Inaugural Lecture of Bauhaus Guest Professor Jane Bennett

Prof. Bennett spoke in her lecture about expressing vitality and intensity in the interplay between art, science and technology. She drew on doodles by Paul Klee and Franz Kafka as well as experimental films by Len Lye to explore from a new angle how the barely perceptible activity and effectiveness of matter and environmental influences interact with and are expressed through human activities.

This was followed by a workshop with members of the media anthropology research training group and other interested parties on the Thursday. The focus was on the philosophy of perception of the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty as well as a text by Bennett herself in which she explores the intertwining of writing and drawing practices with atmospheric, virtual, non-human influences. The participants engaged in a lively discussion on how such activities can adequately be described and what political implications arise from such a view.