Julian Jochmaring

The aim of the doctoral project is the systematic media-philosophical elaboration of the concept of a “negative ambientity”. In this way, the connection between two closely linked discussions of current media-theoretical and philosophical research is sought: On the one hand, the turning away from an analysis of individual media in favor of a turn to media environments, media ecologies, networks, relations and coexistence, and on the other hand, the return of anthropological questions and a criticism of the Anthropocentrism. If references to ecological concepts in current media theory often do not do justice to the claim of posthuman thinking, since they tend to shorten environmental aspects to systemic-technical principles, then alternatively both the attention to the historical genesis of the environmental concept is sharpened, as well as the Medial structure of environments as a question of the modality of the relationship between subject and surrounding, the question of the materiality of the surrounding, as well as the implied consequences for the relationship between human and non-human living beings.

In order to redeem the potential of a media philosophy of the environment, it is therefore necessary to emphasize the unavailability of environments and to limit the control of a subject with the power to act over their respective environment. Approaches to this can be developed based on the reception of the biologist Jakob von Uexküll by Martin Heidegger, Giorgio Agamben and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In connection with Luce Irigaray’s deconstructive Heidegger reading, three elements of negative ambience are outlined. It becomes clear that the environmental aspect as an existential condition of life and the mediality of the environmental cannot be separated from each other and that human and non-human living beings are intertwined on a level of post-humanistic community.

Studied media and cultural studies at the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf and European media studies at the University and FH Potsdam. Freelance author for the daily newspaper “taz” and the monthly magazine “De: bug”.

Publications

„Das Unbehagen in der (Medien-)Ökologie. Relationalität, Posthumanismus und die Negativität des Umweltlichen“, in: Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie, Bd. 2, Nr. 1, Berlin 2016.

„Im gläsernen Gehäuse. Zur Medialität der Umwelt bei Uexküll und Merleau-Ponty“. In: Christina Bartz, Timo Kaerlein, Monique Miggelbrink, Christoph Neubert (Hg.): Gehäuse. Mediale Einkapselungen, Paderborn 2017, S. 253-270.

„Streuen/Strahlen. Negative Ambientalität bei Merleau-Ponty“. In: Lorenz Engell, Katerina Krtilova, Christiane Voss (Hg.): Medienanthropologische Szenen. Die conditio humana im Zeitalter der Medien, München 2018.

Lectures

„Verfügen oder Enteignen? Zum widerständigen Potential negativer Umweltlichkeit“, Sommerakademie Teilhabe Macht Kritik. Zur Widerständigkeit relationalen Denkens, Universität Konstanz, 31.07.-03.08.2017.

„Negative Ambientalität. Umweltlichkeit zwischen Medienphilosophie und neuen Realismen“, XXIV. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sektion Medienphilosophie, 27. September 2017.

„Luft vergessen. Materialität und Medialität des Umweltlichen bei Luce Irigaray“,Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen, 05. Oktober 2017.