The Department of Cultural Analysis and Mediation addresses questions about our culture and environment across disciplinary boundaries. In doing so, the department views its work primarily as a relational practice that establishes connections between artistic, scientific, and pedagogical perspectives and their social contexts.
In this sense, the DKV creates spaces for education, experimentation, reflection, and discourse in which artistic practice, theoretical inquiry, and pedagogical approaches are systematically interrelated. Collaborations that transcend program, disciplinary, and departmental boundaries form a central working method: The department is committed to interdisciplinary projects and questions both within ZHdK and through external partnerships.
The Department of Cultural Analysis and Mediation offers six major and nineteen minor programs in the fields of Art Education, Cultural Critique, and Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts, preparing students for careers in the cultural sector. Graduates work in areas such as school and extracurricular education, curatorial and publishing fields, as well as in demanding positions at the intersection of art, culture, and science.
As a research-intensive unit, the DKV focuses its activities on research in Art Education as well as on the research focuses Aesthetics, Cultural Analysis in the Arts, and Transdisciplinarity. The department’s research is networked nationally and internationally and contributes to the further development of artistic, scientific, and art-science research at art colleges. The research engages in dialogue with both teaching and the department’s own and jointly run PhD programs.
Last but not least, the Preparatory Course in Art and Design serves as a preparatory programme for studies at universities of arts.