Working Groups

The conceptual work of the CRC is promoted by working groups of different formats, especially by those focusing on the cross-sectional topics 'Individual and Collective', 'Materiality and Mediality', and 'Norm and Diversity'. Each member of the CRC contributes to one of the cross-sectional topics. The cross-sectional working groups seek to determine and theoretically validate the 'coordinates' of a different aesthetics. On this basis, each cross-sectional working group prepares a CRC conference in which the proposed 'coordinates' are put up for discussion.

Cross-sectional Topic 'Individual and Collective'

Chair: Angelika Zirker

The cross-sectional topic ‘Individual and Collective’ is concerned with the relation of the single author/creator and a community as manifest in aesthetic acts and artefacts, both in their production and reception.

cross-sectional topic 'Materiality and Mediality'

Chair: Jan Stellmann and Daniela Wagner

The cross-sectional topic discusses questions of materiality and mediality, taking praxeological approaches into account. It aims at making comprehensible the productivity of materials and media that unfolds in aesthetic acts and artefacts.

cross-sectional topic 'Norm and Diversity'

Chair: Sandra Linden and Sarah Dessì Schmid

This cross-sectional topic deals with the question of how acts, artefacts and practices relate to norms – a central issue for a ‘different aesthetics’. We address this question by pursuing three main strands: 1) respect for the canon, 2) transgression of the canon, 3) formation of the canon.

Smaller working groups supplement the work within the cross-sectional topics. They are more like workshops resulting from questions and issues raised by individual projects or resulting from cooperations between projects. They address basic questions or explore new perspectives on the concepts informing the CRC.

Seminar in Aesthetic Theory

Chair: Marion Darilek and Anna Katharina Heiniger