“WHAT SHALL WE EAT?” may be a polite invitation to choose something from a rich restaurant menu or a desperate exclamation of someone trying to scrape together a meal. It can be a question a community asks itself when the eating habits are changing or need to be changed. This year’s State of the World Week, 7-11 February, 2011, starts with this question as an opening for discussions about ethics, aesthetics and politics of eating. Among the topics to be addressed will be food ethics, vegetarianism, food security, taste, food quality, and the aesthetics of food.
As this year we’re expecting more guests and participants than before, we decided to go out of the familiar ECLA campus perimeter. EDEN is a new space for art and contemporary dance in Pankow, and will host our daily lectures and discussions. And what shall we eat during this special week? Lunches at EDEN will be provided by Otto Pfeiffer, and the week will culminate with the student cooking competition and a special buffet dinner.
To start off the week, we will visit a place, where practice and theory go hand in hand – Domäne Dahlem, an organic farm and a museum.
Download the schedule here.
State of the World Week
This annual ECLA event, held in the winter term, brings together students, faculty, alumni and invited guests for the exploration of some important, perhaps urgent, theme in current affairs. Lectures and seminars are given not just by academics, but by politicians, artists, social reformers, diplomats, lawyers, journalists and other people who spend their (professional) lives in close practical contact with the fundamental issues studied theoretically at ECLA. It is assumed that the voices of thoughtful experience will enrich theoretical discussions, and that theory may in turn inform practice. Recent State of the World Week topics include: The Translator (2010), The Politics of Cultural Ownership (2009), Water (2008), Social Entrepreneurship (2007). Twice, in 2007 and 2008, the event won a UNESCO award for education in sustainable development.