Palliative Ästhetik – Musik und Theater im Zeichen der Klimakatastrophe

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Subject according curriculum

General studies

Teachers

Dr. Benjamin Sprick

Scope

Mondays, 10-11:30 am (start 07.04.25)

Room

BP U11

Duration

1.5 Semesterwochenstunden

Description

=> Seminar schedule

Palliative aesthetics is an aesthetic that deals with the approaching end. It gives up the claim to the good, the true and the beautiful and hopes for nothing more - in order to draw new hope from this. Palliative aesthetics is therefore an aesthetic in the face of the impending climate catastrophe. It urges conceptual acceleration, because the end of the world in the context of climate change is taking place slowly and ominously. The factual threat can only be experienced here unconsciously, in the irritating feeling of an "ecological uncanniness" (Juliane Rebentisch). How do the arts react to this fundamental crisis of the condition of their own possibility? Where does the music and theater industry flee into the routine lack of ideas of "business as usual"? How can we work together to respond artistically and appropriately to the apocalypses that are approaching us?

The transdisciplinary seminar traverses current theories and concepts of climate-related doomsday (including those of Alenka Zupančič; Ingolfur Blühdorn; David Wallace-Wells) in order to arrive at an epistemologically resilient concept of "palliative aesthetics". Not only will text material from climate research, sociology and philosophy be read and discussed together. Various practical exercises are also planned in order to give the looming crisis an artistic concretion. In addition, a number of guests have already announced that they will report on their perspectives on the topic in the seminar and discuss five critical models with us in the second half of the semester, which could be used to develop new aesthetic-political strategies. The intensive care doctor Julius Krüger (UKE Hamburg), the news presenter Michail Paweletz (ARD aktuell), the quantum physicist Dr. Krishna Swamy (Philipps), the image scientist Dr. Vera Tollmann (Leuphana University), the dramaturge Christian Tschirner (Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg), the management consultant Dr. Hubertus Meinecke (Boston Consulting) and many more have confirmed their participation.

Literature

Literature recommendations [=> Seminar-Reader (Texts)]: Ia. Olav Westphalen (2021), "Welcome to the Palliative Turn. A Proposal for Contemporary Art": in: Cabinet Magazine 68, (2025). [=> https://www.palliativeturn.org/category/texts/]; Ib. Daniel K. L. Chua/Alexander Rehding, "Toward an Intergalacting Music Theory of Everything", in: this. (eds.), Alien Listening. Voyager's Golden Record and Music from Earth, New York: Zone Books, pp. 51-98; II. Juliane Rebentisch (2025), "Das Ökologisch-Unheimliche", inaugural lecture at the HFBK Hamburg on 24.11.2024, in: Berlin Review 8 (2025), pp. 13-23; III. David Wallace-Wells, "Elements of Chaos", in: The Uninhabitable Earth. Life After Warming, New York: Tim Duggan Books, pp. 5-44; IV. Douglas Rushkoff (2024), "Cybernetic Karma. Blown up with your own powder", in: Survival of the Richest. Warum wir vor den Tech-Milliardären noch nicht einmal auf dem Mars sicher sind, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2025, pp. 214-238; [Douglas Rushkoff at Sternstunde Philosophie (SRF) on 24.03.2025: => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgdplv8Mde8] V. Alenka Zupancic (2022), "Die Apokalypse enttäuscht (noch) immer", in: Alexander Garcia Düttmann / Marcus Quent, Die Apokalypse enttäuscht. Atomtod Klimakatastrophe Kommunismus, Berlin: diaphanes, pp. 27-54; VI. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (2002), "Über Leben und Sterben", in: this, Über den Tod und das Leben danach, Silberschnur Verlag, Güllesheim, pp. 7-24. VII. Byung-Chul Han, "Poetik des Schmerzes", in: Ders, Palliativgesellschaft. Schmerz heute, Berlin: Matthes & Seitz 2020, pp. 123-145; IIX. Simon Schaupp (2024), "Fleischfabriken und reaktive Expansion", in: ders, Stoffwechselpolitik. Labor, Nature and the Future of the Planet, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, pp. 149-193; IX. Emanuel Deutschmann (2025), Die Exponentialgesellschaft. Vom Ende des Wachstums zur Stabilisierung der Welt, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp; X. Ingolfur Blühdorn, "Nach dem Untergang der Menschheit", in: Ders, Unhaltbarkeit. Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, pp. 9-52.

Credits

2 Creditpoints

Comments

A seminar reader (texts) with texts on the topic will be made available at the beginning of the seminar. The reader is already available, together with various other materials on the topic, on the internet platform Moodle, where self-enrolment for the seminar is also possible: [=> https://elearning.hfmt-hamburg.de/course/view.php?id=802]

Please register for the seminar by sending a brief outline of your interests and motivations by 07.04.2025 to benjamin.sprick@hfmt-hamburg.de

In order to obtain credit points, a willingness to read (including longer texts), a text presentation and a written assignment or reflection on your own artistic work are obligatory. Irregular or sporadic participation in the seminar without the award of credit points is also possible and will be arranged with the lecturer.

Modules

Promotionsmodul, Wahlmodul freie Wahl (alle Studiengänge)