On „next code: love“
By Mirjana Selakov [deutsch]

„Love“ is codified and visualized, also brought in the discourses, which means, „Love” is described, represented and being valued. „ „Love” is to be understood as a cultural phenomenon, as well as a code, a discourse, as a procedural practice and an experience.

In western society the proclaimed „Freedom of Love”, which costs an ever increasing number of divorces and broken families, most being done „In name of Love”, refers to one of the highest degree of the „individualization“ of the process of modernism.

On the other side, the non-western and non-Christian defined parts of the world, through the rational socially-economical domination of the family, above all through arranged marriages, through strongly controlled sexual moral and through the public and even violent sanctions of offences against the ruling moral, are trying to keep the „Power of Love” under control.

Nevertheless „Love“ is one of the subjects of rituals, cults, religions, literature, paintings, sculptures, photos, films and other arts.

„next code: love“ examines the codes, discourses and visualizations that formulate the perception, speech and presentations of love. Also the hope of those that miss love or motivate and regulate it, but also the experiences of the persons „being in love” itself.

Visual arts, film, literature, history, the history of arts and scientific disciplines of researching these images will be brought together for discussion.

Possible questions in the project:

-- -- Is the encoding of „love“ gender-specific?
How is „gender” related to the topic of „love“ in patriarchal and male-central models of society and domination? How is this explained by economical, religious or philosophical traditions?

-- -- How is „love” in western or oriental cultures textually codified over the centuries and is brought into the discussion ? Which religious-historical conditions of the encodings and communications are well known to us ? (In Europe: from antique love poems and medieval mine gazing, from love sonatas of the renaissance to the love letters of the romantic period and high culture, as well as the popular cultural love novels to the postmodern deconstruction of love and sexuality)

-- -- In the visual arts and the visual media „love“ is one of the central subjects. Paintings and images in arts, in the popular culture, in film and television have substantially influenced and are still influencing, our awareness of love.
What marks the relation between these perceptions of love, discourses and social practices, or in other words: How far are utopias and the ideal presentations of love present in the art and/or in the visual media? And how do such presentations affect the discourses and the identity of men and women?
Which conditioned and gender specific positions on the topics of love and desire are constructed and/or deconstructed through representation in the arts and the visual media?

-- -- Oral encodings of „love“: How is „love“ brought up as a topic in spoken language, idioms, popular songs, rhymes, but also in the current TV-Talk-shows, that are both noticeably and frequently treating the subjects and problems of private relationships?

-- -- „Foreign“ and „exotic“ love models
Cultures, in which sexual desire knows hardly any restrictions and
Cultures with a higher quality of appreciated forms of love, like the romantic love in the Christian west.

-- How is „love“ in non-western and non-Christian, but part of the capitalistic global society, codified, practiced and learned? Especially in the large cities, which are the centers of capitalistic globalization?

-- How is „love“ there related to the religious (e.g. Islamic) and world -political orders, but also to increased consumerisum ? Can we talk about export and import of the western „love concept“ as a part of a cultural globalization?

-- How does the relation between the encodings, the visualizations and the discourses around „love” and the experiences of the persons „being in love” itself, match together?
The differences between code, image, discourse on the one hand and practice and experience on the other hand. Does the reduction to text and images, bring a simplification of „love” too?

[Selakov: Home]

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