Retinal Art and the Ruins of Representation: Revisiting Plato's Cave and the Notion of Rasa in the Natyashastra Christoph Kluetsch "Something in the world forces us to think. This something is not an object of recognition, but a fundamental encounter." Gilles Deleuze - Difference and repetition p. 139 "Minds exist only in relation to other [...]
2nd lecture: Irumbai Temple as Yantram (Apparata)
During the Chola Empire, the layout of Shiva temples was formalized to a great degree. Based on the Agamas and Shastras, the temple was fully developed into a place in space, time, and consciousness where the microcosm and macrocosm mirror each other. When a temple is built, a site will be chosen, and it has [...]
1st lecture: Apples and Mangoes
The snake in paradise seduced Eve to eat a fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge that holds the distinction between good and evil. Why was the tree of knowledge a forbidden tree? Why did the snake seduce Eve? What did the fruit taste like? When I asked myself why I want to talk about [...]
Play and Blunder
Spiel - misstep In the West, I used to think that playing had to do with games and games had to do with rules. To play a game is to enter a space that is constrained by rules, and the player can develop strategies within those parameters to act according to the rules, with the goal of [...]
Understand
What does it mean to understand another person? It's easy to understand a counterpart when you agree, because then you simply agree with yourself, perhaps even enjoy seeing your own thinking reflected in the other, enriched by a slightly different perspective, more colorful, more lively, more energetic, because both are happy to have found someone [...].
Full moon
Et is full moon in India. Time for self-reflection, meditation and inner reflection. I have never really thought about death. It has always been a boundary for me, the thing that defines our existence in a negative way. Finitude throws us back on ourselves, or so I thought. I somewhat agreed with Heidegger here. Something [...]
Structure and process
Dhe traditional music of India, the raga, is melodic in relation to a keynote. Occidental music is harmonic, i.e. simultaneous and complex. In the Occident, much is thought in terms of structures; for a while there was much talk of structuralist and post-structuralist thinking. Complex systems can be found everywhere: in philosophy, in canonical texts and pictorial systems, in technology [...]
Enlightenment
AEnlightenment - enlightenment: the paradox of enlightenment Enlightenment is one of those things. Someone recently asked me if I was looking for enlightenment. I was a little taken aback. But because I held this person in particularly high esteem, I tried to be honest - yes, no, um, I don't really know, actually I do, if I [...]