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MULTISPECIES STUDIO

NARRATIONS

RESEARCH

TEACHING

NETWORKING

COMPANIONS

MULTISPECIES NARRATIONS – A CURIOUS PRACTICE

Advanced seminar and colloquium, Summer Term 2019
Profs. Hörner/Antlfinger and Dr Thomas Hawranke
Thursday weekly 14:00 - 17:00

Introduction

This seminar is about creating a common space to create and develop ideas and projects that consider and incorporate the perspectives of non-human actors (such as animals, plants, fungi and bacteria). At a time when we are not yet able to fully assess the losses that lie ahead, we try to develop practices and rituals of rapprochement in the here and now that enable us to engage with each other.

In this semester we focus on a species whose extraordinary physiological and cognitive abilities are currently receiving a lot of attention — both in scientific and artistic research. Octo-Lab, Laboratory
for Octopus Aesthetics, is an international research group that offers a common space for a transdisciplinary approach to these beings and what connects them to us. An exhibition at the Glasmoog and an international symposium offer the opportunity to bring together artists, scientists and researchers from around the world. The students are invited to develop their own projects. The seminar takes place weekly and is open to guests. The international symposium is a compact part of the seminar.

Literature

  • Gordon M. Burghardt. 2005. The genesis of animal play. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  • Roger Callois. 1986. Der Krake. München: Hansa.
  • Vinciane Despret. 2016. What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions? Minneapolis: Minnesota UP.
  • VilémFlusser. 1993. Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Göttingen: European Photography.
  • Victor Hugo. 2017. Die Arbeit des Meeres. Hamburg: mare.
  • Susanne Karr. 2015. Verbundenheit: Zum wechselseitigen Bezogensein von Menschen und Tieren. Berlin: Neofelis Verlag.
  • Eben Kirksey. 2014. The Multispecies Salon. Durham: Duke UP
  • Sy Montgomery. 2015. Soul of an Octopus. NewYork: Atria 
  • Peter Godfrey-Smith. 2017. Other Minds. London: William Collins.
  • Isabelle Stengers. 2015. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism. Open Humanities Press.