Swantje Martach | AMD Akademie Mode & Design (original) (raw)
Papers by Swantje Martach
IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Band 40, 7. Jg., (2)2024, S. 267-283, 2024
Did you ever feel reduced to a fragment of yourself in public space (e.g. bound to behave like a ... more Did you ever feel reduced to a fragment of yourself in public space (e.g. bound to behave like a shopper in the mall, or like a people-watcher in the café)? This paper claims present-day space's being-as-image as reason, and sets out to explore its ontology, implication for human existence within it, and reasons for its formation. Thus, whereas theories of the image so far mostly restricted itself to a discussion of images-in-space, the present paper adds a new kind of image to the image theoretical discourse: the space-as-image. After demarcating a pictorial from a narrative conceptualization of space, this paper argues that spaces contain what is called a "picture-pressure": Spaces urge us to adjust ourselves to their frames, and to be constantly ready to (be) picture(d), that is, to behave as if always already in a picture. The pictorial consumption of spaces by others is seen as its reason, channeling our acting within towards a replication of already existent images of spaces. As Plato once defined the image as atopoi, non-local and impossible to locate; the phenomenon here discussed is provokingly defined as “topical” image – a name that is suggested in order to be critically discussed and dissected for the sake of stretching it towards its own possibilities.
Barftgaans September/Oktober, 2024
Eine kulturhistorische Untersuchung des Trans-Begriffs auf Basis der feministischen Unterscheidun... more Eine kulturhistorische Untersuchung des Trans-Begriffs auf Basis der feministischen Unterscheidung von Sex & Gender.
Atlas of Databodies 2, 2024
This paper seeks to shed light upon the thinness of the ruling thin regime, which it considers as... more This paper seeks to shed light upon the thinness of the ruling thin regime, which it considers as having developed in and via the present pictorial era. Its method is a textual speculation of an artwork: Iron Maidens positioned in pedestrian zones of cities as easy & quick check-ins for the own bodily conformation.
This paper situates itself at the fringe (!) of fat studies, to which it hopes to contribute by means of a pluralization of its perspectives. Defining fat as the sum of bodily deviations, it concludes: We all are fat bodies.
Barftgaans Juli/August, 2024
Eine kurze Einführung in die Fat Studies in deutscher Sprache
Barftgaans Mai/Juni, 2024
Das Konzept der Demokratie blingt uns derzeit wieder von den Plakaten der Europawahl entgegen. Hi... more Das Konzept der Demokratie blingt uns derzeit wieder von den Plakaten der Europawahl entgegen. Hier ein Versuch seines Verstehens aus der zeitgenössischen Philosophie, beruhend auf den Theorien von insbes. Graham Harman und Levi Bryant aus der Objekt-Orientierten Ontologie
IMAGE, 2024
The present paper deals with the conceptual distinction between the art that is created in the re... more The present paper deals with the conceptual distinction between the art that is created in the realm of augmented reality (ar), and the art that will be crea- ted within augmented virtuality (av). For this purpose, it discusses and episte- mologically re-works the dichotomy of “object” and “space” into “focus” and “field”. This allows to argue that ar-art maintains the conventional hierarchy: The art lies in the focus; the field remains the frame. Yet crucially, av-art turns this hierarchy around: Here, the field becomes art; and the focus turns into frame. Therefore, av-art affords an entirely distinct art-theoretical analysis, for which the tradition of the “objet trouvé” is postulated as meaningful.
Das vorliegende Paper befasst sich mit dem konzeptionellen Unterschied zwischen der Kunst, die im Bereich der Augmentierten Realität (ar) betrieben wird, und jener Kunst, die im Bereich der Augmentierten Virtualität (av) betrieben werden wird. Zu diesem Zwecke wird die Distinktion von „Objekt“ und „Raum“ zu Rate gezogen, welche im epistemologischen Sinne als „Fokus“ und „Feld“ umgedeutet wird. Dies erlaubt die Erkenntnis, dass in der ar-Kunst die übliche Hierarchie bestehen bleibt: Der Fokus ist das Kunst- werk, das Feld bleibt der Rahmen. Dahingegen dreht die av-Kunst eben jene Hierarchie um: Hier wird das Feld zur Kunst, und der Fokus zum Rahmen. Daher bedarf av-Kunst eine gänzlich andere kunsttheoretische Analyse, für welche die Tradition des objet trouvé als sinnig postuliert wird.
Barftgaans März/April, 2024
In diesem kurzen philosophisch/journalistischen Beitrag analysiere ich die derzeitigen Verschiebu... more In diesem kurzen philosophisch/journalistischen Beitrag analysiere ich die derzeitigen Verschiebungen der Geschlechterrollen auf Basis eines Vergleichs zum alten Griechenland, in dem laut feministischer Theorien ein Wandel von Matriarchat zu Patriarchat (dann vorherrschend im römischen Reich) stattfand. Abschließend stelle ich die Frage, ob wir diesen Wandel gerade wieder in die primäre Richtung erleben, und wie wir ihn gestalten wollen. Dieser Beitrag stellt den Auftakt einer neuen norddeutsch-lokalen Kollaboration dar.
As a matter of fact, we are surrounded by many more clothes than people. And from the people surr... more As a matter of fact, we are surrounded by many more clothes than people. And from the people surrounding us, we see more clothes than skin. Why are we thus so persuaded that what we see are people? In order to rebalance commonsense conceptions of the clothing (defined here not as the manifest thing, but as humans/clothes relation), the thesis "Towards a New Materialist Ontology of Clothing" aspires to disclose the equivalence immanent to this kind of human/thing relation.
For attending to material agencies and existences apart from our own in the clothing, this thesis took over the realm of New Materialism (NM). However, as NM has never targeted clothes/clothings, the present project had to construct for itself a four-parted methodological scaffold. Apart from adopting not the matter but rather the manner of (1) new materialist research, it drew on (2) fashion/dress (cultural) theoretical approaches. As the investigatory aspirations of the latter are directed onto the human, en route to which clothes are merely met; precisely not their hitherto provided answers, but rather their yet-to-solve matters were shouldered. (3) More assistance was found in Material Culture (MC) Studies, an anthropological school neighbouring NM, in the considerations of which more dress than fashion was included ever since. Finally, as a school NM often becomes confused or lumped together with, (4) Object-Oriented Ontology was used as additional back-up as well as further means of contrast. This clothing/NM-queering methodology allowed for a reworking of the concept of the "thing", which is held so dear and juggled-around with so naturally by all four touched-upon realms of research. Instead of object entities, the present project proposes web/knot-splitting becomings as units for research.
Eventually, this project aspires to highlight the worth of the clothing as philosophical research matter, whereby it hopefully will contribute to a shift from ascribing it a lack of seriousness, to appreciating the power it has over each of us. In its status quo, the everyday clothing practice is a major ecological polluter as well as an often heavy psychological burden. By relating the clothing and NM, this project animates to reconceptualize the latter and thus move towards a more respectful, responsible, and aesthetic co-existence of humans/clothes therein.
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference Coordinates of Aesthetics, Art and Culture 7, 2022
The present paper treats three observations: (1) The aesthetics of public spaces is a particularl... more The present paper treats three observations: (1) The aesthetics of public spaces is a particularly bodily kind of aesthetics. (2) The aesthetics of public spaces hitherto largely neglected the fact that in addition to material bodies, also human bodies fill, and thus determine the aesthetics of public spaces. And (3) the aesthetics of public spaces is able to show that the nature of the human body drastically diverges from the aesthetic standards which we apply to it, here titled ‘thin aesthetics’, and to thus initiate a rethinking of the aesthetics of the human body, that is, a widening of the aesthetically accepted, and eventually a realigning of nature and aesthetics of the human body. This renewed framework we here titled ‘fat aesthetics’. Viceversa, by liberating both the other and the self from being harshly judged, fat aesthetics has the capacity to enrich the aesthetics of public spaces. We henceforth call for the human body to become appreciated as a factor determining the aesthetics of public space, and we are certain the particular perspective of the aesthetics of public space will alter the aesthetics of the human body.
MetaMorphosis (by Symbiotic Lab / Entkunstung), Berlin, 2022
Insects are small. Insects are busy. And insects withdraw. For these reasons, in this text, I cla... more Insects are small. Insects are busy. And insects withdraw. For these reasons, in this text, I claim an “investigation of“ insects to be impossible. Rather, insects afford a constitutively open and thus continuous narration of “research“.
This text is part of MetaMorphosis, a multidisciplinary artistic research project initiated by Symbiotic Lab & Entkunstung in the frame of 2022's Art Biesenthal, Berlin, and has been published by POOL publishing Berlin and VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst.
The Culture, Fashion, and Society Notebook, 2021
This paper concerns “the clothing”, a technical nominalisation that shall here be used to denote ... more This paper concerns “the clothing”, a technical nominalisation that shall here be used to denote the relation between humans and clothes. Three ways in which this relation can be conceptualised are discussed here. (1) The modern worldview dictates a hierarchical understanding of the clothing relation in that it sees the human as using clothes for her purposes. Yet the modern conception “humans-via-clothes” remains unable to account for how and why we are affected and guided by clothes. For this reason, this paper sets out to explore two more current ways in which the humans-clothes relation could be read. (2) Object- oriented ontology is capable of re-reading the clothing relation from hierarchy to equality, and thus of witnessing the ways in which clothes act. Yet seeing human and clothes as equal eventually entrenches both entities, and by consequence creates a dualism, “humans-versus- clothes”. As human and clothes cannot be understood separately from one another, a third reading of the human-clothes relation is tested, and eventually favoured. (3) New materialism is a relationalist school of thought, and thus is capable of inverting the conventional equation hu- man + clothes = clothing, and instead reading the human-clothes relation intra-actively, clothing = human + clothes. In a new materialist vein, humans and clothes are equally made up by and take on equivalent roles within the clothing relations in which they do not come to be en- gaged, but ontologically are entangled: “humans/clothes”. The point at which this paper comes to a close is the selection of the new materialist as an adequate method for a postmodern re-reading of the clothing.
Everydayness: Contemporary Aesthetic Approaches (ed. by Giombini & Kvokacka), 2021
Everyday aesthetics inter alia claims: Also outside of art, there is beauty. The existence of suc... more Everyday aesthetics inter alia claims: Also outside of art, there is beauty. The existence of such extra-artistic beauty is taken as a given in this branch of aesthetic research; yet the issue it faces is of a methodological kind: How would it be possible to research ordinary beauties without turning them into extraordinary beauties and thus realigning them to art? The present paper proposes the method of speculation as a possible solution. Speculation is argued to be of aid for everyday aesthetics, because taking a speculative stance on reality means to not intervene in it, but to rather take a step back and respectfully narrate the withdrawing from our human perception that certain aspects of reality undertake. As such, speculation is a possibility to master the paradox faced by everyday aesthetics, which consists in engaging without intruding on beauties hiding within the everyday, and hence of preserving while and whilst researching them.
Swiss Portal for Philosophy , 2021
Arthur Cardoso de Andrade, interviewed by Swantje Martach [English Version]
Swiss Portal for Philosophy, 2021
Arthur Cardoso de Andrade im Interview mit Swantje Martach [German Version]
Against Nature (Catalogue to Herwig Scherabon's solo exhibition, July 2021, Berlin), 2021
The present catalogue text discerns between two kinds of eco-centric works the Austrian artist He... more The present catalogue text discerns between two kinds of eco-centric works the Austrian artist Herwig Scherabon presented in his latest solo exhibition “Against Nature“ (July 2021, Berlin Neukölln): landscapist and objectivist. Whereas Herwig's landscapist works are both nets-of and knots-in, and thus ontology-wise rather conventional; his objectivist works are ontologically most striking as they exclusively are nets, but no knots. For this reason, they are focused on here. The artist conjures these singular existences by means of black space that is isolating, yet not weakening, but rather empowering, even “monstrouizing“ them. In so existing, they emit an ontologically provocative statement: Distance is not debilitating, but rather an invitation to become.
Matter (Vol. 2 No. 2 (2021): Fourth Issue), 2021
New Dawn is a global arts/theories queering project, which was initiated in Berlin in 2020, and w... more New Dawn is a global arts/theories queering project, which was initiated in Berlin in 2020, and which speculates future aesthetics of the glove as "tool-to-touch." The present intra-view is a real 'view-from-within,' as it unfolds a conversation (a turning, moving, becoming [versare] together [con]) in-between the two members of this project's theoretical section: Felipe Duque and Swantje Martach. This intra-view sets out to explore the role the glove plays within the touch. A gloved touch differs from a non-gloved touch, as the glove heightens the touch. The glove functions as a first other that is encountered in the touch, hence it is touched and touching us back. And it is a medium for and mediator of touching other others, as it is through the glove that the ordinarily touched (the world) is touched. By means of this double position in the touch, the glove emancipates from human control. It enables us humans to realize many touches that we alone would not be capable of, and in this way, it emancipates us from our limitations as humans. The glove is a very material invitation to become, that increases with every new gloves invented, a switch to which is just another un/dressing away. By focusing on the glove/hand entanglement, New Dawn can be read as promoting the haptic sense as a hitherto neglected contributor of the aesthetic. Being self-critical however, we argue that depicting the future of touch by means of the glove eventually is a rather restrictive speculation, as it limits all touch to the one we exert by and experience from hands; whereas reality disposes a multiplicity of touches (e.g. a touch between shoulders, eyes, lips). To expand future touches could thus be an interesting continuation for New Dawn.
www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Outgoing from Berlin, this year (2020), a globally operating and immensely interdisciplinary art ... more Outgoing from Berlin, this year (2020), a globally operating and immensely interdisciplinary art project formed up: New Dawn. By means of speculation (as indeed not only an abstract philosophical method), it created an access to future scenarios of nothing other than the glove. The present article aspires to show the project’s reasons for selecting precisely this every object; as well as the up-to-date and therewith spectacular, and the frank and thus as holistic as urgently necessary manner in which the glove is treated therein.
www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Von Berlin aus formierte sich dieses Jahr ein den Globus überspannendes und immens interdisziplin... more Von Berlin aus formierte sich dieses Jahr ein den Globus überspannendes und immens interdisziplinäres Kunstprojekt, New Dawn, welches durch Spekulation (als eben nicht nur abstrakt-philosophische Methode) einen Zugang zu Zukunftsszenarien des Handschuhs erschaffen hat. Warum dafür genau dieser Alltagsgegenstand gewählt wurde, und wie aktuell und daher aufsehenerregend, sowie ehrlich und somit so holistisch wie dringend nötig damit umgegangen wird, soll hier gezeigt werden.
https://www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Ein objekt-orientiert-ontologischer Ansatz, angewandt auf das aktuell-akute Zeitgeschehen Möchte... more Ein objekt-orientiert-ontologischer Ansatz, angewandt auf das aktuell-akute Zeitgeschehen
Möchte man erforschen was etwas ist, also eine Ontologie eines bestimmten Dings, Phänomens, Objekts erstellen, so gibt es laut Graham Harman zwei Annäherungsweisen. Die eine, die er "undermining" nennt, ist geleitet von der Frage: Woraus besteht das Ding? Und die andere namens "overmining" fragt: Was tut das Ding? Kombiniert man beide Wissensarten, so gelangt man zufolge Harman zu einer Antwort auf die Frage: Was ist dieses Ding, das ich erforschen möchte? (siehe Harman 2016, 7-13). Wir wollen uns nun mit beiden Fragen in Hinsicht auf das Corona-Virus (mit "Corona" ist hier die volksmündliche Bezeichnung von Covid-19 gemeint, obgleich dieser Begriff streng genommen eigentlich eine Gruppe von Viren umfasst) konfrontieren, das bereits (metaphorisch gesprochen) in aller Munde ist und die täglichen Nachrichten so ausdauernd beherrscht wie selten ein Geschehnis.
Herausforderungen für das Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement: Globalisierung – Digitalisierung – Geschäftsmodelltransformation, 2019
Der Begriff „Prosumer“ hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine wachsende Beachtung als Gegenstand der ... more Der Begriff „Prosumer“ hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine wachsende Beachtung als Gegenstand der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften erfahren (Hellmann 2009) und vereint „Production“ und „Consumer“, d.h. er weicht die strenge Trennung zwischen Produktion durch Unternehmen einerseits und Konsum durch Haushalte andererseits auf. Eine inhaltliche Abgrenzung des Begriffs zeigt, dass dem „Prosumer“ ein sehr breites Spektrum von ökonomischen Aktivitäten zugeschrieben wird: Zunächst werden Haushalte in einem engeren Sinne als Prosumer bezeichnet, wenn sie in die Erstellung betrieblicher Leistungen eingebunden werden, beispielsweise in die Gestaltung von Bekleidung oder bei Events hinsichtlich des Veranstaltungsprogramms. In einem weiteren Sinne werden als Prosumer auch Haushalte bezeichnet, die ihrerseits eine Leistung produzieren und am Markt verkaufen.
IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Band 40, 7. Jg., (2)2024, S. 267-283, 2024
Did you ever feel reduced to a fragment of yourself in public space (e.g. bound to behave like a ... more Did you ever feel reduced to a fragment of yourself in public space (e.g. bound to behave like a shopper in the mall, or like a people-watcher in the café)? This paper claims present-day space's being-as-image as reason, and sets out to explore its ontology, implication for human existence within it, and reasons for its formation. Thus, whereas theories of the image so far mostly restricted itself to a discussion of images-in-space, the present paper adds a new kind of image to the image theoretical discourse: the space-as-image. After demarcating a pictorial from a narrative conceptualization of space, this paper argues that spaces contain what is called a "picture-pressure": Spaces urge us to adjust ourselves to their frames, and to be constantly ready to (be) picture(d), that is, to behave as if always already in a picture. The pictorial consumption of spaces by others is seen as its reason, channeling our acting within towards a replication of already existent images of spaces. As Plato once defined the image as atopoi, non-local and impossible to locate; the phenomenon here discussed is provokingly defined as “topical” image – a name that is suggested in order to be critically discussed and dissected for the sake of stretching it towards its own possibilities.
Barftgaans September/Oktober, 2024
Eine kulturhistorische Untersuchung des Trans-Begriffs auf Basis der feministischen Unterscheidun... more Eine kulturhistorische Untersuchung des Trans-Begriffs auf Basis der feministischen Unterscheidung von Sex & Gender.
Atlas of Databodies 2, 2024
This paper seeks to shed light upon the thinness of the ruling thin regime, which it considers as... more This paper seeks to shed light upon the thinness of the ruling thin regime, which it considers as having developed in and via the present pictorial era. Its method is a textual speculation of an artwork: Iron Maidens positioned in pedestrian zones of cities as easy & quick check-ins for the own bodily conformation.
This paper situates itself at the fringe (!) of fat studies, to which it hopes to contribute by means of a pluralization of its perspectives. Defining fat as the sum of bodily deviations, it concludes: We all are fat bodies.
Barftgaans Juli/August, 2024
Eine kurze Einführung in die Fat Studies in deutscher Sprache
Barftgaans Mai/Juni, 2024
Das Konzept der Demokratie blingt uns derzeit wieder von den Plakaten der Europawahl entgegen. Hi... more Das Konzept der Demokratie blingt uns derzeit wieder von den Plakaten der Europawahl entgegen. Hier ein Versuch seines Verstehens aus der zeitgenössischen Philosophie, beruhend auf den Theorien von insbes. Graham Harman und Levi Bryant aus der Objekt-Orientierten Ontologie
IMAGE, 2024
The present paper deals with the conceptual distinction between the art that is created in the re... more The present paper deals with the conceptual distinction between the art that is created in the realm of augmented reality (ar), and the art that will be crea- ted within augmented virtuality (av). For this purpose, it discusses and episte- mologically re-works the dichotomy of “object” and “space” into “focus” and “field”. This allows to argue that ar-art maintains the conventional hierarchy: The art lies in the focus; the field remains the frame. Yet crucially, av-art turns this hierarchy around: Here, the field becomes art; and the focus turns into frame. Therefore, av-art affords an entirely distinct art-theoretical analysis, for which the tradition of the “objet trouvé” is postulated as meaningful.
Das vorliegende Paper befasst sich mit dem konzeptionellen Unterschied zwischen der Kunst, die im Bereich der Augmentierten Realität (ar) betrieben wird, und jener Kunst, die im Bereich der Augmentierten Virtualität (av) betrieben werden wird. Zu diesem Zwecke wird die Distinktion von „Objekt“ und „Raum“ zu Rate gezogen, welche im epistemologischen Sinne als „Fokus“ und „Feld“ umgedeutet wird. Dies erlaubt die Erkenntnis, dass in der ar-Kunst die übliche Hierarchie bestehen bleibt: Der Fokus ist das Kunst- werk, das Feld bleibt der Rahmen. Dahingegen dreht die av-Kunst eben jene Hierarchie um: Hier wird das Feld zur Kunst, und der Fokus zum Rahmen. Daher bedarf av-Kunst eine gänzlich andere kunsttheoretische Analyse, für welche die Tradition des objet trouvé als sinnig postuliert wird.
Barftgaans März/April, 2024
In diesem kurzen philosophisch/journalistischen Beitrag analysiere ich die derzeitigen Verschiebu... more In diesem kurzen philosophisch/journalistischen Beitrag analysiere ich die derzeitigen Verschiebungen der Geschlechterrollen auf Basis eines Vergleichs zum alten Griechenland, in dem laut feministischer Theorien ein Wandel von Matriarchat zu Patriarchat (dann vorherrschend im römischen Reich) stattfand. Abschließend stelle ich die Frage, ob wir diesen Wandel gerade wieder in die primäre Richtung erleben, und wie wir ihn gestalten wollen. Dieser Beitrag stellt den Auftakt einer neuen norddeutsch-lokalen Kollaboration dar.
As a matter of fact, we are surrounded by many more clothes than people. And from the people surr... more As a matter of fact, we are surrounded by many more clothes than people. And from the people surrounding us, we see more clothes than skin. Why are we thus so persuaded that what we see are people? In order to rebalance commonsense conceptions of the clothing (defined here not as the manifest thing, but as humans/clothes relation), the thesis "Towards a New Materialist Ontology of Clothing" aspires to disclose the equivalence immanent to this kind of human/thing relation.
For attending to material agencies and existences apart from our own in the clothing, this thesis took over the realm of New Materialism (NM). However, as NM has never targeted clothes/clothings, the present project had to construct for itself a four-parted methodological scaffold. Apart from adopting not the matter but rather the manner of (1) new materialist research, it drew on (2) fashion/dress (cultural) theoretical approaches. As the investigatory aspirations of the latter are directed onto the human, en route to which clothes are merely met; precisely not their hitherto provided answers, but rather their yet-to-solve matters were shouldered. (3) More assistance was found in Material Culture (MC) Studies, an anthropological school neighbouring NM, in the considerations of which more dress than fashion was included ever since. Finally, as a school NM often becomes confused or lumped together with, (4) Object-Oriented Ontology was used as additional back-up as well as further means of contrast. This clothing/NM-queering methodology allowed for a reworking of the concept of the "thing", which is held so dear and juggled-around with so naturally by all four touched-upon realms of research. Instead of object entities, the present project proposes web/knot-splitting becomings as units for research.
Eventually, this project aspires to highlight the worth of the clothing as philosophical research matter, whereby it hopefully will contribute to a shift from ascribing it a lack of seriousness, to appreciating the power it has over each of us. In its status quo, the everyday clothing practice is a major ecological polluter as well as an often heavy psychological burden. By relating the clothing and NM, this project animates to reconceptualize the latter and thus move towards a more respectful, responsible, and aesthetic co-existence of humans/clothes therein.
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference Coordinates of Aesthetics, Art and Culture 7, 2022
The present paper treats three observations: (1) The aesthetics of public spaces is a particularl... more The present paper treats three observations: (1) The aesthetics of public spaces is a particularly bodily kind of aesthetics. (2) The aesthetics of public spaces hitherto largely neglected the fact that in addition to material bodies, also human bodies fill, and thus determine the aesthetics of public spaces. And (3) the aesthetics of public spaces is able to show that the nature of the human body drastically diverges from the aesthetic standards which we apply to it, here titled ‘thin aesthetics’, and to thus initiate a rethinking of the aesthetics of the human body, that is, a widening of the aesthetically accepted, and eventually a realigning of nature and aesthetics of the human body. This renewed framework we here titled ‘fat aesthetics’. Viceversa, by liberating both the other and the self from being harshly judged, fat aesthetics has the capacity to enrich the aesthetics of public spaces. We henceforth call for the human body to become appreciated as a factor determining the aesthetics of public space, and we are certain the particular perspective of the aesthetics of public space will alter the aesthetics of the human body.
MetaMorphosis (by Symbiotic Lab / Entkunstung), Berlin, 2022
Insects are small. Insects are busy. And insects withdraw. For these reasons, in this text, I cla... more Insects are small. Insects are busy. And insects withdraw. For these reasons, in this text, I claim an “investigation of“ insects to be impossible. Rather, insects afford a constitutively open and thus continuous narration of “research“.
This text is part of MetaMorphosis, a multidisciplinary artistic research project initiated by Symbiotic Lab & Entkunstung in the frame of 2022's Art Biesenthal, Berlin, and has been published by POOL publishing Berlin and VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst.
The Culture, Fashion, and Society Notebook, 2021
This paper concerns “the clothing”, a technical nominalisation that shall here be used to denote ... more This paper concerns “the clothing”, a technical nominalisation that shall here be used to denote the relation between humans and clothes. Three ways in which this relation can be conceptualised are discussed here. (1) The modern worldview dictates a hierarchical understanding of the clothing relation in that it sees the human as using clothes for her purposes. Yet the modern conception “humans-via-clothes” remains unable to account for how and why we are affected and guided by clothes. For this reason, this paper sets out to explore two more current ways in which the humans-clothes relation could be read. (2) Object- oriented ontology is capable of re-reading the clothing relation from hierarchy to equality, and thus of witnessing the ways in which clothes act. Yet seeing human and clothes as equal eventually entrenches both entities, and by consequence creates a dualism, “humans-versus- clothes”. As human and clothes cannot be understood separately from one another, a third reading of the human-clothes relation is tested, and eventually favoured. (3) New materialism is a relationalist school of thought, and thus is capable of inverting the conventional equation hu- man + clothes = clothing, and instead reading the human-clothes relation intra-actively, clothing = human + clothes. In a new materialist vein, humans and clothes are equally made up by and take on equivalent roles within the clothing relations in which they do not come to be en- gaged, but ontologically are entangled: “humans/clothes”. The point at which this paper comes to a close is the selection of the new materialist as an adequate method for a postmodern re-reading of the clothing.
Everydayness: Contemporary Aesthetic Approaches (ed. by Giombini & Kvokacka), 2021
Everyday aesthetics inter alia claims: Also outside of art, there is beauty. The existence of suc... more Everyday aesthetics inter alia claims: Also outside of art, there is beauty. The existence of such extra-artistic beauty is taken as a given in this branch of aesthetic research; yet the issue it faces is of a methodological kind: How would it be possible to research ordinary beauties without turning them into extraordinary beauties and thus realigning them to art? The present paper proposes the method of speculation as a possible solution. Speculation is argued to be of aid for everyday aesthetics, because taking a speculative stance on reality means to not intervene in it, but to rather take a step back and respectfully narrate the withdrawing from our human perception that certain aspects of reality undertake. As such, speculation is a possibility to master the paradox faced by everyday aesthetics, which consists in engaging without intruding on beauties hiding within the everyday, and hence of preserving while and whilst researching them.
Swiss Portal for Philosophy , 2021
Arthur Cardoso de Andrade, interviewed by Swantje Martach [English Version]
Swiss Portal for Philosophy, 2021
Arthur Cardoso de Andrade im Interview mit Swantje Martach [German Version]
Against Nature (Catalogue to Herwig Scherabon's solo exhibition, July 2021, Berlin), 2021
The present catalogue text discerns between two kinds of eco-centric works the Austrian artist He... more The present catalogue text discerns between two kinds of eco-centric works the Austrian artist Herwig Scherabon presented in his latest solo exhibition “Against Nature“ (July 2021, Berlin Neukölln): landscapist and objectivist. Whereas Herwig's landscapist works are both nets-of and knots-in, and thus ontology-wise rather conventional; his objectivist works are ontologically most striking as they exclusively are nets, but no knots. For this reason, they are focused on here. The artist conjures these singular existences by means of black space that is isolating, yet not weakening, but rather empowering, even “monstrouizing“ them. In so existing, they emit an ontologically provocative statement: Distance is not debilitating, but rather an invitation to become.
Matter (Vol. 2 No. 2 (2021): Fourth Issue), 2021
New Dawn is a global arts/theories queering project, which was initiated in Berlin in 2020, and w... more New Dawn is a global arts/theories queering project, which was initiated in Berlin in 2020, and which speculates future aesthetics of the glove as "tool-to-touch." The present intra-view is a real 'view-from-within,' as it unfolds a conversation (a turning, moving, becoming [versare] together [con]) in-between the two members of this project's theoretical section: Felipe Duque and Swantje Martach. This intra-view sets out to explore the role the glove plays within the touch. A gloved touch differs from a non-gloved touch, as the glove heightens the touch. The glove functions as a first other that is encountered in the touch, hence it is touched and touching us back. And it is a medium for and mediator of touching other others, as it is through the glove that the ordinarily touched (the world) is touched. By means of this double position in the touch, the glove emancipates from human control. It enables us humans to realize many touches that we alone would not be capable of, and in this way, it emancipates us from our limitations as humans. The glove is a very material invitation to become, that increases with every new gloves invented, a switch to which is just another un/dressing away. By focusing on the glove/hand entanglement, New Dawn can be read as promoting the haptic sense as a hitherto neglected contributor of the aesthetic. Being self-critical however, we argue that depicting the future of touch by means of the glove eventually is a rather restrictive speculation, as it limits all touch to the one we exert by and experience from hands; whereas reality disposes a multiplicity of touches (e.g. a touch between shoulders, eyes, lips). To expand future touches could thus be an interesting continuation for New Dawn.
www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Outgoing from Berlin, this year (2020), a globally operating and immensely interdisciplinary art ... more Outgoing from Berlin, this year (2020), a globally operating and immensely interdisciplinary art project formed up: New Dawn. By means of speculation (as indeed not only an abstract philosophical method), it created an access to future scenarios of nothing other than the glove. The present article aspires to show the project’s reasons for selecting precisely this every object; as well as the up-to-date and therewith spectacular, and the frank and thus as holistic as urgently necessary manner in which the glove is treated therein.
www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Von Berlin aus formierte sich dieses Jahr ein den Globus überspannendes und immens interdisziplin... more Von Berlin aus formierte sich dieses Jahr ein den Globus überspannendes und immens interdisziplinäres Kunstprojekt, New Dawn, welches durch Spekulation (als eben nicht nur abstrakt-philosophische Methode) einen Zugang zu Zukunftsszenarien des Handschuhs erschaffen hat. Warum dafür genau dieser Alltagsgegenstand gewählt wurde, und wie aktuell und daher aufsehenerregend, sowie ehrlich und somit so holistisch wie dringend nötig damit umgegangen wird, soll hier gezeigt werden.
https://www.philosophie.ch, 2020
Ein objekt-orientiert-ontologischer Ansatz, angewandt auf das aktuell-akute Zeitgeschehen Möchte... more Ein objekt-orientiert-ontologischer Ansatz, angewandt auf das aktuell-akute Zeitgeschehen
Möchte man erforschen was etwas ist, also eine Ontologie eines bestimmten Dings, Phänomens, Objekts erstellen, so gibt es laut Graham Harman zwei Annäherungsweisen. Die eine, die er "undermining" nennt, ist geleitet von der Frage: Woraus besteht das Ding? Und die andere namens "overmining" fragt: Was tut das Ding? Kombiniert man beide Wissensarten, so gelangt man zufolge Harman zu einer Antwort auf die Frage: Was ist dieses Ding, das ich erforschen möchte? (siehe Harman 2016, 7-13). Wir wollen uns nun mit beiden Fragen in Hinsicht auf das Corona-Virus (mit "Corona" ist hier die volksmündliche Bezeichnung von Covid-19 gemeint, obgleich dieser Begriff streng genommen eigentlich eine Gruppe von Viren umfasst) konfrontieren, das bereits (metaphorisch gesprochen) in aller Munde ist und die täglichen Nachrichten so ausdauernd beherrscht wie selten ein Geschehnis.
Herausforderungen für das Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement: Globalisierung – Digitalisierung – Geschäftsmodelltransformation, 2019
Der Begriff „Prosumer“ hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine wachsende Beachtung als Gegenstand der ... more Der Begriff „Prosumer“ hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine wachsende Beachtung als Gegenstand der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften erfahren (Hellmann 2009) und vereint „Production“ und „Consumer“, d.h. er weicht die strenge Trennung zwischen Produktion durch Unternehmen einerseits und Konsum durch Haushalte andererseits auf. Eine inhaltliche Abgrenzung des Begriffs zeigt, dass dem „Prosumer“ ein sehr breites Spektrum von ökonomischen Aktivitäten zugeschrieben wird: Zunächst werden Haushalte in einem engeren Sinne als Prosumer bezeichnet, wenn sie in die Erstellung betrieblicher Leistungen eingebunden werden, beispielsweise in die Gestaltung von Bekleidung oder bei Events hinsichtlich des Veranstaltungsprogramms. In einem weiteren Sinne werden als Prosumer auch Haushalte bezeichnet, die ihrerseits eine Leistung produzieren und am Markt verkaufen.
Since the onset of the Covid-crisis, the medicinal, epidemiological, virological voice has gained... more Since the onset of the Covid-crisis, the medicinal, epidemiological, virological voice has gained prevalence in the media, and is receiving a heightened attention of the masses. What this distinctive voice says appears to be the incontestable reality, and you better listen to and follow its advice. Yet the philosophical voice, which so far claimed for itself (at least its practical branch) to be guiding us to better ways of life, and assisting us in difficult situations with a proper theory, apparently fell almost silent. As the organizer of this event believes in the true power of philosophy, it is aspired to strengthen philosophy's voice in and for the pandemic crisis. And how could this better be done than via a gathering? Let us not allow this pandemic to refortify once more the conventional hierarchy of the sciences over the humanities; but let us rather take it as an opportunity to retrieve our voice, remodel philosophy as such, and relocate it in the center of public debate!