July 10
Schlechte Wörter
“Let it matter what we call a thing” is the latest episode of Bad Words and gathers different writers and artists around the poem “LOOK” by Solmaz Sharif. “LOOK” challenges us to confront the ways in which language can both oppress and liberate, urging us to interrogate our own relationship with words and their implications.
Bad Words is an audio series and sonic arts project. Collaborating with a dynamic ensemble of writers, artists and thinkers, the project endeavors to sculpt immersive sonic landscapes that probe the depths of linguistic expression. From talks, readings, voice messages, field recordings and music, a tactile space of multiple voices is created with changing guests. This evening, this space will be Klosterruine Berlin where the participating authors will come together for a live performance. The agreement is: We begin with one text so a new one can arise.
With readings by Logan February, Moshtari Hilal, Nazanin Noori, Tanasgol Sabbagh and Ralph Tharayil. Music & Composition by Fabian Saul.
Entry is free.
(DE/EN)
7 pm | Klosterruine Berlin, Klosterstr. 73a
July 11
Apophatic Activism: Science, Politics, and Silence in the 1960s
A lecture by D. Graham Burnett.
The laboratory study of ‘attention’ across the first half of the twentieth century established a powerful framework for understanding the human subject. Experiments centering on patterns of stimulus and response tested the ways that human sensory and cognitive capacities could be elicited, assessed, predicted, and ultimately integrated into powerful new military-industrial technologies. This ‘cybernetic’ subject was triggerable and could pull triggers. In this lecture, Burnett will sketch the contours of this important psychological research programme, in order to establish the background for a pair of significant counter-reactions that unfolded across the 1960s — projects that, he will argue, marked major reconceptualization of (negative) agency. Focusing on the ‘Blue Vase’ experiments of the medical researcher Arthur Deikman, and then on the ‘Silent Vigils’ of Santa Barbara Sociologist Charles H. Hubbell, Burnett will sketch the emergence of a specifically ‘apophatic’ attentional programme across the counterculture.
Part of the workshop Inactivity: Between Aesthetic Practice and Sociopolitical Challenge.
Registration required.
(EN)
7 pm | ICI Berlin, Christinenstr. 18-19
July 12
PROMETHEUS-AI – Ein Künstliches Drama von Marius Goldhorn
Performed by Enis Maci and Juan S. Guse. Followed by an artist talk with Marius Goldhorn.
The play PROMETHEUS-AI is a dialog between Heracles and Prometheus, which arose from a conversation between Marius Goldhorn and the GPT-3-AI text-davinci002 by the developer openAI in 2022. Enis Maci will read the dialog together with Juan S. Guse. Afterwards, Marius Goldhorn will join for an artist talk (via live stream). Is AI the new fire of Prometheus?
(DE)
8.30 pm | Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Chausseestraße 125
July 12
René Aguigah: James Baldwin – Der Zeuge
Book launch moderated by Dominique Haensell.
James Baldwin is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Even during his lifetime, his books "Giovanni's Room" and "The Fire Next Time" made him famous and landed him on the cover of "Time Magazine". But Baldwin was black and gay, and the society in which he lived was racist and homophobic. This tension gave rise to a unique body of work that opened wide the gates through which generations of activists have passed after him. On August 2, 2024, the great author, who some called a prophet, would have turned 100 years old.
In his elegantly written portrait, Baldwin expert René Aguigah outlines Baldwin's life from his origins in poor circumstances in Harlem to his escape from everyday racism to Paris, his rapid rise to become a sought-after speaker and his relationships with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Above all, however, Aguigah's essayistic book is interested in what Baldwin still has to tell us today. It explores the relationship between his artistry and activism, the tension between literature and politics, his advocacy of minorities and his universalist convictions. Baldwin, who knew hate so well, held on to love as hope in his novels and essays. Aguigah portrays him as a witness to a time of violence and injustices that continue to this day.
8 pm | ocelot, Brunnenstr. 181