Lectures, Talks, Performances and a HASENHERZ-Screening in Klagenfurt

An event presented jointly by FWF-PEEK Der Taumel-eine Ressource, Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna in cooperation with the Institut für Philosophie, Alice Pechriggl, at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt.

Taking Action and Doing

‍Alice Pechriggl

What do we do, when we attempt to rethink the notion of taking action in terms of “unconscious actions”? That is the prime question that needs to be answered, not only theoretically but also on the basis of empirical investigation. The word “empirical” can be philosophically illuminated and understood on the basis of the concept of empeiria (“experience”), that is to say, also by exactly describing what one, as a philosopher, experiences when thinking about something on all levels (body-and-soul and social) of doing. Since Descartes and Husserl this can be done, for instance, through “mediations,” more recently through conceptually reflected lecture-performances in the context of the artistic analysis and interpretation of the world, that is to say, by means of both improvised and planned actions and the alert observation of lived experience (as opposed to the experiments conducted in experimental psychology, in which the object of the experience is an experimental construct, whose attributes may also be connected with invasive interventions, even harm or damage). However, this approach cannot guarantee direct access (unimpeded by “uncertainty relations”) to the illuminating phenomenon “itself.” Nevertheless, the advantage in terms of understanding—in this case doing, somewhere between enacting and taking action—resides in the possibility of making the interface between subject and object, between internalization and externalization the point of departure for one’s deliberations and exploration of concepts. This conceptual-systematic and meditative illumination may thus be seen as an instance of chiasma.

Der Taumel-eine Ressource // Navigating in the Unknown

‍Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond

The process of slipping into dizzying freefall, of sliding into uncertainty, becoming stuck, losing one’s way, giving up are as much actions as occurrences, both active and passive. Dizziness is a midway state at the point where everything and nothing seems possible, where certainty and uncertainty are in superposition, marked by an increasing loss of control. What potential for action is there here, in a system that is out of kilter? What does taking a step here mean? Or formulating a thought, daring to have an idea?

Firsthand experience of these questions is an innate aspect of artistic praxis as we know it. Could it be that an intrinsic behavior, which science and art share, encourages that process of slipping into dizzying freefall?

Programme:

Monday 11 May, 2015 at Kunstraum Lakeside:

18:00 HASENHERZ, Film screening and discussion with Henry Hills

19:15 On Creative Doing, Mathias Benedek + Emanuel Jauk

19:30 Performance INSOMNIA-ALIVE, Charlotte Hug

Tuesday 12 May, 2015 at Unicampus V1.03 (Vorstufengebäude):

10:00 Artists’ Talk: Alice Pechriggl, Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond in conversation with Charlotte Hug on artistic and philosophical activity

11:00 Ashoka Fellow and expert on delirium and risk-taking Gerald Koller on dizziness and balance in connection with losing control and risk factors

Break

12:30 Karoline Feyertag on philosophical dizziness

13:15 End

Participants:

‍Charlotte Hug, Composer-performer, visual artist (CH)
Henry Hills, Filmmaker (USA)
Gerald Koller, Risflecting (AUT)
Alice Pechriggl, Philosopher (AUT)
Karoline Feyertag, Philosopher (AUT)
Mathias Benedek + Emanuel Jauk, Creativity researchers (AUT)
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, Artists’ Duo (AUT)

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