International Summer School 2023

1. The Struggle for Attention in the Public Sphere

The Struggle for Attention in the Public Sphere

A Perspective of Critical Phenomenology

International Summer School, July 23 – 29, 2023

Attention does not deserve to be treated merely as one phenomenon among others; it is a key phenomenon which discloses experience in a unique fashion.

– Bernhard Waldenfels, Phenomenology of the Alien (2011)

About the Summer School

In our Summer school we understand the public sphere as a public space (or spaces) where socially, culturally and politically meaningful events and processes take place. But what makes them „meaningful“? And what makes them „public“? In order to produce a meaningful event or an action, do we need attract the attention of the public to this event or action? Why do we consider some events as meaningful and leave others aside as insignificant? How is attention distributed and redistributed in the public sphere and what instances are responsible for that? In what cases do we become hostages of the economics of attention and how does paying attention to some things and not paying it to others form our identity?

We can imagine modern human history as a permanent struggle for attention in the public sphere. The struggle could take place in order for one group to gain more power or more influence, or, on the contrary, in order to restore social or political injustice and to attract attention to an unfairly marginalized group. If attention is a means of making something or someone visible in the public sphere and, thus, existing, isn’t the articulation of attention also a means to undermine hegemonies, to redistribute power in a society in a fairer way?

Detailed information about the conception and application of our project you can find here.

Program

Monday, 24 July

9.30–10.00	Registration
10.00–10.30	Opening address - Klavdia Smola
10.30–11.00	Structure of the School - Tatiana Vaizer
11.00–11.30	Coffee break
11.30–13.00	Attention as response to the Alien (Otherness): Attention in the perspective of responsive phenomenology (key lecture) - Bernhard Waldenfels
13.00–14.00	Lunch
14.00–15.30	Close reading of a text „Phenomenology of the Alien“ (Ch. 5: „Thresholds of Attention“) (seminar) - Bernhard Waldenfels
15.30–16.00	Organisational information - Annelie Bachmaier Organisation of work in groups - Tatiana Vaizer
16.00–19.30	Visiting Museum of military history or Free time
19.30	Dinner

Tuesday, 25 July

9.30–11.00	Critical phenomenology and transformative civic action (key lecture) - Marieke Borren
11.00–11.30	Coffee break
11.30–13.00	Critical phenomenology of protesting bodies (seminar) - Marieke Borren
13.00–14.00	Lunch
14.00–15.30	A Brief genealogy of the concept of attention in phenomenology (lecture) - Antony Fredriksson
15.30–16.00	Coffee break
16.00–17.30	Close reading of a text (Sara Ahmed “The Affective Politics of Fear”) (seminar) - Antony Fredriksson

Wednesday, 26 July

9.30–11.00	Politics of recognition. Challenges of grey zones (Case of Georgia) (lecture) - Nino Palavandishvili
11.00–11.30	Coffee break
11.30–13.00	How plural is the public sphere? Close reading of a text (Klas Grinnellar “Challenging Normality”) (seminar) Screening of the Oleksiy Radynski‘s film «Incident in the Museum» and discussion - Nino Palavandishvili
13.00–14.00	Lunch
14.00–18.00	Re-imagining histories (case of the Ukraine) (presentation with discussion and visiting exhibition in Albertinum) - Tatiana Kochubinska

Thursday, 27 July

9.30–11.00	A quest and a struggle for attention: state-led public events and power legitimation in Kyrgyzstan (1991 - 2017) (case study and discussion) - Arzuu Sheranova
11.00–11.30	Coffee break
11.30–13.00	Performative and participatory art as a way of activating public attenti on (case of the Ukraine) (presentation of the “Open Place” project) - Yulia Kosterieva & Yuriy Kruchak
13.00–14.00	Lunch
14.00–15.30	On shared perception and attention: presentation of and discussion on the film «They Roam Together» illustrating key concepts of Merleau-Ponty - Antony Fredriksson:
15.30–16.00	Coffee break
16.00–17.30	„Under the radar“: Documentary f filmmaking in the post-soviet context (screening Veronika’s film: «I didn‘t cross the border, the border crossed me» and discussion) - Veronika Janatkova

Friday, 28 July

9.30–11.00	Workshop in groups Struggle/claim for attention in the East European and Central Asian public spheres
11.00–11.30	Coffee break
11.30–13.00	Presentations of participants Struggle/claim for attention in the East European and Central Asian public spheres
13.00–14.00	Lunch
14.00–15.00	Summary of the school, feedback
15.00–19.00	City tour of Dresden with Robert Sommer Free time