Machen – Doing
06. + 07. November
Machen – Doing
Machen – Doing

Machen

Doing

The 11th Kurt Schwitters Symposium is based on the premise that acting and reflecting, simply getting started and systematic research are not opposites, but need each other. Designing, shaping, being creative is therefore always a way of creating knowledge, gaining experience and developing skills.

The term 'doing' has the advantage that it can be detached from the conceptual pair 'practice vs. theory'. Although both fields can exist in their own right, the question remains as to whether theory is not also a form of practice or, conversely, whether there is always a form of theory behind practice. It could be argued, on the other hand, that 'doing’ is equally valid for both fields. Against the background of 'doing', both theory and practice are of equal value.
The concept of doing is thus fundamentally interdisciplinary. Opposites can stand side by side. What 'doing' can be may remain unresolved. We therefore take the liberty of leaving the term vague and not providing a ready-made definition. Rather, we would like to allow numerous perspectives to tell us and show us what it could mean. During the conference, an approach to the term will then take place.

With this in mind, we are looking for practitioners, designers and artists who see their own work as a form of search for knowledge. We are looking for practices that combine elements of both design and science. We are looking for scientists and researchers who define their work as creative. We are looking for institutions that position themselves between the classic genres: between art, design and craft, between the natural sciences and the humanities, between design and activism, between entertainment and investigation, between teaching, mediation and development.
But we are also looking for people who advocate a clear differentiation of categories, who take a critical look at the subversion of concepts. What is the value of the separation of humanities-literary culture on the one hand and scientific-technical culture on the other, as it has previously been proposed? How useful is the division into different fields of activity such as separate faculties, subjects and types of higher education or training programs?

For the conference, we envision a connection to different approaches; for example, to the efforts of arts-based research to understand creative practices as research methods; or also connections to studies that make explicit and value the implicit and situated knowledge, the tacit knowledge of agencies and studios, workshops and start-ups, teaching institutions and exhibition venues.

Against this inclusive backdrop, ‘doing’ knows no failure. All it knows is the concept of starting over – just like a small child, really. Moreover, doing is performative by definition. Doing something always creates a different reality than not doing something (which is also performative). Doing therefore also has a social impact, for example in the sociological concept of “doing gender”. In numerous activist groups – but also in populist narratives – an imperative to act can also be observed: Here, people are called upon to take action instead of thinking long and hard.

“Doing!” clearly seems to be in vogue. However, this year's Kurt Schwitters Symposium aims to explore questions such as whether pausing for a moment can be useful, whether doing nothing is perhaps also a form of doing, and how contemplation and reflection are compatible with an active life.

With contributions by:
Vita Berezina-Blackburn, Ohio State University, OH, USA
Prof. Dr. Tom Bieling, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
Ludwig Drosch, Universität Hildesheim
Prof. Dr. Annette Geiger und Sasha Faradzheva, Hochschule für Künste Bremen
Shoey Nam, Hochschule für Künste Bremen
Jan Neukirchen, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Prof. Dr. Judith Siegmund, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
From Hanover University of Applied Siences and Arts:
Prof. Luise Dettbarn
Alexandra Gomez Kaetz
Annerose Keßler
Prof. Timo Schnitt & Sylvia Bossenz
Prof. Nadja Schöllhammer
Prof. Dr. Jakob Vicari
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Weltzien
Dr. Carolin Scheler

Machen – Doing

The 11th Kurt Schwitters Symposium is based on the premise that acting and reflecting, simply getting started and systematic research are not opposites, but need each other. Designing, shaping, being creative is therefore always a way of creating knowledge, gaining experience and developing skills.

The term 'doing' has the advantage that it can be detached from the conceptual pair 'practice vs. theory'. Although both fields can exist in their own right, the question remains as to whether theory is not also a form of practice or, conversely, whether there is always a form of theory behind practice. It could be argued, on the other hand, that 'doing’ is equally valid for both fields. Against the background of 'doing', both theory and practice are of equal value.
The concept of doing is thus fundamentally interdisciplinary. Opposites can stand side by side. What 'doing' can be may remain unresolved. We therefore take the liberty of leaving the term vague and not providing a ready-made definition. Rather, we would like to allow numerous perspectives to tell us and show us what it could mean. During the conference, an approach to the term will then take place.

With this in mind, we are looking for practitioners, designers and artists who see their own work as a form of search for knowledge. We are looking for practices that combine elements of both design and science. We are looking for scientists and researchers who define their work as creative. We are looking for institutions that position themselves between the classic genres: between art, design and craft, between the natural sciences and the humanities, between design and activism, between entertainment and investigation, between teaching, mediation and development.
But we are also looking for people who advocate a clear differentiation of categories, who take a critical look at the subversion of concepts. What is the value of the separation of humanities-literary culture on the one hand and scientific-technical culture on the other, as it has previously been proposed? How useful is the division into different fields of activity such as separate faculties, subjects and types of higher education or training programs?

For the conference, we envision a connection to different approaches; for example, to the efforts of arts-based research to understand creative practices as research methods; or also connections to studies that make explicit and value the implicit and situated knowledge, the tacit knowledge of agencies and studios, workshops and start-ups, teaching institutions and exhibition venues.

Against this inclusive backdrop, ‘doing’ knows no failure. All it knows is the concept of starting over – just like a small child, really. Moreover, doing is performative by definition. Doing something always creates a different reality than not doing something (which is also performative). Doing therefore also has a social impact, for example in the sociological concept of “doing gender”. In numerous activist groups – but also in populist narratives – an imperative to act can also be observed: Here, people are called upon to take action instead of thinking long and hard.

“Doing!” clearly seems to be in vogue. However, this year's Kurt Schwitters Symposium aims to explore questions such as whether pausing for a moment can be useful, whether doing nothing is perhaps also a form of doing, and how contemplation and reflection are compatible with an active life.

With contributions by:
Vita Berezina-Blackburn, Ohio State University, OH, USA
Prof. Dr. Tom Bieling, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
Ludwig Drosch, Universität Hildesheim
Prof. Dr. Annette Geiger und Sasha Faradzheva, Hochschule für Künste Bremen
Shoey Nam, Hochschule für Künste Bremen
Jan Neukirchen, Leibniz Universität Hannover
Prof. Dr. Judith Siegmund, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste
From Hanover University of Applied Siences and Arts:
Prof. Luise Dettbarn
Alexandra Gomez Kaetz
Annerose Keßler
Prof. Timo Schnitt & Sylvia Bossenz
Prof. Nadja Schöllhammer
Prof. Dr. Jakob Vicari
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Weltzien
Dr. Carolin Scheler

Deskilling Creativity. DIY and Non-Virtuosity in the Age of AI

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

In the history of creative practices, skill, the virtuoso mastery of materials and techniques, has often stood in the way of doing. If years of practice, god given talent, and suitable living conditions must come together to enable a remarkable creative achievement, then creativity is reserved for only a few. Such views have repeatedly been contrasted with aesthetics that were more committed to pleasure, immediacy, or improvisation than to skill.
From a transcultural perspective, I want to explore what these aesthetics of making looked like; And whether the possibilities of AI can play into the hands of the democratization of creativity. Does it perhaps even help to enhance the value of other forms of affective work (such as care work)? Or does mastery simply shift to other fields of activity?

About Prof. Dr. Friedrich Weltzien

Friedrich Weltzien has been Professor of Creativity and Perceptual Psychology at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the field of design and media since 2013. He studied art history, philosophy, and classical archaeology in Freiburg, Vienna, Cologne, and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 2002 from the Graduate College “Körperinszenierungen (Stagings of the Body)” at the Free University of Berlin on Ernst Wilhelm Nay in the context of body discourses of the 1940s; In 2011, he completed his habilitation on the blot as aesthetic phenomenon in Romanticism. His teaching and research focus on discourses and theories of contemporary creative practices. Production aesthetics and theories of creativity play a particularly important role in this context.

Deskilling Creativity.
DIY and Non-Virtuosity in the Age of AI

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

In the history of creative practices, skill, the virtuoso mastery of materials and techniques, has often stood in the way of doing. If years of practice, god given talent, and suitable living conditions must come together to enable a remarkable creative achievement, then creativity is reserved for only a few. Such views have repeatedly been contrasted with aesthetics that were more committed to pleasure, immediacy, or improvisation than to skill.
From a transcultural perspective, I want to explore what these aesthetics of making looked like; And whether the possibilities of AI can play into the hands of the democratization of creativity. Does it perhaps even help to enhance the value of other forms of affective work (such as care work)? Or does mastery simply shift to other fields of activity?

About Prof. Dr. Friedrich Weltzien

Friedrich Weltzien has been Professor of Creativity and Perceptual Psychology at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts in the field of design and media since 2013. He studied art history, philosophy, and classical archaeology in Freiburg, Vienna, Cologne, and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 2002 from the Graduate College “Körperinszenierungen (Stagings of the Body)” at the Free University of Berlin on Ernst Wilhelm Nay in the context of body discourses of the 1940s; In 2011, he completed his habilitation on the blot as aesthetic phenomenon in Romanticism. His teaching and research focus on discourses and theories of contemporary creative practices. Production aesthetics and theories of creativity play a particularly important role in this context.

Doing Theory – Meta-reflective Musings on the Reciprocity of Practice and Theory

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

What does it mean to conduct research from a practical perspective? How does such an approach differ from a purely theoretical one—and can these perspectives even be clearly separated at times? In my talk, I will explore these questions by revisiting, on a meta level, my own trajectory as a researcher. My aim is to examine how my earlier practical work in the field of 3D animation continues to shape and inform my current academic inquiry. To illustrate this meta-reflective dimension, I will not only present my previous research, but also outline possible future directions and emerging interests that indicate where this line of investigation might lead. As my work centers on digital imaging techniques and visual culture, the examples I will discuss stem from this context. Adopting a meta-reflective approach also means considering how, in a reciprocal process, practical engagement can, in turn, illuminate future theoretical questions – how knowledge produced through doing might differ from, and enrich, knowledge produced through thinking.

About Dr. Carolin Scheler

Carolin Scheler is a researcher in the fields of digital visual culture, media archaeology and animation studies. Her educational background is in the practical field of 3D animation and cultural theory, which she studied at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover, Germany, and the Ohio State University, United States. From 2015 to 2018 she worked as a research assistant at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover in the Department of Media, Information, and Design. During the same period, she was also a research assistant at the Institute of Fine Arts and Art History at the University of Hildesheim, where she later earned her doctorate in the Department of Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Communication in 2022. As part of the Research Training Group “Aesthetic Practice,” her scholarly work was funded by the German Research Foundation in the years from 2019 to 2022. Since 2022, Carolin Scheler has been a lecturer in cultural theory at the University of the Arts Bremen in the Department of Art and Design. She has also been working as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover in the Department of Media, Information, and Design since 2018. At these universities, she teaches in the field of digital media studies, animation theory, art theory, humor theory and academic writing.

 

Doing Theory – Meta-reflective Musings on the Reciprocity of Practice and Theory

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

What does it mean to conduct research from a practical perspective? How does such an approach differ from a purely theoretical one—and can these perspectives even be clearly separated at times? In my talk, I will explore these questions by revisiting, on a meta level, my own trajectory as a researcher. My aim is to examine how my earlier practical work in the field of 3D animation continues to shape and inform my current academic inquiry. To illustrate this meta-reflective dimension, I will not only present my previous research, but also outline possible future directions and emerging interests that indicate where this line of investigation might lead. As my work centers on digital imaging techniques and visual culture, the examples I will discuss stem from this context. Adopting a meta-reflective approach also means considering how, in a reciprocal process, practical engagement can, in turn, illuminate future theoretical questions – how knowledge produced through doing might differ from, and enrich, knowledge produced through thinking.

About Dr. Carolin Scheler

Carolin Scheler is a researcher in the fields of digital visual culture, media archaeology and animation studies. Her educational background is in the practical field of 3D animation and cultural theory, which she studied at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover, Germany, and the Ohio State University, United States. From 2015 to 2018 she worked as a research assistant at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover in the Department of Media, Information, and Design. During the same period, she was also a research assistant at the Institute of Fine Arts and Art History at the University of Hildesheim, where she later earned her doctorate in the Department of Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Communication in 2022. As part of the Research Training Group “Aesthetic Practice,” her scholarly work was funded by the German Research Foundation in the years from 2019 to 2022. Since 2022, Carolin Scheler has been a lecturer in cultural theory at the University of the Arts Bremen in the Department of Art and Design. She has also been working as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover in the Department of Media, Information, and Design since 2018. At these universities, she teaches in the field of digital media studies, animation theory, art theory, humor theory and academic writing.

 

Moving and Finding Meaning Through Human Movement Visualization

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Since its inception, motion capture practice has continuously evolved through technological advancements addressing specific challenges. This evolution has inadvertently unlocked new potentials and catalyzed entire fields of research and practice, spanning from cinematography and biomechanics to virtual reality and psychology.
Although the fundamental technologies for capturing movement are consistent across various domains, the objectives and methodologies for interpreting motion data differ significantly. These range from using a skeletal joint hierarchy to animate virtual characters to abstract visualizations of motion properties. The diverse approaches to understanding and integrating digital human movement are pivotal for discovery, learning, innovation and art making. This dynamic process thrives on shared observation and dialogue, such as one at the multidisciplinary intersection fostered by over two decades of motion capture practice at the Motion Lab of The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at The Ohio State University.

About Vita Berezina-Blackburn

Vita Berezina-Blackburn is a creative technologist and visual artist working with animation, motion and performance capture for research, mediated performance, film, virtual reality applications and video installation. Berezina-Blackburn's works were featured at MIT Museum, PBS, Dance Theatre Workshop Gallery, and film festivals such as Anima Mundi and Dance on Camera. A recipient of BESSIE collaborative creator award for Landing Place with the Bebe Miller Dance Company, Berezina-Blackburn collaborated on mediated performances presented at venues such as The Kitchen, Red Cat, Lincoln Center, Yerba Buena. Berezina-Blackburn shared her work at conferences including SIGGRAPH, the International Federation for Theatre Research, Prague Quadrennial, International Society of Biomechanics technical group on 3-D Analysis of Human Movement Group, ISEA, ACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work. She recently had the privilege of collaborating on the development of NIH- and Ohio Medtapp-funded virtual reality training simulations for first-response medicine and social work. As a research staff member of the Ohio State University’s ACCAD, Berezina-Blackburn engages in collaborative multi- and transdisciplinary creative research and teaches graduate classes.

Moving and Finding Meaning Through Human Movement Visualization

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Since its inception, motion capture practice has continuously evolved through technological advancements addressing specific challenges. This evolution has inadvertently unlocked new potentials and catalyzed entire fields of research and practice, spanning from cinematography and biomechanics to virtual reality and psychology.
Although the fundamental technologies for capturing movement are consistent across various domains, the objectives and methodologies for interpreting motion data differ significantly. These range from using a skeletal joint hierarchy to animate virtual characters to abstract visualizations of motion properties. The diverse approaches to understanding and integrating digital human movement are pivotal for discovery, learning, innovation and art making. This dynamic process thrives on shared observation and dialogue, such as one at the multidisciplinary intersection fostered by over two decades of motion capture practice at the Motion Lab of The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at The Ohio State University.

About Vita Berezina-Blackburn

Vita Berezina-Blackburn is a creative technologist and visual artist working with animation, motion and performance capture for research, mediated performance, film, virtual reality applications and video installation. Berezina-Blackburn's works were featured at MIT Museum, PBS, Dance Theatre Workshop Gallery, and film festivals such as Anima Mundi and Dance on Camera. A recipient of BESSIE collaborative creator award for Landing Place with the Bebe Miller Dance Company, Berezina-Blackburn collaborated on mediated performances presented at venues such as The Kitchen, Red Cat, Lincoln Center, Yerba Buena. Berezina-Blackburn shared her work at conferences including SIGGRAPH, the International Federation for Theatre Research, Prague Quadrennial, International Society of Biomechanics technical group on 3-D Analysis of Human Movement Group, ISEA, ACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work. She recently had the privilege of collaborating on the development of NIH- and Ohio Medtapp-funded virtual reality training simulations for first-response medicine and social work. As a research staff member of the Ohio State University’s ACCAD, Berezina-Blackburn engages in collaborative multi- and transdisciplinary creative research and teaches graduate classes.

Artistic and Scientific Activity – Art, Education, and Democracy – from John Dewey to the Present Day

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

There are many production-based aesthetic approaches in the history of aesthetic theories. How do these correspond to or differ from the self-perceptions of artists and designers who conduct research and take action? The talk deals with practical artistic knowledge and the question of whether this can be thought of as separate from or intertwined with ethical and aesthetic practice.

About Prof. Dr. Judith Siegmund

Judith Siegmund is Professor of Philosophical Aesthetics at Zurich University of the Arts. Her publications include Zweck und Zweckfreiheit. Zum Funktionswandel der Künste im 21. Jahrhundert (Purpose and Freedom from Purpose: On the Changing Function of the Arts in the 21st Century, 2019), Handbuch Kunstphilosophie (Handbook of Art Philosophy, editor, 2022), and Künstlerisches Handeln in digitalen und postkolonialen Umgebungen (Artistic Practice in Digital and Postcolonial Environments, 2025).

Artistic and Scientific Activity – Art, Education, and Democracy – from John Dewey to the Present Day

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

There are many production-based aesthetic approaches in the history of aesthetic theories. How do these correspond to or differ from the self-perceptions of artists and designers who conduct research and take action? The talk deals with practical artistic knowledge and the question of whether this can be thought of as separate from or intertwined with ethical and aesthetic practice.

About Prof. Dr. Judith Siegmund

Judith Siegmund is Professor of Philosophical Aesthetics at Zurich University of the Arts. Her publications include Zweck und Zweckfreiheit. Zum Funktionswandel der Künste im 21. Jahrhundert (Purpose and Freedom from Purpose: On the Changing Function of the Arts in the 21st Century, 2019), Handbuch Kunstphilosophie (Handbook of Art Philosophy, editor, 2022), and Künstlerisches Handeln in digitalen und postkolonialen Umgebungen (Artistic Practice in Digital and Postcolonial Environments, 2025).

Thinking with my Hands. Ways of Making in my Artistic Work Process

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

My work ranges from delicate ink drawings to large-scale installations. The expansion of drawing into space, its material extension and transformation, is the basic principle of my working method. Through drawing, I immerse myself in inner images, preverbal layers of consciousness, and collective narratives. Using fragile materials, I explore borderline states and transience. For my installations, I develop hundreds of individual elements, which I weave together into multi-layered image bodies at the respective exhibition venue. But how do I actually get started? What is the path from the initial idea to the physically tangible work? How important are external influences such as places and encounters, and what role do internal events, bodily and mental movements play?
My contribution questions the connections between impulsive creative urge and reflective distance, material collection and material transformation, research and creation. It is about failed experiments and productive coincidences, about main paths, wrong turns, and detours. I relate examples from the process and the work to each other and establish connections to areas such as implicit knowledge and embodiment, aleatoric processes, art and play, contemplation and flâneurism. In this way, I approach the concept of making as a process of sensory cognition and world invention.

About Prof. Nadja Schöllhammer

Nadja Schöllhammer (born 1971, Esslingen am Neckar) studied Romance languages and German language and literature in Stuttgart, Madrid, and at Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as fine arts at Berlin University of the Arts (master student 2003). She continuously developed her artistic work through contact with new places, such as in Colombia and Mexico with DAAD-funded research projects on death cults, in Tokyo with a foreign scholarship from the Berlin Senate for her project on Shintō myths and the visual worlds of ukiyo-e, and with working scholarships from the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation and the Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart for her artistic material research on the body of the line. This was followed by teaching assignments at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, among others, a visiting professorship at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, and a substitute professorship at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover.
Schöllhammer has exhibited her work internationally, including at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Marta Herford Museum, the Fengxian Museum Shanghai, the Arp Museum Rolandseck, the Museum Rijswijk, The Hague, the Kunsthalle Tübingen, and the ARTER Space for Art in Istanbul, among others. She has received numerous awards for her artistic work, including from the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral (art prize and scholarship), VG Bild-Kunst Bonn (funding for a monograph), Kunstfonds Bonn, and many more. Schöllhammer's works are part of private and institutional collections, such as the collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou/China, the collection of the European Patent Office in Munich, the Colleción Núñez in Lanzarote, the art collection of the city of Nordhorn, and the collection of the Regional Council of Baden-Württemberg. Since 2024, Nadja Schöllhammer has been Professor of Drawing at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover.

Thinking with my Hands. Ways of Making in my Artistic Work Process

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

My work ranges from delicate ink drawings to large-scale installations. The expansion of drawing into space, its material extension and transformation, is the basic principle of my working method. Through drawing, I immerse myself in inner images, preverbal layers of consciousness, and collective narratives. Using fragile materials, I explore borderline states and transience. For my installations, I develop hundreds of individual elements, which I weave together into multi-layered image bodies at the respective exhibition venue. But how do I actually get started? What is the path from the initial idea to the physically tangible work? How important are external influences such as places and encounters, and what role do internal events, bodily and mental movements play?
My contribution questions the connections between impulsive creative urge and reflective distance, material collection and material transformation, research and creation. It is about failed experiments and productive coincidences, about main paths, wrong turns, and detours. I relate examples from the process and the work to each other and establish connections to areas such as implicit knowledge and embodiment, aleatoric processes, art and play, contemplation and flâneurism. In this way, I approach the concept of making as a process of sensory cognition and world invention.

About Prof. Nadja Schöllhammer

Nadja Schöllhammer (born 1971, Esslingen am Neckar) studied Romance languages and German language and literature in Stuttgart, Madrid, and at Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as fine arts at Berlin University of the Arts (master student 2003). She continuously developed her artistic work through contact with new places, such as in Colombia and Mexico with DAAD-funded research projects on death cults, in Tokyo with a foreign scholarship from the Berlin Senate for her project on Shintō myths and the visual worlds of ukiyo-e, and with working scholarships from the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation and the Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart for her artistic material research on the body of the line. This was followed by teaching assignments at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, among others, a visiting professorship at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, and a substitute professorship at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover.
Schöllhammer has exhibited her work internationally, including at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, the Marta Herford Museum, the Fengxian Museum Shanghai, the Arp Museum Rolandseck, the Museum Rijswijk, The Hague, the Kunsthalle Tübingen, and the ARTER Space for Art in Istanbul, among others. She has received numerous awards for her artistic work, including from the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral (art prize and scholarship), VG Bild-Kunst Bonn (funding for a monograph), Kunstfonds Bonn, and many more. Schöllhammer's works are part of private and institutional collections, such as the collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou/China, the collection of the European Patent Office in Munich, the Colleción Núñez in Lanzarote, the art collection of the city of Nordhorn, and the collection of the Regional Council of Baden-Württemberg. Since 2024, Nadja Schöllhammer has been Professor of Drawing at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover.

Embodied Creativity:
On the Unity of Thinking, Perceiving, and Creating

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Designers are caught between conflicting demands. This is where the Creativity and Body program comes in: it examines the role of the body in the creative process from a phenomenological perspective. Building on holistic philosophies and inspired by the physical practices of Bauhaus teaching in the 1920s, creativity is understood as a physically based process that mediates subjective bodily experience and the exploration of one's own motives and motivations. Mindfulness, breathing, and movement are understood not as complementary measures, but as central means of cognition. By learning movement routines, breathing and focusing methods, and mindfulness exercises, conscious self-awareness is trained, emotional presence is strengthened, and the body itself is made tangible as a space for thought and a field of resonance for creative impulses. This practical anchoring not only enables creative blockages to be overcome, but also opens up new ways of dealing with the complexity of this world in a sustainable and health-promoting manner. In this way, creative practice becomes a form of exploratory, holistic self-access and a way of creating with the whole body.

About Alexandra Gomez Kaetz

Alexandra Gomez Kaetz is a communications expert, designer, and yoga teacher. After studying economics and completing a traineeship, she gained experience as a press spokesperson and PR consultant both in Germany and internationally. Her professional career includes positions at TUI, Hapag-Lloyd, the real estate industry, the Ministry of the Interior, and Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Her interest in holistic approaches led her to train as a yoga teacher for several years alongside her career, as well as studying painting and drawing. These diverse disciplines form the basis for the “Creativity and Body” program, which she now teaches in workshops and courses at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, among other places.

Embodied Creativity: On the Unity of Thinking, Perceiving, and Creating

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Designers are caught between conflicting demands. This is where the Creativity and Body program comes in: it examines the role of the body in the creative process from a phenomenological perspective. Building on holistic philosophies and inspired by the physical practices of Bauhaus teaching in the 1920s, creativity is understood as a physically based process that mediates subjective bodily experience and the exploration of one's own motives and motivations. Mindfulness, breathing, and movement are understood not as complementary measures, but as central means of cognition. By learning movement routines, breathing and focusing methods, and mindfulness exercises, conscious self-awareness is trained, emotional presence is strengthened, and the body itself is made tangible as a space for thought and a field of resonance for creative impulses. This practical anchoring not only enables creative blockages to be overcome, but also opens up new ways of dealing with the complexity of this world in a sustainable and health-promoting manner. In this way, creative practice becomes a form of exploratory, holistic self-access and a way of creating with the whole body.

About Alexandra Gomez Kaetz

Alexandra Gomez Kaetz is a communications expert, designer, and yoga teacher. After studying economics and completing a traineeship, she gained experience as a press spokesperson and PR consultant both in Germany and internationally. Her professional career includes positions at TUI, Hapag-Lloyd, the real estate industry, the Ministry of the Interior, and Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Her interest in holistic approaches led her to train as a yoga teacher for several years alongside her career, as well as studying painting and drawing. These diverse disciplines form the basis for the “Creativity and Body” program, which she now teaches in workshops and courses at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, among other places.

Sketchbook – Making Without Creating

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Our common conception of art—even though it has been questioned many times—still clings to the idea of an artwork. Artists create works of art that are shown to the public as finished pieces in an exhibition. From Duchamp's ready-mades to Tino Seghal's performances, art history has seen a wide variety of attacks on the concept of the artwork – but the idea that the artwork is shown, performed, or presented in a final version persists.
The production aesthetics of making are lost in this conception of art. Strictly speaking, making is a process that only knows progression, but no conclusion. How about considering this process as such—without the need for an artwork to emerge?
I would like to examine this question using the phenomenon of the sketchbook: this medium plays a central role in the training of art and design students. Time and again, I find that teachers at art colleges want to focus on and discuss the sketchbook in particular when supervising their students—and that it even evokes more interest than the finished work. The artwork seems like a kind of overload that young students are in danger of failing. The process, however, has the appeal of the unfinished, the searching, the unbiased seeing, the tentative, and thus the surprising. Is there a distinct aesthetic of the sketchbook? How can this medium be described in terms of production aesthetics as a visual diary?
A graduate of the HfK Bremen recently called her MA thesis project “Drawing Nothing,” in which she presented only her sketchbook collection. The process lacked a finished artwork, a theme, or a stringent concept. For her, it was precisely this aimlessness that served as a special inspiration, freeing her from all expectations (including her own). Using this concrete example of student sketchbooks, among other things, I would like to show that the pure act of creating has the aesthetic advantage that nothing can be “wrong” or “missed” (e.g., in the sense of Lynda Barry). You would never tear a page out of a sketchbook, because it's about the journey and not the result.
At the same time, one should not disparage the sketchbook as a place for practicing craftsmanship. Here, one does not simply learn style or dexterity, but practices exploring creative possibilities. It is about a path that does not have to have a destination.

About Prof. Dr. Annette Geiger

Annette Geiger is an art and cultural scholar who teaches as a professor of design theory and history at the University of the Arts Bremen. Her research focuses on the cultures of aesthetics in art, design, and everyday life, which has resulted in the monograph Andersmöglichsein. Zur Ästhetik des Designs (Possibilities of Being Different: On the Aesthetics of Design, 2018) and the anthologies Piktogrammatik. Grafisches Gestalten als Weltwissen und Bilderordnung (Pictogrammatics: Graphic Design as World Knowledge and Image Order, 2021), Kunst und Design. Eine Affäre (Art and Design: An Affair) (2012), and Coolness: Zur Ästhetik einer kulturellen Strategie und Attitude (Coolness: On the Aesthetics of a Cultural Strategy and Attitude) (2010), among others. She is currently focusing on the perspectives of a transcultural aesthetic, mediating between high and low, global North and South, for example in projects with art colleges in South Africa and Indonesia.

Sketchbook – Making Without Creating

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Our common conception of art—even though it has been questioned many times—still clings to the idea of an artwork. Artists create works of art that are shown to the public as finished pieces in an exhibition. From Duchamp's ready-mades to Tino Seghal's performances, art history has seen a wide variety of attacks on the concept of the artwork – but the idea that the artwork is shown, performed, or presented in a final version persists.
The production aesthetics of making are lost in this conception of art. Strictly speaking, making is a process that only knows progression, but no conclusion. How about considering this process as such—without the need for an artwork to emerge?
I would like to examine this question using the phenomenon of the sketchbook: this medium plays a central role in the training of art and design students. Time and again, I find that teachers at art colleges want to focus on and discuss the sketchbook in particular when supervising their students—and that it even evokes more interest than the finished work. The artwork seems like a kind of overload that young students are in danger of failing. The process, however, has the appeal of the unfinished, the searching, the unbiased seeing, the tentative, and thus the surprising. Is there a distinct aesthetic of the sketchbook? How can this medium be described in terms of production aesthetics as a visual diary?
A graduate of the HfK Bremen recently called her MA thesis project “Drawing Nothing,” in which she presented only her sketchbook collection. The process lacked a finished artwork, a theme, or a stringent concept. For her, it was precisely this aimlessness that served as a special inspiration, freeing her from all expectations (including her own). Using this concrete example of student sketchbooks, among other things, I would like to show that the pure act of creating has the aesthetic advantage that nothing can be “wrong” or “missed” (e.g., in the sense of Lynda Barry). You would never tear a page out of a sketchbook, because it's about the journey and not the result.
At the same time, one should not disparage the sketchbook as a place for practicing craftsmanship. Here, one does not simply learn style or dexterity, but practices exploring creative possibilities. It is about a path that does not have to have a destination.

About Prof. Dr. Annette Geiger

Annette Geiger is an art and cultural scholar who teaches as a professor of design theory and history at the University of the Arts Bremen. Her research focuses on the cultures of aesthetics in art, design, and everyday life, which has resulted in the monograph Andersmöglichsein. Zur Ästhetik des Designs (Possibilities of Being Different: On the Aesthetics of Design, 2018) and the anthologies Piktogrammatik. Grafisches Gestalten als Weltwissen und Bilderordnung (Pictogrammatics: Graphic Design as World Knowledge and Image Order, 2021), Kunst und Design. Eine Affäre (Art and Design: An Affair) (2012), and Coolness: Zur Ästhetik einer kulturellen Strategie und Attitude (Coolness: On the Aesthetics of a Cultural Strategy and Attitude) (2010), among others. She is currently focusing on the perspectives of a transcultural aesthetic, mediating between high and low, global North and South, for example in projects with art colleges in South Africa and Indonesia.

„Back to the Beginning – Hands and Head“

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Before a method can take hold, before a repertoire has been developed and confidence in one's own creative performance has grown, creative thinking begins in action. In the first semesters, designs are therefore often material-driven – accompanied by a focused, almost reflexive hand-head coordination: feeling, shaping, drawing – searching, observing, repeating.
Only after “doing” can one compare, sort, comprehend, and systematize. And it is precisely in the unsatisfactory results, which we might all too quickly dismiss as “unnecessary,” that a real treasure lies: the opportunity for differentiation, for decision-making—and for further development.

About Prof. Luise Dettbarn

Luise Dettbarn studied product design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and at the Pratt Institute in New York until 2012. Since 2016, she has been developing and teaching basic courses on digital and analog design strategies and supervising projects from various design perspectives in different stages of study.
Before being appointed to the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, she taught product design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art and at Burg Giebichenstein in the field of porcelain, glass, and ceramic design.
With Studio Luise Dettbarn, she designs and constructs 3D CAD for the production of consumer goods and medical technology.
As co-founder of KONTURSCHAFFEN, she focuses on communication and design in public spaces. On behalf of various institutions, cities, and museums, she explores the interface between practical knowledge transfer, our experience of architecture and spatial structure, and develops tailored formats and small series.

„Back to the Beginning – Hands and Head“

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Before a method can take hold, before a repertoire has been developed and confidence in one's own creative performance has grown, creative thinking begins in action. In the first semesters, designs are therefore often material-driven – accompanied by a focused, almost reflexive hand-head coordination: feeling, shaping, drawing – searching, observing, repeating.
Only after “doing” can one compare, sort, comprehend, and systematize. And it is precisely in the unsatisfactory results, which we might all too quickly dismiss as “unnecessary,” that a real treasure lies: the opportunity for differentiation, for decision-making—and for further development.

About Prof. Luise Dettbarn

Luise Dettbarn studied product design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and at the Pratt Institute in New York until 2012. Since 2016, she has been developing and teaching basic courses on digital and analog design strategies and supervising projects from various design perspectives in different stages of study.
Before being appointed to the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, she taught product design at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art and at Burg Giebichenstein in the field of porcelain, glass, and ceramic design.
With Studio Luise Dettbarn, she designs and constructs 3D CAD for the production of consumer goods and medical technology.
As co-founder of KONTURSCHAFFEN, she focuses on communication and design in public spaces. On behalf of various institutions, cities, and museums, she explores the interface between practical knowledge transfer, our experience of architecture and spatial structure, and develops tailored formats and small series.

Prototyping as a Tool of Thought – When Toy Bricks, Sugru, and Gaffer Tape Become a Method of Insight in Creative Technology

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Prototyping is more than just a preliminary stage to the finished application. Prototyping is an independent creative technology of recognition. In my practice as a creative technologist, the iterative construction of prototypes gives rise to new journalistic formats and narrative styles that were previously unthinkable. Whether sensor data experiments, interactive data visualizations, or AI-supported audio formats—the prototype becomes the medium of thought itself.
Using project examples, I show how the rapid, experimental creation of functional versions not only solves technical problems but also answers conceptual questions: What happens when caterpillars or cows tell their own stories? How does journalism change when it becomes physically tangible?
Prototyping becomes a method of appropriating the world—between code and concept, between tinkering and understanding. It is a form of creation that leads to insight through the act of doing itself, without knowing in advance where it will lead.

About Prof. Dr. Jakob Vicari

Prof. Dr. Jakob J. E. Vicari is a professor of data journalism and digital media forensics at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and founder of tactile.news. He develops experimental journalistic formats using sensor technology, AI, and interactive media. His focus is on sensor journalism: measuring everyday life using tiny sensors. He invents innovative media products in design sprints. As an AI optimist, he explores how artificial intelligence can enhance journalism without replacing it. Vicari teaches in the Journalism and Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography programs.

Prototyping as a Tool of Thought – When Toy Bricks, Sugru, and Gaffer Tape Become a Method of Insight in Creative Technology

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Prototyping is more than just a preliminary stage to the finished application. Prototyping is an independent creative technology of recognition. In my practice as a creative technologist, the iterative construction of prototypes gives rise to new journalistic formats and narrative styles that were previously unthinkable. Whether sensor data experiments, interactive data visualizations, or AI-supported audio formats—the prototype becomes the medium of thought itself.
Using project examples, I show how the rapid, experimental creation of functional versions not only solves technical problems but also answers conceptual questions: What happens when caterpillars or cows tell their own stories? How does journalism change when it becomes physically tangible?
Prototyping becomes a method of appropriating the world—between code and concept, between tinkering and understanding. It is a form of creation that leads to insight through the act of doing itself, without knowing in advance where it will lead.

About Prof. Dr. Jakob Vicari

Prof. Dr. Jakob J. E. Vicari is a professor of data journalism and digital media forensics at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and founder of tactile.news. He develops experimental journalistic formats using sensor technology, AI, and interactive media. His focus is on sensor journalism: measuring everyday life using tiny sensors. He invents innovative media products in design sprints. As an AI optimist, he explores how artificial intelligence can enhance journalism without replacing it. Vicari teaches in the Journalism and Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography programs.

Making Visible: Moritz from Buxtehude and His Cultural Heritage 

Machen – Doing
Machen – Doing

About the Talk

How can cultural heritage be preserved, rediscovered and made visible?  What do innovative digital technologies have to do with this?  How can we create a digital ark that preserves textile cultural assets from oblivion and thus one day takes over the contemporary testimony of the originals?
This is what we have been working on in the “Moritz from Buxtehude” research project. This project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Historical Museum of Hanover and Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, aims to digitally preserve the unique wardrobe of Duke Moritz of Saxe-Lauenburg from the 16th century and bring it back to life.
Here we show the development of the project, challenges, results and opportunities that can offer new starting points for research, education and public engagement with history. 

About Sylvia Bossenz

Sylvia Bossenz's interdisciplinary work as a teacher for special tasks lies at the intersection of the fields of costume, fashion, media and product design. The development of forms in the design process and their change over time are the focus of her work. 
Design-construction-production. Modern-historical-experimental. Analog-digital. 2D-3D. Her research interests include digital clothing simulation, cultural heritage and innovative approaches in design teaching. 

About Prof. Timo Schnitt

Timo Schnitt is Professor of 3D Animation, Visual Effects and Media Design Informatics at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. His research focuses on the application of digital technologies in creative fields, including the preservation of cultural heritage.  

Making Visible: Moritz from Buxtehude and His Cultural Heritage 

Machen – Doing
Machen – Doing

About the Talk

How can cultural heritage be preserved, rediscovered and made visible?  What do innovative digital technologies have to do with this?  How can we create a digital ark that preserves textile cultural assets from oblivion and thus one day takes over the contemporary testimony of the originals?
This is what we have been working on in the “Moritz from Buxtehude” research project. This project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Historical Museum of Hanover and Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, aims to digitally preserve the unique wardrobe of Duke Moritz of Saxe-Lauenburg from the 16th century and bring it back to life.
Here we show the development of the project, challenges, results and opportunities that can offer new starting points for research, education and public engagement with history. 

About Sylvia Bossenz

Sylvia Bossenz's interdisciplinary work as a teacher for special tasks lies at the intersection of the fields of costume, fashion, media and product design. The development of forms in the design process and their change over time are the focus of her work. 
Design-construction-production. Modern-historical-experimental. Analog-digital. 2D-3D. Her research interests include digital clothing simulation, cultural heritage and innovative approaches in design teaching. 

About Prof. Timo Schnitt

Timo Schnitt is Professor of 3D Animation, Visual Effects and Media Design Informatics at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. His research focuses on the application of digital technologies in creative fields, including the preservation of cultural heritage.  

Fields of Reception

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

We are constantly surrounded by electromagnetic waves generated by natural phenomena and technical systems such as cell phone networks, radio, air traffic, satellites, and household appliances. Even if we do not perceive them directly, they are constantly exerting their influence. Electromagnetic waves can be understood as a triad: energy, matter, and information. They embody an invisible communication infrastructure of which we ourselves are a part, but which we only notice when it gets out of sync.
My artistic research understands electromagnetic waves as sculptural material between hardware and software. By transforming them into rhythm, sound, and visual appearance, I attempt to approach their specific materiality. Fragile arrangements give rise to oscillating circuits and disturbances. Our perception becomes a receiving instrument in the resonance field of body, signal, and space. The talk provides insight into a process-oriented investigation of the invisible infrastructure of social networks through reception.

About Jan Neukirchen

Jan Neukirchen studied general computer science at Furtwangen University and CVUT Prague, focusing on artificial intelligence in his thesis. He then worked as a software developer and consultant in Paderborn, Cologne, Braunschweig, and St. Augustin. He studied fine arts at Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) and founded the artist duo Gruppe Stumpf together with Christian Lohre. He graduated as a master student of Thomas Rentmeister. In addition to his artistic activities, he currently works as an artistic assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape at Leibniz University in Hanover.

Fields of Reception

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

We are constantly surrounded by electromagnetic waves generated by natural phenomena and technical systems such as cell phone networks, radio, air traffic, satellites, and household appliances. Even if we do not perceive them directly, they are constantly exerting their influence. Electromagnetic waves can be understood as a triad: energy, matter, and information. They embody an invisible communication infrastructure of which we ourselves are a part, but which we only notice when it gets out of sync.
My artistic research understands electromagnetic waves as sculptural material between hardware and software. By transforming them into rhythm, sound, and visual appearance, I attempt to approach their specific materiality. Fragile arrangements give rise to oscillating circuits and disturbances. Our perception becomes a receiving instrument in the resonance field of body, signal, and space. The talk provides insight into a process-oriented investigation of the invisible infrastructure of social networks through reception.

About Jan Neukirchen

Jan Neukirchen studied general computer science at Furtwangen University and CVUT Prague, focusing on artificial intelligence in his thesis. He then worked as a software developer and consultant in Paderborn, Cologne, Braunschweig, and St. Augustin. He studied fine arts at Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) and founded the artist duo Gruppe Stumpf together with Christian Lohre. He graduated as a master student of Thomas Rentmeister. In addition to his artistic activities, he currently works as an artistic assistant at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape at Leibniz University in Hanover.

Ambivalent Laughter: Unveiling Korea’s Structure of Feeling through Visual Culture – from Folk Imagery to Contemporary Expressions

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Shoey Nam’s research explores a continuing hidden layer of a certain ‘structure of feeling’ – the operation of which she terms ‘ambivalent laughter’ – in Korean visual culture, traced from pre-modern folk imagery to contemporary cultural expressions. By analysing visual examples from disparate settings, this study seeks to unveil how this underlying sentiment has been expressed, adapted and sustained over time. Foregrounding her personal encounters with embodied traces of ambivalent laughter across cultural forms in an associative style, she aims to convey her research in a practical way – through a flowing assembly of words and images that encourages perceiving and thinking through images.

About Shoey Nam

Shoey Nam holds an MA in Integrated Design from the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK) and a BA (Hons) in Graphic and Media Design from the UAL London College of Communication, during which she developed a keen interest in visual storytelling as well as the theoretical aspects of visual culture and media studies. She is currently pursuing a binational artistic PhD at HfK Bremen, in partnership with HDK-Valand, the Academy of Art and Design at the University of Gothenburg.

Ambivalent Laughter: Unveiling Korea’s Structure of Feeling through Visual Culture – from Folk Imagery to Contemporary Expressions

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

Shoey Nam’s research explores a continuing hidden layer of a certain ‘structure of feeling’ – the operation of which she terms ‘ambivalent laughter’ – in Korean visual culture, traced from pre-modern folk imagery to contemporary cultural expressions. By analysing visual examples from disparate settings, this study seeks to unveil how this underlying sentiment has been expressed, adapted and sustained over time. Foregrounding her personal encounters with embodied traces of ambivalent laughter across cultural forms in an associative style, she aims to convey her research in a practical way – through a flowing assembly of words and images that encourages perceiving and thinking through images.

About Shoey Nam

Shoey Nam holds an MA in Integrated Design from the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK) and a BA (Hons) in Graphic and Media Design from the UAL London College of Communication, during which she developed a keen interest in visual storytelling as well as the theoretical aspects of visual culture and media studies. She is currently pursuing a binational artistic PhD at HfK Bremen, in partnership with HDK-Valand, the Academy of Art and Design at the University of Gothenburg.

On the „Inability” to Plan a Painting and the „Joy of Creating”

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

The dialectical relationship between doing and refraining from doing plays a fundamental role in the work of artist Gerhard Richter. In the 1960s, when he was confronted with the ‘end of painting’, the ‘exit from the picture’ and the competition between painting and other media and art forms, he decided, despite all opposition, to ‘continue painting’ (i.e. to keep going). To this day, Richter, who is one of the most expensive artists in the world, continues to explore the possibilities of painting. He describes painting as “another form of thinking.” One practice with which he (re)links painting to a claim to reality and questions traditional concepts of authorship is his repeated experimentation with chance. As an experimenter, he slips into the role of observer in order to allow the laws of nature to act as a second creative force on the painterly material and enable emergence. According to his own statements, his attitude of deliberate aimlessness pursues the goal of allowing something natural to emerge that he himself is unable to plan, “because nature is infinitely better, smarter, richer than what we can conceive with our short, limited, narrow minds.” In this structure of a production and event aesthetic between poiesis and autopoiesis, creation and destruction, the spots in Richter's oeuvre take on a special performative role. Precisely because the stain, which cannot be reproduced identically, is based on natural principles in its formation and eludes the artist's intention and control, it contributes to the process of cognition and to experiential knowledge. The studio becomes an experimental space and the artist a researcher of his own visual worlds and the creative potential of the stain.

About Annerose Keßler

Annerose Keßler, M.A., is a trained pre-school teacher who was formerly active in elementary education. She received further training as an art therapist in Münster, followed by studies in art history, Protestant theology, and modern German literature and media studies at Christian Albrecht University in Kiel and the University of Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV). 2011 Magistra Artium at CAU Kiel with a thesis on French paragone in the 18th century. 2011–2013 research internship at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, where she was curator of the exhibition Pure Chance. The Unpredictable from Marcel Duchamp to Gerhard Richter in 2013. 2014–2023 Research assistant at Faculty III of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, Department of Design and Media, currently completing her doctorate on chance in Gerhard Richter's work. Main areas of research: media competition and synthesis, artist knowledge, aesthetics of chance and production, theories of creativity, nature/science/art discourses.

On the „Inability” to Plan a Painting and the „Joy of Creating”

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

The dialectical relationship between doing and refraining from doing plays a fundamental role in the work of artist Gerhard Richter. In the 1960s, when he was confronted with the ‘end of painting’, the ‘exit from the picture’ and the competition between painting and other media and art forms, he decided, despite all opposition, to ‘continue painting’ (i.e. to keep going). To this day, Richter, who is one of the most expensive artists in the world, continues to explore the possibilities of painting. He describes painting as “another form of thinking.” One practice with which he (re)links painting to a claim to reality and questions traditional concepts of authorship is his repeated experimentation with chance. As an experimenter, he slips into the role of observer in order to allow the laws of nature to act as a second creative force on the painterly material and enable emergence. According to his own statements, his attitude of deliberate aimlessness pursues the goal of allowing something natural to emerge that he himself is unable to plan, “because nature is infinitely better, smarter, richer than what we can conceive with our short, limited, narrow minds.” In this structure of a production and event aesthetic between poiesis and autopoiesis, creation and destruction, the spots in Richter's oeuvre take on a special performative role. Precisely because the stain, which cannot be reproduced identically, is based on natural principles in its formation and eludes the artist's intention and control, it contributes to the process of cognition and to experiential knowledge. The studio becomes an experimental space and the artist a researcher of his own visual worlds and the creative potential of the stain.

About Annerose Keßler

Annerose Keßler, M.A., is a trained pre-school teacher who was formerly active in elementary education. She received further training as an art therapist in Münster, followed by studies in art history, Protestant theology, and modern German literature and media studies at Christian Albrecht University in Kiel and the University of Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV). 2011 Magistra Artium at CAU Kiel with a thesis on French paragone in the 18th century. 2011–2013 research internship at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, where she was curator of the exhibition Pure Chance. The Unpredictable from Marcel Duchamp to Gerhard Richter in 2013. 2014–2023 Research assistant at Faculty III of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hanover, Department of Design and Media, currently completing her doctorate on chance in Gerhard Richter's work. Main areas of research: media competition and synthesis, artist knowledge, aesthetics of chance and production, theories of creativity, nature/science/art discourses.

Nonsense Philosophy – Reports from my Doctoral Research

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

In my doctoral thesis, I attempt to explore the concept of nonsense philosophically by describing moments of nonsense and practices of nonsense from various arts and putting them into conceptual perspective. This raises a fundamental difficulty: if you grasp something conceptually or merely linguistically, you tend to transform it into meaning. Nonsense can hardly be described without removing its nonsensical character. Nonsense can only be done, not represented or described, as Wittgenstein and Luhmann note. However, as Deleuze argues, meaning can also only be made, and this meaning-making passes through regions where meaning and nonsense are not separate: nonsense is an open absence of meaning that produces meaning. In my lecture, I would like to briefly present two attempts to move along the border between meaning and nonsense, which I have used as a research method in my work: 1. Linguistic experiments such as “expressing something without expressing anything,” “embodying words,” “saying something and at the same time saying the meaning of what one is saying,” “thingifying words and wordifying things,” or “saying two different things at the same time,” which are based on Deleuze and the “word clay” of the poet Christophe Tarkos; 2. Nonsense diagrams.

About Ludwig Drosch

Ludwig Drosch, born in Berlin in 1991, studied mathematics and philosophy and is currently completing a doctoral thesis on “Practices of Nonsense” at the University of Hildesheim as part of the research training group “Aesthetic Practice.” He explores experiences and practices of nonsense by combining philosophical approaches with the consideration of concrete artistic practices that make nonsense, as well as Zen Buddhist meditative practices that produce moments of nonsense in letting go of the pursuit of meaning. As a follow-up project, he aims to explore the political potential of Zen Buddhist and Daoist philosophy and practice.

Nonsense Philosophy –
Reports from my Doctoral Research

Machen – Doing

About the Talk

In my doctoral thesis, I attempt to explore the concept of nonsense philosophically by describing moments of nonsense and practices of nonsense from various arts and putting them into conceptual perspective. This raises a fundamental difficulty: if you grasp something conceptually or merely linguistically, you tend to transform it into meaning. Nonsense can hardly be described without removing its nonsensical character. Nonsense can only be done, not represented or described, as Wittgenstein and Luhmann note. However, as Deleuze argues, meaning can also only be made, and this meaning-making passes through regions where meaning and nonsense are not separate: nonsense is an open absence of meaning that produces meaning. In my lecture, I would like to briefly present two attempts to move along the border between meaning and nonsense, which I have used as a research method in my work: 1. Linguistic experiments such as “expressing something without expressing anything,” “embodying words,” “saying something and at the same time saying the meaning of what one is saying,” “thingifying words and wordifying things,” or “saying two different things at the same time,” which are based on Deleuze and the “word clay” of the poet Christophe Tarkos; 2. Nonsense diagrams.

About Ludwig Drosch

Ludwig Drosch, born in Berlin in 1991, studied mathematics and philosophy and is currently completing a doctoral thesis on “Practices of Nonsense” at the University of Hildesheim as part of the research training group “Aesthetic Practice.” He explores experiences and practices of nonsense by combining philosophical approaches with the consideration of concrete artistic practices that make nonsense, as well as Zen Buddhist meditative practices that produce moments of nonsense in letting go of the pursuit of meaning. As a follow-up project, he aims to explore the political potential of Zen Buddhist and Daoist philosophy and practice.