20. Mai 2026, 17.00 Uhr Kunstuni Linz, Hauptplatz 8, 4020 Linz (Lecture Hall F - H8.05.03)
The Department of Cultural Studies invites you to a lecture from Karin Harrasser (Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz and Director of ifk – International Research Center for Cultural Studies).
Karin Harrasser (Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz and Director of ifk – International Research Center for Cultural Studies)
Taking a painting of Diego Velázquez with a kitchen scene as a starting point, the lecture explores inhowfar the tactile sense can be explored as both multimodal and connected to ideas of the social, the sensus communis, or common sense. Related to this, skin is considered as an eminently political organ, a semipermeable membrane that mediates between the body and the world, that allows for joy and care; but that also makes us vulnerable – in good and dangerous ways.
Karin Harrasser is Professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Arts Linz and Director of the ifk International Research Center for Cultural Studies. After studying history and German language and literature, she received her doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation on the narratives of digital cultures at the University of Vienna, followed by a research assistant position at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and various guest professorships in Germany and Colombia. Afterwards habilitation at the Humboldt University in Berlin (book: Prothesen. Figuren einer lädierten Moderne, published 2016). In addition to her academic activities, she has been involved in various artistic and curatorial projects, e.g. at Kampnagel Hamburg, Tanzquartier Wien or with MAPA Teatro and the Colombian Truth Commission in Bogotá. Her research currently focuses on asymmetrical cultural transfers between Europe and South America and the relation between globalization and contemporary history. Recent books: Surazo. Monika und Hans Ertl: Eine deutsche Geschichte in Bolivien (2022), Gegenentkommen (2023).
All Dates of the lecture series “The Senses in Performance”:
11. März 2026
Introduction by OLFAC – Silke Felber, Freda Fiala and Julia Ostwald
25. März 2026
320 GB im Rucksack – der physische Aspekt digitaler Kunst über Gletscher
Tina Frank (Visual Communication, University of Arts Linz) &
Alexis Dworsky (Media Design, University of Arts Linz)
15. April 2026
Dis_sensual – A crip choreographer’s re-distribution of the sensible
Michael Turinsky (Artist, Vienna)
22. April 2026
Performing Snakes in Modernity and Today
Nicole Haitzinger (Dance Studies, University of Salzburg) &
Christina Gillinger (Tanzquartier Vienna TQW)
29. April 2026
Lingering with Bass (2024, Steve McQueen)
Ulrike Hanstein (VALIE EXPORT Center, University of Arts Linz)
6. Mai 2026
Sinn für Unlösbares
bankleer – Karin Kasböck & Christoph Maria Leitner
13. Mai 2026
Mimi o Sumasu – the Very Act of Listening
Mia Yoshida (Artistic Research and Head of the Zentrum Fokus Forschung, University of Applied Arts Vienna)
20. Mai 2026
Tasting skin. On chilis and chills
Karin Harrasser (Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz and Director of
ifk – International Research Center for Cultural Studies)
27. Mai 2026
Olfactory Violence and the Freedom to Speak: Stink Bombs in Interwar Europe
William Tullett (Early Modern History, University of York)
3. Juni 2026
Sensing the Atmospheres of Painters’ Studios in Nineteenth-Century France
Erika Wicky (Olfactions, Université Grenoble Alpes)
10. Juni 2026
Hee-Hawing Democracy: Somatic Articulations Beyond the Logos - Inhalt folgt
Bettina Wuttig (University of Marburg)
17. Juni 2026
Greetings from the Swamp
Maria Nalbantova (Artist, Sofia)
24. Juni 2026
A loving ear – toward a poetic ecology of feeling
Brandon LaBelle (Independent Researcher, Berlin)