Virtual Realities: Goethe's Faust

Catalog description

From the movie camera to smartphones, modern technology has played an enormous role in how we see the world. Advancements in VR and AI constantly push the boundaries of how we view art and society, even nature, so much that it has become almost impossible to separate reality from the virtual. How do the technologies that mediate our lives shape our understanding of culture or politics? What about ethics or consciousness? In collaboration with ars electronic, ZDF, and the German National Library, this course turns to one of the most iconic works of world literature, Goethe's Faust, in order to examine the surprising ways these questions already arise for art and philosophy at the outset of modernity. Examining Goethe's masterpiece alongside more recent representations of Faust using film, VR headsets, and other artistic media, the course reflects on the impact of technology on modern society, the way different media can form perception differently, and what it means to experience a centuries-old classic in new formats.