Shifting Baselines
Mednarodni projekt v koprodukciji Društva Nagib, Goethejevega inštituta Ljubljana, ArgeKultur Salzburg (AT) in HochX München (DE)
Schedule
The Shifting Baselines project observes and reflects upon transformational processes, describing them as relationships between perceptions, values and patterns of action on the one hand and as a changing environment on the other. Social psychologist Harald Welzer explains this relationship as that of two sliding reference points, as, for example, two trains traveling on parallel tracks at the same speed, which therefore seem to stand still relatively to one another. The processes of change transforming social framework conditions are often not recognized by the people or societies affected by them, because at the same time - and just as unknowingly - the perceptions, values and patterns of action of these people or societies change as well. Consequently, even historically relevant events or changes are often not recognized or dealt with at the moment of their occurrence.
The term 'shifting baselines' originally comes from natural science (marine and fisheries research). It was particularly well received and researched by the sociological discourse and then transferred to social science contexts and culture. It has been discussed and applied in various fields and disciplines, such as historical research (e.g. in relation to the rapid change of values in the time of National Socialism and the emergence of the Holocaust), ecology (climate change and species extinction as ecological and social crises), the field of political science (the change in the relationship between freedom and security after 9/11) or the economy (the change in the monetary policy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis).
This first research event of the Shifting Baselines project deals with the act of the common line of questioning: What are the 'shifting baselines' to which we are subjected at the present moment? What effects will become apparent in the future? How can we recognize, visualize and respond adequately today?
A group of curators - Petra Hazabent, Mona Schwitzer, Sebastian Linz and Philipp Krüger - is hosting an investigative research event to open up the space for "shifting baselines" to emerge in different forms by discussing and sharing stories of (local) people, experiencing and researching the phenomena also through different artistic constellations (e.g. sound installation, visual and design participatory exhibition, performative lecture…).
