Departmental Research 2023

Toni-Areal © Regula Bearth
Toni-Areal © Regula Bearth

Department of Cultural Analysis, DKV

In 2023, the Department of Cultural Analysis (DKV) underwent various organizational transformations that are also intended to benefit research collaboration. The DKV is now divided into two units. These have been established to bring together research and teaching and to enable these two key performance areas to nurture each other as much as possible. The Research in Art Education pursues research ranging from art education and teaching methods to critical social practice in the field of art education. True to its name, the newly established CAT Research units is home to several research focuses (cultural analysis in the arts, aesthetics and transdisciplinarity). Correspondingly, it also offers teaching programmes in transdisciplinary studies and cultural criticism. During the reporting year, the DKV contributed to ZHdK’s strategic mission to establish its future research organization by establishing departmental structures designed to foster the exchange of research ideas and experiences and to promote the transfer between research and teaching.

However, such organizational changes need to be measured in terms of research success. In this regard, the DKV looks back on a year that was both eventful and successful. I refer readers to the reports of the individual research areas and mention two outstanding achievements by way of example: First, the project submitted by Prof. Sigrid Adorf and her colleagues («Echoing the Un(fore)seen: Kulturanalytisches Zuhören in den Künsten») was overwhelmingly approved by the SNSF. Second, the 2023 swissuniversities report on TP 2 and TP3 PhD cooperation projects praised several DKV projects («Epistemologien ästhetischer Praktiken», «Fachdidaktik Art & Design» and «Transdisciplinary Artistic PhD»). Not only are we delighted about this positive acclaim, but also about having made our contribution to the fact that at the end of November 2023 the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions (SHK) once again mandated swissuniversities to propose a programme in the area of early career support for the 2025–2028 funding period.

Dr. Andreas Vogel, Director of the Department of Cultural Analysis DKV, March 2024

    Department of Design, DDE

    In 2023, a large number of new research projects highlighted the increasing importance of digital transformation. DDE researchers engaged with today’s ever-changing realities in a future-oriented manner and investigated this transformation by exploring design, scientific or design-historical questions.

    This development is particularly evident in the projects funded as part of the Canton of Zurich’s Digitalization Initiative (DIZH). As part of the initiative, the Digital Health Design Living Lab (DHD Living Lab) carried out the first  «Digital Health Design Challenge» in 2023 to promote ideas and thinking on decision making in healthcare. Nine other projects involving DDE researchers were funded as part of the DIZH Innovation Programme. The projects combine social, artistic, educational, humanities and scientific aspects and, among other issues, address the use of artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

    To actively promote academic careers in design, in 2023 the DDE advertised a tenure track position in industrial design for the first time. Following the public call for applications, Lukas Franciszkiewicz was appointed Head of the MA in Industrial Design. In this interview, he outlines his plans for coordinating research in this field and for developing the industrial design programme.

    Initiated jointly by the DDE and ZHdK’s Immersive Arts Space, «Refresh #5» provided the design community with much inspiration. Directed by Maike Thies, the 2023 edition once again brought together designers, artists, researchers and experts from Switzerland and abroad. Keynotes, masterclasses, laboratory sessions and an inspiring exhibition highlighted a wide range of innovative interfaces between design, art and technology.

    Prof. Hansuli Matter, Director of the Department of Design DDE, March 2024

      Department of Fine Arts, DFA

      The Institute for Contemporary Art Research has successfully implemented various innovations since the change of director in summer 2022. These include incorporating the Third Cycle into the Institute’s structure, a step that has resulted in productive synergies. Artistic PhD candidates have been integrated into internationally organized IfCAR events, where they have made a significant contribution to raising the Institute’s research profile. Two awards also bear witness to the DFA’s successful promotion of early career researchers: In 2023, Laura von Niederhäusern completed her PhD as part of the cooperation between ZHdK and Linz University of Art and Design. Her doctoral thesis—FACE NO DIAL OF A CLOCK: Investigating asynchronic experiences of present times by means of art—was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Best Doctoral Theses. Julia Weber, who completed her doctorate a year earlier, received a SPARK project grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation to pursue her post-doctoral project on Urban Wastelands as Ambiguous Spaces for Appropriation and Participation.

      In 2023, IfCAR also established a departmental Research Board that can award grants to department members for a pilot phase of three years. In 2023, the Board awarded funding to nine exploratory projects by experienced researchers, teaching faculty and advanced students and PhD candidates. Aligned with the concept of «open innovation», grantees implemented various collaborative research designs and experiments. On the one hand, this involved conducting field research and developing artistic practices. On the other hand, they conducted in-depth analyses and experiments in the field of «emerging technologies» and the enabled aesthetic experiences.

      These innovations are aimed primarily at developing focal points that are directly related to the interests of DFA members and the department’s degree programmes. At the same time, IfCAR actively pursues cooperations with international partners. In 2023, for example, the Institute organized several events on art and activism at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome. In addition, Jörg Scheller and Felix Stalder hosted several workshops and symposia to present their externally funded projects to an international audience.

      Prof. Swetlana Heger-Davis, Director of the Department of Fine Arts DFA, March 2024

        Department of Music, DMU

        Promoting early career researchers is a key strategic mission at ZHdK. At the formal level, the Department of Music meets this requirement through its consistently successful cooperative PhD programmes with Graz University of Music and Performing Arts. Based at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST), the pre-PhD programme «EARS» prepares students for doctoral positions at other higher education institutions. At the informal level, the Institute meets its «qualification» requirement by actively engaging in exchange and mobility, nationally and internationally. In 2023, its artists-in-residence programme once again attracted personalities from the worlds of art and research, while ICST staff were sought-after speakers at international conferences, among others, in Boston, Stockholm, Paris and Copenhagen. Outreach and transfer also featured prominently in two new collaborative research projects: «Curiosoil» focuses on developing knowledge about soil at schools, while «Speech in Noise in a Virtual 3D Environment» examines difficult listening situations together with UZH researchers.

        In 2023, the Institute for Music Research established a new event series with a focus on musicology and, in line with its research specialisms, on music medicine, which attracted considerable acclaim. The Institute also became involved in a comprehensive HSLU project on music education at Swiss grammar schools and the associated teacher training programmes. Finally, the Institute began cooperating with the University of Basel and the Schweizerische Musikforschende Gesellschaft [Swiss Musicological Society] on a historically oriented project on the work of music critic and professor Karl Nef – thus combining an appreciation of the past with fostering the next generation of musicologists.

        Prof. Michael Eidenbenz, Director of the Department of Music, DMU, March 2024

          Department of Performing Arts and Film, DDK

          The call we have just heard is perhaps addressed to all of humanity, whether we like it or not. Let us heed this call before it is too late. We want to be worthy representatives of the species into which misfortune has cast us. What do you think? / Estragon: I wasn’t listening. 

          Uttered seventy years ago, Estragon’s reply in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” could not be more topical: How do we respond to the human-made catastrophes of our time? By not listening? What can artistic research contribute to contemporary society what the natural sciences or humanities have long been seeking to address? Relevant IPF research includes:

          Memory is the art of the future: Funded as part of Zurich’s Digitalization initiative (DIZH), and undertaken in cooperation with UZH and the World Association of Film Schools CILECT, CineMAP – Navigating through Artistic Film Research und CineMinds is creating a long-term online archive of specialist knowledge based on interviews with experienced filmmakers. 

          In 2023, IPF researchers actively engaged with the national and international scholarly community. Activities included the ZDOK Conference on Reality, Second Hand, where 200 experts from film academies, film universities and practitioners discussed archival material and found footage in documentary film. Also worth mentioning are publications such as Bernadette Kolonko’s Unsichtbares und Ungesagtes. 10 Female * Feminist * Gazes. 

          Special mention also goes to Marisa Godoy’s Artist residencies and/as pedagogy, a dance research project completed in 2023 and awarded a PhD degree at the ZHdK Graduation Day. 

          AI, avatars and software continue to exercise the minds of theatre researchers. In 2023, a 15-year interdisciplinary research venture exploring identity and individuality concluded with the SNSF-funded publication Actor & Avatar, a Scientific & Artistic Catalog. The volume ranges from brain scan analyses and emotion research to the manipulation of media addressees. With the rise of avatars, which until recently were primitive talking heads, digitalization is overtaking us and humanoid counterparts are spreading exponentially. Meanwhile, the analog world is ailing and resources are dwindling. Keeping materials in circulation for longer makes an important contribution to reducing waste. Exactly this is the starting point for the Mining Map Zurich, a project dedicated to creating a digital city map for reusable material. The map provides art and design students with free access to discarded materials, making the city a quarry. Developed by Sarah Burger and Nadia Fistarol, and presented at the Point of no Return symposium (link to highlight), the mining map enables preserving resources for theatre stages, film sets and other arts.  

          Under the direction of Ilse van Rijn, in 2023 the IPF continued to actively promote early career researchers: through two PhD programmes (funded by swissuniversities) and through the DDK’s pre-doc format PEERS. Other ventures included a symposium on Dramaturgien politischer Künste (R. Dreifuss) and LeKuLab, a research project on intangible cultural heritage as a field of learning (L. Heimberg, funded by the Wissenschaftsverbund der Vierländerregion). 

          Research and development remain attempts to explore the immense dimensions of the imponderable in art and to harness those dimensions for the benefit of society through expert practitioners. 

          Marijke Hoogenboom, Director of the Department of Performing Arts and Film DDK, March 2024