Umwelten: The World through your Lens!
Creative Contest
April 22, 2025, 1:30-3pm – Hagerty Hall Gallery & Courtyard
Are you ready to explore the world from a fresh perspective?
To celebrate Earth Day 2025 (April 22), The Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies and Environmental Humanities and the Sustainability Institute are sponsoring a creative contest for undergraduates.
How do you understand Umwelt — the unique world each organism perceives and experiences?
Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) posited that every living creature inhabits a world of its own—its Umwelt (literally, surrounding world). To a great extent, this world is determined by that creature’s species: its physiology, its behaviour, and its environment. But this world always takes shape through individual experience. Today, we can understand and translate Umwelt in three ways:
- as the environmental factors that affect the behavior and life of an animal or individual
- as an organism's unique sensory experience of the world
- or, as environment, broadly speaking
How do you see the world? or
How do you imagine that other creatures experience it?
Use your creative imagination to step into the shoes of a different organism, interpret your surroundings from new angles, or give an account of what your Umwelt is.
What We're Looking For:
Creative projects that explore the idea of Umwelt, including (but not limited to!)
- Visual art (illustrations, paintings, digital designs, photos)
- Short films or animations
- Sculptures or installations
- Written works (poetry, short stories, essays)
- Interactive experiences or digital media
- Music, sound, or performance art
How to participate:
- Write a short project plan (150-250 words) that describes the project, identifies its medium and size, and notes any technology requests for presenting it (e.g. screen, speakers).
- Send your project plan to senuysal.1@osu.edu by April 12.
- Be prepared to realize your vision for display on April 22!
Four projects will win $150 prizes!
(Two audience prizes and two jury prizes)