DISE020 Guest Lecturer Course (Martin Reverman)

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
doc. MgA. David Drozd, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Šárka Havlíčková Kysová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. MgA. David Drozd, Ph.D.
Department of Theatre Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Karolína Stehlíková, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Theatre Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 17 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Syllabus
  • THE THEATRE OF SCIENCE
  • Martin Revermann, University of Toronto
  • The recent pandemic has made it abundantly clear that scientific insights need to be communicated effectively so that the general public understands and ‘buys in’ by changing its behavioural practices collectively. Persuasive social theatre and suggestive performance techniques are crucial parts of such scientific communication strategies. In other words: the sciences need the theatre! This need will only grow in the future, as the vast majority of key sciences in the 21st century will be ‘embodied sciences’, i.e. sciences which affect the human body (individually and collectively) in very concrete ways: genetics-based medicine (including individually tailored vaccine treatments); environmental sciences; and Artificial Intelligence which will re-configure the relationship between the human body and its non-human counterparts. I will discuss how in some (famous) scientific contexts theatre-and-performance art has been utilized to communicate novel and paradigm-changing insights. This include scientific experiments which have the character of ‘science spectacles’ and can fruitfully be analysed along the lines of theatre and performance (Foucault’s pendulum being a particularly notable example). In the main part of the lecture I will focus on the other side of this equation, i.e. how the theatre as an embodied communicative medium continues to interact with the sciences. Four key aspects will be considered: the scientist as a problematic hero; science and religion; science and power; and the relationship between science and language. To illustrate my points I will draw, to various degrees, on several plays, spanning 2500 years of thinking with and through the medium theatre: Aristophanes’ Clouds (423 BCE) , Karel Čapek’ Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920) and Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo (1955/56).
  • The topic will be presented in series of four lectures:
  • 10th of April (Wednesday) 17.00 - first lecture
  • 11th of April (Thursday) 12.00 - second lecture
  • 12th of April (Friday) - 10.00 third lecture + 14.00 closing session
  • Lecture room G:01
Teaching methods
lectures, discussion
Assessment methods
Assesment is given upon participation on all four lectures.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: in blocks.
General note: V angličtině. Pro získání kreditu je vyžadována účast na přednášce a semináři a dílčí práce. In English. Attendance at lecture and seminar and an written essay are required to obtain credit.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2024/DISE020