dr. C (Christoph) Brunner

Biography

From August 2024 until July 2025 I am holding a visiting professorship at the École des Arts Visuels et Médiatiques at Université du Québec a Montréal.

Fields of Research

• Philosophy of Media and Technology
• Media Studies and Media Aesthetics
• Affect Studies
• Post- and Decolonial Theory
• Cultural Studies
• Artistic Research

Short Overview

My work concerns the relations between contemporary digital cultures and processes of sense-making through networked media technologies. I have a specific interest in the aesthetic, experiential, and sensuous dimensions of digital media technologies and ask how they shape processes of sense-making on an affective and non- or pre-rational level. Beyond critical content analysis, I look at infrastructures, production processes (design), and means of circulation and distribution (logistics) to make sense of how the sensuous is being activated.

Academic Background

I have a background in Cultural and Religious Studies (Bachelor at University of Bremen), Cultural and Media Studies (Master at Goldsmiths, University of London), and Continental Philosophy (PhD in Humanities at Concordia University, Montreal). My work is theory-driven, transdisciplinary in nature, and empirically grounded in material and aesthetic phenomena of contemporary (media) cultures. Before joining the Erasmus School of Philosophy, I held a Junior Professorship for Cultural Theory at Leuphana University Lüneburg (2016-2023), and worked as research fellow at Zurich University of the Arts (2010-2016). From 2019 to 2020 I was visiting professor at McGill University, Montreal, as recipient of the John G. Diefenbaker Award.

Current Research

My current research unfolds into three intersecting themes:

• The politics of aesthetics in contemporary networked cultures:
  In this context, I conduct research on the use and development of specific aesthetic approaches as part and parcel of social movements and their use of networked media. I draw on examples from both, progressive and right-wing contexts, to shed light on the entanglement between media, perception, and politics.
  
  
• Infrastructures of sense-making:
  This research strand looks at the medial and material conditions for processes of sense-making. Rather than assuming that media and technologies are means of communication and mediation, I conceive of the relation between sensing and sense-making as crucial for understanding contemporary forms of mediated politics.
  
  
• Processes of transvaluation:
  Building on the works of post- and decolonial critique and following an understanding of theory as practice and form of political intervention, the third research strand concerns the formation of value and processes of transvaluation. By transvaluation I mean the shift from classic conducts of communication, understanding, and rationality which used to define the pillars of Western democracy. Drawing on perspectives from the Global South, artistic and affective approaches, and experimental practices, I am investigating fundamental transformations of cultural norms and values to effectuate change.