All posts by Ulf Otto

“Audiencing and Empathy” – Panel discussion with Prof. Matthew Reason, Ph.D., Kirsty Sedgman, Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Ulf Otto (LMU).

Panel discussion with Prof. Matthew Reason, Ph.D., Kirsty Sedgman, Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Ulf Otto at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) der LMU

Empathy has played a pivotal role in theatre since the 18th century. Owing to empathy, theatre evolved into an educational institution capable of establishing a new and liberal social order. In (literary) theory and the words of Schiller, it promised to unite “people of all circles, zones, and ranks” into “one single family”. With the theatrical day-to-day turning out to be much more complex, the question how audiences relate to performances is an intriguing topic. It inspires research and theatre practice.

  • Matthew Reason is a professor at the School of Performance and Media Production at York St. John University.
  • Kirsty Sedgman is a lecturer at the Institut for Theatre Studies at the University of Bristol.

The event will be livestreamed.

Registration is required for participation. If you are interested in our event, please contact us; you will then receive the information on how to participate in the livestream: E-Mail.

“Ästhetiken der Intervention” (=Aesthetics of Intervention) – anthology published, ed. w/ Dr. Johanna Zorn

The concept of intervention calls for a transgression of art by art itself. This is accompanied not only by the promise of a specific effectiveness, but also by a practice of negotiating aesthetic and political spheres. In theater, talk of intervention seems particularly incisive when the complex interactions of the public sphere, society, and media reality are addressed beyond the scene. This volume, which emerges from a conference at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, brings together contributions that cast critical perspectives on theater projects and theatrical actions that work with different strategies of intervention. In the process, the plurality of interventionist aesthetics and their theorizing is revealed.