How does digitalisation change cultural participation of people with disabilities? Does it open up new ways of access, forms of expression, and spaces for self-determination – or does it create new barriers, standardisations, and exclusions? From 18 to 20 March 2026, the conference “Kulturelle Teilhabe im digitalen Wandel – Ethik, Ästhetik und Praxis des Zugangs zu kulturellen Gütern von Menschen mit Behinderungen” (“Cultural participation in the digital transformation – ethics, aesthetics and practice of access to cultural goods for people with disabilities”, in German) will adress these questions from ethical, aesthetic and practical perspectives. It brings together scientific, artistic and activist forms of knowledge and creates space for dialogue, reflection and joint practice.
The programme includes lectures, artistic contributions and participatory formats on topics such as universal design, inclusive design, ethical, legal and political frameworks, and media and technology-related perspectives. The event is aimed at researchers, students, cultural professionals, people with disabilities, representatives from politics, administration and civil society, as well as the interested public.

From 4 to 6 March 2026, the international conference “Digital Curating: Ethics of Access and Sustainability” addressed changes in curatorial practices in the wake of digital transformation and the resulting ethical, ecological and social challenges. Experts from museums, universities and cultural institutions discussed how digital technologies are expanding access to cultural heritage, challenging existing hierarchies and enabling new forms of participatory knowledge production. The focus was on questions of authenticity, representation and responsibility in dealing with digital artefacts, reproductions and virtual spaces. The possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence for curatorial processes and the ecological impact of digital infrastructures also were addressed. The aim of the conference was to open up perspectives on sustainable and equitable cultural access in the digital age and to bring together the aesthetic, ethical and ecological dimensions of globally networked cultural practice.

The Wikipedia Edit-a-thon workshop will take place from 27 February 2026 to 1 March 2026 at ZKM Karlsruhe. The workshop is a joint project of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”, the Center for Art and Media | ZKM Karlsruhe, and Wikimedia Germany. Who decides which artists are seen – and which receive little attention? Social media plays a role, but the most important and reliable source of information on the internet remains Wikipedia. This is where knowledge is created that is read and used worldwide. At the second edit-a-thon at ZKM Karlsruhe, students can actively help to shape this knowledge and help to give media artists greater visibility online.

The conference “Strukturwandel des Publikums? Konsequenzen des digitalen Wandels für den Zugang zum Theater” (“Structural transformation of the audience? Consequences of digital change for access to theatre”, in German) from 5 to 7 February 2026 focused on the transformation of theatre in the present day. Audiences and performers no longer always share the same physical space; immediate co-presence is being transformed by digital formats. Theatre streaming, hybrid performances, immersive spaces and interactive performances are changing the relationship between stage and audience and also raise the question who makes theatre – and for whom. How is digital transformation changing the conditions of access to theatre, opening up new opportunities for participation and posing potential challenges? How are the aesthetics and social functions of theatre changing, and what are the consequences for the relationship between stage and audience? Does theatre still represent an independent art form alongside film and gaming?

On 26 January 2026, Prof. Dr. Nosheen Fatima Warraich (Lahore/Pakistan) gave her Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Ethical and Responsible Use of AI in Research and Information Science”. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how we conduct research, manage data, and share knowledge. While its potential to boost efficiency and innovation is clear, it also raises crucial ethical questions that researchers and information professionals must thoughtfully address. The lecture discussed how AI tools influence data collection, organization, discovery, and decision-making, as well as the risks they bring – such as bias, misinformation, privacy concerns, and the loss of human judgment. By reflecting on real-world examples, participants learned how to identify and address these ethical challenges while making the most of AI’s capabilities.

On 15 January 2025, Sebastian Freytag gave a guest lecture on the topic of “Vorstellung / Nachstellung. Künstlerische Rekonstruktion einer Ausstellung” (“Presentation / Re-enactment. Artistic Reconstruction of an Exhibition”). The lecture focused on the artistic reconstruction of the so-called “Vorgartenausstellung” of 1964, an unconventional action by artists Konrad Lueg, Manfred Kuttner, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter in front of the Parnass Gallery in Wuppertal in 1964. In an installation conceived for the Von der Heydt Museum and modified for ZADIK, the KONSORTIUM group approached this historical event on the basis of photographs and archive documents. Freytag showed how processes of repetition and re-enactment give rise to new perspectives on art-historical narratives. The lecture provided insight into an artistic practice that does not preserve history, but rather creates new approaches to groundbreaking events in art history through contemporary forms of aesthetic and institutional engagement.

On 12 January 2026, Prof. Dr. Annette Gilbert gave her Fellow Lecture on the topic of “‘We believe this work is culturally important’ – Reprints im Spannungsfeld von Merkantilisierung und Gemeinnutz“ (“‘We believe this work is culturally important’ – Reprints in the field of tension between commercialisation and public benefit”). The lecture focused on the contemporary reprint industry, which claims to be committed to cultural heritage and has made it its mission to make it (re)accessible. However, this noble cause all too often conceals a business model that takes advantage of the mass retro-digitisation driven by Google & Co., which has made countless public domain works available again, allowing them to be (re)commercialised with little effort. In doing so, they are not only profiting from the fruits of others’ labour. Given the lack of quality control in fully automated production processes, they also damage the works they claim to be saving.

On 15 December 2025, Dr. Hauke Behrendt (Stuttgart) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Zugänge und Ausschlüsse – Kulturelle Teilhabe gestalten” (“Access and exclusion – shaping cultural participation”). The lecture discussed how digital technologies enable, limit and restructure cultural participation. Digitalisation is often seen as a catalyst for inclusion: it creates new access to art, knowledge and the public sphere. At the same time, new forms of exclusion are emerging. The question of equitable participation in cultural practice is analysed in light of the trilemma of inclusion (Mai-Anh Boger). The lecture argued that cultural participation in digital change should be understood as a reflexive design task. The example of art shows that aesthetic practice can open up a cultural space in which empowerment, normalisation and deconstruction enter into a productive interplay. After the lecture, Hauke Behrendt presented his new book, “Ethics of Digitalisation”.

On 11 December 2025, the fourth edition of the series “Reading Artists’ Books” took place at Witten/Herdecke University and online. It presented publications that, since the 1960s, have critically reflected on computational thinking—that is, ways of thinking shaped by computer-based and algorithmic processes—or that have relied on computer technologies in their making. The program brought together artists, theorists, publishers, and curators who introduced selected publications in short presentations. The event was a cooperation of the Chair for Digital Arts and Cultural Communication at the WittenLab.Future Laboratory Studium Fundamentale at the University of Witten/Herdecke, the Office & Network for Media Art and Digital Culture medienwerk.nrw and the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”.

On 8 December 2025, Prof. Dr. Arto K. Haapala gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Expanding the Scope of Everyday Aesthetics: Possibilities and Threats of Digitalization in Experiencing the Everyday”. It is only in the past twenty years that everyday aesthetics has established a place as one of the relevant and noteworthy fields in philosophical aesthetics. Urban environments are rich in aesthetic features; they are almost like works of art, requiring consideration and knowledge to be comprehended. Urban environments are also everyday living environments. It is undeniable that digitalization has changed our everyday experiences and our everyday environments – urban environments included – considerably. Digitalization is in many cases an extension of our senses, but it is also an easy route to information needed at a particular moment. The danger is that the more concrete physical surroundings get less attention.

On 8 December 2025, the book “Ethik der Digitalisierung” (Ethics of the Digital Change) by Hauke Behrendt, currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”, was published. The book addresses the challenges of the digital transformation as issues of participatory justice, which Behrendt understands as the moral ideal of equal and full social participation and which therefore aims, among other things, at realising self-determined access to important social resources for all.
To mark the publication of the book, the Centre hosted a Book Presentation with Hauke Behrendt on 15 December 2025.

On 1 December 2025, doc. Mgr. Pavel Zahrádka, PhD (Olomouc/Czech Republic) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Philosophie des Urheberrechts und das Problem der Sperrung des grenzüberschreitenden Zugangs zu Filmwerken” (Philosophy of Copyright and the Problem of Blocking Cross-Border Access to Film Works). The lecture addressed the philosophical and legal foundations of copyright and their implications for the issue of geographical blocking of online access to film works. Zahrádka argued that restrictions lose their legitimacy when they neither protect the actual exercise of copyright nor are effective after a certain period of time. The lecture therefore proposed that copyright should be understood not only as protection for the author, but also as an obligation to treat cultural content responsibly in the interests of society.

From 27 to 28 November 2025, the conference “Schwarzer Markt für rote Bücher. Zur Raubdruckbewegung der 1960er bis 1980er Jahre in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (Black Market for Red Books: On the Pirate Printing Movement of the 1960s to 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany) took place at the German National Library in Leipzig. The conference was organised by Prof. Dr. Annette Gilbert from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, currently Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study, in cooperation with the German Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library in Leipzig. The event was sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. The conference was dedicated to an “alternative” form of literature and book production: pirate printing, which takes place without the knowledge or permission of the authors or publishers and reached its peak in the late 1960s to mid-1980s with the student and left-wing movement in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is of considerable importance for the contemporary, political and intellectual history of the Federal Republic: it was indispensable for the triumph of critical theory, but also for the re-emergence of sociology and the emancipation of political science in Germany.

On 26 November 2025, Dr. Fatemeh Masdari gave a lecture on “Why We Need an Ethics of Liking” as part of the Theory of Culture course for Media Studies students at Palacký University Olomouc (Czechia). The lecture deals with the ethics of liking, liking being an essential form of interaction in the digital world. It examines the relevance of liking for users’ collective self-understanding and identity, their moral perceptions and their social judgement, and asks for the moral consequences of this mostly unreflecting practice and the basic principles of an ethics which does it justice. On the one hand, the dangers of liking must be avoided and, on the other hand, the freedom of expression that depends on it must be preserved.

On 20 November 2025, Dr. Buket Altinoba gave a guest lecture on the topic of “Die Skulpturmaschine – Kunst und Technologie im 19. Jahrhundert” (“The Sculpture Machine – Art and Technology in the 19th century”). Her lecture highlighted how artists and engineers worked closely together to develop new mechanical reproduction techniques for precisely duplicating and reducing the size of sculptures. These techniques not only changed production methods, but also the concept of originality, materiality and artistic authorship. At the same time, she opened up a perspective on how today’s digital technologies are shaping the production, distribution and perception of art. The lecture combined historical and contemporary dimensions of technical image production and reflected on how processes of reproduction continue to shape the conditions of cultural access to this day.

On 17 November 2025, Dr. Stefan Heßbrüggen-Walter (Münster) gave a guest lecture on the topic of “Metadaten, ‚forschende Erschließung‘ und die Konstitution kultureller Gegenstände” (“Metadata, ‘research-based indexing’ and the constitution of cultural objects”). Access to cultural goods has always been facilitated by indexing: exhibit labels in museums, catalogue cards in libraries, finding aids in archives. When cultural goods become data, they must also be indexed, in this case through ‘data about data’: metadata. The value of collection portals or digital libraries is largely determined by the quality of this metadata. What cannot be found cannot be received. However, metadata is also itself the subject of research in the digital humanities, and its analysis becomes part of ‘research-based indexing’ (Lina Franken). The lecture explored this interrelationship using three short case studies between art and science, museums and libraries. The aim was to show that metadata constitutes cultural artefacts in the digital space.

On 3 November 2025, Prof. Dr. Siegfried Saerberg gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Der behinderte Zugang zu Kultur – Über Barrierefreiheit und mehr” (“Dis/abled Access to Culture – Accessibility and more”). Against the backdrop of the still inadequate implementation of inclusion and participation in the museum context, Saerberg focused on a number of exhibitions and projects he had curated that sought to link quasi-technical aspects of barrier-free design with valuable moments of participation by potential and actual groups of actors. Finally, he attempted to imagine a digital heterotopia in Foucault’s sense, in which access as a common cultural asset takes place in a multifaceted process of translation. Can digitalisation lead to a transformation of long-established bodily and mental practices, or does ableism merely duplicate itself digitally?

On Monday, 20 October 2025, Prof. Dr. Keisuke Takayasu (Osaka/Japan) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic “How Nonprofits Are Using NFTs to Foster Cultural Democracy”. In his lecture, he discussed how non fungible tokens (NFTs) can create new spaces for minority self-expression and acting as platforms of recognition that bridge communities both within and beyond those directly involved. Drawing on examples from nonprofit initiatives in Japan, the lecture explored how cultural democracy can be advanced through the expansion of cultural participation via digital technologies, and considered the potential of NFTs to contribute to a form of digital welfare.

From 3 July to 5 September 2025, the Centre for Advanced Study presented the exhibition “case study #2: Re:Set: From Slide to Database – Media Change in Art History” – an exhibition by students of the Institute of Art History. It took media change in art history as its starting point to illuminate the historical, aesthetic, and epistemological dimensions of art-historical image practices. Among other things, poster presentations and an installation by artist Dr. Philipp Goldbach featuring historical glass slides were on display. On 27 August 2025, Georg Imdahl reported on the exhibition in the arts section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung under the headline “Glass behind glass – students in Münster exhibit the tools that art historians used to learn to see”.

On 25 August 2025, the book “Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting” was published. In it, Dan Hicks, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, takes a critical look at the origins of contemporary conflicts surrounding art, cultural heritage, memory and colonialism. On 4 September 2025, he presented some of the book’s main themes in his keynote lecture “Militarist Realism: Some Thoughts on Copies, Colonial Legacies, and Cultural Restitution” as part of the Centre for Advanced Study's workshop “Digital Restitution: Bridging Access, Conservation, and Ethical Challenges”. “Every Monument Will Fall” joins the dots between the building of statues, the founding of disciplines like archaeology and anthropology, and the acquisition of stolen art and ancestral human remains. The work traces a line from British country houses to Caribbean plantations and from the battlefields of the Crimean War to British colonial outposts in Ireland. Through the analysis of cultures of memory and historiography, a picture emerges of inheritance, loss, collective mourning, and the possibility of a reconciliation. The book calls for the fragments of history to be reassembled and to value life and humanity above material things – and to rebuild a new kind of memory culture.

From 3 to 5 September 2025, the Centre for Advanced Study held a workshop entitled “Digital Restitution: Bridging Access, Conservation, and Ethical Challenges.” The workshop engaged in rethinking restitution in the digital age—where heritage, ethics, technology, and sustainability converge to shape the future of cultural preservation. It brought together scholars, museum professionals, heritage practitioners, and digital technologists to participate in this interdisciplinary discourse on digital heritage preservation and the ethical dimensions of cultural digitization in the field of restitution policies.

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 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”) and the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”. 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. The Summer School was headed by Prof. Dr. Lioba Keller-Drescher, In-House Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study. Guest curator was Hon.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Johler, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study.

On 14 July 2025, Dr. Christopher Nixon (Hamburg) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Bild und Soziale Gerechtigkeit in digitalisierten Konsumgesellschaften” (“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Image and social justice in digitalized consumer societies”): In his lecture, he discussed the relationship between social movements and audiovisual images, which shaped the Black civil rights movement in the US with its protest images and image protests. However, their struggle for social justice was not reflected in contemporary theory, as demonstrated by Jamaican philosopher Charles W. Mills’ critique of John Rawls’ theory of justice, which was outlined in the lecture. Nixon also explored the question of whether digital capitalism today promotes deficient forms of society that make the success of social transformation movements impossible.

On 7 July 2025, Dr. Susanne Thurow (Sydney) gave her Fellow Lecture on the topic “Reimagining Access: Immersive Media for Transforming Cultural Engagement”. The lecture explored 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 the University of New South Wales on new, multi-sensory forms of storytelling in cultural institutions.

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. 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 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” investigated 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). It aimed to look at where objects are absent – and thus understand restitution not only as a gesture of reparation, but also as a social challenge. The film series was a cooperation with the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur).

On 30 June 2025, Prof. Dr. Ludger Jansen (Brixen) gave 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 examined reference ontologies as a way of giving data a semantics and making access to data reliably FAIR – i.e. Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-Usable.

From 26 May to 22 June 2025 the exhibition “case study #1: Access to Curatorial Networks – Postcards from Kasper König” was presented by the Centre for Advanced Study. The exhibition was designed by students of the colloquium course taught by Ursula Frohne and Berit Hummel. It featured collaged cards that Kasper König (1943–2024), co-founder and long-time artistic director of Skulptur Projekte Münster and director of the Museum Ludwig, sent to artists, colleagues and companions. The personal messages are a unique testimony to his curatorial practice.

On 16 June 2025, Prof. Dr. Henry Keazor (Heidelberg) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic “Gästebücher digital – Ein bislang vernachlässigtes Kulturgut?” (“Digital guest books – A cultural good that has been neglected until now?”): 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.

Josina Dehn, Junior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study, was a panel guest at the “Lunch Talk: Rethinking Curatorial and Museum Approaches: Current Challenges” at Kunsthaus Dahlem on 15 June 2025. Together with María Fernanda López-Canaán (moderator and translator), Izaira López Sánchez, and Philine Pahnke (from left to right), she discussed current curatorial challenges in museums. The event took place as part of the Kunsthaus Dahlem's anniversary festival “10 YEARS – 10 DAYS!” and was a collaboration with “ARENET – The Americas Research Network.”

 

On 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.

On 26 May 2025, Prof. Dr. Ludwig D. Morenz (Bonn) held a lecture on the topic “Copying as adaptation” (in German). He reported on various methods of epigraphic copying of ancient stone inscriptions from Pharaonic Egypt, including hand copies, tracing, and digital recording and editing. Additionally, he discussed the curious fact that the images and alef-bet inscriptions from southwestern Sinai can be understood as imitations of Egyptian original images.

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.

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.

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.

On 15 April 2025, the workshop “Cultural Participation in the Future Society” took place at Osaka University (Japan). Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker, director of the Centre for Advanced Study, gave the keynote lecture on the topic “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”. Further information can be found on the Osaka University website.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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”.

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.

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“.

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.

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.

From 4 to 6 October 2023, the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digtal Change” hosted 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.

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.”

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".

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.