Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik.
Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik. | © Caroline Seidel, Ruhrtriennale 2023

Our series about »human nature« continues in year three and we examine its title in two senses: what is the nature of human beings? But what do humans understand »nature« to be?

About the production

The golem, the creature made of clay by Baal Schem Tov, this »formless mass«, is the tool that liberates itself from its master. And Mary Shelley provided the Modern age with a nightmare in Frankenstein’s monster: The nightmare that haunts human beings in the form of technology, as a cyborg, as a humanoid, as a robot, as Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, devices convey a longing for redemption from mortality and violence: death and the patriarchy are being overcome by artificial humans. But is the machine really artificial – or is it part of our nature, human nature? Is there a borderline between humanity and the humanoid? Is one the enemy of the other? Does humanity lie in overcoming humans – in the machine?

Sun 3 September 2023

5 pm dialogue
Lukas Bärfuss in conversation with the Professor for Technology Studies and Media Sociology Jutta Weber (author of Umkämpfte Bedeutungen: Naturkonzepte im Zeitalter der Technoscience)

7.30 pm reading
Reading: Anna Drexler
with texts of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich Heine, Apollonius Rhodos, Mary Shelley, René Descartes, Anatole France, Homer
Music: Theo Nabicht

Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik
Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik | © Caroline Seidel, Ruhrtriennale 2023
Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik
Jutta Weber and Lukas Bärfuss, Natur und Technik | © Caroline Seidel, Ruhrtriennale 2023
Anna Drexler, Natur und Technik
Anna Drexler, Natur und Technik | © Caroline Seidel, Ruhrtriennale 2023
Anna Drexler and Theo Nabicht, Natur und Technik
Anna Drexler and Theo Nabicht, Natur und Technik | © Caroline Seidel, Ruhrtriennale 2023

Talking to Lukas Bärfuss

Ruhrtriennale dramaturge Judith Gerstenberg met the writer Lukas Bärfuss in Zurich and spoke with him about the focus of this year's events and the invited guests.

Further dates

From the magazine

Dates and tickets

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