Inga Reimers, Tactfulness: An Experimental Evening on the Non-visual, 2013, Hamburg

Inga Reimers,Taktsinn. Ein experimenteller Abend zum nicht-visuellen, 2013, Hamburg

 

The invitation to Tactfulness^1: An Experimental Evening on the non-visual was the starting point of Inga Reimers’ series of experimental settings that researched collective eating as a site of knowledge production. This evening represented the first attempt at approaching the theme of the `non-visual` in research, art and everyday life. On the other hand, Reimers was interested in the format of a research dinner: What kind of knowledge can be produced in the setting of a dinner? The feast served as a familiar performative framework in which the guests were encouraged to exchange ideas about the `non-visual` through toasts and food.

The focus of the dinner fluctuated between subjective sensual perception and the collective experience of eating, listening and discussing. The elusive ‘non-visual’ was discussed with regard to specific examples in the individual lectures. Food played a significant role in creating the atmosphere of the event that was otherwise characterised by its unplanned and incidental nature: For example, the daylight in the room decreased slightly with each course and table speech until, at the end, for dessert, the room was bathed in a mixture of dusk and blue spotlights. In order to experience forms of the `non-visual` such as taste, smell and noise, a feeling of immediacy was produced through attention to the incidental, such as accidentally touching or looking for the right words for a feeling that is generated when listening or tasting food.

 

Researchers: Inga Reimers

Co-researchers: Siegfried Saerberg, Johannes Müske, Angelika Leisering, Alexa Färber, Gesa Ziemer, Janina Kriszio, Hilke Berger, Lisa Wiedemann, Alice Ott, Stefanie Lorey, Sebastian Matthias, Elise von Bernstorff, Kerstin Evert, Marco Reyes Loredo, Sibylle Peters, Frederike Neißkenwirth, Lena Urich, Bernhard Urich, Regula Valérie Burri

Participants: Edith Boxberger, Wolf Maurer, Carlotta Hack, Kristin Siebert, Werner Frömming

Collaboration: Universität der Nachbarschaften, Lene Benz

Formats: Laboratory Series, Improbable Assembly

http://taktsinn.org/dokumentation

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¹ The original German title was Taktsinn: Ein experimenteller Abend zum Nicht-Visuellen. The closest English translation of the unusual term Taktsinn is the one provided here, ‘tactfulness’. However, the title plays with a similarity to the more common German term Tastsinn, which would be translated as sense of touch.