Talks & Seminars
Our talks and seminars consist of lectures, reading and discussion groups on the work of philosophers, writers, artists, film makers and photographer that influenced the art as we see it today.
Philosophy Salon with Dr. Ingo Farin:
Literature, Film and Philosophy today
27th - 26th April 2024 every Tuesday 7pm - 9pm at the TopSpace Studio
What is the role and relevance of literature, poetry, film, and philosophy today? How do word and image relate to each other? How are imagination, emotion, memory, beauty, and truth manifest in today’s world? We will be addressing these issues by reading short texts by, among others, Milan Kundera, Richard Flanagan, Virginia Woolf, Andrey Tarkovsky, Christa Wolf, Paul Celan, Ingeborg Bachmann. In addition, we will also show and discuss clips of movies, especially by Andrey Tarkovsky. This salon is open enough to accommodate impromptu readings and presentations of one’s own creative work.
Schedule:
Week 1: Beauty & Art & Life
Week 2: Poetry
Week 3: Film
Week 4: Literature
Week 5: Philosophy & Beauty & Modernism
The sculpting in time of Andrey Tarkovsky
Discover and discuss the vision of legendary Russian filmmaker Andrey Tarkovsky.
We will watch significant excerpts from Tarkovsky’s movies and analyse and discuss his own theoretical and autobiographical writings on film, primarily his books Sculpting in Time and the edited volume Films, Stills, Polaroids & Writings. Tarkovsky aims at establishing film as a distinctive and autonomous form of art, with its own aesthetics and philosophical underpinnings. At the centre stands the idea that film amounts to “sculpting in time,” the sequential presentation of moving images. These images must be “poetic images,” truthful to life and the spiritual dimension in it. In this sense, film is a means to show the truth about our finite lives in this world.
Each session we will first show relevant clips from Tarkovsky’s movies before we discuss select texts by Tarkovsky. These texts will be made available (electronically) to the seminar members ahead of time, so that we can spend most of the seminar time on discussing and critiquing Tarkovsky’s ideas and ask how they are applicable today. For instance, what is a poetic image in today’s world?
Dates to be announced:
School of Photography and Moving Image, 109 Elizabeth Street, Hobart
PAST EVENTS
Philosophy Salon with Dr. Ingo Farin:
Art and Philosophy
17th October - 14th November 2023 every Tuesday 6pm - 8pm
We are excited to offer this year a Philosophy Salon with Dr. Ingo Farin at TopSpace Studio. Ingo has been teaching philosophy for the last 30 years at universities in the US and Australia (UTAS).
The theme for the first Salon is Art and Philosophy, with a special focus on the philosophy of art by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Benjamin. The idea is to read and discuss these authors’ views on art and put them into a historical and contemporary perspective. No previous knowledge of these philosophers (or any other) is a prerequisite. The TopSpace Studio provides a wonderful ambience that is quite conducive to a serious but relaxed philosophical discussion.
We will be meeting once a week on Tuesdays from 6-8 for a total of 5 meetings, starting on
October 17th and wrapping up on November 14th. The texts will be available electronically.
Schedule:
October 17th: Introduction: Western Philosophical Thought on Art (from Plato to Clement Greenberg). Texts: Plato, Book X of the Republic and Greenberg “Avant-Garde and Kitsch.”
October 24th: Schopenhauer. Text: “The Object of Art” (from the Third Book of World as Will and Representation)
October 31st: Nietzsche. Text: “The Birth of Tragedy.”
November 7th: Heidegger. Text. “The Origin of the Work of Art.”
November 14th: Benjamin. Text. “The Work of Art in the Age of Reproducibility”