Research communication funding“Fear. Disgust. Failure.”Yvonne Siegmund and Ina Jessen on their transdisciplinary symposium and their findings

3 August 2023

Photo: Maria Fuchs

In this symposium on fear, disgust, and failure (Angst.Ekel.Scheitern), postdoctoral researchers Yvonne Siegmund and Ina Jessen take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to the blind spots in sustainability. The project was financed through the Hamburg Research Academy support fund for research communication.

What did you do in your project?

The title of our inter- and transdiscplinary symposium Angst. Ekel. Scheitern (Fear. Disgust. Failure.) gives a clue—we did not put success stories center stage. Instead, our event illuminated the blind spots in sustainability, which become visible in tightly woven political, scientific, socioeconomic, and ecological everyday life. It was concerned with contradictions, impediments, and fears in connection with the term sustainability, which we looked at from multiple perspectives and via discussion. Transformation designers, architects, artists and filmmakers, archaeologists, archivists, and psychologists shared their perspectives and gave feedback on the ambivalence related to sustainable action.

How did you come up with the idea for this project?

We initiated and realized the project together with the cultural manager Ulrich Bildstein. We received organizational support from the interior decorator Virginia Schmitz. The term sustainability draws all our attention because it goes hand in hand with great expectations. We feel good when we consume in a sustainable way. However, the truth is that we simply shift the problem geographically—for example, garbage, electronic waste, and new products in the Global South. And we postpone sustainability solutions. Sustainability depends on legislative sessions and business interests. Private citizens also fail to behave in a consistently sustainable way: we are complacent, shortsighted, dishonest with ourselves, or ignorant to connections. We are often completely unable to understand complex delivery and production conditions. These dependencies, impediments, motivations, and anxieties in the context of nonsustainable behavior are what we call blind spots. We wanted to make them visible and discuss them with academics, practitioners, and civilians. The goal of this open and honest approach was to encourage us to call things into question so that we can really act more sustainably.

How did the funding help?

Thanks to the funding, we were able to finance PR in the form of a visual recording and a photographer for the symposium. This made it possible for us to document our event in a lively and comprehensible way. A total of 23 visual recordings were completed for the individual program topics.

The results of Angst. Ekel. Scheitern.

Documentation of the preparations, the symposium days, and review
Visual recording by Felizitas Lang and Dominik Lang
Booklet
Detailed documentation of results (available from the fall)

What did you learn from planning the symposium?

We were already aware of the complexity of the topic in the conceptual phase of the symposium; at the same time, as the research became more intensive, we also realized the increasing relevance in the various areas of our diverse society. Our interdisciplinary and methodologically multifaceted format turned out to be both inspiring and challenging. There was a lot to do: the conceptual phase, submitting the grant application, organizing the developing network of participants and speakers, the logistic and thematic organization of the transdiscplinary symposium, effective and wide-ranging PR, and preparing documentation for publication.

Thematically, the multifaceted nature of the panel and the topics in the talks led to lively audience participation in the discussions. The thematic and methodological diversity of the artistic contributions were also very well received, and the shared breaks and walks fostered exchange.

What experiences in research communication did you gain from the project?

We wanted to address as broad a public as possible, but it was harder to reach the public than to reach academics. We advertised our symposium at libraries, at the umbrella organization for culture in Hamburg, at various Hamburg clubs and associations, district offices, in newspapers, at sustainable companies, and in private and cultural newsletters. This worked to some extent, as was confirmed at the symposium. Nonetheless, the symposium was seen primarily as a specialist event. Presumably, we would have needed ongoing PR since planning began a year ago. In conversations with participants during the symposium and also in the reflection process, it became clear that the event, due to its thematic diversity, had been seen as very complex and also as academic. The rather text-based announcement and the topic specifics of the individual contributions did not really speak to nonacademics.

Pictures reach more people than text does. They awaken emotions and inspire the imagination. Connections can be made faster with images. We did not have these images before the event. While reviewing the symposium, using the visual recording, the photos, and the booklet, we succeeded in describing our findings vividly and in simpler, succinct language that, if people are interested, they can explore more deeply to fortify their understanding.

Research communication funding

You have a good idea but do not have the funds you need to implement it? The Hamburg Research Academy, in conjunction with the Claussen-Simon Foundation, provides funding to early career researchers for projects in the area of research communication. You can apply for funding for you own projects from the Hamburg Research Academy fund.

Further information