Probes -- from Poetic Quantification to Experimental Inquiry (Individual Projekt)
Gestalterische Übung
Kurs Nr.: DM.B-MG-31+32
Semester: WS 2021/22
Es ist ein sehr ursprünglicher wie banaler Wunsch Dinge verstehen zu wollen!
Doch wie genau geht man vor wenn man etwas verstehen will? Produziert man einen Fragebogen, fragt man seine Frage direkt in ein Gesicht oder lässt man einen Sensor Werte produzieren? Was auch immer man tut, solch befragende Konstellationen sind immer ( gewollt oder oft auch ungewollt ) immer gestaltet bzw Gestaltungen. Mit eben dieser Prämisse beginnt das Projekt *Probes* ( engl. Sonde, Untersuchung, Sample ). Wir wollen interessante Fragen ( oder Ahnungen von solchen ) finden, entwickeln und diese, in Form von zB Messgeräten, Gadgets, Räumen, Situationen, Erlebnissen, gestalten und zur Anwendung bringen. So sollen durch unsere Gestaltungen zB Antworten, Erkenntnisse, Handlungsaufforderungen oder zumindestens neue, noch interessantere Fragen produziert werden.
weitere Informationen finden sich unter https://blogs.digitalmedia-bremen.de/probes/
Meditation and Mindfulness: Theory and Practice (Philosophy) (Media Theory)
Seminar
Kurs Nr.: DM.M-MT
Semester: WS 2021/22
In the last 30 or 40 years, meditative or mindfulness practices, whose most recognized origin is usually traced to eastern traditions, have generated much interest in different areas of Western thought and life, including neurosciences and cognitive sciences, mental health, education and even business. Laypeople, too, have shown a keen interest in learning these types of practices and in incorporating them into their lives for different reasons, from spiritual and personal development to improved performance in work, production, arts, and sports.
In this seminar we will seek to understand, first of all, what the concept of mindfulness refers to, and how we can understand the idea of a meditative practice in general. We will do so through a phenomenological approach that allows us to describe, with reference to our own internal experience, the different attentional and attitudinal configurations relevant to the understanding of the phenomenon of mindfulness. To this end, we will be assisted by the reading of some influential texts about meditation and mindfulness by authors from the Buddhist tradition (Thich Nhat Hanh, Kosho Uchiyama, Pema Chödrön, Jack Kornfield), also incorporating some general background from Western scientific research (Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dan Siegel, Andrew Olendzki, James Carmody). At the same time, the seminar will allocate an important part of each session to the guided practice of different forms of meditation, so that students can become familiar with them, thereby having an experiential basis for the discussion of the texts to be addressed. This seminar is aimed at students who, without having knowledge or experience in the practice of meditation, wish to get started. But it is also aimed at those who already have some theoretical and experiential background and yet want to deepen their practice and knowledge through a conversation and joint practice around the concrete meaning of meditation as a spiritual practice. The syllabus with a detailed list of the texts will be provided in the first session.