PHILOSOPHY IN THE ARTS : ARTS IN PHILOSOPHY CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HEART IN ARTISTIC RESEARCH (AR) AND PERFORMANCE PHILOSOPHY (PP). PEEK-Project(FWF: AR822). by Arno Boehler

Arts-based-philosophy is an emerging research concept at the cutting edge of the arts, philosophy and the Sciences in which cross-disciplinary research collectives align their research practices to finally stage their investigations in field-performances, shared with the public. Our research explores the significance of the HEART in artistic research and performance philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective, partially based on the concepts of the HEART in the works of two artist-philosophers, in which philosophy already became arts-based-philosophy: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Aurobindo’s poetic opus magnum Savitri. We generally assume that the works of artist-philosophers are not only engaged in “creating concepts” (Deleuze), but their concepts are also meant to be staged artistically to let them bodily matter in fact. The role of the HEART in respect to this process of “bodily mattering” is the core objective under investigation: Firstly, because we hold that atmospheres trigger the HEART of a lived-body to taste the flavor of things it is environmentally engaged with basically in an aesthetic manner (Nietzsche). In this respect the analysis of the classical notion for the aesthete in Indian philosophy and aesthetics, sahṛdaya––which literally means, “somebody, with a HEART”––becomes crucial. Secondly, because the HEART is said to be not just reducible to one’s manifest Nature, but has access to one’s virtual Nature as well. The creation hymn in the oldest of all Vedas (Rgveda) for instance informs us that a HEART is capable of crossing being (sat) & non-being (asat), which makes it fluctuate among these two realms and even allows its aspirations to let virtual possibilities matter. Such concepts show striking similarities with contemporary concepts in philosophy-physics, e.g. the concepts of “virtual particles” and “quantum vacuum fluctuations” (Barad).

THE HEART LAB TOWER

To share our research with the non-academic public from the very beginning, we will install mobile *Heart-Labs* at public places like shopping-malls, art- institutions, hospitals, universities or at political events etc. These *Heart-Labs* serve as a mobile library equipped with books, artefacts and scientific articles relevant for the role, the *Heart* plays for each of us in our everydayness. Volkstheater Vienna has agreed to serve as a host for such a mobile *Heart-Lab* at Red Bar (cf. Rote Bar: https://www.volkstheater.at/produktion/1774973/three-ecologies/1775096/ ). And Christoph Krammer, director of the ece shopping center Kapfenberg has invited us to install such a mobile *Heart-Lab* at the shopping mall he is running.

In addition to these mobile *Heart-Lab*, regular Yoga-Research-Retreats on the Heart will be offered to the public at the research-center KHÔRA, a center for AR and PP in the countryside of lower Austria. These two low-threshold research formats are meant to integrate the interested public from the very beginning in our research-process.

Description of the Heart Lab Tower
The Heart Lab Tower is an installation in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna. Designed as a mobile heart-laboratory (heart-lab), it serves as a poetic-research space and platform for artistic and philosophical interventions. It invites the participants of the conference to experience a vibrant space, where thoughts and feelings resonate in one’s *heart* and one’s mind simultaneously. Developed in a collaboration between the research project PHILOSOPHY IN THE ARTS : ARTS IN PHILOSOPHY, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF Grant-DOI: 10.55776/AR822) and the Research Centre Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society (RaT), the Heart Lab Tower stands for cross-disciplinary inquiry into the significance of the *heart* at the cutting edge of philosophy, religion and the arts.

July 8th, 8:15-8:30 pm and 9:15-10:00 pm. Heart Lab Tower Lecture Performance “Notebook of the Heart”
On July 8th the Lecture Performance “Notebook of the Heart” will activate the Heart Lab Tower as a stage for embodied research. Researchers of the FWF-funded project PHILOSOPHY IN THE ARTS : ARTS IN PHILOSOPHY will share their investigations into the *heart* as a cross-cultural practice of intuitive reasoning and aesthetic thinking. Drawing on the philosophy of Nietzsche, Sri Aurobindo and the sacred arts, the performance fuses theory, poetry, sound, and movement into a sensitive form of mindful research. Featuring Patrick Beldio, Arno Böhler, Nikolaus Gansterer, Susanne Valerie Granzer, Johannes Kretz, Sabina Holzer, Evi Jägle and Christoph Müller, the lecture performance “Notebook of the Heart” stages the *heart* as a an attractor of virtual possibilities, ready to actualize themselves on stage. The audience is invited to inhabit a vibrant field of felt-thoughts and thought-feelings.

July 10th, 11th. Heart Lab Tower: Two Workshops “Narratives of the Heart #1” and “Narratives of the Heart #2”
On July 10th and 11th, two Workshops “Narratives of the Heart #1” and “Narratives of the Heart #2” will take place in the Heart Lab Tower in the middle of the Arcaded Courtyard of the University of Vienna. The two workshops invite participants of the conference to exchange everyday narratives of the *heart* with researchers engaged in the research project “Cross-cultural Research on the Significand of the Heart in Artistic Research, Performance Philosophy” and in South-Asian religious contexts. In these two workshops the Heart Lab Tower will become a living interface between academic research on the heart and everyday narratives about one’s *heart*. Some members of our “core Artistic Research Ensemble” (cARE) will moderate the discussions with you in the Heart Lab Tower along the following guiding questions: How do you use the word *heart* conceptually in philosophical contexts, for instance in academic texts, talks and lectures? And how do you use it in everyday narratives? Do you differentiate between both perspectives? And if, how are they related? You are welcome!

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