Digital Council

From 2018 until 2026, ZHdK had an interdisciplinary expert body, the Digital Council, which provided strategic advice to the university management on digital topics and promoted exchange among university members on digital issues.

The Digital Council committee brought together digital expertise from various departments and organisational units at ZHdK and advised the university management on strategic issues relating to digital transformation.

The Digital Council team, chaired by Dr. Susanne Schumacher, implemented strategic measures at an operational level and was responsible for the relevant programmes and projects.

Focal topics

The Digital Council's strategic work always focused on a specific current topic. ZHdK's Annual Report 2024 highlights the Digital Council's activities in the report Fokus Digitalisierung (in German).

AI at ZHdK (2024-2026)
With its 2024 to 2026 annual theme “AI at ZHdK”, the Digital Council established a framework for pooling expertise and skills relating to AI technologies at the university, connecting the relevant stakeholders, and stimulating critical reflection on AI. The work of the Digital Council team resulted, amongst other things, in the position paper “Artificial Intelligence at ZHdK” and internal guidelines on “Artificial Intelligence – Use and Development at ZHdK”.
The Digital Transformation team continues to work on the topic “AI at ZHdK”.
ZHdK+Futures Thinking (2022-2023)
What might possible futures of digital learning and creative work at ZHdK look like? For the annual theme "ZHdK+Futures Thinking", a working group looked at various methods and tools which can be used to make possible futures palpable and communicable. Practical insights and suggestions for futures thinking can be found in the corresponding booklet (in German).

→ Atelier Futures 2
→ Atelier Futures
→ EUA-ELIA Webinar "Beyond ChatGPT"
→ AI-Scounting
→ Futures Flipboard
→ ViVisions (with ZHdK login); documentation: ViVisions Tagblatt (PDF; in German)

Futures Thinking will be continued as one of the key themes of the programme Digital Skills & Spaces.
Digital Reports + Fictions (2020-2022)
The project Digital Reports + Fictions provided a framework for discussion and exchange on various aspects of digital working, learning and teaching in order to use the insights from the Corona crisis to consciously shape the digital transformation at ZHdK.

→ Digital working at ZHdK
→ Home-X | TransformaTONI
→ Structures, innovations, dynamics
→ Social, informal & personal
→ Digital didactics
→ Hybrid events | Digital displays
"Do you speak Digital?" (2020-2022)
In the campaign «Do you speak Digital?», the artist Kati Rickenbach shows the human and humorous side of the digital world at an arts university. Each of the short comic strips explains a phrase of «digital speak».

→ Home-X
→ Digital Art Education
→ Distant Creative & Collaborative Practices
→ Rules in art
→ Online Mentoring
→ Digital Excursion
→ Breakout Session
→ Hybrid Teaching