The Digital Turn – Revisited

or

What can we learn about photography from Blade Runner?

Prof. Dr. Bernd Stiegler, University of Konstanz

Lecture at the Oldenburger Kunstverein

The two Blade Runner films are an intricate reflection on photography and human existence today. They address central questions of the present, such as the distinction between nature and culture, people and things, reality and simulation, and thus provide an ideal starting point for determining the position of photography today. The lecture combines a look at the rather agitated debates on the occasion of a proclaimed end of the photographic age of the 1980s and 1990s with an attempt at a readjustment.   

Bernd Stiegler is Professor of Modern German Literature with a focus on the 20th century in a media context at the University of Konstanz. His work focuses on the history and theory of photography as well as German and French literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Most important publications: Theoriegeschichte der Photographie, Munich 2006; Bilder der Photographie, Frankfurt/Main 2006; Reisender Stillstand. Eine kleine Geschichte der Reisen im und um das Zimmer herum, Frankfurt/Main 2010; Belichtete Augen. Optogramme oder das Versprechen der Retina, Frankfurt/Main 2011; Spuren, Elfen und andere Erscheinungen. Conan Doyle und die Photographie, Frankfurt/Main 2014 and Der montierte Mensch. A Figure of Modernity, Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2016.

A cooperation between the Edith-Russ-Haus and the Oldenburger Kunstverein