CONF: We are all astronauts (Heidelberg, 22.-25. Oct 15)

WE ARE ALL ASTRONAUTS: The Image of the Space Traveller in Arts and
Media
“We are all astronauts“, the American architect and thinker Richard
Buckminster Fuller wrote in his 1968 book “Operating Manual For
Spaceship Earth“ where he compared Earth to a spaceship, provided only
with exhaustible resources while flying through space. The phrase is
certainly a hint, which position the phenomenon of the astro- and the
cosmonaut had in the public conscience from the second half of the 20th
century on. But the wording also seems to have played a significant
role itself in shaping the space-exploring human as a symbol and an
image of humankind in general. This international and interdisciplinary
conference will analyse the changes the image of the space explorer and
-traveller has undergone since then (and, which direction with new
forms such as the Chinese “Taikonaut” it might further take) by
focusing on the arts and the media as decisive switch points for such
conceptions: history, literature-, media-, music-, film and comic
studies, history of art and science – all can here provide important
contributions for the understanding of these changes as well as of the
motivations behind them.
With the friendly support of the DFG (German Research Council)
The event is free of charge. For organisational reasons we however ask
to, please, register in advance via e-mail to
k.lau@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de or via mail to
Katharina Lau M.A.
Universität Heidelberg
ZEGK – Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte
Seminarstraße 4
69117 Heidelberg
Reference / Quellennachweis:
CONF: We are all astronauts (Heidelberg, 22.-25. Oct 15). In:
H-ArtHist, Jul 17, 2015. <http://arthist.net/archive/10789>.