Whole Earth Talk #3: Andreas Weber (Germany)

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents Whole Earth Talk #3: Andreas Weber (Germany) livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Thursday 20 April 2023 at 9:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11:30 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 5:30 p.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 18:30 CEST (Berlin, UTC +2).

Join us for a Whole Earth Conversation with Andreas Weber (Germany) about the new role theatre and performance can and should play in the new age of the Anthropocene, a geological era shaped by humans rather than by nature. We ask how the significant symbolic, imaginary, and real space of theatre can help artists and audiences realize that a contemporary theatre and performance practice can no longer just represents interhuman conflicts. How can we raise the necessary and urgent awareness to include a planetary consciousness about animals, plants, viruses, the atmosphere, as well as the “critical zone” thirty feet above and below the surface of the Earth in contemporary theatre and performance?

Andreas Weber is a biologist, philosopher, and nature writer. He has degrees in marine biology and cultural studies, having collaborated with theoretical biologist Francisco Varela in Paris. Andreas’s work is focusing on a reevaluation of our understanding of living organisms. He is proposing to understand organisms as subjects and hence the biosphere as a meaning-creating and poetic reality. Accordingly, Andreas holds that an economy inspired by nature should not be designed as a mechanistic optimization machine, but rather as an ecosystem that transforms mutual sharing of matter and energy. Andreas has put forth his ideas in several books and is contributing to major German magazines and journals, such as GEO, National Geographic, Die Zeit, and Greenpeace magazine. His latest books are Enlivenment. Toward a Poetics for the Anthropocene (MIT Press, 2019) and Sharing Life: The Ecopolitics of Reciprocity (Boell Foundation, 2020). He teaches at the University of the Arts, Berlin and at the Università delle Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, Italy. Andreas lives in Berlin and Italy.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.