Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

The seminar explores a phenomenology of power, investigating how authority manifests through both visible structures and subtle, internalized mechanisms, and how critical thinking can serve as a form of resistance. Drawing on Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary societies, we will examine the panopticon as a paradigm of modern governance, alongside Orwell’s Big Brother as a symbol of overtly authoritarian power maintained through constant surveillance. Turning to contemporary digital societies, we will consider how power often operates below the threshold of perception—in algorithms, data flows, and normative frameworks—becoming less visible yet more pervasive.

Through engagement with key texts in political philosophy, media theory, and visual studies, as well as selected film and video excerpts, the seminar addresses questions of freedom, subjectivity, and conditions for ethical and political agency. Special attention will be given to the dimension of the gaze, exploring its ambivalent dynamics between the observing subject and the one exposed to observation, and its potential role in developing an “ethics of seeing.”

The goal of the seminar is to develop a critical thinking on the topic. The seminar will be conducted in an interactive format, which allows ample space for discussion. Active participation by the students is therefore expected. During the sessions, we will read texts in the form of close readings, but also confront ourselves with other media, such as excerpts from videos and films, and discuss them together. Careful reading of the texts at home should accompany the seminar.

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