Do things dream too? The idea that things have a life questions the relevance of our human perspective as well as our limits, posing the question: “what are the conditions of existence for our knowledge and theories of the nonhuman?” (Parrika)
What intelligences and futures can we discover in the machines? Is “agency” an exclusively human attribute? How does matter come to matter? What is a hyperobject? How does a play relate to its’ audience, if there is no human in it?
As we search to interpret our unconscious and dreams through Freuds theory, we could investigate more closely the irrational, the hidden or the “other”. We are largely unaware that things arounds us exist and are defined beyond our experience of them.
The texts we will read by Karen Barad, Jussi Parikka, Timothy Morton, Sigmund Freud, Heiner Goebbels, Levi Bryant and Ian Bogost consider approaches regarding the “non-human” in the context of existing environmental and economic issues as well as the established hierarchies in performance and media. In order to encourage the students to investigate, research and create their projects, these texts are seen as a relevant foundation and should further their process as well as their outcomes.
The texts will be in english and german.
Irena Kukric/Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick
(Theoretical Part of the Bachelorproject)
SS2019 HfK Bremen
Some of the main references:
Karen Barad, Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter matters,Signs: Women in Culture and Society vol.28 n.3, by the University of Chicago press 2003
Jussi Parika, New Materialism and Non- Humanisation, an Interview with Jussi Parikka by Michael Dieter. Published in the Speculative Realities ebook.