Petra Löffler - Böcker

Shine allures and awakens desire. As a phenomenon of perception shiny things and materials fascinate and tantalize. They are a formative element of material culture, promising luxury, social distinction and the hope of limitless experience and excess. Since the early twentieth century the mass production, dissemination and popularization of synthetic materials that produce heretofore-unknown effects of shine have increased. At the same time, shine is subjectified as “glamor” and made into a token of performative self-empowerment. The volume illuminates genealogical as well as systematic relationships between material phenomena of shine and cultural-philosophical concepts of appearance, illusion, distraction and glare in bringing together renowned scholars from various disciplines.

Shine allures and awakens desire. As a phenomenon of perception shiny things and materials fascinate and tantalize. They are a formative element of material culture, promising luxury, social distinction and the hope of limitless experience and excess. Since the early twentieth century the mass production, dissemination and popularization of synthetic materials that produce heretofore-unknown effects of shine have increased. At the same time, shine is subjectified as “glamor” and made into a token of performative self-empowerment. The volume illuminates genealogical as well as systematic relationships between material phenomena of shine and cultural-philosophical concepts of appearance, illusion, distraction and glare in bringing together renowned scholars from various disciplines.

A cross-disciplinary perspective of the medial, aesthetic, and material aspects of submerging, as well as its methodological qualities as a resistant practice and figure of thought.Whether it is the ocean, the ground, or soil, a metaphorical or symbolic underworld, or a political figure of thought, the subsurface intervenes in recent debates about ecological, social, and postcolonial conflicts and power inequalities in the humanities and beyond. However, turning to the unstable grounds of the subterranean always involves a conceptual or methodological movement and a practice of submersion, and thus a critical reflection on the conditions, technologies, aesthetics, and politics of knowledge production. It is precisely at this point that this volume picks up with approaches from the fields of artistic practice as well as media studies, art history, queer theory, and decolonial studies. From this transdisciplinary perspective, this anthology explores the medial, aesthetic, and material aspects of sub(e)merging, as well as its potential as a resistant practice and figure of thought: from submerging to emerging.