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VERSION:2.0
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X-WR-CALNAME:German Studies Lecture Series: The Virtual\, the Actual\, and 
 the Real
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260722T144340Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_47632085700988
DTSTART:20241112T200000Z
DTEND:20241112T211500Z
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Jan Soeffner\n\nThings are getting more and more unrea
 l. Fact-checking can barely dissimulate the decline of a shared political 
 reality\; the economy virtualizes assets and currencies\; formerly realist
  market participants are simulated and manipulated by behavioral predictio
 n\; avatars help users find ‘truer’ selves than they would in real lif
 e\; user-interfaces make us interact with interlocutors who do not exist a
 s humans\; the automation of intelligence is beginning to emancipate knowl
 edge from realist subjects…\n\nTo understand the overarching “uncanny 
 valley” that this de-realizing of reality leaves behind\, my talk examin
 es it from the vantage point of two centuries ago. It draws on Goethe’s 
 Faust I\, a drama that reflects two decisive thresholds in the development
  of modern realism: the renaissance setting superimposed by the time of or
 igin of the play (1772-1808). From his opening monologue on\, Faust goes a
 gainst the realist grain. He turns to a) the seemingly outdated order of r
 enaissance Natural Magic (merged with 18th century esotericism) and b) an 
 even more outdated realm of the deed “Tat”\, that can best be understo
 od against a medieval background. The tragedy thereby triangulates modern 
 Reality with Virtuality and Actuality. My talk traces this triangulation a
 nd pushes it towards the analysis of our unreal reality.\n\nRSVP
GEO:37.427405;-122.1697
LOCATION:Building 260\, Pigott Hall\, Room 216
SUMMARY:German Studies Lecture Series: The Virtual\, the Actual\, and the R
 eal
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.stanford.edu/event/german-studies-lecture-seri
 es-jan-soeffner
CATEGORIES:Lecture/Presentation/Talk
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