The SNF project “Mediating the Ecological Imperative: Formats and Modes of Engagement” is a joint research project of the Institutes of Art History, American Studies and Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. In addition, a collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is being realized. Research focuses on the visual politics of climate change, the role of ecological issues in art and literature, and social engagement with the environment in indigenous cultures. The philosopher Hans Jonas coined the term “ecological imperative” in his book Das Prinzip Verantwortung (The Principle of Responsibility, 1979), in which he formulated an ecological maxim for action based on Immanuel Kant’s “Categorical Imperative”: “Act in such a way that the effects of your actions are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life on earth”. → Read more about the project
- Prof. Dr. Peter J. Schneemann (Lead, University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl (University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Michaela Schäuble (University of Bern)
- Prof. Dr. Peter Krieger (National Autonomous University of Mexico)
- Dr. Toni Hildebrandt (Advanced Postdoc and Coordinator, University of Bern)
- → See the whole project team
Metamorphosen der Gegenwart is an Open Air Film Programme at the Botanical Garden of the University of Bern (BOGA) to discuss documentary and experimental films (Andrea Bordoli, Ursula Biemann, Ben Rivers, Ana Vaz) inside the BOGA. The programme is curated by Toni Hildebrandt, Peter J. Schneemann, and Magali Wagner (from the SNSF Sinergia Project Mediating the Ecological Imperative) in collaboration with Flavia Castelberg (from BOGA), and gives a response to the BOGA project Chronoversum – Pflanzen im Wandel der Zeit.
The Sinergia team welcomes the writer Alexandra Kleeman (New York) to Bern for a discussion about her new novel Something New Under the Sun (Hogarth, 2021), organized jointly by the subproject Ecological Imaginaries: Eco-Ekphrasis in Twentieth- and Twenty-First North American Fiction and the Collegium Generale of the University of Bern as part of the latter's Literarische Lesungen series on Climate Fiction. The discussion will take place at University of Bern, Hauptgebäude 4, Hörsaal 220.
International Conference Toward a Sustainable Attitude: Aesthetics, the Arts, and the Environment at Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Aula Magna Ca’ Dolfin), organized by Diego Mantoan (Ca' Foscari University of Venice). Toward a Sustainable Attitude is a collaboration between Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, New York University Tandon and the University of Bern. Scientific committee: Roberta Dreon, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; Carolina Fernandez Castrillo, Universidad Carlos III Madrid; Diego Mantoan, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; Peter Schneemann, Universität Bern, and Jonathan Soffer, NYU Tandon.
