The exchange is all about nature: What is nature? Can a coherent picture of nature be formed today? Epistemologically and historically, »nature« has been understood as an original, mythical entity or, in a negative sense, as a mere illusionary projection of representational systems. It was understood as an object of scientific research, as a technological or cultural effect, as an economic product and resource, a romantic place or even as a deity/Gaia and, most recently, primarily as a scene of exploitation and environmental crisis in the context of global capitalism.

In this sense, »nature« acts as a dialectical and functional concept of difference as opposed to concepts like »culture«, »technology«, or »meaning«. But does the concept of »nature« still hold any value when these differences have long since been critically deconstructed and the hybridity of »natural phenomena« emphasised? And yet, at least an implicit understanding of »nature« as the fragile foundation of our existence prevails —whether in artistic practices such as »nature writing« or »environmental art«, in global and local environmental activism, or in the discourses of the Anthropocene, New Materialism, and Urban Studies. Thinking about »nature« is anything but outdated.

This is why the first edition of the Bauhaus-Hopkins Summer Lab on Comparative Thought is seeking affirmative, experimental, speculative, but not naïve approaches to thinking about nature. To achieve this, 20 scientists from the Faculty of Media at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns-Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) will be meeting in Weimar.

The Summer Lab programme includes short presentations and discussions in English. A guided walk through the Park an der Ilm and a visit to the Buchenwald Memorial are also planned. On the evening of 19 June 2025, at 8:00 pm, a public screening of the film »Taming the Garden« will take place at the Lichthaus Cinema, to which the interested public is warmly invited.

The event marks the beginning of an ongoing transatlantic collaboration between the two institutions over the coming years. The aim is to strengthen the internationalisation of research. The Summer Labs will be held every year and alternate between Weimar and Baltimore.

Questions can be directed to Christiane Lewe, Coordinator of the Graduiertenkolleg Media Anthropology, by e-mail: christiane.lewe[at]uni-weimar.de

The exchange is all about nature: What is nature? Can a coherent picture of nature be formed today? Epistemologically and historically, »nature« has been understood as an original, mythical entity or, in a negative sense, as a mere illusionary projection of representational systems. It was understood as an object of scientific research, as a technological or cultural effect, as an economic product and resource, a romantic place or even as a deity/Gaia and, most recently, primarily as a scene of exploitation and environmental crisis in the context of global capitalism.

In this sense, »nature« acts as a dialectical and functional concept of difference as opposed to concepts like »culture«, »technology«, or »meaning«. But does the concept of »nature« still hold any value when these differences have long since been critically deconstructed and the hybridity of »natural phenomena« emphasised? And yet, at least an implicit understanding of »nature« as the fragile foundation of our existence prevails —whether in artistic practices such as »nature writing« or »environmental art«, in global and local environmental activism, or in the discourses of the Anthropocene, New Materialism, and Urban Studies. Thinking about »nature« is anything but outdated.

This is why the first edition of the Bauhaus-Hopkins Summer Lab on Comparative Thought is seeking affirmative, experimental, speculative, but not naïve approaches to thinking about nature. To achieve this, 20 scientists from the Faculty of Media at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns-Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) will be meeting in Weimar.

The Summer Lab programme includes short presentations and discussions in English. A guided walk through the Park an der Ilm and a visit to the Buchenwald Memorial are also planned. On the evening of 19 June 2025, at 8:00 pm, a public screening of the film »Taming the Garden« will take place at the Lichthaus Cinema, to which the interested public is warmly invited.

The event marks the beginning of an ongoing transatlantic collaboration between the two institutions over the coming years. The aim is to strengthen the internationalisation of research. The Summer Labs will be held every year and alternate between Weimar and Baltimore.

Questions can be directed to Christiane Lewe, Coordinator of the Graduiertenkolleg Media Anthropology, by e-mail: christiane.lewe[at]uni-weimar.de