Analyse #21 - Virtuality
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- Subject according curriculum
- Seminar on Selected Topics
- Teachers
- Prof. Alexander Schubert
- Scope
- First session: October 13, 2024 12:00 p.m. ELA5 @ HfMT
- Room
- ELA 5 (Grün 005)
- Duration
- 1.5 Semesterwochenstunden
- Description
#Analysis21 - Topic: “Virtuality”
“The Extended Body” examines how contemporary art and theory rethink the body as more than a stable biological entity. Across performance, digital media, robotics, and AI, the body appears as expanded, mediated, and distributed—functioning as an image, a data set, an avatar, a machine interface, or a ritual vessel. Rather than being fixed and self-contained, it becomes relational and technologically entangled.
A central focus is the hyperreal body, shaped by imaging technologies and networked platforms that intensify visibility and transform bodies into circulating images. At the same time, bodies increasingly become data—tracked, analyzed, and predicted—shifting from lived presence to informational pattern. This tension between hypervisibility and disappearance reveals the political dimensions of surveillance and algorithmic control.
Robotic and AI-driven systems further blur the boundaries between human and machine, challenging notions of agency, authorship, and presence. Digital and immersive technologies enable shared or simulated embodiment, complicating identity and empathy. In contrast, ritual and sensory practices emphasize embodied knowledge and transformation beyond technological logic. Posthuman perspectives frame the body as a hybrid assemblage of human, machine, and environment.
In an age shaped by artificial intelligence, platform economies, and ecological crisis, the body is continuously extended by technical and planetary systems. Understanding these transformations is essential, as embodiment is increasingly shaped by infrastructures of data, mediation, and power. The seminar explores how artistic practice can critically respond to this shifting condition of being embodied today.
In this seminar, we will listen to and watch works from the 21st century, with a focus on multimedia works and electroacoustic music. This includes audiovisual performances, videos, and installations. The aim is to provide an overview of the composers and works that have been part of various recent discourses and that have shaped the development, perception, and creation of new multimedia works. This course is open to all students (composers, instrumentalists, and artists alike) who are interested in the current concepts, trends, and ideas that form the diverse body of multimedia art and contemporary music. It is intended as a discussion forum in which we explore the works and their qualities and characteristics. Topics include #virtuality, #digitalism, #net art, #conceptualism, #performances, #interaction, #video, and last but not least, #fun!
- Credits
- 3 Creditpoints
- Comments
#Analysis21 - Topic: “Virtuality”
Virtuality will be discussed in relation to performance practices, representations, interactions, simulation, and digitization. It will be examined both as a practical application in the arts (including digital performance formats, video installations, and VR works) and as a cultural phenomenon and trend in contemporary society. The concept of virtuality will be approached as a technical tool, a theoretical concept, and a general metaphor.In this seminar, we will listen to and watch 21st-century works with a focus on multimedia works and electroacoustic music. This includes audiovisual performances, videos, and installations. The aim is to provide an overview of the composers and works that have been part of various recent discourses and that have shaped the development, perception, and creation of new multimedia works. This course is open to all students (composers, instrumentalists, and artists alike) who are interested in the current concepts, trends, and ideas that form the diverse body of multimedia art and contemporary music. It is intended as a discussion forum in which we explore the works and their qualities and characteristics. Topics include #virtuality, #digitalism, #net art, #conceptualism, #performances, #interaction, #video, and last but not least, #fun!
ELA5 @ HfMT
Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m. (weekly)
First session: October 13, 2024
No online classes.- Modules
- CoPeCo, Musiktheorie 3 Komposition/Musiktheorie, Theoretisches Wahlmodul Multimediale Komposition Master, Berufsvorbereitendes Wahlmodul Master, Wahlmodul freie Wahl (alle Studiengänge), Wissenschaftliches Modul Multimediale Komposition Master