Journal
Dynamics of Form
Focus topic 2023
Cultural and artistic forms as well as forms shaping societies forms are not firm and fixed, but always in motion. They emerge under particular conditions and they stabilize, establish and change across different times and cultural spaces. The question of the dynamics of forms allows us to pay closer attention to the forces at work in their migration and transmission. What is the relationship between their intrinsic potentials and the external influence of actors in changing historical, social, or political contexts? And how do art and culture reflect changes in their forms? Problems of form in the very literal sense are to be investigated, that is, geneses and adaptations, which possibly allow for insights into their dynamic preconditions precisely where the forms remain incomplete, or dissolve. What special role, then, do ephemeral, elusive, or distorted forms play? What cultural power do forms unfold in images and ideas? With these questions, the thematic focus invites to question theoretical traditions of form reflection and to discuss concrete artistic and cultural (non-)forms.
Research into the emergence and reproduction of forms as well as their flexibility and elasticity has a long tradition at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg. With his philosophy of symbolic forms, Ernst Cassirer laid the foundation for a philosophy of human culture; Aby Warburg investigated the medial conditions of the distortion and transformation of pictorial formulas in the process of migratory movements. These traditions have been and are being continued in the projects ›Bilderfahrzeuge‹ (BMBF) on the materiality of pictorial traditions, in the project of digitizing the ›Image Index of Political Iconography‹ (DFG) as well as in the Centre for Advanced Studies ›Imaginaria of Force‹ (DFG), in which dynamic conceptions of the arts are discussed.
The program of scientific lectures and conferences takes place in close cooperation with the NOMIS research group ›Traveling Forms‹ (University of Konstanz) and the DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies ›Imaginaria of Force‹.
Dynamiken der Form
Just published: Political Emotions in the Arts
Mnemosyne. Warburg International Seminar Papers, Volume 7
Politische Emotionen in den Künsten edited by Philipp Ekardt, Frank Fehrenbach and Cornelia Zumbusch January 2021, ISBN 978-3-11-071130-1 (hardcover), ISBN 978-3-11-072538-4 (eBook), € [D] 69,95 Languages: German & English Fear, worry, indignation, hate, contempt as well as trust, hope,…
Neuerscheinungen / Politische Emotionen / Warburg-Kolleg
Just published: Memorial Landscapes. World Images East and West
Mnemosyne. Warburg International Seminar Papers, Volume 6
edited by Uwe Fleckner, Yih-Fen Hua and Shai-Shu Tzeng December 2020, ISBN 978-3-11-065646-6, € [D] 69,95. English As an everyday fact and an object of artistic design, landscape is a central category of human experience. Political, social, cartographic, and economic, but also philosophical and…
Neuerscheinungen / Warburg-Kolleg
Call for Papers: Warburg International Seminar 2018 »Political Emotions in the Arts«
Deadline 31 March 2018
Philipp Ekardt, Frank Fehrenbach, Cornelia Zumbusch The role of emotions in politics is currently subject to intensive debates. Sociology, political science and political philosophy have identified such feelings as trust, hope, fear, outrage or contempt as motors of protest movements, as part of…
Call for Papers / Warburg-Kolleg
Neuerscheinung: Magische Bilder
Mnemosyne. Schriften des internationalen Warburg-Kollegs, Band 5
“And if you were to ask me / After all that we’ve been through / Still believe in magic? / Yes, I do.” Diese Zeilen aus “Magic” von Coldplay stellen Uwe Fleckner und Iris Wenderholm ihrem einleitenden Aufsatz “Magie und Metapher. Wirkmächtige Bilder in…
Neuerscheinungen / Warburg-Kolleg
Landschaft wahrnehmen
Mit dem Warburg-Kolleg "Memorial Landscapes" in Taipeh II
Zwei Meter, vielleicht drei. Weiter wagen wir uns nicht vor die Türe des Hotels, bis uns der peitschende Wind mit zerzausten Haaren wieder zurückgehen lässt. In Taipeh fegt der Taifun. Während des Wirbelsturms lassen die staatlichen Vorgaben das öffentliche Leben brachliegen, Schulen und…
Warburg-Kolleg
Landschaft beschreiben
Mit dem Warburg-Kolleg "Memorial Landscapes" in Taipeh I
Unerwartet ist die Lautstärke, das unablässliche Rauschen, mit dem sich der tiefgraue Liwu-Fluss durch die hochaufragenden Felsen schiebt und dort in Jahrmillionen seinen Weg durch die erodierten Marmorschichten hindurch gefunden hat. Dort in der Taroko-Schlucht, unweit von Taipeh gelegen, nimmt…
Warburg-Kolleg
Memorial landscapes. World images East and West
International Warburg Seminar starts next week in Taipei
Hamburg University / Aby Warburg Foundation, Hamburg, in cooperation with National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University, Taipei The 2016-2017 International Warburg Seminar, to be held in Taipei on 26-30 September 2016 and in Hamburg on 3-7 April 2017 and aimed at doctoral…
Warburg-Kolleg