OPTM Call for Papers

World ~ Picture ~ Theatre
Perspectives of the 21st century
Congress Amsterdam 23 - 26 October 2008
9th international congress Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft


call for papers
introduction of the theme
thematic sections
submision modalities
call for group proposals
program and accomodation

Concept and co-ordination: Prof. Dr. Kati Röttger
Theatre Studies Department, University of Amsterdam
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, 1012 CP Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)20-5254098; Email:
Call for papers
The conference will focus on the relationship between theatre and world picture across different historical epochs and cultures. The well-known topoi of Orbis Pictus on the one hand, and Theatrum Mundi on the other form the conceptual frame for questioning this relation. The conference thus invites reflections on ways and spaces of representing the world, knowledge of the world as well as views of the world. The conference is thus thematically divided into four sections: Paradigm Shifts, Methods, Aesthetics and Politics.

Introduction of the theme
When Johannes Comenius died in 1670 in Amsterdam, he left behind a comprehensive, revolutionary humanistic work, with which he sought to champion for world peace through education. His text Orbis sensualium pictus: The visible world (1658) is the first European school text book, a teaching tool replete with pictures and texts, which aimed at employing sensual, pictorial observation to arrive at an understanding concepts and thus to an extensive system of knowledge.#01 At the end of the Thirty Years' War, Comenius sought to counter the old theological moral systems with a new order of universal world knowledge laid down his Didactica Magna. (1657) #02 One century later his didactical ideas can be found in a proposal of Georg Crhistoph Lichtenberg for an "Orbis pictus for German dramatists, novelists and actors" (1780). #03 At roughly the same time, the figure of Theatrum Mundi began to acquire an enormous heuristic energy as a metaphor for viewing the world, for the world as stage, for the art of viewing. It was a metaphor that underlined the endeavour of that period to conceive the world (Schramm 1996). #04 The bracketing of the modern topoi of Orbis Pictus and that of Theatrum Mundi informs the thematic scope of the conference by way of offering a historical perspective on the interrelation between world, picture and theatre under the present conditions of globalisation. This invites debating the question of the relevance of these two concepts in describing a culture of knowledge that places picture and text in a new mutual relationship, particularly against the backdrop of the global effects of digitised mass media. Of particular significance here is an analysis of the function and the aesthetics of theatre as signs of global knowledge cultures between the past and the future. How does theatre picture the world? How did it do so in the past? What does theatre have to offer in terms of a picture critique? And what is the relationship between theatre and world vision or worldview? Do metaphors of world theatre also encompass world pictures? Does globalisation put us in the process of shifting from the representation of the world)to the creation of world? (Nancy 2003) #05 These questions become all the more pertinent, if globalisation is not only understood as a product of the neo-liberal world economy, but as a process that pervades and fundamentally alters all areas of human coexistence. The pervasive course of "world interlinking" calls for a renewed look at the "world arena" under its changing conditions (Sloterdijk 2005 #06 , 1999 #07 ). Research in theatricality has important tools to offer in the analysis of this area (Schramm, Münz, Fischer-Lichte, Kotte). These studies have shown the extent to which the metaphor of theatre operates on the margins between describing the world (an aesthetic venture) and finding insights into the world (an epistemological project). In this sense the concept of theatricality has gained the rank of an interdisciplinary discursive element that has far-reaching implications for other arts, social fields and disciplines. The reference to the old concept of Theatrum Mundi in the conference title therefore not only invites a discussion and foregrounding of the relationship between world theatre and world knowledge in the past and in the present (Zimmermann 2001) #08 . Moreover, a third dimension is introduced into this structure of ambivalence, namely: the picture. The recent developments in pictorial research only serve to highlight the relevance of pictures. Despite our knowledge culture being strongly determined by the order of the written word since the beginning of the Modern era, pictures are increasingly gaining a new value as a category of knowledge, particularly reinforced by the technical possibilities of dissemination offered by digital media (Bredekamp 2006 #09 ; 2004) #10 . Simultaneously, the power of images is often experienced as threatening. Pictures are often denigrated as mere substitutes for reality (copies, reproductions or simulacra) or they are believed to be living beings (Mitchell 2005) #11 . In this context, the conference seeks to critically question and assess the cultural pessimism stemming from the fear of images. One of the key aims of this gathering of scholars is to discuss the possibilities of an 'enlightened' engagement and relationship to pictures. All in all, "the knowledge of globalisation" along with "the globalisation of knowledge" (Appadurai 2001) #12 constitutes a hitherto unresolved challenge. The conference sets out to question how contemporary theatre responds to this challenge. Contributions offering historical, systematic or cultural analyses of this complex of themes are invited.
THEMATIC SECTIONS
Section 1: Paradigm Shifts
Since the notion of the 'paradigm shift' was introduced by Thomas Kuhn in 1964 #13 to indicate shifts, even "revolutions" in "the image of the sciences", and thus in order to revolutionise historiography, the humanities are increasingly confronted with proclamations of different 'turns'. The linguistic turn brought with it considerable scholarly text production. Yet subsequent 'turns' have occasionally led to symptoms of academic fatigue, perhaps because they were reminiscent of marketing strategies (Böhm, Iconic Turn. Ein Brief, 2007, 28) #14. The first section of the conference therefore invites critical and alert engagement with forms of scholarly questioning, particularly with notions such as the pictorial turn. Like Thomas Kuhn, Michel Foucault also critiqued the idea of the continuity of thinking and thus the notion of a progressive, causal and global historiography and history of sciences. With his draft for an "Archaeology of Knowledge Foucault introduced concepts that help in understanding precisely the discontinuities in the history of thinking: concepts like rupture, difference, transformation or threshold. #15 He pleaded for a probing of epistemes in the practice of analysis. With this he implied the entirety of relations that underlie our presumptions, norms, judgments, and conclusions in scientific practice in different times and spaces. Referring to the epistemes in individual scholarly disciplines, Foucault spoke of tropes, i.e. formulae of knowledge. Such a broad understanding of paradigms, which includes the analysis of epistemes, throws up several questions that the conference seeks to debate upon. First of all, the section aims to rethink theatrical tropes such as "performativity" (or the performative turn, Fischer-Lichte (2003 #16 ; 2001 #17 , 2005 [[18]] ) or "theatricality" as indicators of epistemological shifts or different "styles of thinking" (Schramm 2003 a #19 , b #20) in post-modern or globalised contexts of scholarship. This further implies a reflection of the close relationship between the form of the stage and forms of spectatorship as depictions and configurations of ways of thinking. A further focal area of this section is the concept of world picture. Heidegger asked if every age has its own "world picture". His definition of the concept indicates the Modern Age as the age of representation by way of "picturing the world". For Heidegger, the central gesture of modernity in fact lay in the conquering of the world as picture. This does not literally refer to a specific picture of the world, but to the world in its entirety (that is nature and history) conceived and grasped as picture (Heidegger 1938) #21. Following this definition by Heidegger, the conference section questions the extent to which the so-called crisis of representation today leads to a crisis of the "world picture"? Possible answers to this question are to be found in the existence of a plurality of world pictures, of conflicting world pictures, or in the search for world pictures that stem from "other" viewpoints. What is the heuristic value of the old notion of Theatrum Mundi in this context? Or has the notion itself been transformed by paradigmatic shifts or revolutions of world pictures? This leads to the question of the changes in our conceptions of theatre and theatricality in the course of paradigm shifts. Have we arrived at the age of the liberation of the delusions that change the Theatrum Philosophicum into what Foucault termed a pure event (1970)? #22 An event that obeys a "logic of the senses" (Deleuze 1969) #23 , and produces an Artaudian theatre of simultaneous stages and dancing bodies? Formulated differently: Does theatre in an age of the end of representation become festivity, as Rousseau once imagined? What is the impact of theatricality as a style of thinking on the possibility of shifting borders or transgressing fixed world pictures? In how far can theatre studies and theatre practices contribute to these shifts? If we assume that theatre and performance are capable of imagining regions and worlds, we want to ask in how far theatre contributes to engaging with others' perceptions of the world. What does the world look like from other locations?
Keywords of the section Paradigm Shifts:
  • Paradigm shifts and rifts in the picture of theatre studies
  • Shifts and rifts in the picture of the theatre
  • Linguistic turn vs. Pictorial turn
  • Questions of Theatre historiography
  • Theatricality and performativity as tropes
  • Relation between world picture and world as stage
  • Dynamics of world pictures and theatricality in the age of the global
  • Picture theory and theatre (studies)
Section 2: Methods
As the scope of theatre and performance studies has expanded in the past two decades to encompass a vast range of aesthetic, cultural and political practices, there is a need to reflect on and question the potentials and limitations of the tools of research and analysis. Further, the changes in the discipline call for a heightened sensitivity to the question of methodology itself. In particular the transformations in visual representation in the theatre press for a revision of the interrelation between texts, pictures, bodies and media. Such a rethinking cannot ignore the methodological connections between thinking about and thinking through pictures. One starting point for this venture is the field of critical iconology. This is for instance characterised by Gottfried Böhm's call to epistemologically interrelate language and pictorial critique (1994) #24 , by Hans Beltings idea of an anthropological picture studies (2001, #25 , 2005) #26 , or by W.J.T. Mitchell's critique of the disciplinary separation between the subjects of arts and media studies (1994) #27 , which seeks to place the image, the body and the medium in a dynamic relationship with each other. The challenge for theatre studies is thus to methodologically contend with the heterogeneity of the field, beyond the celebration of intermedial approaches. The 'pictorial turn' should neither be misinterpreted as the mere invocation of the threatening potential of images, nor be mistaken as a plea for the sole importance of images. Rather it is a call for an engagement with images as categories of knowledge and research, as a form of communication whose history and consequences demand critical inquiry. It calls for an understanding of images in their close relationship to embodiment, sound or space. The reference to the pictorial turn can be read as a call to develop a critical instrument to analyse and appraise pictorial cultures, regardless of whether they are from scholarly or popular domains, of whether they are symptoms of the present Global Age or as a subject of historical analysis. This section invites papers and working groups that reflect on research work in progress, with a specific focus on the methods used and highlighting their underlying methodologies. The spectrum of possible themes is therefore very broad. Firstly, how are researchers addressing issues such as the inadequacy of textual readings and semiotic approaches for analysing intermediality in performance today? The word-image distinction may have been overcome in art and particularly in performance practice, and this is certainly evident in the explosion of available material on visual culture, yet it is strongly present in research methodologies. In what way do experiments with visuality and narrativity on stage influence or determine modes of looking, reading, interpreting, making sense of the world? To what extent can images be accommodated into a system of signs? What alternatives do picture theory, art and media theory have on offer in honing theatre methodologies? (Jackob/Röttger 2003) #28 Do we require new modes of theatre analysis and instruments of theatre historiography in order to analyse new "stages of vision"? (Balme 2002)? #29 Further, what contributions can research in scenography and stage design make to the field of pictorial studies? And in what ways is performance research unknowingly blind to those aspects of performance that are not visual/visible (Bharucha, Theatre and the World, 1990)? #30 What is the methodological implication of the interplay between visuality and (in)visibility? Such questions invariably lead to the engagement with concepts and definitions. What are pictures in the theatre? Considering the heterogenous and diverse nature of imagery and conceptions of the image, is it possible to even speak of a single systematic definition of images in the theatre (Kolesch 2005)? #31 Do approaches based on critical iconology help in the appraisal of theatre as a dynamic field of relations between images, bodies and media? Do concepts such as intertextuality and intermediality necessarily give rise to what might be termed "inter-iconicity"? How can the notion of theatricality be methodologically linked to visibility and visuality in the theatre? What consequences does the iconic turn have for methods and concepts of theatre historiography? These questions relate to the growing field of theatre iconography. Pictorial artefacts, documentations of performance and the world of the theatre are increasingly being viewed not only as illustrations, which must be supplemented by text, but rather as source materials of special significance to theatre historiography. Studying these artefacts and images involves openness to non-textual sources and cultural expressions, as well as a critical stance towards analysing such material as historical truth (Balme et al., European Theatre Icongraphy, 2002). #32 Further, what does the changing position of images in the history of the humanities imply for the study of spectatorship as a field of performance studies? Finally, this section of the conference invites reflection on practice-based methodologies in performance research, a field receiving increasing attention in many university contexts. Can practice-based or artistic research be a methodological step forward in recognising the obsolete distinction between understanding or picturing the world and shaping the world? On the one hand, this raises questions related to methods of dramaturgy. Do we need a new dramaturgy of the image, and what shape might such a dramaturgical approach possibly take? On the other hand, it also questions standards of scholarship. Do models of artistic research imply that the borders between art and scholarship are in fact being re-drawn? Is there a potential scope for debate on reform of university study programmes by re-thinking the action/research divide? Keywords: - Critical iconology and performance studies - Visuality and/as method - Pictorial turn and research in theatre historiography - Pictorial and text-based methods, theatre (studies) beyond textuality - Documentation of performance and stage events - Theatre iconography - Spectatorship research - Practice as research/ artistic research - Visual dramaturgy/ dramaturgy of the image
Keywords of the section Methods
  • Critical iconology and performance studies
  • Visuality and/as method
  • Pictorial turn and research in theatre historiography
  • Pictorial and text-based methods, theatre (studies) beyond textuality
  • Documentation of performance and stage events
  • Theatre iconography - Spectatorship research
  • Practice as research/ artistic research - Visual dramaturgy/ dramaturgy of the image
Section 3: Aesthetics
The question of the interplay between theatre and world picture cannot be seen independently of its medial components, through which this interplay is made possible. Yet paradigm changes in the arts are also always determined by aesthetic innovations, which are often related to a change of medium or to the introduction of new technologies. This section invites contributions that deal with the aesthetics and the media of the theatre, of theatrical events or performances in different historical periods. This includes a spectrum of questions, ranging from the functions and implications of paradigmatic theatrical aesthetics such as the Baroque world theatre, the notion of a Gesamtkunstwerk, or total theatre on the one hand, to the elements of aesthetic composition or medial transformation in theatre, dance, musical theatre and other performing arts, on the other. The recurrent theme in all these areas is that of the boundary shifts between reality and fiction, of the role of theatricality in the creation of different worlds, extending to fields as diverse as the fine arts or natural or computational sciences. The following focal areas are of particular interest to this conference section:

1. Image in theatre: How can we best approach the aesthetics of the image? Does the theatre generate images, and if so, what kind of images are being referred to? What are the developments in the relationship between image and text or image and sound in theatre? What are the special functions and effects of image-generating media in the theatre? How exactly do image, language and sound relate to each other intermedially? Apart from the more performance analytical aspects, the question here is of theatre historiography, of writing the history of image aesthetics in the theatre. Günther Heeg (2000) #33 , for instance, has critically engaged with this subject in his study of the relationship between image, body and language in 18th century European theatre. Of central importance to the dynamics of seeing and being seen in theatre is the notion of the gaze (Hass 2005). #34

2. Space, time and body in relation to global perceptions, experiences and processes of mondialisation (Derrida). #35 Contributions that interrogate the dimensions of space and time in relation to categories of mobility, virtuality or simultaneity in the Global Age are invited in this sub-section. Further, presentations that link aspects of space and time to image and text, or movement and rhythm to intermediality, and the configurations of body and image in theatre history (see Brandstetter 1995) #36 are also welcome in this section of the conference.

3. The influence of new technologies (such as mobile telephony, photography) on theatre aesthetics and modes of perception in different epochs. We invite contributions reflecting on the relationship between theatre and image-generating media such as film, video, digital arts. Which cultural mechanisms lead to transformations in the "image of the sciences", especially in the theatre?

4. Pictures of theatre: To what extent does theatre architecture reflect on or reproduce modes of aesthetic perception? How are spectators placed and image-ined in theatre architecture? What is the image/picture of theatre in other visual arts and fields?

5. New forms of narration: How does the visual focus of the new media influence or affect forms of narration in the theatre? How do dramatic elements such as plot, dialogue and character relate to the imagination and depiction of others' lives? Are new horizons and spaces opening up for drama texts in the light of an apparently endless mondialisation?
Keywords of the section Aesthetics
  • Pictures in theatre
  • Relationship between image, text, sound, movement and body in the performing arts
  • New technologies and intermedial aspects of aesthetics and perception
  • History and function of the gaze
  • Experiences of space and time
  • Topographies of the performing arts
  • Theatre architecture and the steering of perception
  • Changing forms of narration in the light of changing media aesthetics
Section 4: Politics
This section grapples with the question of the relationship between theatre and politics in three ways: The first concern is the nexus of theatre and the political formations of communities. Whether we think about the function of theatre for the Greek polis or the close link between theatre and the nation states since the 18th century: the theatrical imagination of communities forms a vital part of its political realisation and creation. Benedict Anderson's study Imagined Communities (1986) #37 has served to explicate how this actually happened in European history. The question must be reformulated today, addressing how theatre practices deal with the political ambivalence of emerging nation-states on the one hand and their ongoing deterritorialization on the other. To what extent has this enabled new and different forms of imagination of social life in the theatre? In his study Modernity at Large (1996) Arjun Appadurai claims that the concepts of the image, the imaginary and the imagined direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes. He thus calls for imagination as a social practice (1996, 35). #38 The lives of the globalised populations of the world, he claims, are located in different imagined worlds, which need to be communicated, critiqued and at times subverted. This conference section asks how theatre and performance practices respond to this plea. This leads to the second concern of this section: is it possible to define a new kind of political theatre that contributes to the social practice of imagination? In other words: Can theatre be described as an appropriate medium for image critique? To what extent does the theatre critically intervene in global, social practices of imagination? What are the emerging forms of image critique and how far is theatre adequately equipped to offer a critique of the image? Have theatre practices been able to develop a more refined, critical and persuasive imagery, to counter the tired repertoire of global image production and reproduction? (Latour 2002) #39 This set of questions calls for a renewed engagement with Guy Debord's idea of the 'spectacle' (1967), #40 which he used to argue that humans have become distant and silent spectators whose agency is restricted to mere consumption, where images become commodities. What kind of political theatre can acknowledge and question the central position of images as phenomena of global cultural communication? To what extent do theatre practitioners and scholars confront Debord's notion of the spectacular with images and conceptions of an "emancipated spectator"? In what way does the politics of images in contemporary theatre serve to in fact make perception and spectatorship themselves into political questions? In what way is the 'politics of perception' (Lehmann, 1999) #41 or the 'politics of the image' (Rancière, 2003) #42 able to mobilise and question the position of the spectators and their responsibility for what they see? The third part of this conference section deals with the theatricality of politics. The age-old art of rhetoric, long viewed as indispensable to political debate and communication, is now being increasingly replaced by the art of "telegenic appeal". Herfried Münkler argues that this shift has led to a drastic theatricalisation of politics. #43 In what way do contemporary political strategies of theatricalisation differ from absolutist or revolutionary strategies from past eras? What are the consequences of this theatricalisation for representative democracy? How does this affect power relations, and where does the spectator fit into this scheme? Finally, this is connected to the role of theatre and performance art in the past and present. Can theatre and performance become sites of resistance against the encroaching theatricalisation of social life? ('resistant performance', Auslander 1992 #44 ; Carlson 1996 #45 ).
Keywords of the section Politics
  • Theatrical imagination as a social practice
  • Imagination of communities in the context of globalisation: hybridity and deterritorialisation
  • The concept of the spectacle - Spectatorship and politics of perception
  • Theatre, performance and cultural diversity.
  • Politics of images and pictorial critique in the theatre
  • Conflicting images

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Submission Modalities
We invite submissions of abstracts until 16 June 2008. The Abstract should be focused on one of the four sections the conference foresees (paradigm shifts, methods, aesthetics, politics). The focus should be clearly indicated. Abstracts in either English or German must not exceed 400 words, and should provide a concise outline of the planned conference presentation (maximum 20 minutes). Panels will be organized according to theme as well as language of presentation.

Abstracts can be submitted via the on-line form at: http://www.theatrummundi.com or via e-mail to:
We specifically invite submissions that include images and audio-visual materials, in addition to the written abstract. Series of images and related texts can be combined into a visual narrative in the form of a horizontal or vertical scroll. For those whose  submission has been selected the conference web site will offer a simple on-line tool for making and submitting such scrolls by 1st of July.
In the same manner the selected participants will be invited to add documented quotations to their abstract text, that will facilitate the understanding - by other conference participants - of references in their submitted abstract. These quotations can be more extensive than the usual short academic references. The selected participants will receive a personal log-in for the conference web-site, offering a simple tool to construct such documented quotations. From March 4 onward an example of this way of documentation will be shown in the web version of the call for papers.

The combined abstract, visual narrative and documented quotations will be published on the conference website, so that this may become a textual and visual market place, and communication platform for conference participants. From March 1. onward the website of the Orbis Pictus Theatrum Mundi conference will be on line:

http://www.theatrummundi.com

This will also be the starting day for sending your abstracts and audio-visual materials.

Call for group proposals
We invite proposals by a team of scholars to build their own panel. The panels should fit into one of the four thematic sections of the conference. Each proposal within a panel should be clearly interrelated to the overall panel theme or question.  

We also solicit panel ideas, which can be announced on the website, inviting interested participants to join and be involved in the preparation of a specific panel. A panel should consist of a minimum of three speakers in addition to a chair. Each panel is allotted a maximum of 90 minutes. In the event of eight participants for one panel, an additional 90 minutes will be allotted. Panel submissions must include an abstract outlining the structure and thematic focus of the entire panel, in addition to abstracts of each individual paper (maximum 400 words each).  

Names and contact details of every panel speaker and chair must be included in the abstract. The panel chair is responsible for ensuring the participation of all speakers in the conference, as well as co-ordinating their registration formalities.   Panel proposals can be sent via e-mail to:



Program and accomodation

Detailed information on hotels, venues, artistic program and congress payments will be published on the website from May first onward. The exact conference program will be available from the 16th of July.

 
 
In the framework of the Orbis Pictus Theatrum Mundi congress Marie Jo Lafontaine will present video-works in musical settings prepared by Michael Fahres. It will be a world premiere that relates directly to the video-installation “I love the World”, developed by Marie Jo Lafontaine for the Skyarena Frankfurt as a part of the opening ceremony of the World Football Cup 2006.


 
Overview of the location of the main venues:
Aula (Singel/Spui), Goethe-Institut (Herengracht); Universiteitstheater, Frascati, Brakke Grond.

 
 

Responsible: Prof. Dr. Kati Röttger,
leerstoelgroep theaterwetenschap, Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, 1012 CP Amsterdam, Niederlande.
tel.: 0031- (0)20-5254098,
mail:
 
 

#01 Comenius, Johann Amos (1592-1670) - 1659/1968

Book



Comenius, J. A., & Hoole, C. (1659). Joh. Amos Commenii Orbis sensualium pictus, hoc est, Omnium fundamentalium in mundo rerum, & in vita actionum, pictura & nomenclatura Joh. Amos Commenius’s Visible world, or, A picture and nomenclature of all the chief things that are in the world, and of mens employments therein. London: Printed for J. Kirton.

A reprint of this edition is available in some libraries: Comenius, Johann Amos, and John Edward Sadler. 1968. Orbis pictus. London: Oxford U.P.



q01willingly please their eyes

For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these sights : and it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pass, that scarecrows may be taken away out of wisdom’s gardens.

p. 8




#02 Comenius, Johann Amos (1592-1670) - 1657/1967

Book


Comenius, Johann Amos. 1967. John Amos Comenius on education. Classics in education, no. 33. New York: Teachers College Press.

This publication has an introduction by Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and gives English translations of the following: The labyrinth of the world and the paradise of the heart.--The great didactic.--The pampaedia.--The panorthosia.



UNESCO; www.ibe.unesco.org …

Study written in 1957 by Jean Piage (1896-1980), then Director of the International Bureau of Education of the UNESCO similar to his introduction for this book.

Roehampton University, London; core.roehampton.ac.uk …

The full text translated from the Latin in English is on-line now [The great Didactic/Didactica Magna] edited with biographical, historical and critical introductions by M.W. Keatinge [New York: Russell & Russell, 1967]



q02all things can be placed before the senses

[...] since the senses are the most trusty servants of the memory, this method of sensuous perception, if universally applied, will lead to the permanent retention of knowledge that has once been acquired. For instance, if I have once tasted sugar, seen a camel, heard a nightingale sing, or been in Rome, and have on each occasion attentively impressed the fact on my memory, the incidents will remain fresh and permanent. We find, accordingly, that children can easily memorise Scriptural and secular stories from pictures. Indeed, he who has once seen a rhinoceros (even in a picture) or been present at a certain occurrence, can picture the animal to himself and retain the event in his memory with greater ease than if they had been described to him six hundred times. Hence the saying of Plautus: “An eye-witness is worth more than ten ear-witnesses.” Horace also says: “What is entrusted to the fickle ears makes less impression in the mind than things which are actually presented to the eyes and which the spectator stores up for himself.”
[...]
If the objects themselves cannot be procured, representations of them may be used. Copies or models may be constructed for teaching purposes, and the same principle may be adopted by botanists, geometricians, zoologists, and geographers, who should illustrate their descriptions by engravings of the objects described. The same thing should be done in books on physics and elsewhere.
[...]
If any be uncertain if all things can be placed before the senses in this way, even things spiritual and things absent (things in heaven, or in hell, or beyond the sea), let him remember that all things have been harmoniously arranged by God in such a manner that the higher in the scale of existence can be represented by the lower, the absent by the present, and the invisible by the visible.

chapter: Didactica Magna; p. 96-98




#03 Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (1742-1799) - 1780/1994

Book

Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph, and Wolfgang Promies. 1994. Schriften und Briefe. Dritter Band, Aufsätze ; Entwürfe ; Gedichte ; Erklärung der Hogarthischen Kupferstiche. Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins.

“Vorschlag zu einem Orbis pictus für deutsche dramatische Schriftsteller, Romanen-Dichter und Schauspieler. Nebst einigen Beyträgen dazu, von G.C.L.”; GMWL, 1. Jahrgang, 3. Stück(VI), 1780. Wiederabdruck in SB 3: 378-405.



No English translation of this text found ...



Bibliotheca Augustana; www2.hs-augsburg.de …

Übersicht schriften Georg Christoph Lichtenberg



#04 Schramm, Helmar - 1996



Schramm, Helmar. 1996. Karneval des Denkens Theatralität im Spiegel philosophischer Texte des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts. LiteraturForschung. Berlin: Akademie. (Seiten/Pages 307)

No English translation of this text found ...



q04Theater: Zusammenspiel von Wahrnehmung, Bewegung und Sprache

[...] Zum einen geht es um die Affinität zwischen dem ”transitorischen Ereignisraum gegenwärtiger Kultur” und dem flüchtigen, ereignishaften Wesen von Theater. Zum anderen aber geht es um folgendes: Theater funktioniert seit jeher geradezu modellhaft als ambivalentes Zusammenspiel von Wahrnehmung, Bewegung und Sprache. In diesem Sinne können wir davon ausgehen, daß “Theatralität” drei entscheidende Faktoren kultureller Energie – Aisthesis, Kinesis, Semiosis – auf spezifische Weise in sich bündelt. Darin könnte ein Schlüssel liegen für die Neuerschließung theaterhistorischer Gegenstandsfelder im Rahmen eines interdisziplinären, dezentral angelegten Geschichtskonzepts.

S. 44




#05 Nancy, Jean-Luc - 2002/2007

Book

Nancy, Jean-Luc. 2007. The creation of the world, or, Globalization. SUNY series in contemporary French thought. Albany: State University of New York Press. (p. 129)

Contents: Urbi et Orbi—Of creation—Creation as denaturation : metaphysical technology—Complements. Other Titles: La création du monde ou la mondialisation., Creation of the world, Globalization



Google books; books.google.com …

There is a preview of this book on-line



#06 Sloterdijk, Peter - 2005

Book



Sloterdijk, Peter. 2005. Im Weltinnenraum des Kapitals für eine philosophische Theorie der Globalisierung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (S. 415)

There does not exists an English version of this book. The translation of the quotation is from a student paper by Hubertus Mayr (UvA Amsterdam)



WorldCat; worldcat.org …

Only two books of Sloterdijk have been translated into English; for the rest there are some articles. This link gives an overview of these sources.



q06an unparalleled form of mass mobility

The global capitalistic interior, usually referred to as the West or the westernized sphere [...] rises over the ground as a web of corridors of comfort that are, at strategically and culturally vital hubs, enlarged to dense work- and consumption-oasis – normally in the guise of the open metropolis and the uniform suburbia, though ever more commonly in the form of rural residences, holiday enclaves, e-villages and gated communities. An unparalleled form of mass mobility has been poured for half a century through theses corridors and junctions. Habitation and traveling have entered into a symbiosis in the big installation. [...] Numerous entertainers, singers and masseurs offer their services as travel companions for the liquefied life. If today tourism is to illustrate the top phenomenon of the capitalistic way of life [...], so just because the biggest part of all traveling movements occur in the pacified space.

p. 304-305




#07 Sloterdijk, Peter (1947-) - 1999

Book

Sloterdijk, Peter. 1999. Sphären Mikrosphärologie. 2, Globen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. (p. 1013)

WorldCat; worldcat.org …

Only two books of Sloterdijk have been translated into English; for the rest there are some articles. This link gives an overview of these sources.



#08 Zimmermann, Jörg - 2001

Article


Früchtl, Josef, and Jörg Zimmermann. 2001. Ästhetik der Inszenierung Dimensionen eines künstlerischen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Phänomens. Edition Suhrkamp, 2196. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. (S. 298)

Siehe insb. zu Theatrum Mundi: Zimmermann, Jörg: “Mutmaßungen über die Regie des Lebens. Stationen einer Metaphysik der Inszenierung, in: Ästhetik der Inszenierung, S. 103-125.



Proceedings of a conference held March 22-26, 2000, Oper Frankfurt. No English version found ...



q08die Deutung des theatrum mundi bleibtt umstritten

Es besteht also eine ursprüngliche Dialektik zwischen lebensweltlicher Erfahrung, metaphysischer Welterklärung und ästhetischer Vergegenwärtigung auf dem Theater mit ihren Vermittlungen in andere Künste und Sozialbezüge hinein. Da die Deutung des theatrum mundi höchst umstritten bleibt und je nach Standort unterschiedlich verstanden wird, kann seine Vorführung auf der realen Bühne gegenüber einem metaphysisch verklärten Phantasma oder einer als lügenhaft empfundenen gesellschaftlichen Maskerade durchaus als “wahre” Darstellung gelten, die einer täuschenden Wirkllichkeit den kritischen Spiegel vorhält. 

S. 104




#09 Bredekamp, Horst - 2006

Book

Bredekamp, Horst, and Pablo Schneider. 2006. Visuelle Argumentationen die Mysterien der Reprasentation und die Berechenbarkeit der Welt. Reihe Kulturtechnik. München: Wilhelm Fink. (S. 280)

No English version found ...



Humboldt-Universität, Berlin; hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de …

This study figures in an annoucement from Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik; Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin



#10 Bredekamp, Horst - 2004

Book

Bredekamp, Horst. 2005. Darwins Korallen die frühen Evolutionsdiagramme und die Tradition der Naturgeschichte. Berlin: Wagenbach. (S.111)

No English version found ...



#11 Mitchell, W. J. Thomas - 2005

Book



Mitchell, W. J. Thomas. 2005. What do pictures want? the lives and loves of images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (p.308)

University of Chicago.; humanities.uchicago.edu …

W. J. T. Mitchell’s Homepage



q11living images have desires

[…] Images are like living organisms; living organisms are best described as things that have desires (for example, appetites, needs, demands, drives); therefore, the question of what pictures want is inevitable.

p. 11

q11iconoclasm: beliefs about other peoples’ beliefs

The second law is that the iconoclast believes that idolaters believe their images to be holy, alive, and powerful. We might call this the law of “secundary belief”, or beliefs of other people. Iconoclasm is not just a belief structure but a structure of beliefs about other peoples’ beliefs. As such it depends upon stereotype and caricature (image repertoires that reside on the borders of social difference).

p. 20




#12 Appadurai, Arjun - 2001

Book




Appadurai, Arjun. 2001. Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (p.334)

Arjun Appadurai/The New School, New York; www.appadurai.com …

Personal web-site of the author



q12world time and domination of space

The central thesis of this study is that in several regions considered - wrongly - to be on the margins of the world, the domestication of world time henceforth takes place by dominating space and putting it to different uses. When resources are put into circulation, the consequence is a disconnection between people and things that is more marked than it was in the past, the value of things generally surpassing that of people. 

p. 23

q12distinction between place and territory

In this study we are interested in a specific form of domestication and mobilization of space and resources: the form that consists in producing boundaries, whether by moving already existing ones or by doing away with them, decentering or differentiating them. In dealing with these questions, we will draw a distinction between Africa as a “place” and Africa as a “territory”. In fact, a place is the order according to which elements are distributed in relationships of coexistence. A place as Michel Certeau points out, is an instantaneous configuration of positions. It implies stability. As for a territory, it is fundamentally an intersection of moving bodies. It is defined essentially by the set of movements that take place within it. Seen in this way, it is a set of possibilities that historically situated actors constantly resist or realize. 

p. 24

q12space: polyvalent unity

Space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of conflictual programs or contractual proximities.

p. 24




#13 Kuhn, Thomas S. (1922-1996) - 1962

Book


Kuhn, Thomas S. 1964. The structure of scientific revolutions. [Chicago]: University of Chicago Press. (p. 172)

Emory University; www.des.emory.edu …

An outline of “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Frank Pajares

Wikipedia; en.wikipedia.org …

... with useful links



q13paradigmatic change from Ptolemaic to Copernican

Looking at the moon, the convert to Copernicanism does not say, ‘I used to see a planet, but now I see a satellite.’ That locution would imply a sense in which the Ptolemaic system had once been correct. Instead, a convert to the new astronomy says, ‘I once saw the moon to be (or saw the moon as) a planet, but I was mistaken’.

p. 115




#14 Gottfried, Böhm - 2007

Article

Belting, Hans. 2007. Bilderfragen die Bildwissenschaften im Aufbruch. Bild und Text. München: Fink. (S.357)

Böhm, Gottfried: “Iconic Turn. Ein Brief”; S. 27-36.



Papers presented at the conference “Bildwissenschaft? Eine Zwischenbilanz”, held at Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften, Vienna, Austria during April 21-23, 2005. NoEnlish version found ...



Image & Narrative; www.imageandnarrative.be …

An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell by sbjørn Grønstad and Øyvind Vågnes in which also Böhm’s “iconic turn” notion is commented (2006).



#15 Foucault, Michel (1926-1984) - 1969/1972

Book



Foucault, Michel. 1974. The archaeology of knowledge. World of man. London: Tavistock Publications. (p. 245)



q15proliferation of disconinuities in the history of ideas

History must be detached from the image that satisfied it for so long, and through which its anthropological justification: that of an age-old collective consciousness that made use of material documents to refresh ites memory; (...) that has several consequences. First of all, there is the surface effect already mentioned: the proliferation of disconinuities in the history of ideas, and the emergence of long periods in the history proper. (...) The problem now is to constiute series, to fix the boundaries, to reveal its own specific type of relations (...) Second consequence: the notion of discontinuity assumes a major role in the historical disciplines

p. 7-8




#16 Fischer-Lichte, Erika - 2003

Article

Balme, Christopher B., Erika Fischer-Lichte, and Stephan Grätzel. 2003. Theater als Paradigma der Moderne? Positionen zwischen historischer Avantgarde und Medienzeitalter. Mainzer Forschungen zu Drama und Theater, Bd. 28. Tübingen: Francke. (S.506)

Fischer-Lichte, Erika: “Vom Theater als Paradigma der Moderne zu den Kulturen des Performativen. Ein Stück Wissenschaftsgeschichte”: S. 15-32. No English version found ...



#17 Fischer-Lichte, Erika - 2001


Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2001. Theatralität und die Krisen der Repräsentation. Germanistische Symposien, Berichtsbände, 22. Stuttgart: Metzler. (S. 620)

No English version found ...



#18 Fischer-Lichte, Erika - 2005

Book

Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2005. Diskurse des Theatralen. Theatralität, Bd. 7. Tübingen: Francke. (S. 362)

No English version found ...



#19 Schramm, Helmar - 2003 a

Book

Schramm, Helmar. 2003. Bühnen des Wissens Interferenzen zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst : [Veröffentlichung der Universitäts-Ringvorlesung der Freien Universität Berlin in Kooperation mit dem Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Berlin), dem Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und dem Zentrum für Literaturforschung Berlin im Wintersemester 2000/2001]. Berlin: Dahlem Univ. Press.

No English version found ...



#20 Schramm, Helmar - 2003 b/2005

Book


Schramm, Helmar, Ludger Schwarte, and Jan Lazardzig. 2005. Collection, laboratory, theater scenes of knowledge in the 17th century. Theatrum scientiarum: English edition, v. 1. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. (p. 594)



#21 Heidegger, Martin (1889-1976) - 1950/1977

Article





Heidegger, Martin. 1977. The question concerning technology, and other essays. Harper colophon books. New York: Harper & Row. (p.182)

“Die Zeit des Weltbilds"/"The age of the world picture” is quoted here.



Content: The question concerning technology.--The turning.--The word of Nietzsche: “God is dead."--The age of the world picture.--Science and reflection.



q21the world conceived and grasped as a picture

Hence worldpicture, when understood essentially, does not mean a picture of the world but the world conceived and grasped as a picture. What is, in its entirety, is now taken in such a way that it first is in being and only is in being to the extent that it is set up by man, who represents and sets forth. Wherever we have the world picture, an essential decision takes place regarding what is, in its entirety. The Being of whatever is, is sought and found in the representedness of the latter.

p.130

q21the essence of the modern age

The worldpicture doesn’t change from an earlier medieval one into a modern one, but rather the fact that the world becomes picture at all is what distinguishes the essence ofthe modern age [der Neuzeit].

p. 130

q21man becoming subject

When accordingly, the picture character of the world is made clear as the representedness of that which is, then in order fully to grasp the modern essence of representedness we must track out and expose the original naming power of the worn-out word and concept “to represent” [vorstellen]: to set out before oneself and to set forth in relation to oneself. Through this, whatever is comes to a stand as object and in that way alone receives the seal of Being.
That the world becomes picture is one and the same event of man’s becoming subjectum in the midst of that which is.

p. 132




#22 Foucault, Michel (1926-1984) - 1970/2000?

Online





Foucault, Michel: “Theatrum Philosophicum”; (Orig. in Critique 282, November 1970)

This review essay originally appeared in Critique 282(1970), pp. 885-908. The translation, by Donald F. Brouchard and Sherry Simon, has been slightly amended.



Generation On Line; www.generation-online.org …

Full text on-line of “Theatrum Philosophicum”



q22no center but always decenterings

One after another, I should like to explore the many paths that lead to the heart of these challenging tests. As Deleuze has said to me, however, this metaphor is misleading: there is no heart, but only a problem-that is, a distribution of notable points; there is no center but always decenterings, series, from one to another, with the limp of a presence and an absence-of an excess, of a deficiency. Abandon the circle, a faulty principle of return; abandon our tendency to organize everything into a sphere. All things return on the straight and narrow, by way of a straight and labyrinthine line. Thus, fibrils and bifurca_tion (Leiris’s marvelous series would be well suited to a Deleuzian analysis). 

see web-link

q22the anti Platonic genus

Are all philosophies individual species of the genus “anti-Platonic”? Would each begin with a declaration of this fundamental rejection? Can they be grounded around this desired and detestable center? Should we instead say that the philosophical nature of a discourse is its Platonic differential, an element absent in Platonism but present in the discourse itself? A better formulation would be: It is an element in which the effect of absence is induced in the Platonic series through a new and divergent series (consequently, its function in the Platonic series is that of a signifier both excessive and absent); and it is also an element in which the Platonic series produces a free, floating, and excessive circulation in that other discourse. Plato, then, is the excessive and deficient father. It is useless to define a philosophy by its anti-Platonic character (as a plant is distinguished by its reproductive organs); but a philosophy can be distinguished some_what in the manner in which a phantasm is defined, by the effect of a lack when it is distributed into its two constituent series -the “archaic” and the “real"-and you will dream of a general history of philosophy, a Platonic phantasmatology, and not an architecture of systems.

see web-link

q22theater with multiplied scenes

Moreover, this series of liberated simulacrum is activated, or mimes itself, on two privileged sites: that of psychoanalysis, (...) and that of the theater, which is multiplied, polyscenic, simultaneous, broken into separate scenes that refer to each other, and where we encounter, without any trace of representation (copying or imitating), the dance of masks, the cries of bodies, and the gesturing of hands and fingers.

see web-link




#23 Deleuze, Gilles (1925-1995) - 1969/1990

Book


Deleuze, Gilles. 1990. The logic of sense. European perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press. (p.393)



#24 Boehm, Gottfried - 1994/2003

Book

Boehm, Gottfried. 1995. Was ist ein Bild?  Bild und Text. München: W. Fink.

No English version found ...



#25 Belting, Hans - 2001

Book

Belting, Hans. 2001. Bild-Anthropologie Entwürfe für eine Bildwissenschaft. Bild und Text. München: W. Fink. (S. 278)

No English version found ...



#26 Belting, Hans - 2005

Article

Critical inquiry. 31 (Winter 2005). Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Belting, Hans: “Image, Medium, Body: A New Approach to Iconology”; S. 302-319.



Article is a summary of the first chapter of his boo: “Bild-Anthropologie”, 2001.