Greetings and kisses - citizens receive love letters

Part I: In the context of the exhibition HILDE ROTH. A Journey through Time in Darmstadt 1950-1990, Prof. Dr Andrea Rapp (TU Darmstadt) and Prof. Dr Eva Wyss (University of Koblenz) present their current research project: When did you last write a love letter, when did you last receive one? Do you regularly write small messages to your partner as text messages, on Facebook or WhatsApp? Spontaneously overflowing with emotion or well-considered and polished? We all do it and we all appreciate these messages, they are an expression of our identity, our reality of life and our emotional life. Therefore, they are also an excellent source for research on the language of emotions, on everyday language, on social changes across all age groups, milieus and orientations, and thus also for a cultural history of love and the discourse of love. Up to now, there has been no official mandate to collect, preserve and maintain this everyday cultural asset, so scholars and institutions from Koblenz and Darmstadt have joined forces and built up a love letter archive, which is being jointly expanded, maintained and scientifically indexed. It currently contains around 20,000 letters and is constantly growing. In a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for three years, this archive will now be examined, digitised and analysed together with citizens. The project also accompanies citizen researchers in various text- and language-based research practices. We will not only present the love letter archive and the current research, but we will also read from selected love letters and thus illustrate the possibilities of joint research. At the same time, we would like to encourage you to become active yourself, to be inspired and to write love letters and messages. Contact and information: Prof. Dr. Andrea Rapp, TU Darmstadt / Prof. Dr. Eva Wyss, University of Koblenz, liebesbriefarchiv@uni-koblenz.de (https://liebesbriefarchiv.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LBriefarchiv/ )

Part II from 5 p.m.: Afterwards, anyone who wants to can become active themselves: Ann Dargies and Heike Stock (Theater Transit) will be on site with their "Office for Unwritten Love Letters" and will write down for you the love letters you have always wanted to write but have not done so yet! This is how the two performers describe their project: set in the vastness of Georg Büchner Platz: a tiny desk, a simple theatre figure, writing tools, a stool opposite. A cocoon of intensity is allowed to arise through the simple agreement: "I am writing for you"!
The event will take place at Georg Büchner Platz.