Claus Volkenandt

In its research and teaching, the Professorship of Art Studies is concerned with the present: with the challenge posed by the enormous number of images in the arts, sciences and everyday life. It has never been easier to produce and disseminate images than it is today in the digital age. Artistic works, it seems, have become a minority.

The Professorship of Art Studies also deals with historical issues that are clearly related to contemporary experiences. In the 17th century in the Netherlands, for example, there was a sudden proliferation of images that is reminiscent of the dissemination of images and self-images in today's social media. If Rembrandt were alive today, his favourite type of image would be the selfie. It is interesting to note that the understanding of individuality is also changing with the increased number of images. What exactly is happening here, both historically and in the present day, is the subject of intensive discussion and reflection by the professorship.

The aforementioned questions and topics also determine the research fields of the professorship. The overarching interest here is to develop the special cognitive potential inherent in art. Art is not only an expression of its time, but also provides insights into contemporary contexts, whether historical or contemporary. With this in mind, the professorship is currently working in three areas:

(a) Artistic and non-artistic images
We live in a world full of images. If I have health problems, for example, I go to the doctor. For diagnostic clarification, it is now common for imaging procedures to provide information about health and illness. The function of the non-artistic images obtained here and the institutions in which they circulate differ significantly from those of artistic works: doctor's surgery and studio are juxtaposed, hospital and art museum, diagnostic clarification and cultural assets worth preserving. Despite the great differences, there is also a peculiar closeness between the images: Both are modes of cognition. Medical images provide information about health and illness, while artistic works also provide insights into reality in their own way. Questions that arise here and are open to discussion concern the modes of cognition: How do the processes take place in artistic and non-artistic images? To what conditions are they bound? Can different modes of representation be identified, with which different types of cognition are associated: universally valid, valid in relation to the individual? What kinds of cognition does art have for us, what kinds does medicine have?

(b) The temporalisation of representation in 17th century Dutch painting

Dutch culture in the 17th century was a culture that favoured images and was therefore rich in them. Images were part of its bourgeois self-image. Against this background, the portrait in 17th century Dutch painting is of particular importance. It is striking that, in contrast to Renaissance portraits, Dutch portraits are characterised by a special form of temporalisation. In Dutch portraits, individuality and time are related to each other in a different, new way: in portraits of children and the elderly as biographical time, in portraits of citizens as scenic time. The often gestural painting style of these portraits plays a special role in this temporalisation of the portrait and the pictorial constitution of individuality. The guiding questions of this project are what conception of individuality and what conception of representation are revealed in this temporalisation and what significance they have for a pictorial history.

(c) Individuality in social media (a sketch of ideas)

The strong digitalisation of image media in recent decades has enormously increased the possibility of taking pictures and showing oneself in pictures (and disseminating these on the corresponding channels). The continuing boom in selfies is the clearest example of this. At the same time, this "selfie" generation is a theme in contemporary art. However, this aspect has received little attention to date. It is particularly interesting that the artistic media in which young people and young adults become the subject, photography and video, are those that they themselves prefer to use as media of image production and image reception. There seems to be a connection between the phase of life and the chosen image formats. If one also assumes that the arts are not only a cultural practice, but also provide insights into the culture in which they are created, the representation of children and young people in contemporary art is of particular importance. Their portrayal in the arts is not only an expression of a certain youth culture, but also provides valuable insights of its own. What do their own images reveal about them and what does their portrayal in the arts reveal about the conditions under which they grow up in the present and how they deal with media, about conflict zones and their understanding of individuality in a digitally communicating society? What self-image do they grow up with and how does this shape their future lives? The project aims to bring (self-) images of a medialised everyday life and images of the arts, which are the subject of teenagers and young adults, into conversation with each other at the focal point of individuality.

Dr Svenja Hartwig (Quality Management for the attention of the Directorate, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale)
 

Katja Weber M. A. (Quality Management for the attention of the Directorate, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale)
 

Dr David Hornemann van Laer (Third-party funded employee)

Born 1963 
in Bochum. Studied art history, philosophy and new German literary studies in Bochum and Basel

1991
Licentiate (University of Basel)

1997
Doctoral studies with a thesis on the historical dimensions of knowledge in art based on Rembrandt's "Anatomy of Dr Tulp" (1632)

1997 - 2002 and 2004 - 2006
Assistant at the Department of Art History at the University of Basel, Modern Art History (Prof. Dr Gottfried Boehm)

2007
Postdoctoral university lecturing qualification, postdoctoral thesis on the change in the pictorial reference to the world in Piet Mondrian's works on the way to abstraction

2006/07 - today
Regular teaching appointments at the University of Lucerne (Sociological Seminar), at zeppelin university in Friedrichshafen (for cultural history)

2010 - 2012
Substitute professor at the Institute of Art History at the Ruhr University Bochum

Summer term 2012 - today
Professor of Art History at the UW/H

Teaching in art studies is fundamentally dialogue-based and interactive. It works with various forms of teaching and learning and with changing locations. This includes discussing texts in the seminar room as well as analysing works when visiting exhibitions, visiting cultural institutions and critically examining their public orientation and user-friendliness.

Teaching and learning take place in various constellations: Students work individually or in groups, discuss in seminars and beyond, with and without lecturers. We are to a certain extent a learning and living community, especially on excursions. Places of cognition are not only books, but also our own thinking, cultural practice, experiences with works and exhibitions, dialogue.

The aim is always to leave the ivory tower of the university and take up questions of everyday life: most recently with the teaching research project "Feldversuch", which centres on the question of how we can put our diet on a healthy and therefore sustainable basis for everyone. In order to realise this first for the university, the UW/H has been given a garden and field area very close to the university to grow vegetables. However, the aim is not only to supply the university cafeteria with vegetables, but everyone can learn how to grow and preserve fruit and vegetables on a small scale in Studium fundamentale seminars.

Seminar topics in key areas:

• Overview events on art from 1800 onwards
• Viewing pictures in theory and practice
• Excursions and visits to exhibitions
• Artistic and medical images
• Experience of nature and its reflection in the arts
• The future of nutrition

• Dutch art and culture of the 17th century, especially Rembrandt
• Art of classical modernism, especially abstract painting
• Artistic and non-artistic images, especially medical images compared to artistic images

Memberships

• German University Association (DHV)
• German Society for Aesthetics (DGÄ)
• Art Advisory Board of the Werner Richard - Dr Carl Dörken Foundation (Herdecke)

Awards and honours

Award for the course Videokunst. An Introduction (FS 2008) with the title Outstanding Teaching by the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences of the University of Lucerne