Content and structure of the programme

Focus groups

The main programme activities for PhD candidates take place in one of the five focus groups listed below. Each of these groups is assigned to one of the five departments of ZHdK and formed with specific thematic, transdisciplinary and methodological interests in mind. Applications are directly addressed to one of the groups. The small-group format (5–10 participants) enables candidates to exchange experiences and acquire skills in a supportive peer environment. They organize their own meetings (10–15 days per year) and employ a variety of formats of professional artistic exchange that extend beyond the traditional academic seminar.

  • Based on the idea of sharing with and challenging your artistic peers (currently, fine arts, literature, music, philosophy), the focus is on “the parts to be shared” with and without words (helping, traveling, gifting, etc.) and handover formats beyond the seminar room (studio, kitchen, wind tunnel, etc.) as a contribution to artistic fields.

    Further information: https://www.zhdk.ch/en/research/fspt/phd-focus-group-8788

    Board member: Prof. Dr. Florian Dombois

  • The Fine Arts’ focus group, Transforming Environments, positions artistic research in the context of urgent issues and open questions that arise from current living conditions. The group’s participants focus on social, political and cultural situations which call for a rethink and action.

    Further information: https://www.zhdk.ch/doktorat/pre-doc-programme-transforming-environments-10710

    Board member: Dr. Marcel Bleuler

  • This PhD group aims at establishing resilient design and art practices to deal with the challenges of the Anthropocene. Our approach is grounded in fieldwork, experimentation and technology prototyping, often in collaboration with the humanities, engineering and environmental sciences. The focus is on embodied experiences of interaction and material transformation processes. 

    Further information: https://interactiondesign.zhdk.ch/en/study/doctoral-studies/

    Board member: Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinovic

  • The Third Cycle at the Department of Performing Arts and Film (DDK) includes a postgraduate programme in cooperation with the art universities in Linz, Graz, Potsdam-Babelsberg and Stockholm, as well as a pre-PhD programme (PEERS) in Zurich. Its main aim is to support emerging artistic researchers who are interested in pursuing a doctorate in the arts, foremost yet not exclusively in the field of performing arts and film. Members of this focus group are welcome to attend the departmental Junior Research Group (JRG). PhD students and PEERS candidates together form the departmental Junior Research Group, which serves as a laboratory for artistic research in the performing arts and film aimed at developing formats of peer-to-peer mentoring.

    Further information: https://3rd.zhdk.ch

    Board members: Prof. Anton Rey, Dr. Yvonne Schmidt

  • Topics in this PhD group deal with the relationship between technology and artistic practice in music and sound. The inherent openness of these creative and performative practices allows for a myriad of relationships with other artistic disciplines, the natural sciences and humanities, and a corresponding variety of methods and output formats. The group is closely linked to research and creation at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology, ICST.

    Further information: https://www.zhdk.ch/doktorat/pre-phd-emerging-artists-researchers-in-sound-and-technology-10726

    Board member: Prof. Germán Toro-Pérez

Individual mentoring meetings

PhD candidates meet regularly with their supervisors by individual appointment. PhD projects are supervised by the head of the focus group (board member) or other supervisors permitted to do so by the departmental focus group. In addition, each candidate is supervised by a professor of the partner university (Linz).

    Further programme activities

    Several formats facilitate broader exchange between focus groups (annual Programme Conference) and with peers from Linz (semestrial Linz Colloquium). In addition, the board members organize and run an annual workshop to discuss the development of institutional frameworks (open to PhD candidates on a voluntary basis).