Presentations and Readings (2013)

As the first attempt within a context of the investigation in the university, I organise as well as conducted a series of presentations on the theme of measurement in Leuphana University, Lüneburg, which included lectures and conversations. Participated by the university colleagues from the different background, I explored systems and symptoms around measurement in different disciplines and cultures, experimenting with various methods of research and styles of presentation.

6: Rise and Fall of ‘Measurement’ in the Social Sciences

by Prof. Ulf Wuggenig (Institute of Philosophy and Sciences of Art, Institute of Sociology The lecture in its first part deals with the rise of the notion of measurement in the softer regions of science. After it was disputed, that ‚measurement“ could be realized in social scienc research at all by some well known natural scientists (e.g. Norman Robert Campbell), the measurement term was redefined in the midth of the 20th century mainly by quantitatively inclined US-American psychologists. The new definition of measurement, which gained most popularity, was the one by Stanley Smith Stevens, Director of the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at…

5: Body as Three Dimensional Tool for Maesuring Invisibles

5: Body as Three Dimensional Tool for Maesuring Invisibles Video presentation by Miya Yoshida (Arts and Civic Media, Leuphana University) about the Performance Piece ‘Dimension Variable’ by Hwayeon Nam, visual artist. Name says, “Body as Three Dimensional Tool for Measuring Invisible”. Taking this phrase as a starting point, the presentation unfolds the Nam’s Performance Piece ‘Dimension Variable’ with a close examination of the score of the performance by the keywords such as module, code, grouping and repetitions. Still Images from DIMENSION VARIABLE (2013)

4: Believe in Numbers? – Numbers Perform

4: Believe in Numbers? – Numbers Perform by Miya Yoshida, Arts and Civic Media, Leuphana University Reading: Chap.6 Can There be an Alternative Mathematics? in Knowledge and Social Imaginary by David Bloor (1976), Science and African Logic by Helen Verran (2001), The Anthropology of Numbers by Thomas Crump (1990)

3: Suggestions for The Meantime—An Archive of Possibilities

by Christina Kral, Hyper Publishing, Leuphana University In the upcoming presentation of the measurement lecture cycle, artist and researcher Christina Kral will share her grandfather’s (Karl Kral’s) works and habits that she translated into an archive of possibilities. After the presentation there will be the opportunity to discuss measurement through the lens of personal routines and restrictive freedoms. Watch videos: Nighttime set, Daytime set Reading: “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Priviledge of Partial Perspective” by Donna Haraway (1988) Extended Reading: Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning by Karen Barad (2007)…

2. Measurement in the Field of Contemporary Art (postponed)

by PD Dr. Ulf Wuggenig, Kunstraum of Leuphana University What is happening when measurement – in the social sciences widely understood as the assignment of numerals (or numbers) to objects and events according to rules – is applied to the field of contemporary visual art? I will present some examples of such measurements as well as communicate some observations regarding the reception and use of such operations in a field being largeley aversive to numbers. The lecture is based on empirical research and its reception that I did in Vienna, Zurich and Paris.

1: Measuring is Knowing

by Prof. Martin Warnke, Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media Measurements are more than simple operational steps. Measurements require theory, up to the point that the interpretation of a certain reading of a scale is the last step of a very complicated theoretical chain of arguments. My own history as a physicist as well as recent experiments e. g. at CERN illustrate this supposition. Sound File: Power Point presentation Reading: “Know-how and No-How: stopgap notes on “method in visual art as knowledge production” by Sarat Maharaj (2009)