Course Schedule

Veranstaltungen von Dr. Daniel Irrgang


Lehrveranstaltungen

Exhibiting climate change: media, art, and curating in times of crises (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Daniel Irrgang

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Dienstag | 16:15 - 17:45 | 13.10.2025 - 30.01.2026 | C 12.105 Seminarraum

Inhalt: This course approaches the question of how to represent, and thus make accessible for critical thought and practice, the ‘hyperobject’ climate change. The term hyperobject was coined by Timothy Morton (2013) to address the complexities of the causes and effects of anthropogenic forcings on this planet, which are impossible to conceptualize in a coherent or holistic problem-solving manner. This includes its epistemological conditions: The interconnected climate crises defy simple forms of understanding as they challenge the rationalizations of Western knowledge systems, such as the binary distinctions between modern and pre-modern temporalities or separated spheres of nature and culture. Adding to this complexity, climate change spans vast temporal and spatial dimensions, a vastness that has provisionally been addressed with the controversially debated Anthropocene as term for a new geological epoch shaped by human agency. To grasp this hyperobject, then, is both an epistemological and aesthetic challenge; a challenge that is more and more taken up, particularly in the last 10+ years, by critical practices in art, design, exhibition making, and the media apparatuses associated with those practices. They seek to show entry points for possible acts of resistance and activism towards late capitalism’s impact on the planet. A planet which human beings do not only inhabit – as in a place which could easily be switched against another one as living conditions deteriorate, be it through extraterrestrial exit strategies to Mars or extravagant hideouts in gated communities, both reserved for the upper 1%. But as a complex environment in which the conditions for life to exist is continuously generated by life itself, that is by the biogeochemical processes of a manifold of lifeforms (of which human beings are only a tiny part, albeit one with far-reaching effects on planetary ecosystems). To imagine and suggest alternative modes of living, where such an interdependence between human and non-human lifeforms is respected, is another challenge for art and design practices engaging with Anthropocene tensions. To trace such intellectual, aesthetic, and activist practices, the course will cover roughly three fields: (1) classic and current theoretical positions within the continuously emerging field of environmental humanities; (2) practices in art and design that explore alternative sustainable practices and planetary futures; (3) media and curatorial strategies that make those practices accessible within an exhibition context. Besides engaging with the theoretical positions and case studies in art, design, and curation, each course participant is expected to develop an own curatorial concept for an imaginary exhibition addressing (aspects of) the climate crisis.