Artistic Research keynote at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.

How do we define ourselves as human beings in our artistic practice? What notions of progress or other narratives of the human are we guided by when we play, dance, sing, compose, analyze, improvise, or teach? Do we practice and train to get better, to win the competition or grab the prize? What notions of being human do we encounter in the practice cell, in the studio, on stage, in educational institutions? How do models of expertise, mastery, or excellence make us think about what we are or want to be as human beings with and in our art?

In posthuman and feminist theories spores, mycelia or lichens offer alter-native histories of time, of being human, of progress, of viability and of the future. So, what if one does not follow the other, but already contains the other? Then it is about connection, relational relationship, the merging of human and non-human phenomena, plants and technology, encounter and interconnectivity, practicing, performing and researching as being-in-the-world. Behind this is the message of recognizing the self-worth of negotiating with oneself, others, and the world. What if our desire to get better gives way to a willingness for risk and precarity?

In the winter semester of 2022/23, the Artistic Research Laboratory will explore figures of thought about humans, things and matter, and how music and dance echo these.