"Expanding the artzone"
Interart Studies - New perspectives in arts and aesthetics

University Lecture Series, Summer Term 2007, Free University Berlin

Organized by the International Research Training Group "InterArt / Interart Studies"
Concept: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Erika Fischer-Lichte, Dr. des. Kristiane Hasselmann, Dr. des. Markus Rautzenberg

Is Karl Heinz Stockhausen’s dictum that 9/11 represented “the greatest art work of all times“ merely an intolerable provocation? Or does this provocation draw its very force from his theory’s perfidious plausibility that cannot be fully denied? When Christoph Schlingensief crammed asylum seekers into “Big Brother”-style containers in front of the Vienna State Opera in his action event entitled “Bitte liebt Österreich” and let passers-by vote off the inhabitants who were then ostensibly deported from Austria, Schlingensief’s insult was still less disturbing than the reactions of the passers-by. Had they lost all ability to distinguish between artistic performance, TV-trash and reality?

Confusions and fusions of art and daily life have meanwhile become routine in our globalized, information-based societies. This circumstance poses new problems for the various disciplines within arts and aesthetics as the methodical distinctions of each separate discipline no longer do justice to their objects of study. The boundaries between art and daily life have begun to oscillate as have those between individual genres of art. These changes require openness towards new perspectives and ultimately, through an interdisciplinary effort within the field of arts and aesthetics, the development of a new methodology and theoretical framework. This is where the concept of “InterArt” becomes pivotal. Using examples from film, theatre, visual arts, music, aesthetics and media theory, the lecture series aims at identifying and historically positioning the diverse forms of Interart phenomena brought forth through performativization, hybridization and multimediatization in order to probe the methodical and theoretical parameters necessary to adequately describe and analyze these phenomena.

Thursday, 6-8 p.m. First lecture: 19.04.2007 Hörsaal des Instituts für Theaterwissenschaft Grunewaldstr. 35 12165 Berlin-Steglitz

Currently, there is no English programme available. For the German programme please click here.