Netta Weiser
Talking to My Girlfriends About the Economy
Block seminar on site with online elements, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Thursdays, 18-21 h: 17.11., 24.11., 1.12., 8.12., 15.12., Vierte Welt, Adalbertstr. 96, Berlin-Kreuzberg,
12.1.2023, 18-21 h online (plus ca. 6 additional hours of a-synchronous individual and group work online)

Online info session at Tuesday, 25.10., 10:30 h: https://udk-berlin.webex.com/udk-berlin/j.php?MTID=mb71c4b43d64c95ca4b0c968fcc840fd8
Meeting-Kennnummer: 2734 281 1305, Passwort: jgMEsrfn345

Registration starts 17.10.2022 via Moodle: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=1687
Moodle Einschreibeschlüssel / Moodle Enrollment Key: economy

In his bestseller "Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism" Yannis Varoufakis (former Greek Minister of Finance) explains to his daughter, and to the readers, everything one needs to know about the global economy - what it is, how it came to be, and why it can never be apolitical. While reading the book I was struck by the following: on the one hand, it is definitely a successful attempt in provoking critical thinking and explaining complex concepts in simple terms e.g. debt economy, the banking system, and histories of inequality. On the other hand, I could not avoid reading it as a masterpiece of Mansplanation calling for a response. 

“Talking to My Girlfriends About the Economy '' is a hybrid seminar in collaboration with the Vierte Welt – a free platform for performance, politics and discourse in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Students will participate in five sessions as part of a performative reading group taking place at Vierte Welt. Led by four female actors from the Berliner free performing arts scene, coming from different backgrounds and phases in their career (Nora Amin, Ulrike Flämig, Sheena McGrandles and Dominique Tegho), these sessions take Varoufakis’s book as a starting point, and appropriate the text as a means to talk about our own economies and the market societies we are involved in.
In addition, the seminar includes introduction to feminist discourses, individual reading and active participation on a blog that accompanies the seminar.

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credits: active and regular participation.

Netta Weiser works at the intersection of choreography, experimental radio and discursive practice. Her works have been presented internationally in performing arts venues such as Tanzquartier Wien, Sophiensaele Berlin, and Villa Medici Rome, as well as in radio contexts such as WDR3, reboot.fm and The Israeli Centre for Digital Art. In 2020 she received the Tanzrecherche NRW stipendium for international artists for her project Radio-Choreography and in 2021 was an artist in residence at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music at the Akademie der Künste Berlin. Moreover, she teaches regularly at the Klangzeitort Institute for New Music, HZT and at the Universität der Künste Berlin.