Dieter Mersch

Zurich University of the Arts, Departement of Cultural Analyses, Faculty Member

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Prof. for Aesthetics at the University of the Arts, Zurich, Switzerland. Area of interest: Art Philosophy, Media Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Mathematics. Philosophy of Images, Philosophy of Contemporary Music.

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Paul Manning

Trent University

David Gunkel

Northern Illinois University

Tales Tomaz

University of Salzburg

Maurício Liesen

UFPB - Universidade Federal da Paraíba

University of Vienna

FU Berlin

Università di Bologna

Kathy Cleland

Stephen Fernandez

University of Waterloo

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Papers by Dieter Mersch

Dealing with the technologocal other

All of the above helps to account for the extraordinary metaphysical depth of the mask, its quasi... more All of the above helps to account for the extraordinary metaphysical depth of the mask, its quasi-philosophical "secret." And yet it has not yet been fully defined. Hidden, it remains the unknown per se, holding an infinite diversity of cultural possibilities. Just as humans, according to Nietzsche, are "the still undetermined animals," so do masks, as their desires, self-portrayals, transformations and divine foundation, remain indeterminable (Nietzsche 2002: 56). No definition can capture it; the mask always proves to be more than it shows or purports to represent, more than it can symbolize, because of its many functions and practices, even more than it promises to resolve through ritual performances. For this reason, it is more than just a medium, which it of course also is, because it breaks through the mediation, transverses its metamorphoses and realizes its potential in a never-ending round of transformations. As Claude Lévi-Strauss clarified in his study of masks: It would be misleading to imagine ...that a mask and more generally a sculpture or a painting may be interpreted each for itself according to what it represents or to the aesthetic or ritual use for which it is destined. ... On the contrary, A mask does not exist in isolation; it supposes other real or potential masks always by its side.

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A Critique of Operativity

Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2017

The concepts of “operation” and “operational sequences” are central for Actor-Network Theory. The... more The concepts of “operation” and “operational sequences” are central for Actor-Network Theory. They have also become key-terms for cultural and media studies and in specific the so-called German Media Theory. However—this is the thesis of the article—whoever starts with the assumption of operativity or privileges operational sequences in the context of cultural practices is already treading on the ground of the technical and thus has accepted what they set out to prove: the interpretation of culture solely on the basis of technical approaches and the prerequisite of an a priori of technique. Instead the article insists on the difference between operation and practice which serve as a criterion for a cultural analysis beyond any universalization of technology.

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Autor_innenverzeichnis

Kulturen der Gesellschaft, 2021

(Un)creative Artificial Intelligence: A Critique of 'Artificial Art

I The arguments that follow are situated within a larger project entitled &quot;Critique of A... more I The arguments that follow are situated within a larger project entitled &quot;Critique of Algorithmic Rationality.&quot; That project, drawing deliberately from Immanuel Kant, is an attempt to move beyond the technological, social or cultural critiques of digital rationalities usually found in social, media and cultural theories and take a critical look at the validity of algorithmic approaches. It explores the limitations of the performance and purview of algorithmic schematics in the realm of art and creativity.

Obfuscated Transparency

Transparency, Society and Subjectivity, 2018

Manifest der Künstlerischen Forschung: eine Verteidigung gegen ihre Verfechter

Seit ihren Anfängen in den 1990er Jahren hat sich »künstlerische Forschung« als ein neues bildung... more Seit ihren Anfängen in den 1990er Jahren hat sich »künstlerische Forschung« als ein neues bildungs- und institutionenpolitisches wie auch ästhetisch-kunsttheoretisches Format etabliert. Inzwischen ist sie auf fast alle künstlerischen Felder diffundiert: von der Installationskunst über experimentelle Formate bis zur zeitgenössischen Musik, der Literatur oder Tanz- und Performancekunst. Doch steht sie seit ihrem Beginn – etikettiert unter Labels wie »Kunst und Wissenschaft« oder »Scienceart« und »Artscience«, die beide in einem Atemzug miteinander verbindet – im Wettstreit mit der akademischen Forschung, ohne dass ihr eigener Forschungsbegriff angemessen geklärt wäre. Das Manifest unternimmt den Versuch, Klärung zu schaffen und den Begriff, die Potenziale und Radikalität einer forschenden Kunst gegen diejenigen zu verteidigen, die allzu vorsichtig mit universitären Formaten liebäugeln und sie an wissenschaftliche Prinzipien anschließen wollen. Vielmehr geht es darum, die Eigenständigkeit und besondere Intellektualität ästhetischen Forschens herauszustreichen, ohne Legitimitätszwängen zu genügen und fremde Maßstäbe anzulegen

Negative Ästhetik. Drei Studien zu Adorno Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Musikphilosophie und mit einem Anhang zu 'Philosophien Neuer Musik

The Three Studies on Adorno focus mainly on the musicological wrtings. The attempt is to reconstr... more

Benses existenzieller Rationalismus. Philosophie, Semiotik und exakte Ästhetik

Max Bense. Weltprogrammierung, 2018

Einem Ratschlag Theodor W. Adornos an seine Studenten folgend, dass sich die Ideen eines Denkers ... more Einem Ratschlag Theodor W. Adornos an seine Studenten folgend, dass sich die Ideen eines Denkers am besten durch die Lekture seiner entlegeneren Schriften erschliesen, sei mit einer Passage aus einem fruhen Text Max Benses mit dem Titel Die Rezeption des Geistigen begonnen, die 1949 in der Essaysammlung Technische Existenz erschien. Dort heist es: »Der Fortschritt der Welt besteht darin, dass sie synthetischer wird. Also mussen auch wir synthetischer werden.« Erschreckt uber die offenkundig affirmative Diktion, die in einer artifiziellen Wirklichkeit eine ebenso artifizielle Existenz fordert, um deren Fortschritt zu entsprechen, lesen wir weiter: »Es gibt nur einen einzigen Fortschritt, den jedermann [...] nachprufen kann [...], das ist die Vervollkommnung der Wissenschaft. Und diese Vervollkommnung besteht darin, dass die Summe der Einsichten groser, dass die Gewissheit dieser Einsichten unantastbarer und dass die Tieferlegung der Fundamente grundlicher wird.«

Operation/Operativität

Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion, 2019

Transmediale Strategien im Ästhetischen. Das Literarische und sein Anderes

Literatur inter- und transmedial / Inter- and Transmedial Literature, 2012

Performance Art and Improvisation

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, 2021

Semiotics and ‘Being’ – On Umberto Eco’s Negative Realism

Platztausch:: Kunst – Wissenschaft – Philosophie

Manifesto of Artistic Research

Since its beginnings in the 1990s, “artistic research” has become established as a new format in ... more Since its beginnings in the 1990s, “artistic research” has become established as a new format in the areas of educational and institutional policy, aesthetics, and art theory. It has now diffused into almost all artistic fields, from installation to experimental formats to contemporary music, literature, dance or performance art. But from its beginnings—under labels like “art and science” or “scienceart” or “artscience” that mention both disciplines in one breath—it has been in competition with academic research, without its own concept of research having been adequately clarified. This manifesto attempts to resolve the problem and to defend the term and the radical potentials of a researching art against those who toy all too carefully with university formats, wishing to ally them with scientific principles. Its aim is to emphasize the autonomy and particular intellectuality of artistic research, without seeking to justify its legitimacy or adopt alien standards.

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Übersetzen im Ästhetischen: Mimesis, Kopie, Pfropfung

Welten im Kopf : Profile der Gegenwartsphilosophie : Deutschland

Das mediale Als. Für einen epistemologischen Medienbegriff

Nach einem bekannten Wort von Friedrich Nietzsche arbeitet das Medium mit an der Verfertigung der... more Nach einem bekannten Wort von Friedrich Nietzsche arbeitet das Medium mit an der Verfertigung der Gedanken. Welcher Art ist diese Mitarbeit - und was bedeutet 'mit'? Wenn das Medium Einfluss auf die Mediation, die 'Vermittlung' als Grundprinzip des Denkens hat, dann beeinflusst sie nicht nur, wie Walter Benjamin vermutet hat, unsere Wahrnehmung, sondern auch unser Wissen, die Weise der Erfahrung von Wahrheit. In diesem Sinne setzt sich der Vortrag mit den epistemologischen Konsequenzen der 'medialen Dimension' auseinander und versucht, einen epistemischen Medienbegriff zu erläutern.

Dés-oeuvrément

Gegenwart und Zukunft des Musiktheaters, 2018

1.19 Kritische Philosophie des Designs

Philosophie des Designs, 2019

Nichtverstehen Zu einem zentralen „posthermeneutischen“ Motiv

Erzeugen und Nachvollziehen von Sinn, 2009

Dealing with the technologocal other

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A Critique of Operativity

Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2017

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Autor_innenverzeichnis

Kulturen der Gesellschaft, 2021

(Un)creative Artificial Intelligence: A Critique of 'Artificial Art

Obfuscated Transparency

Transparency, Society and Subjectivity, 2018

Manifest der Künstlerischen Forschung: eine Verteidigung gegen ihre Verfechter

Negative Ästhetik. Drei Studien zu Adorno Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Musikphilosophie und mit einem Anhang zu 'Philosophien Neuer Musik

The Three Studies on Adorno focus mainly on the musicological wrtings. The attempt is to reconstr... more

Benses existenzieller Rationalismus. Philosophie, Semiotik und exakte Ästhetik

Max Bense. Weltprogrammierung, 2018

Operation/Operativität

Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion, 2019

Transmediale Strategien im Ästhetischen. Das Literarische und sein Anderes

Literatur inter- und transmedial / Inter- and Transmedial Literature, 2012

Performance Art and Improvisation

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts, 2021

Semiotics and ‘Being’ – On Umberto Eco’s Negative Realism

Platztausch:: Kunst – Wissenschaft – Philosophie

Manifesto of Artistic Research

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Übersetzen im Ästhetischen: Mimesis, Kopie, Pfropfung

Welten im Kopf : Profile der Gegenwartsphilosophie : Deutschland

Das mediale Als. Für einen epistemologischen Medienbegriff

Dés-oeuvrément

Gegenwart und Zukunft des Musiktheaters, 2018

1.19 Kritische Philosophie des Designs

Philosophie des Designs, 2019

Nichtverstehen Zu einem zentralen „posthermeneutischen“ Motiv

Erzeugen und Nachvollziehen von Sinn, 2009

The Technological Other

Actor and Avatar, 2022

The collection contains parts of my contribution to the catalogue "Actor and Avatar" which is for... more

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The Technological Other

Actor and Avatar, 2002

The paper contains may contribution to the catalogue 'Actor and Avatar'. The essays deal with art... more The paper contains may contribution to the catalogue 'Actor and Avatar'. The essays deal with artificial figuration such as robots, dolls and avatars. The main ideal is the incomparibility between human-human-relationships and human-machine oder machine-machine relations. Relationships - in German: Beziehung, which unterlines the priority of the other, who pulls us into a relation - has to be distinguished from formal relations.

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alle_mersch.pdf

Extract from 'Actor and Avatar', 2022

On the 'technological Other', part of the forthcoming book: Actor and Avatar. A Catalogue. The ma... more

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(Un)creative Artificial Intelligence: A Critique of 'Artificial Art'

I The arguments that follow are situated within a larger project entitled "Critique of Algorithmi... more I The arguments that follow are situated within a larger project entitled "Critique of Algorithmic Rationality." That project, drawing deliberately from Immanuel Kant, is an attempt to move beyond the technological, social or cultural critiques of digital rationalities usually found in social, media and cultural theories and take a critical look at the validity of algorithmic approaches. It explores the limitations of the performance and purview of algorithmic schematics in the realm of art and creativity.

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Passionate Knowledge. Artistic Composition as Research

On research in arts and science and concepts of artistic research.

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EMMANUEL LEVINAS' ETHIK DER ÄSTHETIK

With few exceptions, Emmanuel Levinas did not write about art, nor did he leave behind any philos... more With few exceptions, Emmanuel Levinas did not write about art, nor did he leave behind any philosophical aesthetics. Nevertheless, it is possible to reconstruct the basic principles of his aesthetic thinking from his work. The early essay Reality and its Shadow apparently contains a critique of art, but if read correctly it rather reveals a critique of aestheticism. This criticism is made from an ethical perspective, so that in Levinas' case one must speak of an "ethics of aesthetics", in which the ethical approach remains a priori everywhere. On the other hand, his philosophy of alterity with the central topos of the "nakedness of the face" is based on a decisive aesthetic motif that seems to precede ethics. The expression "face" (visage), however, addresses an invisible hollow, so that its aesthetic experience can only be understood on the basis of a primary ethical relationship. The primordiality of the ethical becomes also equally clear in the explicit confrontations with art and artistic work, especially in the text Obliteration, which applies the paradigm of erasure to Sacha Sosno's sculptures. If one wants to judge Levinas' aesthetics appropriately, it is important to take into account this constantly changing relationship between ethics as true prima philosophia and the indispensability of the aesthetic.

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Manifesto of Artistic Research A Defense Against Its Advocates

by Dieter Mersch and Jörg Wiesel

Manifesto of Aritistic Research. A Defence Against its Advocates, 2020

Since its beginnings in the 1990ies, artistic reserach has become established a new format in the... more Since its beginnings in the 1990ies, artistic reserach has become established a new format in the aereas of educational and institutional policy, aesthetics, and art theory. It has now diffused into almost all artistic fields, from installation to experimental formats to contemporary music, literature, dance or performance art. But from its beginnings - under labels like 'art and science' or 'scienceart' - it has been in competition with academic research, without its own concept of research having been adequately clarified. The manifesto attempts to resolve the problem and to defend the term and the radical potentials of reseraching art against those who toy all too carefully with university formats. It aims to emphazise the autonomy and particular intellectuality of artistic thinking, without seeking to justify its legitimacy or adopt alien standards.

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Epistemologies of Aesthetics

Epistemologies of Aesthetics, 2015

The idea of 'art as research' and 'research as art' have risen over the past two decades as impor... more The idea of 'art as research' and 'research as art' have risen over the past two decades as important critical focuses for the philosophy of media, aesthetics, and art. Of particular interest is how the methodologies of art and science might be merged to create better conceptual understanding of art-based research. The book deconstructs and displaces the terminology that typically accompanies the question of the relationship between art and scientific truth. Identifying artistic practices as modes of thought that do no make use of language in a way that can easily be translated into scientific discourse, the text advocates for a genuine aesthetic mode of thought beyond 'linguistic turn', a way of thinking that cannot be substituted by any other disciplinary system.

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