News Archive

Guest faculty member Ana María Gómez López is participating in the exhibition "Fluid Matter: Liquid and Life in Motion," which runs from December 2nd, 2016 to February 26, 2017 at the MU art space in the Netherlands. The exhibition presents the winning projects of the Bio Art and Design Award 2016, a unique competition that aims at stimulating young artists and designers from The Netherlands and abroad to experiment with bioart and design. The competition is developed in collaboration with leading Dutch researchers in the life sciences. The exhibited works reflect on, demonstrate, or even contest advances in life sciences research. They also probe fluidity in the realms of inter-species exchange, personal identity, metabolic processes, and even in the exchange between our bodies and our oceans. Located in Eindhoven, the MU art space focuses on the hybrid visual culture of now and later. Read more about the exhibition.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/11/moral-and-political-competence-redux/#.WD1DRmQrIy6

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 9, 2016 faculty member David Hayes gave a talk titled "Beyond Critical Thinking Pedagogy?" at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. The talk was part of the series "Conversations on Liberal Education," hosted by the B.A. program Studium Individuale. 'Critical Thinking' is commonly taken to be a central component of Liberal Education. David Hayes argued, in contrast, that critical thinking pedagogy is actually misguided in a culture of default skepticism and thin beliefs. What is needed instead is a pedagogy that is marked by: (1) interpretive charity; (2) tolerance for a specific kind of exploration; (3) the exercise of the imagination.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Friday December 2nd, 2016 faculty member Dr. Ulrike Wagner will participate in the symposium "God, Nature and Politics in German Idealism and Romanticism" held at the Faculty of Theology, Humboldt University, Berlin. Dr. Wagner will give a presentation titled In Research We Trust: Social Functions of Schleiermacher's Religious Scholarship. Further details about the symposium are available here.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

A contribution by guest faculty Dr. Timo Lochocki titled "Was Rechtspopulisten schwächt" appeared in the November 18 online issue of Die Zeit. In the article Dr. Lochocki discusses the reasons why right-wing populist parties won the elections in the US and are on the rise in Europe. Behind their success, he argues, are political strategies that the liberal parties could analyze and adopt in their turn when dealing with populists. Among the political lessons that could be drawn from the populists' success and that could possibly be developed into counterstrategies by their liberal opponents are: the populists' self-portrayal as representatives of the people; their commitment to defend national values; their openness to debate on any issue, even those that are commonly perceived as taboos or bad publicity; their affiliation with top politicians who stand by their opinions and always communicate their position clearly; their reliance on emotional narratives and passion rather than facts. Read the full contribution here.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Friday November 25 at 8:00pm, John von Bergen's sculpture "Miami Gun" will be on view for the first time in Hamburg at the project space 2025. Von Bergen will be reading from the published story "Declared," which traces the artwork's development and its journey from the United States to Europe. From the gallery's press release: Five years ago the American-born, Berlin-based artist John von Bergen was invited to an artist residency in Miami, Florida. During his brief stay he developed a project in response to the unsettling availability and social acceptance of gun ownership in this region of The United States. His project was the sculpture "Miami Gun", an artwork made from parts of a plastic water pistol merged with parts of a real .357 Magnum. For several strategic reasons it was never built as one complete object. Eventually von Bergen transported the work between two of The United States, to London, then finally Berlin. The journey itself became the second life for the project's narrative. On Friday Nov 25th at 8pm, von Bergen brings the work to Hamburg for the first time to be shown at the project space 2025. He will be reading from the published story "Declared", illustrating his experiences from making the sculpture as well as transporting it to Europe. His story raises questions such as the definitions of art material vs. valued artwork, potential weapon vs. playful object, and breaking the law vs. "doing one's job". 2025 is an artist-run Kunstverein located in Hamburg-Altona. Projects are supported by the Kulturbehörde Hamburg. Location: 2025 Kunst und Kultur e.V., Ruhrstrasse 88, 22761 Hamburg For more info: http://www.2025ev.de/index2025.html

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Sunday, December 11, Bard College Berlin is hosting a representation of Aristophanes' The Clouds, staged by alumna Maria Khan (BA 2015) and a group of students. In light of Brexit and the recent US elections, what are some of the perils of democracy? Age-old questions regarding free-thinking, defying tradition and thinking out of the box are at the heart of Aristophanes' The Clouds. James Redfield's refreshing and hilarious translation of the play will take us back in time to Socrates' Thinkery where Socrates and his muses "The Clouds" confuse and trick a simple country man. Join us for an evening filled with thought-provoking laughter and fun. Set in modern times, this rendition of the play has borrowed elements from the South-Asian culture and society. About the director: Maria Khan is a first year PhD student at the University of Cambridge. Her research asks how drama education can be used as a medium of integration for the migrant Muslim population in Europe, particularly in Germany. She graduated from Bard College Berlin in May 2015 (BA in Humanities, the Arts and Social Thought) and completed an MPhil in Arts Education at Cambridge in July 2016. Maria has a decade-long experience with staging, directing and acting at various academic and non-academic venues. In 2012, she was part of the Pakistani team that performed The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, as part of the Globe to Globe Festival. Time: Sunday, December 11, at 7 p.m. Venue: Bard College Berlin, The Factory Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin-Pankow (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

http://www.publicseminar.org/2016/11/constitutional-patriotism-and-americas-shame/#.WCw2cGQrIy6

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Friday December 9th, students in the practicing arts classes at Bard College Berlin invite you to take a peek inside their production and learn more about their artistic process and their developing artistic interests. The exhibition includes a broad range of mediums and techniques (painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, film and video, and spatial design), where visitors can engage with the students and their instructors. The practicing arts are an essential component of Bard College Berlin's curriculum, as the wide variety of subject matters and practices showcased during the Open Studio event testifies. On view will be works from the classes Advanced Painting (John Kleckner), Advanced Studio (John von Bergen), Photography (April Gertler), Narrative Filmmaking (Pia Marais & Martin Rosefeldt), Social Choreography (Heba Amin), Architecture and Urbanism (Wulf Böttger & Caroline Wolf). The event takes place in Bard College Berlin's studio arts building, "The Factory," a semi-renovated industrial structure which has been turned into a vibrant collection of creative spaces. Time: Friday, December 9, 2015, 6:00-8:00pm Venue: Bard College Berlin - The Factory (map) Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin - Pankow Admission free Refreshments will be served. BVG Directions: BVG Directions: Bard College Berlin is in Niederschönhausen, a 12-minute tram ride from the "Pankow" S/U-Bahn station. Take the M1 tram towards the destination "Rosenthal Nord" (not "Schillerstrasse"), exit at "Friedrich-Engels-Str. / Eichenstrasse". Bard College Berlin's arts building is 2 blocks away on the right side with a large red banner in front.

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Thursday, December 1, faculty member Matthias Hurst will hold a presentation on "Germans in Space" in the frame of the Faculty Colloquium Series. The presentation will focus on the cult science fiction TV series Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion ("Space Patrol – The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion"). In 1966, amidst the space race and three years before the first man actually landed on the moon, a fictional spaceship launched from Earth to explore space and battle extraterrestrial enemies in a TV show that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon: the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. In the same year another ship took off „to boldly go where no man has gone before" and to defend our home planet against alien threats: the Orion VII in the German TV series Raumpatrouille („Space Patrol"), written by Rolf Honold and W. G. Larsen, and directed by Michael Braun and Theo Mezger. The German series – one of the most expensive TV productions of its time – consists of only seven episodes and never became as famous and popular as Star Trek, but despite of its short run, it still managed to inspire the audience and retains today a loyal cult following in Germany. With an international crew, representing a united mankind, the Orion travels through outer space and faces several dangerous situations, including the encounter with a hostile alien species. Thus the series features a mix of fictional approaches to spaceflight with heroic adventure and futuristic warfare. Raumpatrouille is in many ways very similar to Star Trek and its echoes of political reality, namely the Cold War scenario, but on the other hand it is quite distinctive. What sticks out is a less tolerant and optimistic attitude towards contact with extraterrestrials and a more aggressive reaction in situations of conflict. As a specific German vision of the future, albeit informed by an American tradition of science fiction narratives, Raumpatrouille is firmly rooted in the cultural tension between progressive hope for peaceful global relations, structures and alliances after the devastating experiences of two world wars on one hand and the willingness to military action against a powerful ideological enemy on the other hand; it is a science fiction series that reflects both utopian ideas and a political-ideological reality which is dominated by fear of an subversive enemy, by nuclear armament and strategies of deterrent, a German link, as it were, between NASA and NATO. Time: Thursday, December 1 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm Venue: The Cafeteria (Waldstr. 70), Seminar Room upstairs

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On December 8, the Republic Core will host Glenn W. Most (SNS, Pisa/University of Chicago) for a special event on the Presocratics. A distinguished scholar of classical languages, Prof. Most has just translated and edited together with Prof. André Laks (University of Paris–Sorbonne) a monumental nine-volume edition of Early Greek Philosophy which is coming out this fall from the Loeb Classical Library. His talk at Bard College Berlin will offer an occasion to reflect on what it means to edit and study the Presocratics today. Time: Thursday, December 8 at 7 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin, the Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a, 13156 Berlin (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 11 2016, Dr. Agata Lisiak will hold a presentation on Visualizing Urban Diversity in Focus Group Interviews in the frame of the workshop "Convivial Tools for Research and Practice" organized at University College London. Urban researchers use digital cameras and cell phones equipped with cameras for various purposes: photography and video may be inscribed in methodological frameworks (photo walks, photo elicitation, videography) and research dissemination (visual essays, blogs, conference presentations, exhibitions), but also in everyday 'backstage' activities such as taking visual field notes. Whereas some visual notes are explicitly research related, others, conceived initially as private photos or visual diaries, may seem irrelevant for one's research, but turn out to be useful or inspirational at a later point. Dr. Lisiak's talk will discuss whether mixing visual field notes and researchers' private images is methodologically legible, and whether the inclusion of researchers' private archive strengthens the collaborative nature of (participatory) visual methods projects.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Wednesday, November 30, the course Menschen-Tiere and Tier-Menschen led by Ulrike Wagner has the pleasure to host a guest talk by artist Iris Schieferstein titled "Als das Tier glaubte es sein kein Tier." The German artist Iris Schieferstein has worked for many years with dead animals as raw material for her art pieces. She joins the fragments together to form new creatures and thus gives a new face to death. Her arrangements may reflect paintings of the great masters, or the connected objects may turn out to be whole words - whatever the result, her work always reveals her aesthetic intuition and her inclination to subtle entertainment. The language of the guest lecture is German. Time: Wednesday, November 30 at 10:45am Venue: Bard College Berlin, Building P98, Seminar Room 2 Platanenstrasse 98, 13156 Berlin

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

https://berlin.bard.edu/fileadmin/common/News/MessagefromLeonBotstein_USElections.pdf

Meta: Type(s): General | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On November 4, 2016, faculty member Prof. Dr. Matthias Hurst held a presentation together with Prof. Dr. Dietrich von Engelhardt at the Asklepios Medical School (Semmelweis University, Asklepios Campus Hamburg) on the topic of "Ethik in der Medizin in Film und Literatur" ("Medical Ethic in Film and Literature"). The talk was about the specific relations between medicine and art (in both historical and practical perspective), and how ethical questions of the medical discourse are reflected in the arts (literature and film). Some of the examples that were presented and discussed with students of the Medical School were Thomas Mann's novel Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Tom Shadyac's film "Patch Adams", TV's popular "Dr. House" and the German TV series "Die Schwarzwaldklinik" ("The Black Forest Clinic").

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On seven Sunday sessions, the DANCE LAB led by Eva Burghardt has been researching and experimenting with different approaches to contemporary dance, improvisation, and instant composing. The students have been playing with the relationship to space, time, effort, paying attention to different movement qualities, inner and outer awareness, and the connection to each other. "In the showings we would like to share our improvisation practice as well as the individual pieces of composition made by the students. We will negotiate between narrative and abstract forms, exploring the power of movement and expression as a primal form of art. We look forward to seeing you there!" Time: Sunday, November 27, at 6 p.m. Venue: Bard College Berlin, The Factory Eichenstrasse 43, Berlin-Pankow (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Thursday, November 10, alumnus Rafał Kuczyński will deliver a guest lecture titled "Confronting Perspectives: Erwin Panofsky vs Pawel Florenski" in the frame of the Renaissance Florence core course. In the 1920s two scholars, independently from each other, took up the problem of the impact of the invention of linear perspective in visual arts to the shaping of the modern mind. One was a German art historian, Erwin Panofsky (Perspective as a Symbolic Form), the other, a Russian philosopher, mathematician and a priest, Powel Florenski (Reversed Perspective). Both began separate traditions of commentaries on perspective, treating mutual differences in terms of almost an ideological split. The first tends to treat the concept of reversed perspective as a marginal speculation and disregards it altogether. The other openly presents the difference between two perspectives in axiological terms to the advantage of reversed perspective as applied in Russian icon painting. Despite their differences, the two traditions show some similarities and, when confronted with one another, shed a new light on our understanding of perspective. Rafał Kuczyński is currently a PhD student in the Artes Liberales Department at the University of Warsaw. He obtained an MA in Sociology from the University of Bialystok, Poland, and graduated from the AY and PY programs of the European College of Liberal Arts (the former name of Bard College Berlin). He is part of the editing staff of the philosophical quarterly KRONOS - Metaphysics, Culture, Religion published by The Count August Cieszkowski's Foundation. Among other texts, he translated Hannah Arendt's Lectures On Kant's Political Philosophy, the essays of Jacob Taubes, and D.H. Lawrence's Apocalypse from English to Polish. Time: Thursday, November 10 at 5 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin, the Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a, 13156 Berlin (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

Visiting faculty member April Gertler is one of the artists selected for the group show "Linear Momentum," which runs from November 4, 2016, to January 22, 2017 at the Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin. The exhibition addresses the drawn line in its relationship to our movement through space. Instead of approaching the theme through drawing, the genre traditionally associated with the line, the project incorporates performance-based works, as well as sculpture, wall drawing, photography, and video. As a connection between two points, the line always references its movement-based genesis. Thus, the exhibition approaches the line from a temporal and spatial – a performative – perspective. Further info on the gallery's Facebook page.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Tuesday, November 8, the Faculty Colloquium Series continues with a presentation by Ewa Atanassow (Bard College Berlin) and Ira Katznelson (Columbia University) on "Governing Emergency." How should liberal democracies navigate security challenges? Do constitutional regimes face particular emergency dilemmas? Have such conundrums become especially urgent? This presentation examines whether and how liberal democracies might face security dilemmas without compromising constitutional and ethical principles. Although of broader significance, it focuses on the political thought and practice of United States and Great Britain as the longest standing and continuous examples of constitutional regimes struggling to come to terms with these questions. Ira Katznelson is Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University, and the serving president of the Social Science Research Council. Prior to his position at Columbia, he taught at the University of Chicago and the New School for Social Research, where he was dean of the Graduate Faculty. His most recent books are Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time, Liberal Beginnings: Making a Republic for the Moderns (with Andreas Kalyvas), and When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America. Time: Tuesday, November 8 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm Venue: The Cafeteria (Waldstr. 70), Seminar Room upstairs

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

In the October 20 print issue of Times Higher Education, faculty member Laura Scuriatti contributes to the section "What are you reading?" with a brief review of Nadia Fusini's Vivere nella Tempesta (Einaudi, 2016). Her contribution can also be read in the digital edition here.

Meta: Type(s): Faculty | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |

On Thursday, November 3, art historian Lynn Catterson (Columbia University) will give a guest lecture on Stefano Bardini and Wihelm Bode titled "A Case of Canon Contamination." From the 1860s until his death in 1922, Stefano Bardini sold many thousands of objects of fine and decorative art and architectural fittings from his Florentine showrooms to private and institutional collectors around the world. In many cases, these objects represent the core of current day collections as in, for example, the Boston MFA and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Bode Museum and the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the V&A in London, the Jacquemart-André in Paris, and the now widely dispersed collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein. On the basis of evidence found in the Italian state archive of Bardini, this talk examines Bardini's social network and his particular business transactional strategies, which included the tendering of multiples; his specific branding and marketing contributed to the evolution of the taxonomy, particularly, of "Italian Renaissance Sculpture." His working relationship with the then emergent art historian expert Wilhelm Bode, effectively codified the competitively forming canon in major private and institutional collections; at the same time, they contaminated the scholarly literature. Time: Thursday, November 3 at 5 pm Venue: Bard College Berlin, the Lecture Hall Platanenstrasse 98a, 13156 Berlin (map)

Meta: Type(s): Event | Subject(s): Bard College Berlin | Institutes(s): Bard College Berlin |