IK - Initiativkolleg

Senses, Technology, Mise-en-Scène: Media and Perception

The IK is concieved to accompany ten fellows during the program´s three years, it intends to stimulate PhD theses, which analyse the interrelations between sensory perception, technics and mediatic mise-en-scènes.

Perception as a cognitive process is closely linked with the specific situative context of the perceived as well as with the physiological conditions, the experience, the biographical, historical and cultural situatedness and emotional constitution of the perceiver.

From a cultural studies perspective, perception then becomes a central phenomenon when it exceeds the limits of the every-day processing of sensory inputs, when we focus on the reception of cultural artefacts, for example. Thus, we need to include the study of the senses into the analysis of the modes of perception, the study of the relationship between embodiment, cognition and technologies and the historical embeddedness of cultural acting and artistic production. In this sense, reception becomes a central focus of cultural research.

A constructivist and cultural theory oriented understanding of perception discusses the use of the senses not only as a cultural technology, but also as technical culture. Culture and technology are, because of their social-communicative connection to each other, social factors.

The IK offers a framework for the study of the simultanities between the transformations of the senses. Focal point for the research projects are the historical and theoretical aspects of these transformations, as well as the status of the technical apparatus and the sensory experience.