Towards Im/Measurability of Life and Art

A research project about art and measurement

in collaboration with Annette Krauss

This research project engages the theme “Art & Measurement” – as an attempt to creatively link imagination, affect and on going transformation in measurement. It addresses the ambivalence of measurement and measurability in contemporary realities.

On one hand practices of measuring promise scientific enlightenment, comparability and evidencing, on the other hand they impose conformity by perpetuating existing categories, standards and scales of scientific conventions.

Tiziana Terranova identifies forms of measurement in two fields: one is physics and another is aesthetics. Following Terranova, we are encouraged to experiment with different concepts of measurement from the positions of arts by elaborating three approaches to thinking about measurement: 1) Measurement as In-Forming, 2) Measuring as Participation, and 3) Vocabularies of Measurement: Numbers, Digits and Units.

Our investigation takes form not only in reading, writing and thinking, but also conversing, scrabbling, touching, performing and feeling with an active engagement of the body.

As the first attempt within a context of the investigation, we will organise a series of events in Leuphana University, Lüneburg including lectures, workshops and conversations. We will explore systems and symptoms around measurement in different disciplines and cultures, experimenting with various methods of research and styles of presentation.

Das Projekt wird im Rahmen des Innovations-Inkubators der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg gefördert durch den Europäischen Fond für Regionalentwicklung (EFRE) und das Land Niedersachsen.