Atmospheric ImaginAiries: Literature and the Elements III (Air)
De-in-visibilizing air requires us to re-materialize it, re-socialize it, re-politicize it, re-imagine it.
Nerea Calvillo, Aeropolis (2023)
Breathe in. Breathe out. With every breath we inhale the world and produce atmospheres. Air envelops and suffuses us; it transmits our voice, weighs on our mood, animates our dreams, articulates our weather, and circulates our traces across the planet. While airs are always shared, they are also uneven. For some, atmospheres are toxic and oppressive, while for others they are buoyant and invigorating. The same wind that carries pollen and song birds also carries dust and chemical pollutants. How do we encounter these atmospheres? The Latin word for breath—spiritus—informs the meanings of inspiration, respiration, spirit, and conspiracy. In many literary traditions, storms are harbingers of doom, but also an animating force. As an atmospheric medium, air ceaselessly flows between between nature and culture, body and world, matter and imagination. And yet, it remains largely invisible.
In this course, we will learn to recognize air as a ubiquitous medium of cultural imaginaries—a matter of politics, material entanglements, narrative, and metaphor. As the third installment in the “Literature and the Elements” seminar series, which already featured a focus on Water (2023) and Earth (2024), this seminar will revolve around literary and cultural engagements with Air and Atmospheres. In dialogue with theoretical frameworks such as elemental ecocriticism, environmental media theory, the atmospheric humanities, and feminist materialisms, we will encounter various examples of atmospheric relations in poetry, fiction, art, and science to, ultimately, create our own Atmospheric ImaginAiries.This course requires an openness to become creative and experiment with practice-based methods and reading practices.
A key feature of this course is a conversation with the ongoing special exhibition “The Air We Share” at the German Hygiene Museum Dresden. Our semester will begin with a collective exhibition visit (in our first session) and feature several special events around the exhibition, including an artist workshop, a film screening, and public roundtables on geoengineering and atmospheric justice with interdisciplinary guests. Participation at these special events—outside the regular course slot (see dates below)—is mandatory.
The regular course slot is Tuesday, 14:50-16:20, with select, mandatory special events (see dates below). The number of course participants is limited. Please only enroll, if you can make it to all special events:
Introduction, April 8, 14:50-16:20 (regular course slot)
Collective Exhibition Visit @ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, May 14, 19:00-21:00
Film-Screening: Silent Running (1972)
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, May 28, 19:00-21:00
Climate Justice and Afrofuturism: Film-Screening and Public Roundtable
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, June 18, 19:00-21:00
Fixing the Atmosphere? Geoengineering in/as Science Fiction: Public Roundtable
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Thursday, May 15, 15:00-18:00
Carbon Commoning, Artistic Workshop with Karolina Sobecka, Venue tba.
The course will conclude on July 1.
There will be no sessions on May 6, May 20, July 8, and July 15.
De-in-visibilizing air requires us to re-materialize it, re-socialize it, re-politicize it, re-imagine it.
Nerea Calvillo, Aeropolis (2023)
Breathe in. Breathe out. With every breath we inhale the world and produce atmospheres. Air envelops and suffuses us; it transmits our voice, weighs on our mood, animates our dreams, articulates our weather, and circulates our traces across the planet. While airs are always shared, they are also uneven. For some, atmospheres are toxic and oppressive, while for others they are buoyant and invigorating. The same wind that carries pollen and song birds also carries dust and chemical pollutants. How do we encounter these atmospheres? The Latin word for breath—spiritus—informs the meanings of inspiration, respiration, spirit, and conspiracy. In many literary traditions, storms are harbingers of doom, but also an animating force. As an atmospheric medium, air ceaselessly flows between between nature and culture, body and world, matter and imagination. And yet, it remains largely invisible.
In this course, we will learn to recognize air as a ubiquitous medium of cultural imaginaries—a matter of politics, material entanglements, narrative, and metaphor. As the third installment in the “Literature and the Elements” seminar series, which already featured a focus on Water (2023) and Earth (2024), this seminar will revolve around literary and cultural engagements with Air and Atmospheres. In dialogue with theoretical frameworks such as elemental ecocriticism, environmental media theory, the atmospheric humanities, and feminist materialisms, we will encounter various examples of atmospheric relations in poetry, fiction, art, and science to, ultimately, create our own Atmospheric ImaginAiries.This course requires an openness to become creative and experiment with practice-based methods and reading practices.
A key feature of this course is a conversation with the ongoing special exhibition “The Air We Share” at the German Hygiene Museum Dresden. Our semester will begin with a collective exhibition visit (in our first session) and feature several special events around the exhibition, including an artist workshop, a film screening, and public roundtables on geoengineering and atmospheric justice with interdisciplinary guests. Participation at these special events—outside the regular course slot (see dates below)—is mandatory.
The regular course slot is Tuesday, 14:50-16:20, with select, mandatory special events (see dates below). The number of course participants is limited. Please only enroll, if you can make it to all special events:
Introduction, April 8, 14:50-16:20 (regular course slot)
Collective Exhibition Visit @ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, May 14, 19:00-21:00
Film-Screening: Silent Running (1972)
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, May 28, 19:00-21:00
Climate Justice and Afrofuturism: Film-Screening and Public Roundtable
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Wednesday, June 18, 19:00-21:00
Fixing the Atmosphere? Geoengineering in/as Science Fiction: Public Roundtable
@ DHMD, Lingnerplatz 1
Thursday, May 15, 15:00-18:00
Carbon Commoning, Artistic Workshop with Karolina Sobecka
Venue tba.
The course will conclude on July 1.
There will be no sessions on May 6, May 20, July 8, and July 15.