Berit Fischer (http://www.beritfischer.org), a recent WSA PhD graduate, is curating an exciting three-day live online event (10-12 Dec 2020), Liminal Encounters. Details are below; registration and full details of the programme are at this link.
With: Aouefa Amoussouvi, Lisa Biscaro Balle, Genevieve Costello, Maayan Danoch, Seyed Mohsen Hazrati, Giuliana Kiersz, Solælune (Nardeen Galuaa & Alieldin Ayman), Sofie Verraest, Valentina Sciarra
Curated by:Â Berit Fischer
Liminoid Encounters explores apertures for meta-explorations, for the beyond and beneath, for the interface between the fixed and the finished, for ambiguous states of becoming. As a live digital event, Liminoid Encounters not only responds by its very format to the necessity of operating during the current pandemic, but equally seeks to address the possibilities and limits of the medium in which it operates. Can we »humanize« the technology we use; can its algorithmic binary codes do justice to the multisensorial and multidimensional complexities of human existence? How can we act in the space between the personal and the collective in order to maintain both human and supra-human spheres? The current Covid-19 zoonosis is a prime example of an event which underscores the delicate vulnerabilities and deeply interwoven interdependencies of human existence and co-existence with non-human agents.
The notion of the »liminoid« dates back to cultural anthropologist Victor Turner (1974). Critically situated in the tradition of structural functionalism as an anthropological tool used to analyze tribal communities, in particular, Turner sought to challenge the dominant structural positions of his time, moving toward the idea of anti-structure and the informal in the social life of a modern and industrialized society. His concept subsisted its modern and anthropological origins as a philosophical idea to grasp states of emergence, heterotopian and transitional modes of flows, the »betwixt and between« (Turner).
Liminoid Encounters offers a diverse range of transdisciplinary approaches and live experiments – from poetic readings, dance and screen performances, to writing, conversation and telepathy gatherings – that exceed Turner’s modern anthropological idea, advancing toward one of contemporary situatedness. Today’s precarious planetary and social existence, in particular, governed as it is by power-seeking, exploitative neo-liberal and cognitive capitalism, can be seen as a deep liminoid transitional state that urgently demands a contemplation of »what comes next«. A hopeful aperture to re-imagine alternative futures, a shift toward a genuine, more just and mindful emergence of social co-existence and responsible planetary guardianship.
In the run-up to the event, a three-week Ecosystems of Knowledge  on the notion of the liminoid also took place. Ecosystems of Knowledge is a platform created by Akademie Schloss Solitude for fellows to work and reflect collectively on specific topics, openly sharing practices and processes of knowledge. In the dialogical discursive sessions, further aspects of the liminoid were explored and discussed. The three iterations were conceptionally fuelled by Atelier Ad Hoc Architecture (Maria Daria Oancea & George Marinescu), Olivia Berkowicz & Carla Garlaschi and Valentina Sciarra.