Responsibilities
Susanne Schmitt is a sociocultural anthropologist and sensory ethnographer, interdisciplinary artist, and facilitator. She is head of STEAM projects (Telekom Foundation) - Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math - especially the Dawn Chorus Art&Science project (www.dawn-chorus.org), together with Dr. Katrin Petroschkat.
Susanne's work focuses on creative productions within and beyond the label of "art meets science", multispecies worlding, and the aesthetic dimensions of sites of knowledge production like Museums of Natural History, aquariums, historical textile and fashion collections, or Botanical Gardens. Her PhD, funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, was the first German sensory ethnography monograph (https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2019-1/ein-wissenschaftsmuseum-geht-unter-die-haut/): an organizational ethnography of the Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden.
Her work includes choreographic audiowalks for Natural History Museums across the globe ("How to Not be A Stuffed Animal. Moving Museums of Natural History through Multispecies Choreogaphy", Creative Director/PI, funded by Volkwswagen Stiftung, with choreographer Laurie Young), cocktails for insects in broken worlds and emergent ecologies ("Barfly, Danish National Gallery and other sites, with Kat Petroschkat), and ethnographic writing on workplace atmospheres and multispecies encounters. Her teaching and cooperation work includes guest professorships (TU Munich/2020, University of Vienna/2023) and transnational residencies (Sense Lab, Montreal).
Susanne is a Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam where she created works for the Berlin Science Week, the globally touring exhibition "Examples to Follow!" and the Art/Science Forum Berlin. Her most recent work there includes the installation "Haptic Hortus", a collaboration with the Berlin Botanical Gardens and the research project "Touching plants" (with Prof. Dr. Sandra Calkins, FU Berlin) (https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/ethnologie/forschung/arbeitsstellen/sts-umweltethnologie/forschung/Pflanzen_beruehren/index.html) and her ongoing project "To be of service." Speculative millinery's tiny worlds of consequence, where she reflects on the potential of species recognition app through the form of historical hats as mobile dioramas: https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/blog/2023/11/feathered-hats-combative-women-and-creative-ai
Contact
Department Biology II
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Großhaderner Straße 2
82152 Planegg-Martinsried
and
Naturkundemuseum Bayern - BIOTOPIA Lab
Botanisches Institut
Menzinger Str. 67
80638 München, Germany
Room:
B.02.003
Email:
susanne.schmitt@lmu.de
Website:
http://www.susanneschmitt.org/
Work group
Life Sciences in Society
Selected Publications:
2024. Lockmittel. In: „63 Kleinigkeiten zwischen den Arten. Stichworte zu einer mehr-als-menschlichen Welt.“, edited by Roland Borgards, Frederike Felcht, Andrea Haller et. All. Göttingen: Wallstein.
2023. Willkommen im Phytografischen Nagelstudio! Von sich spiegelnden Orten, Unterwassergärten, und der somatischen Aktivierung von Kontaktzonen. In: „Nichtmenschliche Ästhetik. Kuratieren jenseits des Menschlichen“, edited by Jessica Ullrich. Berlin: Metzler.
Pflanzenethnographie. Together with Sandra Calkins and Cornelia Ertel. In: „Handbuch Umweltethnologie.“, edited by Kathrin Eitel and Carsten Wergin. Heidelberg: Springer. (in press, forthcoming 2024)
2022. Almost fragrant pseudobotanicals. A very brief history of (some) artificial flowers. Toegther with Kerstin Kraft. In: Law and the Senses. Special Issue on ‘Smell’, edited by Andreas Philippopoulos, Westminster University Press.
2021. Barfly- Drinks for Insects. Together with Katrin Petroschkat. In: Tierstudien. Special Issue on Extinction. Katrin Petroschkat. In: Fenske, Michaela et al.: "Wasser, Luft, Erde – Gemeinsames Werden in Naturenkulturen (Alltag – Kultur – Wissenschaft. Beiträge zur Europäischen Ethnologie/Volkskunde.
2020. “Taxidermy in Motion, (not) from a Bird’s-eye Perspective: Choreographing Disappearance at the Australian Museum”, Ethnologia Europaea 49(2), 98-114. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ee.1645
2017. Care, Gender, and Survival: The Curious Case of the Seahorse. In: “Troubling Species: Care and Belonging in a Relational World,” by the Multispecies Editing Collective, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2017 (1), 83–89. doi: https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7778
2017. Making charismatic ecologies: aquarium atmospheres. In: Exploring Atmospheres Ethnographically. Anthropology of Creativity and Perception Series, with Sara Asu Schroer. London: Routledge.
2017. Exploring Atmospheres Ethnographically. Anthropology of Creativity and Perception Series (series editor Tim Ingold), with Sara Asu Schroer. London: Routledge.
2016. “Ethnographic routes into the sensory museum. A sketch on drawing.” The Senses and Society (under review)
2015. “Intimacy Out of Place: On the Workings of Smell in an Exhibition on Human Sexuality”. In R. Kaur (Hg.), Arts and aesthetics in a globalizing world. ASA Monographs Series. London: Berg, 205-220
2014. „Sensorische Bio/-ethnographien: Über sinnliche Lebensläufe von Menschen und Dingen.“ In H. A. Kick und D. von Engelhardt (Hg.), Lebenslinien, Lebensziele, Lebenskunst. Münster: LIT, 78-92.
2013. “The funeral fiesta at the Science Museum: Translating sensory contexts and representing the Mexican Día de los Muertos in an exhibition on food.” Anthrovisions, 1/1, 2013 (online)
2012 „Ein Wissenschaftsmuseum geht unter die Haut. Sensorische Ethnographie des Deutschen Hygiene- Museums.“ Bielefeld: transcript
2012. “Dancing Science: Choreographien somatischer Aufmerksamkeit im Deutschen Hygiene-Museum.“ Ethnoscripts: Medical Anthropology Special, 104-118