CAPAS RESEARCH PROJECT - Philipp Schrögel APOCALYPSE WHERE? Graphic narratives of overlooked end-time perspectives

Comic Seminar at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle together with Markus Färber

The world is coming to an end - for many, epic scenes from Hollywood blockbusters might be the first thing that comes to mind: spectacular explosions, meteorites hurtling towards the earth or zombie hordes in the streets of American cities. Currently, the increasingly visible effects of the climate crisis, the renewed awareness of the threat of a global nuclear war or the fear of new pandemics - to name just a few examples - make the fictional expectation of an apocalypse present as a very real expectation and experience.

At the same time, the absolute, spectacular, global perspective shaped not least by the fictional depictions makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that many people are already living in the midst of an apocalypse or post-apocalypse. While the climate crises are only gradually becoming more directly tangible for us, people in the Global South in particular have long been threatened with the destruction of their existence. While many discuss futures from a position of relative prosperity, indigenous communities have long since been robbed of this future. Even beyond the namesake Christian apocalypticism, there are ideas of doom and revelation in many religions and cultures, often with completely different ideas of time. In addition to the open question of the invilved scale and the relevant geographical dimension of the end of the world, it can also be anchored in individuals. And: is the end of the world exclusively about humans?

A joint seminar at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle with Markus Färber and Prof. Georg Barber explores these questions in a creative-artistic approach. It aims to reveal and reflect on the overlooked apocalypses: which and whose perspectives are barely present? Which aspects of the end of the world are hardly in focus? How can apocalypse be thought of differently?

Over the course of the semester, the researchers and students will also look at the medium of non-fiction and science comics in terms of their potential for communicating complex content and develop comic narratives based on discussions with experts and our own research. How does the medium of comics enable us to shed light on complex topics both objectively and subjectively? What is the relationship between facts and emotion? How can the interplay of image and text add value to the experience?

As a result of the seminar, the students will create a set of graphic stories which will also be printed as an edited comic collection.