Wochenzettel 17,48:
A good opportunity to take responsibility

Well, pretty soon it’s Christmas time. Winter is coming, advent is knocking on the door.

The last seminar dates in media theory for this semester have started. A term paper shall now form a conclusion and shall demonstrate, how good we are in using the learned discursive methods of the seminar for our own work. So there was a range of media to chose from, from poster to YouTube, to choose from, which shall be examined in terms of historical and social aspects. The texts of the seminar shall serve as a support for our argumentations. Those who have not paid attention in the seminar yet, will have to work urgently on some source literature. The fourth month of the master’s program has begun with short presentations on the core ideas of the term paper.

On Tuesday our attention was again on the master thesis. A lot of preparation and tinkering has been done – for the concept presentation the core thesis of the master thesis had to be summed up. In small groups of two students, our topic needed to be handed over to the partner clearly and in detail. This time, as some kind of lawyer, the partner should present and represent the core thesis of the “client” in front of the fellow students. The group was encouraged to discuss whether the core thesis is on the point and on the “right path” or if there is still any ambiguity in the terminology. Anyone who had not adjusted his “lawyer” well enough, got the verdict in plenary: ‘Much too vague’.

However, nobody had to fear condemnation. In the usual familiar environment, everyone could expect constructive criticism and thinking approaches. A good opportunity for feedback and a first sample before the concept presentation.

Following two lectures in the Aesthetics 2 seminar, a heated discussion broke out on Wednesday. The subject: cyborgs, feminism in the future, animals in art and our attitude to it. A right or a wrong could not be determined, but it ended in an appeal to us as master students, which we take with us into advent.

The master’s program is not only a seminar and a lesson, it is also a discourse about our value system and the values of others. As an individual and designer of our environment, we can not dodge our responsibilities. Nobody can, nobody lives outside this responsibility. We need stand for the values that we transport within our work. We are allowed to scratch on the paint and to provoke. The important thing is that we go out of study and reflect the things we find in our environment, recognize double moral, develop awareness and live and work with this awareness. Just take responsibility. Have a nice advent season!

Silvan Hartig