In the past decade the relevance of emotion and affect in societal dynamics and power relations has increasingly become the focus for scientists and artists. Across disciplines they are breaking down the opposition of cognition and feeling, and emphasizing the central meaning of emotions and affective atmospheres for personal judgement, decision-making and the realm of politics. The present publication can be seen as an enhancing contribution to these discourses. It particularly focusses on artistic positions, which are brought into dialogue with philosophical, gender-theoretical or neuro- and social-scientific approaches. It addresses the ambivalent political dimensions of anxiety, hope, and empathy, as well as the relationship between emotion and habit or the power of (media-)technical affective processes. The publication is the result of the sixth annual programme of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich.

With contributions by Marie-Luise Angerer, Ben Anderson, Jace Clayton, Keren Cytter, Antonio Damasio, Cécile B. Evans, Karianne Fogelberg, Deborah Gould, Susanna Hertrich, Serhat Karakayali, Marietta Kesting, Carolyn Pedwell, and Susanne Witzgall.

Susanne Witzgall is the academic head of the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. Marietta Kesting is junior professor of media theory at the cx centre for interdisciplinary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich.