We are living in a time of global ecological crisis causing waves of migration, the strengthening of national politics and social division, challenging us to adopt new ethical attitudes in order to question predominant systems. The Corona pandemic led to an additional shaking of the economic and socio-cultural order. At the same time, it has caused the establishment of a new way of human interaction: Audiovisual media have become the most important means of exchange and communication, often the only possible gateway to the world and to our fellow human beings. At the same time, the increased immersion in digital worlds of images and sound is changing our understanding of reality. Such a transformed worldview is concomitant to new perspectives in contemporary philosophy; these perspectives have long since found their continuation in the artistic fields. In particular, critical posthumanism offers the conceptual tools for a "critical aesthetic turn" to develop new ways of thinking, narrating, fabulating, speculating, knowing, and subject-forming, and to exploit this change of perspective in aesthetic practice. How can we address current ethical and environmental challenges through artistic, filmic and philosophical means, including the emerging audiovisual platforms?

The international online symposium "Intraactivity: the Posthuman, Fabulation and Matter" invites 24 participants from 18 countries to come together and form a fictitive "International Committee to Save the Earth through Speculative Fabulation". In 24 philosophical or artistic presentations, they will illuminate the role of speculation, figuration, and fabulation in film, literature, and philosophy in shaping social and political processes. They will report on the state of the Anthropocene, sketch a speculative future in their respective fields, or present philosophical and/or artistic and filmic approaches that address the entanglement of the biosphere, ecosphere, and technosphere, and between climate change and the corona pandemic. Together, the dominant discourse on migration, economics, climate change, or ecology will be put to the test with the inclusion of different perspectives and ethics. 12 additional keynotes will round the thought picture: For example, Rosi Braidotti, who has coined the term “critical post-humanism” and particularly inquired into the posthuman condition and ethics will give a short workshop.

The symposium is part of the Masterclass Artistic Research „Fabulation for Future“. Its goal is to build a worldwide sympoietic network of international filmmakers, media artists, thinkers, curators as well as local activists developing a post-anthropocentric worldview for a sustainable future on planet Earth where human and non-human species coexist. Collaborative artistic actions, fabulative concepts, speculative narratives, and audiovisual projects that engage and challenge recently emerging digital platforms will be the basis, and ideally made available to a broad audience later in the context of an (online) exhibition (depending on funding).

More information can be found here
Registration is required. Please register here

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