In January, UMBAU celebrated the launch of its third issue at HfG Karlsruhe. Over the course of this year, contributions will be published on a rolling basis, for which we are also collecting material via our open call (see below). The launch was already accompanied by the publication of contributions by Mascha Dilger, Ülkü Süngün, and Matteo Pasquinelli, as well as a performance by Elle Feirce and artworks by Lars Pinkwart and Lucia Mattes. Thank you to everyone who came, looking forward to an exciting year!

Open Call

The cosmos was once envisioned as a vast chain, with humans situated at the nexus of divine and animal realms. However, there is no singular universal figure at this juncture; humans themselves are subject to political, social, and cultural power dynamics and inequalities. Human-made chains might bind humans to the aftermaths of oppression, intangible supply chain management structures might weigh down on their material conditions in the wake of globalized capitalism, while human chains are formed to foster solidarity. Literally, metaphorically and ideologically, the chain structures togetherness.

Chains might guide us in laying out our arguments and structuring our thoughts, and they provide an image for the entire universe. But in between this already rusting, all-encompassing chain, one should question chains of effect, causality, and reactions cutting across communities and species, time and space.

For issue 3 of UMBAU, CHAINING, we invite you to examine the chains with which our world is interwoven and to forge new bonds; to abandon the hierarchy of the vertically hanging chain and explore its flexibilities, its ability to form new networks, and to question an overtly linear mode of narration and research.

Please e-mail your pitches for UMBAU issue 3 to umbau-journal@hfg-karlsruhe.de