The Seminar of Aesthetics
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hand Photogram, 1925
The Seminar of Aesthetics is an interdisciplinary forum for new research at the intersection of aesthetic theory, philosophy and art.
Since 1988 the seminar has presented a long series of guest lecturers from all over the world, among them Paul Ricoeur, Jacques Derrida, Norman Bryson, Jean Starobinski, Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Spivak, Arthur Danto, Thierry de Duve, Sarat Maharaj, Michael Fried, John Rajchman, Boris Groys, Peter Kivy, Andrew Benjamin, Gianni Vattimo, Martin Seel, Hélène Cixous, Gernot Böhme, Gottfried Boehm, Mieke Bal, Peter Brooks, Eric Alliez, Wolfgang Ernst, WJT Mitchell, Hal Foster, Mark B. Hansen, Lorraine Daston and Mark Wigley.
The Seminar organizes a series of open public lectures every semester and is a collaboration between IFIKK, ILOS, IMV and IMK. Chairs: Ina Blom, Andreas Nilsen Ervik, Erling Guldbrandsen, Christian Refsum, Liv Hausken, Eivind Røssaak, Knut Stene-Johansen and Ingvild Torsen.
Upcoming
In this lecture, Julia Bryan-Wilson (Columbia University) discusses how the question of embellishment and decor in recent art may change our conceptions of art history.
Previous
In this lecture, Larisa Dryansky (Sorbonne) discusses parallels between 1960s artistic investigations of the relation between image and object, materiality and illusion, and computer scientists’ simultaneous quest for building 3D images.
In this lecture, Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen (U. of Zürich) discusses the significance of rhythm as a design feature in Bruckner's and Schubert's symphonies.
In this lecture, Benjamin Bratton (University of California, San Diego) will discuss the ethics of being an object and what the pandemic should tell us about the biological reality of society
In this combined lecture and film screening, architect and filmmaker Liam Young (Los Angeles) takes us on a science fiction safari through an imaginary city for the entire population of the earth.
In this lecture, Tony D. Sampson (University of East London) will focus on two trends in neuroculture that influence the production of radical aesthetic experiences.
In this lecture, Tom Holert (Harun Farocki Institut, Berlin) will discuss contemporary art's peculiar role as a provider and processor of knowledge and research.
In this talk, Shannon Mattern (New School for Social Research, New York) will map out the urban infrastructural ecologies of pandemic retreat.