Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown
27 June 2017
Symposium on 27 June 2017, 15-19:00 at Silent Green, Berlin in cooperation with Ivana Franke’s Schering Stiftung exhibition, and partnering with Savvy Contemporary. Lecture: Abducted by Dragons: Politics and the Hypothetical.
"The Ernst Schering Foundation organizes in cooperation with SAVVY Contemporary e.V. the symposium “Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown” at the Kuppelhalle in Berlin. The symposium aims to explore the experience of seeing the “unknown” on a phenomenological level, while also shedding light on its transformative potential. The symposium is part of the project “Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenlogy of the Unknown” by the Berlin-based artist Ivana Franke. With Ivana Franke, vision scientist Bilge Sayim, curator and art historian Elena Agudio, artist and author Patricia Reed, science historian Jimena Canales, and Sylvia Pont, leader of the Perceptual Intelligence Lab in Delft. How do we perceive and experience entities and events that we cannot properly categorize – how does the unknown as a subjective experience come about? What is the relationship between the unknown and the known within visual perceptual experiences, between the visible and the legible? What is the significance of the experience of the unknown in our lives, and what is its function in society? These and other questions will be discussed by the speakers out of their various backgrounds. The symposium will provide a glimpse into this fascinating, little investigated aspect of human experience, while letting the audience engage in a scientific and artistic voyage into the mysteries of perception and the human mind – into how we fundamentally encounter and shape the world around us."