This investigative seminar explores the relation between gas exchanges (both as respiratory function in human and non-human bodies and economic interaction between agents) and the entanglement of a particular mixture of gases, namely air, with legal/political concepts and various kinds of bodies. It questions universalized conceptions of “breathing" and critically asks what a “right to breathe” might be – and how we might think it. 

To approach these questions, we will attend to academic, philosophical, legal, and scientific texts, news articles, various media, and forms of data collection.

The topics discussed will include: gendered and racialized inequalities in regard to air pollution, Elan Musk’s attempt to use nuclear weapons to create an atmosphere on Mars, the commodification of oxygen on Earth and in outer space, extractivist history of artificial gases, Felix Baumgartner’s Stratosphere jump in relation to the drowning of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, the killing of Barbara Dawson and George Floyd by U.S. police officers (#icantbreathe), breathing and nuclear colonialism in relation to indigenous people, the inhalation of wooden smoke by California’s inmate firefighters and that of toxic gases by low-wage workers at e-waste burning sites in South India, notions of combat breathing in different geopolitical regions, as well as discussions concerning COVID-19 (such as the shortage and selective distribution of ventilators, the protests around face masks, the altered perception of air in light of contamination).

In the course of our investigations into different fields and geopolitical contexts, we will approach “breathing” as matterphorical concept, that is, as material-discursive articulation in and of  the world, multiple and situated. In this sense, the course is closely related to the concepts taught in Tanja Traxler’s seminar on “Individualism and Intraaction – Agency and Causality in Human and Nonhuman Affairs". We strongly encourage students to enroll in both classes.

The class is tied to a current investigation of the  Logische Phantasie Lab. Guest researchers and speakers will be invited. 

Examinations for the course "Gas Exchanges and The Right to Breathe" for CDS students will be held as part of the finals of the CDC course on January 20th and 27th. Midterms will take place on November 11th, 2020. Topic, problem definition and approach will be developed within the course "Gas Exchanges and The Right to Breathe" and must be independently visible in the presentation.

Active participation and preparation ahead of the seminar sessions are expected. 

Sessions after October 8 include a 15 min. break between 13.30 and 13.45.

Students from other faculties or universities will be given a place on the course subject to room capacities