The discourse on energy can be considered one of the most many-faceted interdisciplinary trends of the early 20th century. In the newly established Soviet Union, the state plan for the electrification of Russia (GOĖLRO), initiated shortly after the October Revolution, results not only in a boost of energy technology and the construction of power plants - likewise, in a short period of time the concept of energy becomes a key paradigm within the extremely dynamic milieu of the Avant-Garde.

Presence, intensity, effect, dynamics as well as the production and reception of art are adressed as processes of transfer and transformation of energy and their conceptions thus fundamentally revised. Ranging from literature and poetry to painting, film, and architecture, art is conceptualised as a source of energy as well as a medium of states of energetic tension which transcend the borders between individual genres of art, between the arts and the sciences, as well as between art and life.

The workshop "Energies of the Avant-Garde" aims to shed light on different aspects of the paradigm of energy within Avant-Garde art. Interlinking research from the fields of literary, film and art studies with philosophical and psychological research, the specific characteristics of this period of energetic thought and creativity are to be carved out.

The workshop takes place as part of the DFG-funded project "Energie: Schlüsselbegriff der sowjetischen Avantgarde".

Conceptualisation and organisation: Werner Boschmann, Tatjana Petzer und Susanne Strätling

Contact: ab-kultur@oei.fu-berlin.de 
Please register in advance.

Program 

Friday, 20.01.2023

9:00 Uhr – Greeting

9:15 Uhr – Being Energy

• Dmitry Biriukov (Bochum) | Humboldtian and Palamite Lines in Pavel Florensky
• Tatjana Petzer (Berlin) | Becoming Autotroph – Being Energy

11:15 Uhr – Organizing Energy

• Maja Soboleva (Marburg) | Alexander Bogdanov: Methodologischer Universalismus des Energetismus
• Maria Kokkori (Chicago) | UNOVIS and GOĖLRO: On Energy, Light, and the Suprematist Material Spectrum

14:00 Uhr – Perceiving Energy

• Isabel Wünsche (Bremen) | The Energetic Conditions of Sensory Perception: Research on Organic Culture
• Werner Boschmann (Berlin) | Zwischen Maschinen und Organismen: Zu Leitmetaphern energetischer Kunstkreation

16:00 Uhr – Zoning Energy

• Devin Fore (Princeton) | Disurbanism and the Dialectic of Nature
• Dariya Manova (Wien) | Energie der Sozialreportage. Maria Leitners Reisen durch Großstadt und Urwald

Saturday, 21.01.2023

10:00 Uhr – Operating Energy

• Christina Lodder (York) | Vladimir Tatlin: From the Technological to the Organic
• Elena Vogman (Weimar) | Eisenstein and Rhythm: From Vegetal Expressivity to Sexual Economy

12:30 Uhr – Circulating Energy

• Susanne Strätling (Berlin) | Energie und Affekt
• Georg Witte (Berlin) | Transmitter: Platonovs Enthusiasten im universalen Austausch der Energie