Werner Boschmann, M.A.

 

Curriculum

Werner Boschmann studied comparative literature and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Zurich. He completed his M.A. with a thesis on the poetics of knowledge in Alexander Bogdanov's universal science "Tektology". He has been a research associate at the Institute for East European Studies at the Free University of Berlin since November 2022. His PhD project "Organisation and Transfer: Configurations of Energetic Bodies in Soviet Avant-Gardes" examines how concepts of energy circulating between science and art contributed to new models of the body in different discourses and practices. He is a member of the PhD programme "Epistemologies of Aesthetic Practices", a cooperation of the universities of Zurich.

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Research project: Organization and Transfer: Configurations of Energetic Bodies in the Soviet Avant-Gardes

My dissertation examines the reciprocal relationship between energy and body discourses in the early Soviet Union. The point of departure is the epistemic shift from a mechanistic to an energetic worldview and conception of the human subject. This development transformed understandings of labor and material, artistic expressions, and notably, bodies and their environments. My guiding thesis posits that these diverse configurations of energetic bodies facilitated new intersections of knowledge forms, material and aesthetic practices, as well as utopian projections of the avant-garde movements. Through case studies positioned at the interstices of psychology, labor science, painting, and theater, this dissertation aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the epistemic transformations that emerged amidst the increasing significance of energy and force concepts in the early twentieth century.