Middelhoff: Natural Force (completed)
Dr. Frederike Middelhoff: Natural Force. On the Cultural History of a Figure of Thought
The project explores the conceptual and representational history of what has been called 'natural force' since the 17th century and continues to have an impact up to the present, e.g. in the context of particle physics, in the form of explanatory narratives for devastating 'natural catastrophes' or in advertising for green electricity and vitamin tablets.
The investigation's point of departure is the observation that, since the early modern age, reference has been made to the forces of nature not only in physical-mathematical, but also in medical, natural-historical/biological, (socio-)economic, philosophical, and anthropological discussions, as well as in aesthetic theory and literary fiction.
The concept of natural force has always been characterized by two peculiarities: On the one hand, both scientific and metaphysical theorems of a double indeterminate ('nature'/'force') are bundled. The term 'force of nature' can then be understood as both a divine creative power and an impulse arising from 'the elements'. But most of all, 'natural force' takes the form of a heuristic model concept, which is supposed to explain the origin of changes in non-human bodies; furthermore, it is negotiated as an innate (re-)generative capacity, which is held responsible for the (psycho-)physical development of organisms.
On the other hand, the composition of 'nature' and 'force' intensifies the medial a priori that characterizes each term as fundamentally in need of explication and representation: Natural force is not as such, but - if ever - can only be grasped on the basis of the sensually perceptible expression of a change of state, the cause of which is then sought in the play of forces of a historically contingent conception of 'nature'. (Written) language, numbers, graphs and pictures therefore configure the (non-)knowledge of the forces of nature.
Against the background of these tensions, the project investigates from a perspective of the history of culture and knowledge the cultural presence and aesthetic representation, the rhetorical mediation and medial transformation as well as the strategies of economization and politicization of the concepts of natural forces from the 17th to the 21st century.