Dr. Andreas Weber
Living Waters: A Nonbinary Co-operative Inquiry with Water Bodies in Berlin
Seminar, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Tuesdays, 16-20, h: 7.11., 21.11., 5.12., 19.12.2023, 9.1., 23.1.2024, Hardenbergstr. 33, room 101
and intensive day: Saturday, 18.11.2023, 10-17 h, room 101
ATTENTION: 5.12.2023 in room 151

Registration on Moodle starts 16.10.2023 / Anmeldung auf Moodle beginnt am 16.10.2023: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=2024
Moodle Enrollment Key / Einschreibeschlüssel: waters

This course will offer a first-person exploration of the nonbinary view that all agents, including the Earth itself, are integral to the fabric of the living cosmos, all co-creating one entangled rhizome. Understanding – and nourishing – this entanglement therefore means to allow experiences of entanglement to happen and to enfold them into poetic space. We will experiment with this through direct practical engagement with rivers and streams in Berlin. In order to frame our activities, we will read contemporary literature from posthuman, multispecies and animistic perspectives. The main activity however is the participants' own actual engagement with brooks, rivers or urban water channels. The seminar builds on a growing body of protocols and multi-year experiences, which have been emerging through a broadening multispecies research in collaboration with "country", undertaken in close exchange with indigenous research groups, among them the Nulungu Research Institute, Australia. The seminar consists of several bi-weekly sessions plus a few condensed meetings on Saturdays. During the course of the seminar, the participants will dedicate two hours per week in order to "sit" with their waterbody, journal their experiences (in writing, visual or any other art forms) and share them later in the seminar sessions.

Literature:
Poelina, A., Wooltorton, S., Blaise, M., Aniere, C., Horwitz, P., White, P., & Muecke, S. (2022). "Regeneration time: Ancient wisdom for planetary wellbeing". Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 38(3-4), 397-414. doi:10.1017/aee.2021.34
Reason, P. (2023). "Extending co-operative inquiry beyond the human: Ontopoetic inquiry with rivers". Action Research, forthcoming. doi.org/10.1177/14767503231179562
Weber, A. (2020): Sharing Life: An Ecopolitics of Reciprocity. New Delhi: Böll Foundation. https://www.boell.de/en/2021/04/14/sharing-life-ecopolitics-reciprocity
Weber, A.: “Sustaining fecundity. Artistic creation as care for life”. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2023.26.

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credit points: Regular and active participation. During the course of the seminar, the participants will dedicate two hours per week in order to “sit” with their waterbody, journal their experiences (in writing, visual or any other art forms) and share them later in the seminar sessions.

Andreas Weber is a biologist, philosopher and writer. His work focuses on a re-evaluation of our understanding of the living. He proposes to view – and treat – all organisms as subjects and hence the biosphere as a meaning-creating and poetic reality. Andreas teaches at Berlin University of the Arts, is Visiting Professor at the UNISG, Pollenzo, Italy, and holds an Adjunct Professorship at the IIT, Guwahati, India. He contributes to major German newspapers and magazines and has published more than a dozen books, most recently “Enlivenment. A Poetics for the Anthropocene”, MIT Press, 2019 and “Sharing Life. The Ecopolitics of Reciprocity”, Boell Foundation, 2020. More information on biologyofwonder.org.