Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper focusses on the hiatus between technological progress and the public understanding – or the lack – thereof. It therefore identifies those powers that are responsible for said hiatus to then re-introduces the critical humanities as a catalyst that re-enables the dialogue between the productive industry and the/its consumers. The way that the humanities hence become ‘productive’ is by way of critically engaging with both sides. In order to do so, they themselves require a distinct perspective, which is usually granted through artifacts. Accordingly, this paper discursively follows the höhere Wesen from Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square via Sigmar Polke to Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles’ recontextualization of both. The two ensuing questions thus read as follows: diachronically – who are the höhere Wesen? Discursively – how can man recover its agency whilst technology seemingly renders him increasingly passive? Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles not only conceived a critical perspective of Industry 4.0 from within by creating their artifacts at the Research Factory ARENA2036, but they also suggest a concomitant interface that re-enables the public to participate in the very discourse that shapes their every day; i.e. their work offers an answer to both questions at stake. In other words, this paper diachronically discusses the growing distance between the producing industry and the consuming public in order to finally identify a potential paradigm shift that gives back agency to people by means of a productive dialogue between the two.