Marietta Kesting – författare

A new approach to the notion of ecology emphasizing its relevance for art and design.  The notion of ecology not only figures centrally in current debates around climate change, but also traverses contemporary discourses in the arts, the humanities, and the social and techno sciences. In this present form, ecology refers to the multilayered and multidimensional nexus of living processes and technological and media practices—that is, to the complex relations of human and nonhuman agents. Hybrid Ecologies understands ecology as an ambivalent notion, whose very broadness simultaneously opens up new fields of action and raises provocative questions, not least concerning its genealogy. This interdisciplinary volume explores the political and social effects of rethinking community in ecological terms, with a particular emphasis on what the contemporary notion of ecology might mean for artistic and design practices. The result of the fifth annual program of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies, which was conceived in cooperation with the Chair of Philosophy | Aesthetic Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Hybrid Ecologies is a timely and thought-provoking study of one of the most important themes of our time.

Dark Rooms. Räume der Un/Sichtbarkeit versucht über verschiedene Zugänge das viel beschworene Primat der Sichtbarkeit und Transparenz zu hinterfragen. In der Vergangenheit ist bereits deutlich geworden, dass es keinen einfachen Zusammenhang zwischen visueller Repräsentation und politischer Macht gibt. Sichtbarkeit ist eine ambivalente Kategorie, die sich keineswegs geradlinig in gesellschaftliche Einflussnahme übersetzen lässt. Betitelt nach dem Darkroom, jenem Raum, der als Gegenbild zum White Cube des Kunstmuseums und der Galerie die alte analoge Dunkelkammer der Fotografie, aber auch die Cruising Zone in Gay Clubs bezeichnet, diskutiert der vorliegende Band vordergründig politisch-ästhetische Praktiken, deren Akteure dieses Konzept hinterfragen oder negieren.Die Bandbreite des Umgangs mit Un/Sichtbarkeit kann von der kompletten Verweigerung von Sichtbarkeit in Form einer bewussten Bildvermeidung bis hin zur Subversion einer auf Sichtbarkeit setzenden Herrschaftsform reichen – etwa mit Strategien der Camouflage.Die Beiträge fragen explizit nach den Funktionen dieser Doppelbewegung und ihren Entstehungsbedingungen sowie den Möglichkeiten zur Unterwanderung normativer Kategorien von Sichtbar-Machung und Zu-Sehen-Gegebenem.

Explores intervisual case studies in relation to migration, xenophobia, and gender.Affective Images examines both canonical and lesser-known photographs and films that address the struggle against apartheid and the new struggles that came into being in post-apartheid times. Marietta Kesting argues for a way of embodied seeing and complements this with feminist and queer film studies, history of photography, media theory, and cultural studies. Featuring in-depth discussions of photographs, films, and other visual documents, Kesting then situates them in broader historical contexts, such as cultural history and the history of black subjectivity and revolves the images around the intersection of race and gender. In its interdisciplinary approach, this book explores the recurrence of affective images of the past in a different way, including flashbacks, trauma, "white noise," and the return of the repressed. It draws its materials from photographers, filmmakers, and artists such as Ernest Cole, Simphiwe Nkwali, Terry Kurgan, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Adze Ugah, and the Center for Historical Reenactments.This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to Knowledge Unlatched-an initiative that provides libraries and institutions with a centralized platform to support OA collections and from leading publishing houses and OA initiatives. Learn more at the Knowledge Unlatched website at https://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/.