International »Planet Uncanny« Conference Examines the Uncanny in Technology, Nature, and Society
The world seems increasingly uncanny: Artificial intelligence now generates images and texts on its own, plants react to their environment in surprisingly complex ways, and planet Earth itself presents itself as a wilful actor. From 3 to 5 December 2025, the DFG-funded research »Animismus/Maschinismus« project to the transdisciplinary »Planet Uncanny« conference in Weimar to explore precisely these disturbances. At the Bauhaus Museum Weimar, scientists and artists will gather to discuss how familiar roles between humans, machines, and nature are being rearranged in a changed world.
The research project—led by Prof. Henning Schmidgen together with Dr. Mathias Schönher, visual artist Jenny Brockmann, and art historian Dr. Alexandra Selivanova—is based on the thesis that the Western world is increasingly taking on the characteristics of an animistic one. Two observations stand at the centre of this: The first is that technical systems today no longer serve merely as tools, but increasingly confront us as wilful, seemingly animated actors. The second is that the latest findings in the life sciences show that intelligence and communication are not limited to humans and a few animal species but occur throughout the biological realm. The transdisciplinary »Planet Uncanny« conference will examine this redistribution of subjectivity from various perspectives. »I’m so pleased«, says Prof. Schmidgen, »that we’ve been able to bring on board a number of truly outstanding colleagues for this endeavour: Katherine Hayles, Didier Debaise, David Howes, Zakiyyah Jackson, and others.«
A multilayered installation of objects, images, texts, and materials is being developed in the Bauhaus Museum Weimar at the same time as the conference. The installation highlights five fields of emergence—Divination, Imagination, Repetition, Transition, and Substitution—developed with reference to Freud’s study »The Uncanny« and forming the context for the conference. Participants are invited not only to contribute through traditional lecture formats, but also to engage through performative or experimental approaches. A curated collection of historical texts, images, and film clips documents the transformation of models of perception and worldviews of the early 20th century, connecting them to the machinic reality of the present.
The significance of the topic is obvious: Our technological achievements challenge traditional notions of subjectivity; ecological crises shift the boundary between culture and nature; and an animistic perspective opens new ways of thinking about the relationship between humans, machines, and non-human forms of life. Through the close relationship between media studies, philosophy, and artistic practice, the conference provides a space where research, criticism, and social dialogue intersect.
International Conference and Exhibition
Planet Uncanny: Redistributing Subjectivities Across Technology, Nature, and Society
Bauhaus-Museum Weimar
Conference: 3 to 5 December 2025
Accompanying Exhibition: 1 to 8 December 2025
Additional information on the programme can be found under: https://www.uni-weimar.de/en/media/chairs/media-studies/medientheorie-und-wissenschaftsgeschichte/forschung/animism-machinism/news/titel/conference-and-exhibition-planet-uncanny-at-bauhaus-museum-weimar-from-01-081225/
For any questions, please contact Marie Kohlschreiber, Research Communication and Public Relations Representative, via e-mail marie.kohlschreiber[at]uni-weimar.de or by phone at 49 (0) 36 43 / 58 37 06.