The German Department 2025 Cassirer Seminar presents
Prof. Dr. Anja Lemke, Universität zu Köln: “Labor, Agency, Aesthetics (Arendt, Human Condition, and Virno, Grammar of the Multitude)”
The contemporary forms of labor in the so-called postfordistic information society and service economy bear a striking resemblance to the conceptualisations of artistic processes and practices within the domain of aesthetics since the late 18th century. The seminar will examine the changing positions of art in the field of production and action, discussing Hannah Arendt’s famous analysis on labor in The Human Condition (1958) together with Paolo Virno’s attempt to reconfigure art, work and politics in the age of postfordism. Particular emphasis will be placed on Virno’s exploration of the dimension of potentially and workforce, under the assumption that these categories are pivotal for a more profound comprehension of contemporary forms of labor and the concomitant forms of subjectivation.
Register here: https://forms.gle/KwZEzawZbHe4LDgV9.