Literature as Utopia: Spaces of Alterity in West German Postcolonial and Science-Fiction Literature after Sixty-Eight

The dominant narrative surrounding West German literature of the seventies maintains that following the collapse of the student movement around 1968, the collective utopian aspirations of this generation gave way to the loss thereof in the new emphasis on private, political subjectivity in the following decade. Literature as Utopia challenges such commonplace accounts by examining spatial alterity in postcolonial and science fiction literature of the 1970s written by Nicolas Born, Hubert Fichte, Alexander Kluge, and the anonymous cult writer P.M. This study reassess the currency of utopia after 1968--both the good place and no place--by probing these authors' works using post-Adornian aesthetic theories that emerged concurrently in West Germany in the seventies, namely those of Karl Heinz Bohrer, Hans Robert Jauß, Wolfgang Iser, Dieter Wellershoff, Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge. In addition, my dissertation traffics in the larger intellectual history surrounding the 1970s by bringing my primary texts into dialogue with theorists outside of Germany such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Susan Sontag, Clifford Geertz, Henri Lefebvre, and others in order to assess the ways in which the literature of this period begins to respond to theory. In this dissertation, I argue that this post-revolutionary literature was particularly adept at opening textual spaces in which the idea of utopia could regain a foothold as a socio-critical force after its demise just a few years earlier.Doctor of Philosoph

Robot Learning from Human Demonstrations for Human-Robot Synergy

Human-robot synergy enables new developments in industrial and assistive robotics research. In recent years, collaborative robots can work together with humans to perform a task, while sharing the same workplace. However, the teachability of robots is a crucial factor, in order to establish the role of robots as human teammates. Robots require certain abilities, such as easily learning diversified tasks and adapting to unpredicted events. The most feasible method, which currently utilizes human teammate to teach robots how to perform a task, is the Robot Learning from Demonstrations (RLfD). The goal of this method is to allow non-expert users to a programa a robot by simply guiding the robot through a task. The focus of this thesis is on the development of a novel framework for Robot Learning from Demonstrations that enhances the robotsa abilities to learn and perform the sequences of actions for object manipulation tasks (high-level learning) and, simultaneously, learn and adapt the necessary trajectories for object manipulation (low-level learning). A method that automatically segments demonstrated tasks into sequences of actions is developed in this thesis. Subsequently, the generated sequences of actions are employed by a Reinforcement Learning (RL) from human demonstration approach to enable high-level robot learning. The low-level robot learning consists of a novel method that selects similar demonstrations (in case of multiple demonstrations of a task) and the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) method. The developed robot learning framework allows learning from single and multiple demonstrations. As soon as the robot has the knowledge of a demonstrated task, it can perform the task in cooperation with the human. However, the need for adaptation of the learned knowledge may arise during the human-robot synergy. Firstly, Interactive Reinforcement Learning (IRL) is employed as a decision support method to predict the sequence of actions in real-time, to keep the human in the loop and to enable learning the usera s preferences. Subsequently, a novel method that modifies the learned Gaussian Mixture Model (m-GMM) is developed in this thesis. This method allows the robot to cope with changes in the environment, such as objects placed in a different from the demonstrated pose or obstacles, which may be introduced by the human teammate. The modified Gaussian Mixture Model is further used by the Gaussian Mixture Regression (GMR) to generate a trajectory, which can efficiently control the robot. The developed framework for Robot Learning from Demonstrations was evaluated in two different robotic platforms: a dual-arm industrial robot and an assistive robotic manipulator. For both robotic platforms, small studies were performed for industrial and assistive manipulation tasks, respectively. Several Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) methods, such as kinesthetic teaching, gamepad or a hands-freea via head gestures, were used to provide the robot demonstrations. The a hands-freea HRI enables individuals with severe motor impairments to provide a demonstration of an assistive task. The experimental results demonstrate the potential of the developed robot learning framework to enable continuous humana robot synergy in industrial and assistive applications

The Dialectical Object: John Heartfield 1915 - 1933

In 1933, after the election of the National Socialists in Germany, John Heartfield fled Berlin for Prague, leaving behind the significant intervention in contemporary cultural and social discourses that his photomontages for the Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung comprised. While this body of work, produced from 1930, has been understood as Heartfield's master work, it has also often been understood as straightforward "popular front" propaganda and the accomplished embodiment of the "dialectical" method that were significant aspects of the cultural policy of the official left. There have been few attempts to work through the formally innovative aspects of Heartfield's particular "dialectical" method, and more broadly speaking, little critical consideration of the complex engagement of social realism that characterizes the A-I Z photomontages. Taking as a point of departure Heartfield's presence in institutional and scholarly discourses, and adopting an approach that is thematic rather than chronologically exhaustive, this dissertation investigates his collaborative engagements of performance, theatrical production, film, and the newly-emergent "photo book" to argue for a more nuanced treatment of the A-I Z photomontages than has been the case. Critical writing focused on the decade between Heartfield's Berlin Dadaist affiliations and his work for the Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung has been conspicuously absent, and his work with film and theater have not been considered in relation to his photomontage practice of the later 1920s. Drawing on the theorizations of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze regarding subjectivity and aesthetic engagement, the formation of cultural collectives, and processes of meaning production, this dissertation will argue that Heartfield's involvement in specifically performative cultural formations is central to understanding the advanced photomontage practice he developed, even as this orientation also rendered his intervention in the modes and institutions of cultural production incomprehensible to the various historical paradigms, left and otherwise, of modern art. In my conclusion, I draw Heartfield back into the present to consider the import and resonance of his interventions for contemporary interests and practices. Bringing recent theorizations of the public sphere in relationship to investigations of subversive subjectivities and models of meaning production formed around the "event," my dissertation argues for an expanded notion of aesthetic reception, critical realism, and "political" art

Creativity, Courage, Chances. Festschrift zu Ehren von Karin S. Amos

Creativity, Courage, Chances: Diese drei Schlagworte kennzeichnen die Forschung der Tübinger Erziehungswissenschaftlerin Karin Amos. Die Beiträge der Festschrift nehmen darauf Bezug, indem sie erziehungswissenschaftliches Denken als eminent relationale und materielle Praxis herausstellen oder den Menschen der Pädagogik auf neue Art und Weise zu (über)schreiben und zu lesen versuchen, Narrationen und das Erzählen bislang unbekannter Geschichten zur Theoriebildung in der Pädagogik nutzbar machen oder sich der Analyse der machtvollen institutionellen und organisationalen Ordnungsbildungen im internationalen Kontext widmen. Auf diese Art vereint der Sammelband interdisziplinäre Perspektiven, die grundlegende Praktiken des (erziehungs-)wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens aufgreifen und an Karin Amos’ Forschung anschließen

The face of the German house : modernization and cultural anxiety in twentieth-century architectural photographs

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-261).This dissertation proposes that architectural photography-which became an independent genre in twentieth century Germany-was a primary route along which the cultural and political conflicts of modernization were addressed within the contested space of public discussion, and that these photographs helped produce the political and cultural changes driving major developments in German architecture and urbanism since the 1920s. My study explores the history of the representational and disciplinary ambiguity between the house photograph and the portrait, with particular attention to political and social connotations in the work of four German practitioners whose photographic oeuvres are more closely related than is commonly understood: Paul Schultze-Naumburg (1896-1949), Albert Renger-Patzsch (1897-1966), August Sander (1876-1964), and Bernd Becher (1931-2007).My study of these figures' architectural photographs highlights their participation in broader debates on architecture and public space, specifically through the overarching metaphor of the "face" of the German building. I argue that the work of these photographers, as well as their circumstances of production, epitomize the concurrent and colliding forces of modernity and industrialization.(cont.) The understanding of the historical precedents and construction of the genre of German architectural photographs demonstrates the contentious issues surfacing in these four figures' work: Paul Schultze-Naumburg's obsession with facial and racial characteristics in portrait as well as architecture photography, Albert Renger-Patzsch's modernist attempt to purge these unsavory ideas by professionalizing architecture photography into an "objective" practice, the analogies to caricature and taxonomy seen in the ubiquitous systems of identification by August Sander, and, finally, the practice of Bernd Becher whose use of the rhetoric of standardization in his photographs of houses appears as a postmodern acknowledgment of the hegemonic achievement of modernization-of both Germany and architectural photography. Spanning the 20th century, the work of these four figures is anchored in a deep anxiety regarding the pace and culture of modernization in Germany; this dissertation challenges the boundaries set up between their respective bodies of work and charts a new history of architectural photography in Germany as a driving force of the volatile history of modernity.by Kirsten Weiss.Ph.D

gewohnt: un/common

Neue Konzepte für unser Zusammenleben sind dringend erforderlich, um auf die wachsende gesellschaftliche Ungleichheit, die Auflösung klassischer Arbeits- und Familienstrukturen oder die Ausprägung vielfältiger sozialer Beziehungsmuster zu antworten. GAM.16 versteht Raumbildungen als durchlässigen Rahmen für sozialräumliche Strukturen in architektonischer, soziologischer und kultureller Hinsicht und möchte das Bewusstsein für gemeinschaftliche Ressourcen wieder stärker ins Zentrum des gesellschaftspolitischen Diskurses rücken. Unter dem Titel „gewohnt: un/common" plädiert GAM.16 für gemeinschaftlich orientiertes Wohnen und stellt kollaborative und koproduktive Organisationskonzepte für das Wohnen als räumliche Praxis vor

Industrieforschung und Forschungspolitik: Staatliche Steuerungspotentiale in der Informationstechnik

Ist der Staat in der Lage, Forschung und Entwicklung in der Industrie gezielt zu beeinflussen? Kann er die technologische Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Industrie oder die Genese technischer Risiken steuern? In der vorliegenden empirischen Untersuchung wird am Beispiel der Informationstechnik versucht, die Steuerbarkeit industrieller FuE-Aktivitäten und die Steuerungsfähigkeit staatlicher Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik systematisch zu ermitteln. Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, daß das staatliche Stuerungspotential im Bereich der Informationstechnik erheblich abgenommen hat.Tabellen und Abbildungen Abkürzungen Kapitel 1 Einleitung: Steuerungstheoretischer Rahmen Edgar Grande und Jürgen Häusler 1 Industrieforschung als Objekt staatlicher Steuerung 2 "Ökonomisierung" oder "Politisierung"? - Politikwissenschaftliche Hypothesen zur Rolle des Staates in der Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik 3 Steuerungstheoretischer Rahmen: Staatliche Steuerungspotentiale in der Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik 3.1 Funktionale Differenzierung und gesellschaftliche Modernisierung 3.2 Funktionale Differenzierung und staatliche Souveränität 3.3 Staatliche Steuerbarkeit gesellschaftlicher Teilsysteme 3.4 Funktionale Differenzierung und organisatorische Ambivalenz 3.5 Intersystemische und interorganisatorische Beziehungen 3.6 Staatliche Steuerungspotentiale 4 Anlage der Untersuchung Kapitel 2 Problemfeld Informationstechnik: Technologische Entwicklungen, Wettbewerbsbedingungen und industrielle Steuerungserwartungen Edgar Grande 1 Einleitung 2 Technologische Entwicklungen und industrielle Wettbewerbsfähigkeit 2.1 Mikroelektronik 2.2 Datenverarbeitung 2.3 Telekommunikation 3 Steuerungserwartungen der informationstechnischen Industrie Kapitel 3 Staatliche Steuerungsfähigkeit: Akteure und Aktivitäten in der Informationstechnik Edgar Grande Strukturbedingungen staatlichen Handelns in der Informationstechnik-Politik 1.1 Institutionelle Fragmentierung 1.2 Pluralität der Instrumente und Politikfelder 2 Nationale Aktivitäten 2.1 Staatliche Akteure und administrative Organisation in der nationalen Informationstechnik-Politik 2.2 Die Forschungsförderung des Bundes 2.2.1 Datenverarbeitung 2.2.2 Mikroelektronik 2.2.3 Kommunikationstechnik 2.2.4 Industrielle Automatisierung 2.3 Staatliche Investitionen und öffentliche Beschaffungspolitik 2.3.1 Binnenkomplexität als Problem: Die öffentliche Verwaltung 2.3.2 Autonomie als Problem: Die Deutsche Bundespost 2.4 Steuerungsdefizite nationaler Informationstechnik-Politik 3 Europäische Aktivitäten 3.1 Forschungsförderung durch die Europäische Gemeinschaft 3.1.1 Rechtsgrundlagen, Entwicklung und Förderprinzipien 3.1.2 Das ESPRIT-Programm Programmgenese Ziele und Schwerpunkte Kooperationsanreize und -grenzen Programmverwaltung Verteilung der Fördermittel Deutsche Beteiligung 3.1.3 Das RACE-Programm Programmgenese Ziele und Schwerpunkte Programmverwaltung Verteilung der Fördermittel Deutsche Beteiligung 3.2 Die EUREKA-Initiative 3.2.I Entstehung, Organisation und Organisationsprinzipien 3.2.2 EUREKA und die nationale Förderpolitik 3.2.3 Die Praxis von EUREKA: Das Beispiel JESSI Die komplexe Programmstruktur Die komplexe Organisationsstruktur Die komplizierte Konfliktstruktur Die Konsequenz: Das suboptimale Ergebnis Kapitel 4 Administrative Interessenvermittlung: Interorganisatorische Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Industrie in der Informationstechnik-Politik Edgar Grande 1 Einleitung 2 Die Organisation industrieller Interessen in der Informationstechnik-Politik 3 Institutionelle Formen administrativer Interessenvermittlung 4 Struktureller Pluralismus: Das System administrativer Interessenvermittlung in der Informationstechnik-Politik Kapitel 5 Industrielle Steuerbarkeit: Organisation und Eigendynamiken industrieller Forschung in der Informationstechnik Jürgen Häusler 1 Einleitung 2 Funktionen und Strukturprobleme von Forschung in Unternehmen 2.1 Die Multifunktionalität der Industrieforschung 2.2 Ambivalente Leistungserwartungen und hohe Entscheidungsunsicherheit 2.3 Organisations- und Allokationsprobleme 3 Industrielle Aktivitäten: Das Forschungspotential der informationstechnischen Industrie in der Bundesrepublik 4 Forschungsmanagement und FuE-Organisation im Unternehmen 4.1 Organisationsstrukturen 4.2 Finanzierungsmodi 4.3 Entscheidungsprozesse 4.4 Die Differenzierung des unternehmensinternen Forschungssystems - Eine Zwischenbilanz 4.5 Interne Steuerungsprobleme und externe Steuerungschancen 5 FuE-Kooperationen zwischen Unternehmen 5.1 Zwischenbetriebliche FuE-Kooperationen in der Informationstechnik - Eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme 5.2 Nutzen und Grenzen industrieller FuE-Kooperationen 5.3 Das Management von FuE-Kooperationen 5.4 Industrielle FuE-Kooperation und staatliche Intervention 6 Die Internationalisierung industrieller FuE-Aktivitäten 6.1 Strukturen und Motive 6.2 Die Internationalisierung der FuE durch die bundesdeutsche Industrie 6.3 Die internationalen FuE-Aktivitäten bundesdeutscher Informationstechnik-Unternehmen 6.4 Die FuE-Aktivitäten ausländischer Informationstechnik- Unternehmen in der Bundesrepublik 6.5 Probleme und Grenzen der Internationalisierung von FuE 6.6 Internationalisierung der FuE-Aktivitäten und staatliche Steuerung Kapitel 6 Schluß: Staatliche Steuerungspotentiale in der Informationstechnik-Politik Edgar Grande 1 Einleitung 2 Kontingenzen industrieller Steuerbarkeit 3 Politisch-institutionelle Grenzen staatlicher Steuerungsfähigkeit 4 Die Erosion des staatlichen Steuerungspotentials in der Informationstechnik-Politik 4.1 Die neue Architektur des Staates 4.2 Die neue Organisation der Ökonomie 4.3 Die neue Unverbindlichkeit: Form- und Funktionswandel interorganisatorischer Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Industrie Literatu