Mia Hallmanns, M.A.

Mia Hallmanns conducts transdisciplinary research at the intersection of cultural studies, urban studies and east asian studies. From 2013 to 2017, she studied Media Culture at the Bauhaus University Weimar and integrated 1.5 years of Chinese language studies in Taipei. Afterwards, she studied Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg and finally Chinese Politics and Society at the University of Würzburg with a Master's thesis on the local discourse of sustainable urban planning in China. From September 2021 to 2022, she worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Contemporary Chinese Studies (Sinology) at Würzburg University with a focus on China's urban and sustainable development. Since October 2021, she has also been a lecturer at the Faculty of Media at the Bauhaus University Weimar, focusing on the topics media and cultural theory as well as spatial research. The connection between aesthetic and scientific practice as well as experimental methods of spatial research such as promenadology (the science of strolling), founded by the sociologist Lucius Burckhardt, is at the methodological core of her teaching projects.

Since October 2023, she has been a Research Associate in the DFG-Centre for Advanced Studies "Imaginaria of Force." Her research project focuses on 'energy landscapes' and the imaginary of energy in the landscape.

BA Modern China (Würzburg University)

• Winter Term 2021/2022, Seminar: Intercultural competence
• Winter Term 2021/2022, Seminar: Writing workshop. Creative writing for academic texts
• Summer Term 2022, Seminar: Chinas sustainable development.

BA Media Culture (Bauhaus University Weimar)

• Winter Term 2021/2022, Block seminar: Introduction Media Culture
• Winter Term 2022/2023, Block seminar: Introduction Media Culture
• Summer Term 2022, Block seminar:  East Asian Aesthetics and Philosophy, participation with a workshop on "Chinese characters and ways of learning Chinese," invited by Dr. Simon Frisch (16 and 17 July 2022)

Energy Landscapes: The in/visibility of energy in the landscape

As a natural resource, energy is essential for our life on earth. In the context of climate change, the question of the use of renewable energy sources is therefore of great importance. The research project focuses on a contemporary analysis of the term 'energy' in the course of the energy transition and the need to integrate energy infrastructure, such as wind or solar power, into the landscape. Landscapes are increasingly shaped by technological infrastructure, which raises the question about to design the landscapes of the future.

The project explores the relationship between landscape and energy, nature and technology. The aim is to define the multi-layered concept of 'energy landscapes' with its ecological, techno-economic, social, and cultural layers. We can perceive technical installations such as wind turbines in the landscape or the related  transformation of urban space. However, energy itself is not accessible to the human senses. It can only be perceived as an effect and in its infrastructural anchors. In addition, there are cultural patterns of perception that are inscribed in energy landscapes that need to be taken into account. The project thus addresses the question of the imaginary of energy, its in/visibility in the landscape. On this basis, a further focus of the research project is to explore possibilities for the aesthetic design of energy landscapes.

Associate Member:

• Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China, in the research project Social Worlds: China’s Cities as Spaces of Worldmaking (2021-2022)

Member:

• Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (since 2023)