Scenes of vertigo

Venue: Rangfoyer - Dizziness is a subject's state of emergency: The connection between ego and world breaks apart, the world shakes, we lose balance and thus the ground under our feet. While disorientation and baselessness are part of the medical symptoms of dizziness, cultural history certainly knows about positive symptoms of dizziness, such as the pleasurable thrill that occurs during carousel rides or high and deep intoxication.

But why is dizziness perceived as threatening and pleasurable at the same time? Where is the line between loss of control and self-surrender? And what exactly happens when the world goes off the rails —— with our body, our perception, and our relationship to the world? Rebekka Ladewig's presentation explores these questions and reconstructs the experimentalization of dizziness that led to the discovery of the balance organ in the inner ear over the course of the 19th century.