Vorlesungsverzeichnis

What is interpretation? The return of a question in contemporary art (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Brigid Doherty

Termin:
Einzeltermin | Mi, 23.10.2019, 14:00 - Mi, 23.10.2019, 15:30 | C 40.501 Seminarraum | Einführungsveranstaltung des Blockseminars (als Global Classroom)
Einzeltermin | Fr, 22.11.2019, 12:00 - Fr, 22.11.2019, 18:00 | C 40.501 Seminarraum
Einzeltermin | Sa, 23.11.2019, 10:00 - Sa, 23.11.2019, 16:00 | C 40.501 Seminarraum
Einzeltermin | Fr, 13.12.2019, 12:00 - Fr, 13.12.2019, 18:00 | C 40.255 Seminarraum
Einzeltermin | Sa, 14.12.2019, 10:00 - Sa, 14.12.2019, 16:00 | C 40.255 Seminarraum

Inhalt: We will address this seminar’s titular question in three phases. First, we will read and discuss a range of writings in philosophy, psychoanalysis, art history, and art-criticism that variously investigate what is at stake in regarding works of art not only as artefacts of human perception, experience, and knowledge of the world, but as interpretations of the world and of other works of art. Second, we will study Hermann Rorschach’s conceptualization of the interpretation of chance forms [Zufallsformen] in his 1921 work Psychodiagnostik; Methodik und Ergebnisse eines wahrnehmungsdiagnostischen Experiments. Deutenlassen von Zufallsformen, which presented the method and results of an experiment in which test subjects were asked to offer interpretations of the ten plates that comprised Rorschach’s now famous “ink blot” images, which were not in fact “chance forms” at all, but images designed and made, by Rorschach himself, precisely to lend themselves to certain modalities of interpretation. Third, we will explore two groups of works by Andy Warhol and Rosemarie Trockel as, variously, interpretations of Rorschach’s experiment in the interpretation of chance forms and its afterlife as a personality test. The seminar will comprise a general introduction (23 October), an introductory session on the topic of what we mean when we talk about “interpretations” (22 November), and three sessions focusing on Rorschach, Warhol, and Trockel (November 23, December 13, December 14). Central to our work together in this seminar will be thinking about interpretation in contemporary art in relation to other concepts and practices in the field, including “critique” and “appropriation”.

• Masterprogramm Humanities & Social Sciences: Kulturwissenschaften - Culture, Arts and Media [ab Studienbeginn WS 13/14] - Schwerpunkt Kunst- und Medienwissenschaft - Zeitgenössische Kunst und ihre Kritik