Technology, media, habits or ideas are nowadays interwoven and affect all of us, both individually and collectively. How can we approach this confusion using relational, operational, process-orientated concepts? How can we think about the different forms of human existence? These and other questions will be addressed by renowned experts from interdisciplinary (media) anthropological research fields at the final conference organized by the Media Anthropology Centre of Excellence (KOMA).

Scientists from Weimar and all over the world will approach the issues of humanity in lectures such as »Human Sounds and the Obscenity of Information«, »Meth = sorcery« and »Unfolding Bodies (Animal/Human)«. In recent decades, research has increasingly developed in an interdisciplinary manner, so that experts from various disciplines such as cultural and media studies, visual anthropology, feminist philosophy or queer theory meet in Weimar to discuss this exchange of knowledge.

The conference schedule can be found online. 

Anthropologies of Entanglements

International Conference of the Media Anthropology Centre of Excellence
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Former Palais Dürckheim, Cranachstr. 47, 99423 Weimar
9 - 11 October 2019

Background:
The Media Anthropology Centre of Excellence (KOMA) of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar – funded by the ProExzellenz initiative of the State of Thuringia – has been promoting innovative and interdisciplinary media anthropological research over the last five years. This research focuses on mediality, media conditionality and media comprehensiveness of the human existence. The guiding concept of 'anthropomediality' is based on the interconnectedness between people and the media which precedes any distinction between the two. 

Research at KOMA: 
Media anthropological research swings between case studies and historical analysis on the one hand and conceptual, media and cultural philosophy as well as aesthetic work on the other hand. Over the last few decades, the discussion of human issues and problems has become increasingly interdisciplinary. The 'anthropocene' discourse also stimulates new reflections on anthropological concepts. Despite all the methodological and conceptual differences, the various approaches meet in the view that a so-called 'human being' can no longer be determined using existentialistic and historical methods. Instead, the focus is on relational, operative, time-orientated and process-orientated concepts ('loan bodies', 'cyborg', 'collectives', 'superjects', 'modes of existence' etc.), together with questions about cultural and historical situations as well as the physicality of the various forms of (human) existence. Interest has shifted to the multitude of cultural, topographical, technical, historical, social, discursive and media formats that human existence is entangled with.

KOMA is now marking the end of the funding period with a conference that brings together international experts from several fields of specialization in order to establish a dialogue on media anthropological issues.

Contact: 

Tim Othold and Christiane Lewe
KOMA
Cranachstraße 47
99421 Weimar
Email: koma[at]uni-weimar.de