Toxische Medien – Pilze, Gifte und gestörte Ordnungen
Interdisciplinary conference
Braunschweig University of Art
Conception: Ilka Becker, Heike Klippel, Karin Leonhard, Bettina Wahrig
Guests: Clemens Krümmel, Susanne Lettow
14/06/2013
Until the end of the European early modern period, the order of nature was guaranteed by its neat division into the three kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals. However, there were always a few deviations: Monsters disregarded the boundaries of species, some plants did not adhere to the prescribed rhythm of growth, flowering and fruiting, and fungi in particular drifted between the categories – their spread via underground connections was unpredictable. Four projects on the (media) history of dangerous creatures and substances will be presented, two of which are devoted to the history of poisoning in science and film, one to the notion of spontaneous geneses in early modern art and nature theory, and one to the figures of the rhizomatic in art and visual culture since the modern era.
Interdisciplinary conference in cooperation with the TU Braunschweig and the Braunschweig Centre for Gender Studies.