Dealing with Fear

Welcome to this blog which will report about ongoing projects on the topic »Dealing with Fear« by fellows, jurors and guests of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.

The Akademie operates an international residency program supporting young artists, scholars, scientists and business people as a public foundation. For the eleventh generation of fellows as well as work and research in the years 2007 to 2009, the current jury chair Philip Ursprung initiated the topic »Dealing with Fear« for an interdisciplinary dialog:

»Fear of unemployment, natural catastrophes, terror and illness is interwoven with everyday life in today’s industrialized nations. Faith in the future, which inspired people after World War II, has been replaced with a diffuse fear of the future and change.

What are the causes for this? Is fear the downside of the economic and military globalization process, an indication for its brutality and exclusivity? Do rulers stoke and exploit fear to keep societies in compliance with ideological pressure? How do insurers, investors and economists – the administrators of risk – react to fear? How do scientists deal with fear? How do artists, architects, musicians, filmmakers and poets articulate this phenomenon? And how can this dynamic be analyzed and localized from a cultural and historic perspective?« (Philip Ursprung)

Based on this central topic, events like workshops, symposia, lectures, exhibitions, etc. will be organized and books will be published. »Dealing with Fear« is the theme of a collective activity to which we invite all interested people.