Die Destruktion der Erfahrung
Alexi Kukuljevic
Institute of Studies in Art and Art Education,
Art Theory
2026W,
Academic Seminar
(SEW),
4.0 ECTS,
2.0 semester hours,
course number S51262
Scientific bachelor seminar for teacher education
Description
The point of departure for this seminar is Giorgio Agamben, Infancy and History: An Essay on the Destruction of Experience. Kindheit und Geschichte. Zerstörung der Erfahrung und Ursprung der Geschichte. In this essay, Agamben takes up and develops Walter Benjamin’s claim in The Storyteller that “die Erfahrung ist im Kurse gefallen. Und es sieht aus, als fiele sie wieter in Bodenlose. Jeder Blick in die Zeitung erwist, daß sie einen neuen Tiefstand erreicht hat, daß nicht nur das Bld der äußern, sondern auch das Bild der sittlichen Welt über Nacht Veränderungen erlitten hat, di man niemalls für möglich hielt. “experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness. Every glance at a newspaper demonstrates that it has reached a new low, that our picture, not only of the external world but of the moral world as well, overnight has undergone changes which were never thought possible.” This hollowing out or “expropriation” of experience, which has only accelerated since the first world war, marks the end of the art of storytelling and a break in the form in which experience is conveyed and communicated. There is something inaccessible at the core of modern experience, something incommunicable, something that cannot be translated into experience, and this puts historical pressure on the forms that mediate how events enter experience. This is registered in the traumatic, of something that does not enter experience and can thus only be signified or spoken about indirectly, appearing in the lacunae that define the experience itself. But it is also registered in the commonplace, everyday demand that experience be immediately photographed, indexed, to be remembered and forgotten. The point, as Agamben stresses, is not “to deplore this state of affairs, but to take note of it.” The task of this seminar will be to take note of this historical situation across a series theoretical and artistic texts that allow us to begin to think the absence or void at the heart of modern experience, of experiences too grim or too banal to be believed, and of a kind of knowledge incommensurable with human experience.
S51262 - The Destruction of Experience (SEW)
09.10.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
16.10.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
23.10.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
30.10.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
06.11.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
13.11.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
20.11.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
27.11.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
04.12.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 24 (VZA, EG)
Examination Modalities
short essay
Course Enrolment
From 31 August 2026, 09:00
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Academic Practice: GO: Seminar, SEw 034/2026UBA-003.10
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Academic Practice: FOR: Art Theory (kkp) 034/2026UBA-003.20
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Academic Practice: FOR: Course from the Institute IKK.K 034/2026UBA-003.21
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Academic Practice: FOR: Seminar, SEw 034/2026UBA-003.30
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Degree Completion (kkp): IT: Bachelor Seminar (Academic or Subject-Didactic), SEw (kkp) 034/2026UBA-010.30
Art Education: study subject kkp (Bachelor): Further Focus Areas (Pool): Focus: Inter- and Transdisciplinary Practices 034/2026UBA-030.08
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: GO: Seminar, SEw 034/2026UEW-003.10
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: FOR: Art Theory (kkp) 034/2026UEW-003.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: FOR: Course from the Institute IKK.K 034/2026UEW-003.21
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: FOR: Seminar, SEw 034/2026UEW-003.30
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Degree Completion (kkp): IT: Bachelor Seminar (Academic or Subject-Didactic), SEw (kkp) 034/2026UEW-010.30
Art Education: study subject dex (Bachelor): Academic Practice: GO: Seminar, SEw 037/2026UBA-003.10
Art Education: study subject dex (Bachelor): Academic Practice: FOR: Course from the Institute IKK.K 037/2026UBA-003.21
Art Education: study subject dex (Bachelor): Academic Practice: FOR: Seminar, SEw 037/2026UBA-003.30
Art Education: study subject dex (Bachelor): Degree Completion (dex): IT: Bachelor Seminar (Academic or Subject-Didactic), SEw (dex) 037/2026UBA-010.30
Art Education: study subject dex (Bachelor): Further Focus Areas (Pool): Focus: Inter- and Transdisciplinary Practices 037/2026UBA-030.08
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: GO: Seminar, SEw 037/2026UEW-003.10
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: FOR: Course from the Institute IKK.K 037/2026UEW-003.21
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Academic Practice: FOR: Seminar, SEw 037/2026UEW-003.30
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Degree Completion (dex): IT: Bachelor Seminar (Academic or Subject-Didactic), SEw (dex) 037/2026UEW-010.30
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: aus Kunsttheorie 067/2016UBA-003.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/2016UBA-003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/2016UBA-003.85
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Weitere Schwerpunkte: Inter- und transdisziplinäre Praxen 067/2016UBA-030.08
Art Education: subject kkp (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 067/2016UMA-003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 067/2018UEW-003.25
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/2018UEW-003.80
Art Education: study subject kkp (Master): Academic Practice: Elective Courses from Academic Practice, SE 067/2026UMA-003.80
Art Education: subject tex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 071/2016UMA-003.80
Art Education: subject dae (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 072/2016UMA-003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/2017UBA-003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/2017UBA-003.85
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Weitere Schwerpunkte: Inter- und transdisziplinäre Praxen 074/2017UBA-030.08
Art Education: subject dex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 074/2017UMA-003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 074/2018UEW-003.25
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/2018UEW-003.80
Art Education: study subject dex (Master): Academic Practice: Elective Courses from Academic Practice, SE 074/2026UMA-003.80
Transformation Studies. Art x Science (Bachelor): Focus! Transformation Areas: Cultural Transformation 162/2025UBA-040.40
Transformation Studies. Art x Science (Bachelor): Focus! Transformation Areas: Media Transformation 162/2025UBA-040.50
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations: Theoretical foundations 180/2025UBA-003.01
Expanded Museum Studies (Master): Electives: Art Theory 537/2021UMA-080.12
Stage Design (2. Section): Kunsttheorie und Kulturwissenschaften: Kunsttheorie 542/2022U00-207.03
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie und Geschichte : Kunsttheorie 566/2019U00-208.13
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie, Geschichte: Kunsttheorie 567/2019U00-208.13
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 1: Art Theory 568/2021UMA-005.05
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 2: Art Theory 568/2021UMA-006.05
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Humanities 576/2024U00-203.02
Design: Specialisation in Communication Design (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 577/2025U00-203.02
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Art Theory, Cultural Studies, Art History, Philosophy 605/2019U00-202.01
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice 605/2019U00-202.80
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 626/2021U00-203.02
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (Bachelor): Philosophy: Deepening / Application 700/2026UBA-003.20
Art & Science (Master): Methods and Practices of Transdisciplinary Research: Practice and Theory 776/2026UMA-002.16
Co-registration: possible
Attending individual courses: possible