Departmental Research 2021

Department of Cultural Analysis, DKV

The DKV most likely best fulfils its role as an interface with other ZHdK departments in the area of research. Home to numerous disciplines and research focuses (art education, aesthetics, cultural analysis in the arts, transdisciplinarity), the DKV covers a highly diverse range of topics, which, however, is characterised not by any hermeticism, but by the greatest possible openness. Last but not least, our affiliation with the Artists-In-Labs programme further attests to this diversity. At the DKV, artistic, artistic-scientific and scientific research is based in exemplary fashion both in our research units and in our three PhD programmes, thus facilitating fruitful exchange across disciplines. Our Research Focus in Transdisciplinarity is at the forefront of the still vibrant debate on how to define purely artistic doctoral programmes. Our Research Focus in Aesthetics is an equal partner with ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich while our PhD Programme in the Didactics of Art & Design is unrivalled. Meanwhile, the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) is no longer part of the DKV portfolio and now affiliated with the President’s Office.

In addition to the successes listed in the research report under the individual disciplines, in 2021 we were delighted that our application for a joint bridge professorship with the University of Zurich, as part of the Zurich Digitisation Initiative DIZH, was accepted. The dual-university chair will be established as of 2023 and marks a milestone in the cooperation between the two universities. A professorship having equal status at the University of Zurich and Zurich University of the Arts will provide their cooperation with fresh impetus. Already last year, the decision led both universities to pledge their commitment to jointly fund the Centre for Arts and Cultural Theory (ZKK) at the University of Zurich.

In 2021, the DKV was still busily undertaking a major reorganisation project. A new structure has meanwhile been established. It envisages that research will soon be conducted in new institutes (also in line with the overall organisation of research at ZHdK). Further, research and teaching will be jointly responsible for cooperating with each other in a department organised by subject areas. This shared responsibility is based on the DKV’s core expertise in terms of content, which enables continuity through change and justifies organisational forms in terms of content. Together, these developments provide optimal conditions for vibrant DKV research in 2022.

Prof. Andreas Vogel, Director of the Department of Cultural Analysis DKV, February 2022

Department of Design, DDE

The Institute for Design Research (IDE) strengthens and interlinks the research projects of the seven disciplines housed at the Department of Design. Most of this research is applied and innovation-oriented, and closely aligned with design practice. The DDE’s lateral orientation firmly anchors the transfer between teaching and research in the department. In addition to the responsible professors and R&D representatives, senior and junior faculty are also heavily involved in research. The development of research competencies in mid-tier faculty, master’s students or alumni is supported by the IDE’s Junior Research in Design Programme and by individual mentoring.

In 2021, the institute’s previous orientation was evaluated with Dr Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken, the IDE’s new director, and resulted in a draft vision. Among others, the ongoing reorganisation of research at ZHdK (until 2023) provided a suitable framework for this evaluation. Besides its responsibility for the organisational-strategic orientation and communication of DDE research, the IDE will now also oversee interdisciplinary research at the department. This will enable promoting the great potential within the department for pursuing inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches within and outside the DDE. These efforts will also significantly expand the spectrum of design research. The IDE is also responsible for lab administration, which will be redefined with research staff. In addition, the IDE has begun conceptualising a cross-disciplinary DDE PhD programme to be offered with interdisciplinary partner institutions.

IDE research topics and approaches are diverse and situated at the interface of societal, technological, cultural and social issues and concerns. The high success rate of IDE project applications and the associated third-party funding once again impressively reflected the relevance of design research in 2021.

Prof. Hansuli Matter, Director of the Department of Design DDE, February 2022

Department of Fine Arts, DFA

In 2021, internal and external events were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, several initiatives helped to introduce measures at the DFA that are designed to strengthen research and its linkage with teaching. These efforts have three aims: first, to bolster artistic approaches in the department’s research profile; second, to involve more DFA faculty in research-related activities; and third, to promote emerging researchers, also by integrating them into national and international networks.

A significant step towards attaining these goals was the awarding of five research workloads — a pilot project successfully concluded in summer 2021. In addition to staff with a scientific profile (theory and field research), artists involved in teaching but with no conventional research experience were also considered. IFACR funding and content-related support enabled these staff members to strengthen their practice and teaching with regard to their research interests and to create corresponding perspectives in their projects and courses.

Expanding the involvement of DFA faculty at the doctoral level is also a central concern. PhD studies are being reconceptualised since spring 2021. One of the aims of the new concept is to establish a pool of supervisors at the DFA capable of supporting PhD candidates with diverse profiles and focuses. As part of the pre/doc programme «Transforming Environments», the extended involvement of faculty members from theory and practice has already been successfully tested. Through presentations, group discussions and individual mentoring, faculty support pre/doc candidates in developing their doctoral projects and in creating an overarching artistic-scientific seedbed for DFA research.

Overarching exchange was also the focus of a mini-conference held in spring 2021. Under the title «What’s Teaching Got to Do With Research», 15 MA and BA lecturers reported on how they are introducing and implementing (artistic) research in their seminars and modules. The conference offered an insight into the manifold ways in which artists and theorist are teaching research methods and content at the DFA.

The initiatives undertaken in 2021 strengthened the research competencies of DFA-based artists and theorists through different artistic yet not necessarily academic research approaches. These efforts are central both to maintaining the continuity and quality of research at the DFA and to sustainably promoting emerging researchers.

Prof. Swetlana Heger-Davis, Director of the Department of Fine Arts DFA, February 2022

Department of Music, DMU

One of the tasks of a music education institution is to explore the history of its contents and their changing production conditions. Teaching and researching «historical performance practice» is, of course, no longer directed solely at the old classical repertoire; electronic music has also undergone a transformation in recent decades that has greatly influenced the technical and aesthetic aspects of its reproduction. The «Performing Live Electronic Music» project at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) investigates the challenges of performance practice in the digital age and publishes the insights gained from comparing the approaches of different generations in various formats (databases, concerts and sound carriers).

The fact that historical research can also focus on more recent and the most recent times is also evident in a study on the participation of Swiss musicians in New Music festivals in past few decades. The evaluation of the extensive sketches, notes and publications of the musician and musicologist Fritz Muggler by the Institute for Music Research (IMR) forms the basis for systematically examining the position and, if necessary, the independent profile of more recent Swiss music in the international context.

Embedded in the research-based exploration of the present, the future and the deep past, the examination of immediate historical origins complements the horizon of reflection in an essential way and combines in exemplary fashion academic interest with personal experience as the basis of practical artistic activity at the Department of Music.

Prof. Michael Eidenbenz, Director of the Department of Music, DMU, February 2022

Department of Performing Arts and Film, DDK

«The camera should be a means of thinking», explained Jean-Luc Godard in an interview he gave in Zurich in 2010. «If a scientist used his microscope as three quarters of directors use the camera, he would never discover anything».

While laboratories are recognised research sites for doing science, in times of a pandemic film, dance and theatre must fight even harder for studios, dance floors and stages to be allowed to use these as spaces for practice-based research. Only applying appropriate production-aesthetic methods enables the research done at an arts university to meet international standards, while only subject-specific findings are interesting for artists doing research.

One challenge for DDK researchers and teaching staff in 2021 was the intermittent lack of thought, rehearsal and meeting spaces. Even more concerning were the missing audiences and conference guests, as well as the recurring absence of direct counterparts. In 2021, the Department of Performing Arts and Film, which engages closely with audiences, translated physical processes into Zoom instead of zooming in on the addressees of its work. Our research staff, still seeking to find appropriate laboratories, focused on promoting emerging researchers. Launched in 2015, our fellowship programme expired after a total of three calls and 7 fellows. And yet, this unusual year saw the introduction of the PEERS pre-doc programme and, thanks to funding from swissuniversities, of two large PhD programmes, which will enable establishing a four-year 3rd cycle. Crises can become opportunities and shift priorities, which will obviously benefit future generations of researchers.

Nevertheless, one perfectly crisis-proof «story map» should be mentioned here: the «Immaterial Heritage of Lake Constance Region: Mobility, Immobility and Social Change», funded by the International Lake Constance University IBH. Here, too, the inevitable closeness to artistic practice and interdisciplinary cooperation (arts management, ethnology, musicology and theatre studies) concentrated on the smallest stages and sites of mostly bilateral encounters. Close cooperation between researchers and expert practitioners during case analysis provided the necessary practical pertinency and ensured the relevance of the research questions, now accessible for the long term via an interactive tool (see the multimedia website immoerbo).

Thus, in 2021, research found a space of its own, art established contacts and the department found its mid-tier staff. After all, innovation springs from grassroots and much thinking begins with «action».

Marijke Hoogenboom, Director of the Department of Performing Arts and Film DDK, February 2022