Bodies in the System

Systems as Bodies and Bodies in the System and Systems in the Body and Bodies as Systems. In her essay “Bodies in the System” Vanessa Agard-Jones proposes a materialist-feminist extension of anthropological units of inquiry. In addition to the need to ascribe political agency to communities and individuals in order to understand them as actors within historical processes, she formulates the importance of scale that includes any microscopic tiny particle. The body as a product of social relations and material entanglements of cellular processes swallows and spews local, regional, and global expressions of power. As something constantly becoming, changing and re-articulating, it embodies and incorporates, it is assemblage and product at the same time. The body in its individual situatedness, in the mass of bodies or as a body-mass sets itself in relation — to its immediate surroundings, local entanglements, to the capitalist, postcolonial system of the world.

The interdisciplinary lecture series “Bodies in the System” borrows its title from Agard Jones' essay, expands it and applies it to diverse forms of knowledge and practice – be they artistic, design and/or theoretical positions. The contributions will dedicate themselves to jump across scales, to recalibrate the objects of interest, the wisdom of individuals as well as the collective body. The invited positions that range from art to theory contribute to this "dance" – sometimes in a direct, sometimes indirect, sometimes in a fleeting or concrete manner. 

The lecture series was developed in close cooperation between Hanna Franke, Hanne König and Füsun Türetken and is carried out/ realised in cooperation with participants of the student body and of all departments.

April 22: Susanne Huth http://www.susannehuth.de/
May 20: Sara Kaaman http://www.sarakaaman.com/
June 3: Lina Höhne https://www.linahoehne.com/
June 17: Moreshin Allahyari http://www.morehshin.com/
July 1: Serina Tarkhanian. https://www.serinatarkhanian.com/
July 15: Ligia Lewis https://ligialewis.com/