On Monday, 25 November 2024, Prof. Dr. Hubert Locher (Marburg) gave his Fellow Lecture on the topic “Art for all? Art history, the concept of art, the canon – accessibility and questions of value in the digital age” (in German):

It has long been a commonplace – and often a creed at the same time: “digitalization”, as one can learn in many variations from a simple internet search, is increasingly affecting all areas of society, from politics and business to culture and science. Dealing with “digital change” is therefore no longer an option, even in the humanities and cultural studies, but a sheer necessity. However, the still relative novelty and obviously dynamic development of the relevant technologies make critical discussion in the respective subject areas more difficult. This also applies to art history, where digital technologies are used in a variety of ways. With a view to recent developments, the lecture first showed examples of how “digitalization” has already changed the practice of this subject – partly from within, partly due to the social and media environment – and what new possibilities for knowledge, research perspectives and desiderata are emerging here, in order to then attempt an approach to the effects of the ubiquity of the digital on the concept of art that is effective today. In the context of the Centre, the question of “accessibility” – a guiding principle of digital change – in relation to “works of art” and in general with regard to cultural goods in connection with questions of selection and valuation, i.e. canonization, will be focused on and problematized from a scientific and media-historical perspective.

Hubert Locher is Professor of History and Theory of Visual Media at the Philipps University of Marburg, Director of the German Documentation Centre for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” in the winter semester 2024/25.