Wann: Freitag, 26. April 2024, 20 Uhr 
Wo: Naturhistorisches Museum Main

Vortrag in englischer Sprache

Prof. Dr. Bron Taylor (University of Florida)
Link zur Ankündigung

Der Vortrag ist im Grenzbereich Geistes-/Naturwissenschaften angesiedelt. Der Vortrag wird in englischer Sprache stattfinden. Die Organisation der Veranstaltung liegt in den Händen von Bernhard Gißibl, Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), der im letzten Jahr die studentische Seminarreihe zum Quagga am Museum organisiert hat.

In recent decades museum curators across the world have been fusing art, science, and nature spirituality to promote proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. Many exhibitions, temporary or permanent, invoke and advance nature spiritualities that could be called ‘dark green,’ i.e., they involve animistic perceptions and kinship feelings toward non-human organisms and eco-organicist or “Gaian” worldviews that regard planet Earth as a living, interdependent superorganism. They also typically express notions that nature has intrinsic value as expressed in “biocentric” or “ecocentric” ethics. The presentation will examine exhibitions across Europe to analyze how far they echo longstanding religious and mystical perceptions while enriching and reinforcing them with scientific understandings. It will query the intended audiences which these exhibitions and the curators behind them seek to address, and it will be asked in how far these venues function as shrines and pilgrimage sites for those sharing deep feelings of belonging and connection to nature. Do museum exhibitions have the potential to accelerate the spread of science-based, dark green spiritualities around the world?