HYBRID TALKS: PERFORMANCE OF WORK

The Hybrid Plattform is an initiative of the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University of Berlin, to support projects in research and education in the heart of Campus Charlottenburg, Berlin.

The tenth Hybrid Talks focus on the concept of performance/ power – thus also to say the value of work, and what these terminologies imply in the sciences, in the arts as well as in management will be scrutinized. The Talks will take place in close cooperation with the art, science & business program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude.

There are two ways of approaching a managerial, an artistic, and a physical-scientific performance. On one hand, one may retrospectively regard the accomplished work in form of the final product as evidence for an input of power. In classical physics for instance, power can be calculated by using the formula power = work / time; the energy used in a specific period of time equals the produced power in this period of time. In this respect, the accomplishment is the quantifiable product of the power input, and can thus be calculated in proportion to the work accomplished within a certain period of time. In turn, performance management is about measuring and controlling service provisions and resource requirements. Thus, the terms performance/ power have a calculable and finite, as well as a procedural nature. Insofar, the act of performing itself, the procedural nature of the effort, could also be considered as a form of power.

The question of the quantifiable nature of performance was raised specifically in the arts. In the artistic performance, there is no necessity for an end product, rather the importance of the performative input as a means of gaining knowledge/ insight is highlighted. But how is one to qualify performance if there is no seizable end product? The physical and managerial input is also constituted in the process – it can, however, be recorded in numbers, thus be (objectively) evaluated. How can the value of the work, considering for example the unique labor act and the productive purpose of work, be described as a performance in a physical sense?

The Hybrid Talks aim at promoting mutual inspiration and networking. Representatives of different disciplines meet and elaborate in short presentations of ten to twelve minutes on a topic from their point of view. After the presentations, the participants will have the possibility to talk about and exchange ideas beyond their usual disciplines.

Contributors:

Prof. Dr. Christiane Funken
TU Berlin | Sociology of Media and Gender Studies

Prof. Dr. Jan Kratzer
TU Berlin | Entrepreneurship & Innovationsmanagement

Prof. Dr. Axel Küpper
TU Berlin | Telekom Innovation Laboratories, Service-centric Networking

Maxi Obexer
writer and lecturer, Berlin

Max Schumacher
post theater [new york / berlin / tokyo]

You can find more information here.