On 2 July 2025, the workshop “Droste Digital – A New Approach to Literature?” (for members and fellows only) of the Centre for Advanced Study took place at Burg Vischering (in German). The workshop was a joint project with Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature.

The exhibition “Droste Digital. Manuscripts – Spaces – Installations” („Droste Digital. Handschriften – Räume – Installationen“) makes the digitized manuscripts of the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff accessible for the first time. At the same time, installations explore the contemporary relevance of the manuscripts of female authors and artists. Using the example of “Droste Digital”, the workshop focused on the specifics and consequences of digital access to literature in the context of exhibitions: What (new) forms of access do the digital exhibition elements enable, stimulate, or demand? Where exactly do the new access points lead—or, what is actually made accessible by the digital exhibition elements: the work? The genesis of the work? The life of the poet? The historical context? What role do other cultural assets play in this? And what (new) ways of dealing with the cultural assets involved are promoted by digital access? How do these ways of dealing with them differ from typical practices in relation to literary exhibition objects (viewing, reading, listening)? And what challenges do digital exhibition formats pose (for example, in terms of curating or exhibition documentation)?

Following an introduction and a guided tour by Oliver Pawlak (Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature), the participants had the opportunity to analyse the exhibition with the help of a working paper. After a lunch break and an impulse by Sonja-Anna Lesniak, the central questions of the workshop was discussed together on the basis of the impulses and analysis results.

The exhibition “Droste Digital” is an in-house production of Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature and is funded by the LWL Cultural Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the program “Digitalization in Culture and Media”, in cooperation with the Berlin State Library, the LWL Literature Commission for Westphalia, the LWL Archives Office, the Museum of Modern Literature – German Literature Archive Marbach, Burg Vischering, and the Kulturgut Haus Nottbeck.

Workshop concept: Oliver Pawlak and Thomas Kater