Mus|Ar|t
Since its inception in 2017, the “Jewish Moralistic Writings of the Early Modern Period” Emmy Noether project has successfully established new ways of researching Jewish literature dealing with moral instruction (musar). For the sixth and final year of the project, the Emmy Noether group has created Mus|ar|t, an interdisciplinary program of artistic residencies that are intended to facilitate the transfer of knowledge through contemporary arts. Between October 2022 and March 2023, five artists-in-residence, hosted at the Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U) in Berlin, and one writer-in-residence based at the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion at the University of Hamburg, will collaborate to this experimental effort. During their residencies, they will develop individual research-based projects addressing relevant themes for the understanding of musar, including the translation of traditional texts into non-written media such as soundscapes and graphic journaling, the uncovering of female perspectives in moral codification, or the inception of intercultural dialogue via interactive performance. By initiating a collaboration at the interface of art and science, we want to explore the question of how the content of emotionally charged literature can be conveyed through non-textual forms of representation and, conversely, how research in the humanities can benefit and learn from these forms of expression. The Mus|ar|t program is carried out in cooperation with the Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U) in Berlin and the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK) in Hamburg.