such a practice of differentiating and examining more carefully and closely is an ethical counter-practise to the current hegemony of too-quick generalizations and judgements."
Read it here:
This Friday I will have a public discussion I am especially looking forward to. Stefanie Graefe, author of "Resilienz im Krisenkapitalismus" and me will try to discuss the difficult aspects, political problems and at the same time the lure of the booming concept of resilience. Stefanie and me come from quite far apart backgrounds and approaches, however, we both feel that we are intuitively touching something very similar in our approaches. We will try to sort this out a little more concretely in front of a live-audience this Friday in Berlin's Antiquariat Kalligramm - you can watch us and join the discussion via ZOOM (find the link below).
Resilienzen? Ein Gespräch zwischen Stefanie Graefe und Kilian Jörg from Freiraum im MK&G on Vimeo.
