Games and disasters

25 April 2024 | 20 PM

Skyscrapers crashing, large forests burning, a Tsunami sweeping houses and cars to the bottom of the sea: images of disaster activate fear. At the same time, they play with the desires and fascination of humans—always hoping for a new and (better) future after every destruction. As one catastrophe has just passed, another is lingering just around the corner – this feeling has long become part of our normality. How to cope? Art sometimes offers to approach even grim situations in a “playful” manner. For this purpose, extant imagery and specific patterns of thought or language need not be destroyed, but are dis- and reassembled in new ways. Art and literature may take courageous approaches to such topics, filled with courage, respect and a certain cheekiness, but devoid of hatred, even when they do not invite laughter at all. And indeed, this may be a survival strategy: Where laughter is lost, creative solutions cannot emerge.

This event is not a lecture, but a literary reading with a discussion with Marcus Quent (CAPAS fellow 2023-24, Art History, Art Theory and Aesthetics, Berlin University of the Arts), Barbara Mittler (worldmaking China, Sinology, Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University) and the author Yoko Tawada. Several languages will be used during the course of the reading (Japanese among them), but to enjoy it, participants just have to be able to understand one language (German or English).

The lecture will also be accessible live online via Videocall. To ensure smooth proceedings and accurate documentation, we kindly request all online participants to register by sending an email with your full name and affiliation/organization (if applicable). Please send your registration email to Xiaojie Chang 

xiaojie.chang@zo.uni-heidelberg.de

 no later than 24. April 2024. The link to access the event online will be sent several hours before the event starts.

This event is part of the transdisciplinary collaborative project Decolonizing Public Engagement between CAPAS and the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) at University College London.