Martha Oelschläger is organising "Spaces of Thought“, a symposium and exhibition at the Toni-Areal that aims to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange: from 5th to 8th of February 2026, the transdisciplinary student invites participants to orientate, overwrite, incorporate, connect and explain together.
You are organising the symposium ‘Spaces of Thought’ as part of your master's project. How did the idea come about?
The idea for ‘Spaces of Thought’ arose from my own artistic and theoretical work. Whether designing scenography for film/performance or compiling text passages and references for an academic essay, I am interested in dialogical formats, especially working in a team. During my studies, I was fascinated by how different disciplines work with similar spatial concepts, but rarely bring them into dialogue with each other – from theatre and cultural studies to neuroscience, scenography and visual arts. The symposium highlights parallels and differences, creating a space in which scientific and artistic perspectives challenge, inspire and expand each other.
Why are spaces of thought so important when it comes to the intersection of different artistic disciplines and between art and science?
Spaces of thought are important because they arise where different disciplines or people come together and there is no common language. At these intersections, it becomes clear that thinking and the exchange of ideas function not only through concepts, but also through images, bodies, spaces and sensory experiences. Spaces of thought are a kind of common interface or point of connection. I am interested in these spaces in between that cannot be clearly assigned, especially in transdisciplinary work. Spaces of thought make it possible to relate different forms of knowledge to each other without standardising them. They can tolerate openness and allow uncertainties, shifts and translations to become part of the thought process. In this sense, spaces for thought enable different forms of knowledge to be thought of side by side – or rather, together – to touch each other and to jointly produce new forms of understanding. This is also one of the reasons why I am studying for a Master's degree in Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts.
Particularly exciting – if we stick with the metaphors – seem to be the approaches to such spaces of thought. How do we find our way in? How do we move between them?
That's an interesting observation. I've already dealt with such approaches in my video essay „threshold“, in which I examine the concept of immersion. There, metaphors such as windows, doors and mirrors serve as structure: they represent processes of approximation, decision-making and reflection and mark different transitions into a space of thought. Metaphors are therefore not only central tools for artistic research, but also essential in everyday life. They help to access complex or elusive experiences and to make connections – to build bridges of thought, so to speak. For me there is never just one approach. Access to spaces of thought is as diverse as the people who enter such spaces. Therefore five verbs form the structural basis of the symposium: orient, overwrite, incorporate, connect, explain. They describe not only processes of memory, but also an attitude towards thinking itself – as movement in space, or as an invitation to think along.
What is the purpose of the exhibition, which this time is a real space?
The exhibition is not an accompanying format, but an equal part of the symposium. After each panel, we deliberately change rooms: from the spoken word in the Kunstraum to the exhibition in the Aktionsraum. The artistic works continue what has been heard, shifting it or contradicting it. The real space thus becomes a space for thought, a place where thinking can also be experienced physically and sensually.
What are your plans after the symposium?
For me, the symposium ‘Spaces of Thought’ marks both a concretisation and a new starting point for my research. I would like to pursue those questions discussed further, both artistically and conceptually. I am particularly interested in how dialogical formats between art and science can be sustained over the long term as well as what role spatial dramaturgy plays in this. Starting in March, I will have the opportunity to be part of the school of commons (SoC) programme with this project, and I am looking forward to new collaborations, ways of thinking and perspectives.
Further information
Programme and registration: Symposium Gendankenräume
About the project threshold
About the Master Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts
About the school of commons