In this course we will explore various philosophical strands that can help us to critically understand why „transformation“ has become such a central vantage point for tackling contemporary challenges and crises in the arts, in sciences, politics, society and culture at large.

In the first segment of this course we will do some philosophical groundwork by close-reading selected texts like Deleuze & Guattari’s Rhizome, Carolyn Merchant’s The Death of Nature, Lynn Margulis’ Symbiotic planet and others. This will help us situate current discourses around transformation in the larger cosmology of the moderns. Equipped with this deepened understanding, we will be able to examine current debates from a less eurocentric, decolonial and feminist perspective, preventing us from reproducing reductionist versions of neoliberal „innovation“ discourses. 

• regular attendance

• 1x short presentation of text with 1 or 2 others

• 1x little application in January that includes a little textual reflection on it