Seminar by Iris Dankemeyer about Adorno's plea for devotion, new taboos and the academization of art under the title "The Invisible Eros. On the Disappearance of Desire from Art".
Resources: Theodor W. Adorno "Ästhetische Theorie", Iris Dankemeyer "Die Erotik des Ohrs" and Plato "Symposion"
Iris Dankemeyer at Briefing Room (Photo: Lea Rohde)Theodor W. Adorno: "Ultimately, aesthetic comportment is to be defined as the capacity to shudder, as if goose bumps were the first aesthetic image." (Photo: Andrzej Steinbach)Iris Dankemeyer: "Reified consciousness is for formalists and bureaucrats. Reified consciousness is to be in total control over oneself and any other. Goosebumps and shivers – that’s Adorno. He’s all Alcibiades from Platos Symposion and defends the enthusiasm from the Phaidros. Eros is suddenly something like the patron god of passionate art, a dialectical demon that vacillates between exuberance and despair (Überschwang und Verzweiflung). And exactly this seems as outdated as the talk of Eros in general." (Photo: Lea Rohde)(Photo: Andrzej Steinbach)Iris Dankemeyer: "Today, the important thing is to make only things of which one knows in advance what they are and will be. The moments of openness and indecision, the risky, the enigmatic, the whole demonic-dialectical aspect of Eros seems to disappear from art. Even in the erotic sphere in the narrower sense, there is an increasing discursivization, order, regulation and legalization. By this I mean a need for protection and security that, against the background of gender difference, wants to neatly separate the simultaneity of pleasure and pain that Eros stands for." (Photo: Steffen Zillig)Barbara Sichtermann: "It is very possible for a woman to say 'no' where she means 'yes'; it is equally possible for a man to do it. [...] It is nevertheless ultimately impossible to confuse a no revolving around a lustful expectation with the cry for help of a rape victim; and the fact that patriarchy feels so damn secure in this confusion pronounces a harsh judgment on the quality of the erotic culture it has created." (Photo: Lea Rode)back
