Flows. Lubricants of theory-building

• Applicant: Dr. Mathias Denecke
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 552970143

Flows are appealing. Authors from a wide range of research fields specifically use flow-talk to make the present comprehensible in language. Our initial observation is that cultural and media studies scholars have recently been using metaphors and concepts of flow and fluidity to develop large-scale diagnoses of a comprehensively networked world. This world is characterized by the continuous mobility of data, people, capital, resources and material. Flows, however, are more than just rhetorical accessories. They are a resource for theory-building that changes how we experience and understand the present. The planned network examines the extent to which these are lubricants for theory-building. We would like to connect not only to present-day diagnoses organized via flow semantics, but also to the criticism that has not yet been systematically developed. Descriptions of a world in flux often remain vague, adopt management-speak, engage in a technology fetish and neglect social relations. On this basis, the researchers want to explore metaphors and concepts that are directed against assumptions of a world in flow. The focus is on different semantics, such as the sticky, viscous and slimy, leaks and turbulence as well as the oceanic. The potentials and limits of these semantics to organize diagnoses of our present are examined by the planned network in three research areas: in 1) historical re-readings of a world in flow, in 2) cultural logics of a flowing present, and in 3) newly arranged relationships of humans in (in)animat environments. Based at the Institute for Media Studies at Ruhr-University Bochum, the planned network involves researchers from performance studies, cultural studies, and art.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Alisa Kronberger