University of Heidelberg

Research Area B deals with the production and conceptualization of various types of public spheres (from art exhibition to blog, to rock concerto to satire magazine) as constituted by flows of many different kinds (cultural, economic, political, social, artistic) in the dynamic settings of Asia and Europe in a global context. The Research Area examines shifting asymmetries which inspire, shape or result from these flows (with European FKK-nudism becoming a trend in China in the 1930s or Japanese Manga a popular inspiration in Europe in the 1990s for example). The flows we are studying are emerging through print and (audio)visual media or networks that span and interlink the globe in intensive and accelerated political, economic, religious, social and cultural exchange mediated by communication technologies as diverse as the woodblock print, the telegraph, or the cell phone (e.g. Latour 2007, 1993). Examining the transcultural entanglements of images, sounds, media and concepts, and the actors involved in creating, perpetuating or obstructing them, helps us gain a better understanding of the shifts in quality of public (and private) spheres in different moments of historical and regional significance. We argue that putting public spheres into the plural enables us to examine these “entangled publics” that spill into or compete with each other, generating contested concepts and meanings.