AESTHETICS OF TRANSFORMATION

This lecture series presents theoretical and practice-based perspectives on the role of aesthetics in transdisciplinary research. Numerous productive synergies exist between artistic and transdisciplinary strategies, and they often overlap. Both reject disciplinary boundaries in favor of transversal approaches and refuse rigid distinctions between thinking and practice and between embodied knowledge and scientific expertise. Similarly, artistic and transdisciplinary strategies do not begin from fixed onto-epistemic positions; instead they draw on a multiplicity of knowledges and dispositions to disrupt hegemonic discourses and research paradigms. However, this does not imply that the transformative potential of arts and science necessarily aligns. 

Against this backdrop, the series asks: To what extent can artistic strategies be transferred to other contexts? And is that indeed desirable, given the situated, open-ended, and speculative nature of arts-based research? Likewise, where do we need to insist on the autonomy of aesthetic practice to stay clear from the demands of transferability, valorization, and impact,  to affirm the critical role of artistic strategies in disorienting dominant perceptions to leave room for giving form to what cannot be thought?

All students and faculty of Angewandte are invited to participate in our discussions.

The course is mandatory for PhD students in Transformation Studies. A minimum of 80% attendance is required to receive credits for this class!

The basis for assessment is attendance of the lectures and active participation in the subsequent discussions, as well as a research diary and contributions to the reflection group at the end of the semester.