Ebenerdiger Zugang. Bushaltestelle vor dem Veranstaltungsort. Barrierefreie Toilette vorhanden.

Dieser Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.

The permeating powers of dirt

We should now force ourselves to focus on dirt. […] In trying to focus on it we run against our strongest mental habit.

 

Mary Douglas

Why focus on dirt? Because it is the face of permeation, just as purity is the face of bordering. The ‘matter out of place’ is the proverbial definition of dirt popularized by Mary Douglas half-a-century ago. In general, dirt is THE attribute of the particular and mixed, of transformation and the unpredictable, just as purity and order are the forces of abstraction, segregation, preservation and safe rationality. The permanent struggle between these two poles is what makes our selves. Most of the time we avoid dirt and erase it from perception, but when it manages to capture attention, it hypnotizes. Dirt is the ambiguity that excites and disturbs us to the bones, it is what shapes and shakes the order of things. In this lecture we will dissect the discomfort and excitement of dirt through images and examples, and glimpse into two influential theories (structuralist anthropological by Douglas and psychoanalytic by Kristeva) to outline the permeating powers of dirt (or the dirty powers of permeation, if you prefer).

Most of the time we avoid dirt and erase it from perception, but when it manages to capture attention, it hypnotizes. Dirt is the ambiguity that excites and disturbs us to the bones, it is what shapes and shakes the order of things. In this lecture we will dissect the discomfort and excitement of dirt through images and examples, and glimpse into two influential theories (structuralist anthropological by Douglas and psychoanalytic by Kristeva) to outline the permeating powers of dirt (or the dirty powers of permeation, if you prefer).

16 OKT 16.00 | Prototyp, Georg-Philipp-Gail Str. 5

Für die Teilnahme in Präsenz ist eine Registrierung über die Webseite nötig. 

 

Ein Livestream der Veranstaltung kann auf dem DISKURS35 Twitch-Account verfolgt werden.

About the artist

Egor Novikov

Egor Novikov is a Siberian born artist and anthropologist. Currently he is finishing his doctoral dissertation in social and medical anthropology and working as a researcher and assistant lecturer at HCTS, Heidelberg University. In the last years, Egor has been researching ethnographically the role of disorder and transgressive experiences among humanitarian workers in the slums of Kolkata. Based on this research, he published a chapter in a Routledge compilation on anthropology of transformations ‘Walling, Boundaries and Liminality’ (2018) and presented two artistic exhibitions in Budapest: Mission of Charity at CEU (2016) and Dirty.Body.Sacred at OSA Gallery (2018)