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© NRW AWK | Engel-Albustin 2025

Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts welcomes Ursula Frohne as a member

The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts (AWK) has accepted Prof. Dr. Ursula Frohne, co-director of the Centre for Advanced Study, as a new member. At the academy’s annual celebration on 14 May 2025, the AWK Executive Board welcomed twelve new members who stand out for their expertise and research. Since 2015, she has held the professorship for art history at the University of Münster, focusing on modern and contemporary art. Her research interests include contemporary art practices, including technological art practices such as photography, film, video, installation art and digital art forms.

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© Natascha Unkart

Fifth Summer School Museology

A week of researching and teaching, learning and living in (the middle of) the museum: from 21 to 26 July 2025, the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology organizes a one-week practical course on current topics and tasks of museums together with the LWL Open-Air Museum Detmold (“Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Alltagskultur”). Participants will gain in-depth insights into the museum as a field of practice, as a place of research, as a collection and educational institution and much more. The Summer School is headed by Prof. Dr Lioba Keller-Drescher, In-house Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study. Guest curator is Dr. Birgit Johler, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study.

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© Julia Guo

Fellow Lecture: “Reimagining Access: Immersive Media for Transforming Cultural Engagement”

On Monday, 7 July 2025, Dr. Susanne Thurow (Sydney) will give her Fellow Lecture on the topic “Reimagining Access: Immersive Media for Transforming Cultural Engagement”. The lecture will explore the impact of digitalisation on the frameworks of engagement, representation and epistemology within cultural institutions using the example of the experimental installation Victorian Reality. The installation combined interactive 3D visualisation and spatial sound with the physical representation of historical objects and was the centrepiece of a research project by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the iCinema Centre at UNSW on new, multi-sensory forms of storytelling in cultural institutions.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “Zugang FAIR gestalten: Was sind und was können Referenzontologien?”

On Monday, 30 June 2025, Prof. Dr. Ludger Jansen (Brixen) will give his Fellow Lecture on the topic “Making access FAIR: What are reference ontologies and what can they do?” (in German). Based on the observation that working with digital data often leads to a Babylonian confusion of languages due to different file formats and differently coded descriptions, the lecture will examine reference ontologies as a way of giving data a semantics and making access to data reliably FAIR – i.e. Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-Usable.

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© Nii Kwate Owoo & Arsenal (Nii Kwate Owoo, YOU HIDE ME, 1970)

Film series: “Access and Return: Restitution in films”

What does it mean when a piece of history is missing and cultural identity has been stolen? The film series “Access and Return: Restitution in films” investigates the struggle for cultural self-determination, dealing with continuing colonial power relations and the question of what restitution means and can mean today, focusing on ‘Restitution as an Act of Recognition’ (17 June 2025), ‘Counter Voices and Rhythms of Resistance’ (24 June 2025) and ‘Reparative Practices of Remembrance’ (1 July 2025), each starting at 7 pm. It aims to look at where objects are absent – and thus understand restitution not only as a gesture of reparation, but also as a social challenge. (Venue: Auditorium of the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Domplatz 10, 48143 Münster; admission: 5 euros per evening.)

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “Ein bislang vernachlässigtes Kulturgut? Gästebücher digital”

On Monday, 16 June 2025, Prof. Dr. Henry Keazor (Heidelberg) will give his Fellow Lecture on the topic “A cultural good that has been neglected until now? Guest books digitised” (in German): Guest books are a genre that so far has been left virtually unstudied. What can be gained by analysing them can be illustrated by the example of a planned project that aims to deal with the guest books of the brothers Nicola (1886-1967) and Franz Moufang (1893-1984). Over the decades, a large number of prominent representatives of art, culture and politics signed the guest books, often leaving behind previously unknown works of art. The project sees digital cataloguing in particular as an integral part of the editing process, as it is the only way to enable comprehensive analysis and exploration of the guest books.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “Ur & Alexandria: Counter-narrating museum history to access diverse heritage”

On Monday, 2 June 2025, Dr. Isabel Hufschmidt (Vienna) will give her Fellow Lecture on the topic “Ur & Alexandria: Counter-narrating museum history to access diverse heritage”: “Ur & Alexandria” is a project about unlearning museum history that has been established as a meta-narrative by the Global North since the 19th century. Museum history is a pivotal catalyst in the obliteration and loss of diverse heritage and heritage practices. The project offers a counter-narrative for the unlearning process, particularly to deconstruct gender bias and Occidental monopoly in museum history.

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Guest Lecture: “Kopieren als Adaptieren”

On Monday, 26 May 2025, Prof. Dr. Ludwig D. Morenz (Bonn) will speak on the topic “Copying as adaptation” (in German). He will report on various methods of epigraphic copying of ancient stone inscriptions from Pharaonic Egypt, including hand copies, tracing, and digital recording and editing. Additionally, he will discuss the curious fact that the images and alef-bet inscriptions from southwestern Sinai can be understood as imitations of Egyptian original images. In this sense, the lecture will deal with multiple bridges, alienations and appropriations.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

“Strukturprobleme des digitalen kulturellen Gedächtnisses – am Beispiel des neuen niedersächsischen Pflichtexemplargesetzes”

On 19 May 2025, Prof. Dr. Eric Steinhauer (Hagen) held a lecture on the topic “Structural problems of digital cultural memory – using the example of the new law on deposit copies in Lower Saxony” (in German). In his lecture he dealt with the question of how digital publications, and especially online publications, can be permanently archived and made accessible. Based on the recently passed law from Lower Saxony, the challenges for the digital collection obligation of libraries were highlighted; in a broader sense the focus was on the tensions between the cultural obligation to preserve, legal control and digital transience.

| Veranstaltungen
© Graduiertenkolleg „Normativität – Kritik – Wandel“

Decolonising of the Arts / by the Arts

What does decolonisation of the arts mean? Restitution or repatriation of plundered works? Or contextualisation? And how can the opportunities offered by digitalisation be used for decolonisation? Lisa Marei Schmidt (Director of the Brücke Museum, Berlin) and Prof. Dr Reinold Schmücker, director of the Centre for Advanced Study, discussed these questions on 16 May 2025, in the workshop “Decolonising of the Arts / by the Arts” with the fellows of the DFG-funded Graduate School “Normativity – Critique – Change” at Freie Universität Berlin.

| Events
© Universität Münster | Nora Kluck

Guided Tour “Art on the Campus”

On 13 May 2025, the “Art on the Campus” tour took place for members of the Centre for Advanced Study. Dr. Eckhard Kluth, head of “Zentrale Kustodie & Kulturbüro” at the University of Münster, provided an insight into the works of art on the Old Town Campus. In everyday university life, we encounter works of art on a daily basis. Contemporary artworks were created, for example, as art in architecture or as part of the “Skulptur Projekte” exhibitions. This has resulted in a heterogeneous collection of artworks that is constantly challenged by everyday life as “art on the campus”. When encountering the various works, questions of access, participation, and use in the analogue world also become relevant.

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© Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa

“Is there such a thing as a just war?”: Lecture at the Goethe-Institut Kyoto

On 18 April 2025, the Goethe-Institut Kyoto (Japan) hosted a lecture by Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker titled “Is there such a thing as a just war?” followed by a panel discussion. The event explored the question of whether there can be a just war at all. What would it look like? And how can a war be ended, even if it were completely just? Professors Satoshi Kodama (Kyoto University), Takuya Nakamura (Doshisha University) and Johannes Waßmer (Osaka University) were members of the panel.

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© Johannes Waßmer

Autonomy of art

Can we still talk about the autonomy of art today? And does the concept of autonomy still apply in an age of art created with the help of artificial intelligence? Master's students and doctoral candidates discussed these questions on 11 April 2025 at Tōdai University in Tokyo (Japan) with Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker, director of the Centre for Advanced Study, who had advocated a new conception of artistic autonomy in his lecture.

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© „Whose Expression? Die Künstler der Brücke im kolonialen Kontext“, Brücke-Museum, 2021. Foto: Roman März

Master class “Access to Contested Collections – Digital and Analog”

The Center for Advanced Study Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change's master class “Access to Contested Collections – Digital and Analog” took place on 2–4 April 2025. Master’s and doctoral students, postdocs, and research trainees working at museums or art institutions who are engaged with collections with colonial backgrounds or artworks and artifacts with sensitive content were invited. The masterclass offered them the opportunity to discuss, together with colleagues from museums and art institutions in an interdisciplinary environment, which new perspectives or challenges arise from digital access to contested collections.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “Zugangsdynamiken romantischer Kunst: Zwei Schlaglichter auf französische Malerei”

On 27 January 2025, Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave (Jena) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Access Dynamics of Romantic Art: Two Spotlights on French Painting” (in German). Based on the realisation that access to cultural goods has a considerable influence on their production and reception, especially in the visual arts, the lecture examined the concrete dynamics of access using two examples from French Romantic painting.  

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “‚Page Not Found‘: Zur (Un-)Zugänglichkeit künstlerischer Publikations- und Ausstellungsprojekte im digitalen Zeitalter – eine Bestandsaufnahme”

On 20 January 2025, Dr. Regine Ehleiter (Berlin) gave her Fellow Lecture on the topic “’Page Not Found‘: On the (in)accessibility of artistic publication and exhibition projects in the digital age – a stocktaking”. In her lecture, she reconstructed striking examples of digital artistic publishing from the 2000s and raised the question of the extent to which the ideal of a ‘dematerialisation’ of art that emerged in conceptualism has been realised in the digital age, to the point of making it untraceable. The lecture suggested breaking new ground in the documentation and preservation of digital practices of making art public by drawing on findings from neighbouring disciplines.

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© Marvin Zilm

Lecture: “Die Ausstellung als Interface. Analoge und digitale Displays”

On 9 December 2024, Prof. Dr. Sophia Prinz (Zurich) held a lecture on the topic “Die Ausstellung als Interface. Analoge und digitale Displays” (“The exhibition as an interface. Analogue and digital displays”) (in German). Using the example of the exhibition ‘Mobile Worlds’, the lecture showed the extent to which digital forms of exhibition offer opportunities that go far beyond the usual, one-sided digitisation of the analogue and thus also offer the possibility of questioning the museological order of knowledge and practice together with its immanent power relations. At the centre of the considerations is the display, which should be conceived not as analogue, but as digital and therefore interactive. Succeeding, this could be understood as a central step towards a post-digital ‘pluriversal museum’.

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© Nora Dal Cero

Lecture: “Fülle und Leere. Kuratieren als Ermöglichen”

On 26 November 2024, as part of the lecture series “Making of: Rethinking Places of History” of the Villa ten Hompel, Prof. Dr. Lioba Keller-Drescher (Münster) spoke on “Fülle und Leere. Kuratieren als Ermöglichen” (in German). The lecture used historical and current examples to examine the changing tasks and practices of curating. In recent years, curating has become a kind of buzzword for cultural action. On the other hand, curating has become a sophisticated programme term for extended exhibition practice in cultural institutions. If we translate ‘curating’ as ‘enabling access’ to cultural heritage, the culture of remembrance and cultural artefacts, then a broad field of possibilities and demands on the activity of curating and on the people and institutions working in this field becomes apparent.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture: “Kunst für alle? Kunstgeschichte, Kunstbegriff, Kanon – Zugänglichkeit und Wertungsfragen im digitalen Wandel”

On 25 November 2024, Prof. Dr Hubert Locher (Marburg) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic “Art for all? Art history, the concept of art, the canon – accessibility and questions of value in the digital age”. The lecture aimed to show how ‘digitalisation’ has already changed the practice of art history in order to then attempt outlining the effects the ubiquity of the digital has had on the concept of art that is effective today. In the context of the Centre's topic, the lecture will focus especially on questions of ‘accessibility’ in relation to ‘works of art’ and in general with regard to cultural goods, problematizing questions of selection and evaluation from the perspective of the history of science and media. The lecture will be held in German.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Lecture: “Slow humanities and computerized sciolism”

On 20 November 2024, Prof. Dr. Ossi Naukkarinen (Helsinki) gave his guest lecture on the topic “Slow humanities and computerized sciolism”. The talk focused on the question of how the unavoidable and positive slowness of the humanities can be preserved and even strengthened in the age of digital technologies and how we gain the skills and patience to use fast tools slowly. Both academic humanistic education and research as well as memory institutions such as museums and archives play a crucial role in this.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Lecture: “Does digitalization force us to forget? Performing arts as an example”

On 18 November 2024, Dr. Johanna Laakkonen (Helsinki) gave a guest lecture on the topic “Does digitalization force us to forget? Performing arts as an example”. In her presentation, she examined the issues of documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of the performing arts from the perspective of practical museum work. She asked what kinds of demands memory organisations storing intangible cultural heritage face in the digital age and whether the material turn will change the practices and ways of documentation.

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© Lioba Keller-Drescher

Conference “Zugänge zum Textilen”

The conference “Zugänge zum Textilen. Wissenschaftliche, kuratorische und digitale Perspektiven.” (Approaches to Textiles. Scholarly, Curatorial and Digital Perspectives. Conference of the Commission for Material Culture and Museum in the DGEKW, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaften e. V.) took place from 11 to 12 November 2024 at the Erbdrostenhof in Münster (in German). Among other topics, it addressed the following questions: How can access to textile collection areas be regained or re-established, and what role can digitization play in the scientific and curatorial re-examination? How does digitality change access to textiles? The conference was organised by Prof. Dr. Lioba Keller-Drescher (Institute for Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, Inhouse Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”) and Dr. Kirsten Bernhardt (LWL-Museumsamt für Westfalen, Münster).

| Fellows
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Prof. Dr. Hubert Locher

Since 1 October 2024, Prof. Dr. Hubert Locher has been a new Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study. He is Professor of History and Theory of Visual Media at the Philipps University of Marburg and Director of the German Documentation Centre for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. Hubert Locher’s research interests include art literature and theory of the modern and contemporary era, the history of art history and its methodology, word-image relations since the early modern era, reception aesthetics and history, museum and exhibition history, theory and history of photography as a medium of documentation and art, theory and use of the digital image.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Dr. Thomas Kater

Since 1 October 2024, Dr. Thomas Kater has been a new Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study. Dr. Thomas Kater’s research focuses on literary theory and aesthetics, German literature of the 17th and 18th centuries and contemporary literature. After working at the University of Münster, he was a research assistant at the Chair of Modern German Literature with a systematic focus at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, most recently substituting the junior professorship for children’s and young adult literature. His work focuses on publishing and distribution practices as well as the materiality and mediality of literature.

| Fellows
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave

Since 1 October 2024, Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave has been a new Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study. He is Professor of Modern Art History (with a focus on European Romanticism) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. In 2023, he was elected a member of the Academia Europaea; since 2024, he has been one of the vice presidents of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Grave’s research focuses on questions of image theory and historical image concepts; temporality of the image and image reception; practices of comparison; art, art theory and art history around 1800; Italian painting of the early Renaissance, and French painting of the 17th to 19th centuries.

| Fellows
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Dr. Regine Ehleiter

Since 1 October 2024, Dr. Regine Ehleiter has been a new Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study. She was previously a research associate at the Cluster of Excellence “Temporal Communities. Doing Literature in a Global Perspective” at the Freie University Berlin, the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and the University of Hildesheim. Her work focusses on modern and contemporary art. Her research interests include transnational exhibition history, artistic writing and publication practices and ecological discourses.

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© Natascha Unkart

Fourth Summer School Museology

A week of researching and teaching, learning and living in (the middle of) the museum: from 22 to 27 July 2024, the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology organized a one-week practical course on current topics and tasks of museums together with the LWL Open-Air Museum Detmold (“Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Alltagskultur”). Participants gained in-depth insights into the museum as a field of practice, as a place of research, as a collection and educational institution and much more. It was headed by Prof. Dr Lioba Keller-Drescher, in-house fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study. Guest curator was Dr. Birgit Johler, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

“Digital Access to Library Content – Legal Frameworks in Germany and Sri Lanka”

On 15 July 2024, the senior fellows Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa (Univ. of Colombo), Prof. Dr. Nishantha Sampath Punchihewa (Univ. of Colombo) and Prof. Dr. W. K. M. Mervin Kumara Weerasinghe (Univ. of Kelaniya) gave an insight into the topic „Digital Access to Library Content – Legal Frameworks in Germany and Sri Lanka“ in their lecture.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow-Lecture: “‘Cultural Appropriation’. Questions about a concept”

On 8 July 2024, Prof. Dr. Thomas Gutmann held his Fellow Lecture “‘Cultural Appropriation’. Questions about a concept“. In his lecture, he  discussed whether cultural appropriation is suitable as a tool of criticism, how other concepts are important to be differentiated from it and what makes a group a possible legal entity with regard to cultural property and inheritance. Thomas Gutman’s lecture was followed by a vivid discussion containing both positive comments as well as critical questions.

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© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Fellow Lecture “Embodied Aesthetics”

On 17 June 2024, Dr. Fatmeh Masdari presented in her lecture titled “Embodied Aesthetics – Exploring the Creation and Perception of Artistic Works in the Realms of Human Cognition and Artificial Intelligence” some theses from the project of her second doctoral thesis, dedicated to the investigation of AI-based art. In addition to discussing the societal impacts of AI-generated artworks on the accessibility of art in general, Masdari also explored how AI art could alter our understanding of human aesthetic experience.

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© Banz & Bowinkel: „Palo Alto“

Lecture: “The Sculptural in the (Post-)Digital Age”

In her lecture “The Sculptural in the (Post-)Digital Age” on 13 May 2024, Prof. Dr. Ursula Ströbele discussed if it is still possible to give a definition of the sculptural in times of digital art (and art permeated by the logic of the digital). To this end, she examined traditional dictums from art theory with regard to their validity in relation to artworks based on augmented, virtual or mixed reality technologies. Ströbele also pointed out the institution-critical potential of digital technologies in art – especially with regard to questions of access to artworks.

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© Li Hou-Han

Lecture: „Physical Loss and Digital Reclamation – The Curatorial Concept of the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale“

On 6 May 2024, Dr. Jiang Jun presented the curatorial concept of the China Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in his lecture “Physical Loss and Digital Reclamation – The Curatorial Concept of the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale”. At the China Pavilion, digital access is provided to ancient Chinese paintings which would otherwise be lost for the public. Dr. Jiang Jun is curator, art critic and postdoctoral fellow at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, and co-curator of the China Pavilion of the 60th Biennale di Venezia.

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© doomu – stock.adobe.com

Workshop “Protecting and accessing cultural goods in wartime”

From 4 to 6 April 2024, the Centre for Advanced Study hosted the workshop “Protecting and accessing cultural goods in wartime – Case Studies and Lessons from Armenia and Ukraine”. War not only threatens the lives and physical integrity of people; cultural goods are also at risk of damage and total loss during war. Protecting them in the event of war is an important task for every community, and digitalisation enables new forms and modes of preserving cultural goods or their blueprints that give people access to them in times of war and even more so afterwards. Based on examples and experiences from Armenia and Ukraine, the workshop discussed practical questions and ethical aspects of the protection of cultural goods during war.

| Exhibitions & Videos
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

“Where the plastics live”: Video about the exhibition online

In the winter semester 2023/24 the study project “Kunststoffalltage” of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology presented its results with an exhibition. Plastic artefacts were presented as “roommates” of student daily life: Objects such as remote controls and toothbrush mugs were used to interpret the everyday dimensions of plastic use. The project was directed by Prof. Dr. Lioba Keller-Drescher, Professor for European Ethnology and in-house fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study. This video provides an insight into the exhibition.

Further information on the exhibition can be found on the homepage of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology.

| Events
© CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed/Justyna Lubecka

Video: Students' day at the Bremer Kunsthalle

Students from the University of Münster learned how access to art is created in museums at the students' day at the Bremen Kunsthalle on 23 January 2024. In tours, lectures and discussions with curators, they gained insights into museum work and were able to find out how an exhibition is created – from the initial idea to the installation of the pictures shortly before the opening. Jule Welling, Adelina Meyer and Felix Bomkamp, who are studying at the Institute of Art History at the University of Münster, talk about their experiences at the students' day in a TV report on SAT.1 (in German).

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© Privat

Lecture: „Memes in Transformation of the Ukrainian Media Landscape in the Context of War“

On 15 January 2024, Prof. Dr. Mariya Rohozha, Professor of Philosophy at Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev, was a guest of the Centre for Advanced Study. Her lecture “Memes in Transformation of the Ukrainian Media Landscape in the Context of War” took place as part of the sub-project “How to Deal with Cultural Goods in War and Post-war Times: An Ethical Analysis. Also a Contribution to the Foundation of an Ethics of Access to Cultural Goods in an International Perspective”.

| Academic staff
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Prof. Dr. Ruben Apressyan

Prof. Dr. Ruben Apressyan has been a new member of academic staff at the Centre for Advanced Study since 1 January 2024. He is heading the sub-project “How to Deal with Cultural Goods in War and Post-war Times: An Ethical Analysis”. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Centre.

| Fellows
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

New at the Centre: Arslan Sheikh

Arslan Sheikh is a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study from 1 January 2024. He is based at the Junaid Zaidi Library, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is currently a PhD student at the Institute for Library and Information Science, Humboldt University, Berlin. His research topic is “Open Science in the Pakistani Perspective”, which is being supervised by Prof. Dr. Eric Steinhauer, who is a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study.

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© fotografiche.eu | Adobe Stock

Fellow Lecture by Prof. Dr. Erhard Schüttpelz

On 4 December 2023, Prof. Dr. Erhard Schüttpelz gave the Fellow Lecture „Die Öffnung des Museums und das Geheimnis der Sammlungen“ (“The opening of the museum and the secret of the Collections”). In his lecture, Erhard Schüttpelz contested the most famous founding myth of the modern museum which is attributed to the French Revolution, in the course of which the iconoclastic vandalism of the revolutionaries turned into the public display of national cultural assets. The former secret of feudal, monastic and scholarly collections became the public trusteeship of several modern institutions: Museum, academia and the art trade. The lecture aimed to counter this reduction to a single European history and its generalisation through the perspective of a Long Duration („Lange Dauer“), including Christopher Bayly’s characterisation of an archaic globalisation and Mary W. Helms’ theory of a fundamental exoticism of all cultures and the anchoring of its passion for collecting in their respective religious and political centres of power.

| Videos
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Short video on the „Reclining Pan“

Jon Wiggermann, student of art history and philosophy, explains the special features of Oliver Laric’s “Reclining Pan” in the video – and what questions the artwork raises. From 4 to 30 October 2023, Oliver Laric’s sculpture “Reclining Pan” was on display at the Archaeological Museum of Münster University. The exhibition was a cooperation between the Centre for Advanced Study and the museum on the occasion of the conference „Zugang gestalten! Hindernisse überwinden“.

| Videos
© Foto: Hansgeorg Schöner | Video: Stefan Klatt

Video: Lecture “Access and loss of control – The new dependencies in the age of AI”

Digitization is accompanied by a loss of control and authority of interpretation for established cultural heritage institutions, but at the same time it also offers new opportunities for participation. How can this opportunity be used and at the same time prevent the spread of “powerful lies”? The lecture “Access and loss of control – The new dependencies in the age of AI” by cultural studies expert Dr. Michael Seemann as part of the “Zugang gestalten!” conference is available as a video here.

| Exhibitions & Events
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Oliver Laric – “Reclining Pan”: Exhibition and Lectures

From 4 to 30 October 2023, Oliver Laric’s sculpture “Reclining Pan” was on display at the Archaeological Museum of Münster University. The exhibition was a cooperation between the Centre for Advanced Study and the museum on the occasion of the conference „Zugang gestalten! Hindernisse überwinden“. Based on the idea of scanning and digitisation, Oliver Laric measures archaeological finds such as sculptures and reliefs and transfers the 3D data into a digital archive, thus providing the opportunity to participate in the production, dissemination and interpretation of his works.

| Events
© Hansgeorg Schöner

Conference „Zugang gestalten!“

From 4 to 6 October 2023, the Centre for Advanced Study Access to Cultural Goods in Digtal Changehosted the conference Zugang gestalten! Mehr Verantwortung für das kulturelle Erbe. The 13th edition of the conference series was dedicated to the topic Hindernisse überwinden (Overcoming Obstacles)”: What prevents the digitization of cultural heritage, what hinders accessibility? More than 50 speakers contributed their expertise both in lectures and in parallel working groups. Director of the conference series is Prof. Dr. Paul Klimpel, who is fellow at the centre in 2023.

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© Universität Münster | KFG „Zugang“

Cultural Memory and Decolonization: The Digitization of the National Archives in The Gambia

Africanist Dr. Katrin Pfeiffer (Hamburg) reported on the project “National Digital Archive of The Gambia – Digital Archive Bakari Kebba Sidibe” of the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), The Gambia, and the University of Hamburg in her lecture “Cultural Memory and Decolonization: The Digitization of the National Archive in The Gambia” on 14 September. The archive with 5,000 tape and cassette recordings as well as 1,200 transcriptions is a true cultural treasure for The Gambia and unique in Africa. The lecture was a cooperation of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” and the association “Afrikanische Perspektiven e. V.”

| Fellows
© WiRe | Felix Bullermann

Elisha Masemann is a WiRe fellow at the Centre

The art historian Dr. Elisha Masemann (University of Auckland, New Zealand) is a fellow of the WiRe programme (Women in reasearch) at the Centre for Advanced Study from 1 May to 31 July 2023. Her research field is contemporary urban and visual art, with an interest in the intersections of art, architecture, urbanism and socio-cultural theory in the context of today’s rapidly changing cities. In Münster, she will analyse an emerging aspect of this field, the “smart city” by way of artistic praxis

| Events
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Centre for Advanced Study opened ceremoniously

With a lecture by Leibniz Prize winner Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave (University of Jena), the Centre for Advanced Study celebrated its opening on April 25, 2023. Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker (speaker) and Prof. Dr. Ursula Frohne (co-speaker) presented the centre. Dr. Niklas Hebing (German Research Foundation), and Prof. Dr. Johannes Wessels, (rector of the University of Münster) gave welcoming speeches. The formation "KySe DrüB feat. Anna Lytton" performed with electronic music, saxophone and live visuals. Afterwards, the guests had the opportunity to talk and exchange ideas at the get together in the foyer of the "Schloss".

| Fellows
© Universität Münster | Stefan Klatt

Hubertus Kohl is a new Fellow at the Centre

With the renowned art historian Prof. Dr. Hubertus Kohle, the Centre for Advanced Study can already welcome its second Fellow in its first month. He holds the Chair of Middle and Modern Art History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and was one of the first experts to address the significance of digitalization for art history. Since then, Hubertus Kohle has illuminated the tensions between art and digitality from numerous perspectives. In the Centre, he will conduct research on the consequences of the digital transformation for art theory.

| Events
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Opening Ceremony of the Centre for Advanced Study

Ceremonial Lecture by Prof. Dr. Johannes Grave on 25 April 2023

On 1 April 2023, the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” commenced its work. We would like to cordially invite you to the festive kick-off on 25 April 2023 at 6 pm c.t.. At the event in the Botanicum, Leibniz Prize winner Johannes Grave will give the keynote lecture on the topic "Changing states of matter. How the way we access art can change works". Afterwards, there will be a reception in Münster Castle.

| Fellows
© Hansgeorg Schöner

Paul Klimpel is a new Fellow at the Centre

The Centre is pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Paul Klimpel, a proven expert on questions of copyright and the digitisation of cultural assets, as a Fellow right from the start. The lawyer has contributed to several statements dealing with the fundamental organisational, technical and legal changes in memory organisations as a result of digitisation. He also chairs the conference series "'Shaping Access! More Responsibility for Cultural Heritage". Paul Klimpel will conduct research on copyright issues of digital reproductions at the Centre in the summer semester 2023.