Kurs bilgisi

Radical Natural Now

Air, Dust, Machines: Berliner Techno-Aesthetic Landscapes

Prof. Jörg H. Gleiter, Prof. Aaron Sprecher (Technion)

Time: 08:00-12:00

Date: 

Compact seminar 05-16 May 2025

Introduction and Theory Seminar: 05-08 May (online)

On-Site: 12-16 May, every day

Language: English

Otherness stands at the core of the Berliner cultural landscape. Operating both above and underground, at the center and periphery, Berlin's urban and natural environment constitutes a dynamic topological system of narratives. Each narrative articulates a specific approach to a technologized nature—what Gilbert Simondon describes as "a second nature" —a mediated, techno-aesthetic ecology shaped by machines, infrastructures, and social formations. This seminar critically examines the historical landscapes of Berlin that have contributed to the emergence of its manifold identities.

 

These ecologies will be explored in relation to political and environmental regimes, technological infrastructures, and scientific paradigms. We will investigate how technology and aesthetics co-constitute environmental assemblages by drawing on Simondon's concept of techno-aestheticism, which spans both nature's formal and sensorialdimensions as a technical object.

 

Peter Sloterdijk's notion of atmospheric politics will be central to our inquiry, considering how atmospheric, material, and technological enclosures form and shape Berlin's landscapes. Meanwhile, we will engage with the work of Peter Galison on Objectivity to explore how scientific and technological models have historically influenced the perception and construction of Berlin's spatial and environmental orders. Gilles Deleuze's writings on assemblages and deterritorialization will help us frame Berlin's fragmented and fluid topographies, particularly their interplay between control, resistance, and improvisation.