Atlas of Aspect Change

Invitation to the Symposium on Aspect Change
Bern University of the Arts HKB
Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd of Oktober 2021
10 – 18h
Fellerstrasse 11, 3017 Bern
Auditorium, 1st floor

Aspect Change, a term introduced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, is a fundamental cognitive instrument. Looking for meaning is a focal human drive, and the quest for signification is a reflexive force. However, we only ever see individual aspects of a whole and interpret them – intellectually or in words – in a subjective way. Insight is a supposedly objective form of perception. Seeing – and synonymous for understanding – is never passive but a complex practice involving perception, interaction and engagement. What we see – what the viewer is aware of – is the outcome of a small epiphany, an aha-moment, a sudden insight at the close of multi-layered, active processes. The aim of the symposium is to compare cultural practices and vocabularies. It aims to make people aware of their habits of seeing and naming, and to break through them. 

Interdisciplinary contributions from the arts, philosophy, literature, design, geography and cognitive science by researchers, artists and designers from the Bern University of the Arts HKB, Aalto University Helsinki, University Islands Reykjavik, Zurich University of the Arts Zhdk, Falmouth University, University of Amsterdam, Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, amongst others. Hosted by Tine Melzer, Y Institut & Institut Praktiken und Theorien der Künste, HKB. Book publication supported by the HKB, Canton Bern and the city of Bern.
The event will be held in english. It will be partly streamed online.

Registration: aspectchange@gmx.com