Prof. Dr. Timothé Ingen-Housz
TERRAFORMALISM
Blockseminar, ca. 3-4 SWS, 2 ECTS, 10 Plätze
Freitag/Samstag. 25.10./26.10.2019, Freitag, 13.12.2019, Freitag, 7.2.2020
Zzgl. Beratungstermine für die Einzelgruppen: 9.11./10.11., 22.11./23.11.2019, 17.1./18.1.2020
Grunewaldstr. 2-5, Raum 10

How shall one think about the concept of "nature" today, now that the human race is supposedly facing the most ambitious yet paradoxical rescue operation of them all: save the earth from people? In other words: how should we conceive our role as criminals, victims and rescuers, as "we" seek to escape the damage caused by ourselves, knowing we are part of the problem, - if not the problem. What does it say about Nature, and what does it say about "us"? In other words: who speaks here for who-else? 

According to the systemic theories of James Lovelock, the current tribulations of of the global climate may be part of a giant self-regulatory process he calls Gaia. The planet, he says, behaves as one macro-organism capable to survive the transitory pains of the so-called anthropocene, even if this means getting rid of humans on the way. Meanwhile, children are skipping school worldwide to demand immediate political action on the environmental crisis they fear will steal away their future. New roles, new dissidents, and new networks are rising along.

One may look at this planetary mission both as an outcry and as a riddle, - a collective adventure generating new occasions to produce insights on the way we think, experience and communicate "nature". As communities struggle to find a new place in an environment risking to be far more threatening than we can fathom, we may have to deploy new connective structures, new languages, new forms of entrepreneurship and new political reference system to address the troubles ahead. This burgeoning  “new” narrative is no longer reflecting a world globalized by trade agreements, but by the transnational inter-dependancies of its climate crisis. 

How shall we look at this narrative with the necessary critical distance, as immediate action seems to be required? What kind of culture will it create and how will it reformulate the very notion of "nature" as communites and individuals struggle to redefine themselves as parts of a new whole? What could this situation reveal about "us" and our potential to think and act collectively? 

In this seminar, we will look at the images emerging from the situation and create new pictures and scenarios for a grand rescue, observing and analysing what kind of “nature & culture” are cultivated along. This appears to be a complex undertaking, as mainstream media becomes the voice of a scientific discourse it must both protect from climate denial on the one hand, and shield from new forms of ecofascim on the other. 

We will look at different metaphorical, dramaturgical and representational strategies, and see how they are to interact (and intersect) in the the development of a grand rescue narrative. Key to our exploration will be the presentation of various forms of microscopic interventions in everyday life and language. 

Seminar students will paint a "Terraformal landscape“ resulting from their research, thus „terraforming“ the earth anew through glocalised performances, at the intersection between "new", interdependant perceptions of nature and cultures. 

Readings (exerpts):
Bateson, G.: „Steps towards and Ecology of Mind“, „Mind and Nature“
Latour, B: „Kampf um Gaia“
Lucretius: "On the nature of things"

Leistungsanforderungen: regelmäßige, aktive Teilnahme, seminar students will paint a „Terraformal landscape“ resulting from their research.

Timothée Ingen-Housz, Animationskünstler, wurde im Oktober 2015 an die UdK Berlin berufen. Nach seinem Abschluss Ende der 90er Jahre zog er nach Köln und gründete „phosphen“, ein interdisziplinäres Kreativstudio für „Screen, Stage and Page“, das unter anderem Musikvideos, Internetcartoons, wissenschaftliche Animationen, interaktive Installationen, Videospielfiguren, Kinderbücher, narrative Benutzeroberfläche, Lounge-Konzepte und Bühnenvideos für verschiedene Kunden realisierte. Er begann das Lehren als Student und hielt Vorträge und Workshops für: Ensad, Harvard Filmfakultät, Goldsmiths Universität London, Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln und schließlich für die UdK Berlin, wo er jetzt „audiovisuelle Konzeption und Dramaturgie“ im Studiengang „Kommunikation in sozialen und ökonomischen Kontexten“ (GWK) unterrichtet.