Seismographies- Alexander Kluge’s Polymorphous
Urgencies: A Workshop and
Tribute Symposium
Film still from © Sarah Morris, “Finite and Infinite Games,” 2017, HD Digital.
This two-day gathering celebrates the work of the late writer, philosopher, and filmmaker Alexander Kluge (1932–2026), whose friendship and collaboration with the Princeton German Department spanned decades. Bringing together Kluge’s collaborators in art, philosophy, and literature, the event will draw on archival holdings, film screenings, and roundtables to explore Kluge’s relationship to critical theory, his multimedia and collaborative praxis, and his intertwined understandings of historical experience, meaning, and political emotion.
In addition to a symposium featuring Kluge’s scholars and interlocutors, the program features screenings of Kluge’s award-winning 1966 feature Abschied von gestern ([Yesterday Girl] in German with English subtitles; 88 mins) and Sarah Morris’s 2017 short film Finite and Infinite Games (40 mins). It will also include a seminar-style close reading of Kluge’s prose fiction and an archival workshop on Kluge’s recent approach to digital tools and video work. Open to the public, the event aims to open Kluge’s work to new audiences — and to provide interdisciplinary frameworks for scholarship still to come.
Friday, November 6 — Morning: Workshops & Film Screening
Location: Princeton University Art Museum, Room 134 (Tuttle Lecture Hall)
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9:00 AM — “Constellative Collections: Orientations in Alexander Kluge’s Video Work”: an archival workshop led by Kizer S. Walker.
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10:30 AM — Close reading breakout sessions.
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11:30 AM — Screening of Finite and Infinite Games (2017), directed by Sarah Morris, with an introduction by Sarah Morris. Film information.
Afternoon: Symposium featuring invited speakers
Location: Whig Hall, Senate Chamber
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2:00 PM — Panel I: Kluge & Critical Theory. Chair: Jan-Werner Müller. Featured guest speakers: Juan-Jacques Aupiais; Michael W. Jennings; Sarah Morris; Joseph Vogl.
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4:30 PM — Panel II: Atlas: Kluge’s Multimedia Practice, from Architecture to AI. Chair: Spyros Papapetros. Featured guest speakers: Gertrud Koch; Richard Langston; Irina Simova; Kizer S. Walker.
Please click here for the livestream.
Invited speakers: Juan-Jacques Aupiais (Ohio State University); Michael W. Jennings (Princeton University); Gertrud Koch (Freie Universität Berlin/Leuphana University Lüneburg); Richard Langston (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Sarah Morris; Irina Simova (Wesleyan University); Joseph Vogl (Princeton University/Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin); and Kizer S. Walker (Cornell University).
Further information: This event is open to the public and to all regardless of identity. Sponsorship of an event does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented. For further event details, For a digital version of the program, please click here. Event contact: @email.
