Home
Home

Mainnavigation

    Home
    Home
    Home
    Home
      • DE
      • EN
    • Watchlist
    • MenuMenu
    You are here:
    1. Research
    2. Research Focus Transdisciplinarity
    More: Research Focus Transdisciplinarity

    Der zu teilende Teil

    • PhD within the framework of the Transdisciplinary Artistic PhD Program
    • Doctoral Candidates
    • Former Doctoral Candidates
    • Further Links

    PhD within the framework of the Transdisciplinary Artistic PhD Program

    As ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts) does not have its own right to confer doctoral degrees, all PhD projects take place within various collaborations and groups. Florian Dombois leads and supervises the PhD focus group «Der zu teilende Teil,» whose members are pursuing their doctorates at the University of Arts Linz. Within ZHdK, the group is integrated into the «Transdisciplinary Artistic PhD Program,» a cross-departmental initiative supported by swissuniversities, for which Florian Dombois serves as the spokesperson.

    • PhD am fsp-t. Foto: Esther Mathis
      PhD am fsp-t. Foto: Esther Mathis
    • PhD am fsp-t. Foto: Esther Mathis
      PhD am fsp-t. Foto: Esther Mathis

    Doctoral Candidates

    Tanja Schwarz: I Have Changed My Mind. Aporias of Thinking between Wit and Despair (working title)

    Starting from artistic practice, the project revolves around the question of how to engage with the experience of existential perplexity and the labyrinths of understanding. Procedures that twist and multiply meaning serve as attempts to respond—with cheerful defiance—to one’s own inadequacies (of language, of thought) and anthropocentric limitations, while also seeking to unsettle (philosophical) problems, self-conceptions, and structures of thought. In particular, the ambiguity of meaning in complex text-image constellations and a poetically witty practice of signs function as ways to uncover gaps for reinterpretation, activate new perceptions, and open the self/me to ways of thinking and acting that do not evade the insoluble and the incommensurable.

    The starting point of this exploratory movement is a long-standing experience of depression. Space is to be given here to the supposition that the mind’s fixation on the «I» and the distancing analysis and explanation of the «world», modeled on a Western, disembodied rationality, are connected to this experience. In particular, the individual and the idea of creative «self-realization» come under cultural-critical suspicion in the course of a skeptical examination of one’s own development and artistic self-understanding. The ensuing experiences of disorientation and disillusionment are intended—following Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s notion of Hospicing Modernity—to be made fruitful as a necessary passage toward letting go of exhausted worldviews and life concepts, and expanding the boundaries of the imaginable.

    The work remains entangled in insoluble contradictions. And how are you going to manage that now? I will call upon my weaknesses for help.

    Tanja Schwarz, Venedig Map

    Esther Mathis: Directing Light – A Roof of Glass and a Room as a Lamp

    The observation of light in the museum was the starting point for my exploration of natural light in space. My research into light control led me to the light architecture of our everyday environments.

    In my PhD project, I focus on ceilings and openings made of glass and on natural light as it is guided into architecture. I examine the materials, construction, and function, as well as the historical development of these glazed and mirrored roof structures. I also search for references or kindred artists who have engaged with aspects of «directing light.» From these investigations, I develop objects and installations in my practical, artistic work that guide light within space.

    My dissertation takes the form of a PDF document in which I compile processes, research, references, and completed works under the theme of «directing light.» My artistic practice has brought me into dialogue with specialists, and through discussions of technical details, personal observations, and material-technical implementations, I have approached the topic of «directing light» in such a way that it has become a traceable source for other artists. I thus address artists who work site-specifically and spatially. Based on this dissertation, other practitioners can draw upon the detailed information contained in the conversations and related works, as well as on the connections between information, observations, and people. The content of these pages can be read as inspiration and is available for further use in that spirit.

    Esther Mathis, Radiance

    Nadine Städler: Headgear and Freedom of Movement. On the Individual Meaning and Poetic Function of Head Coverings by Experts (working title)

    My research aims to shed light on how, from a poetic perspective, the headgear of an expert can significantly influence how a search, a project, or an expedition unfolds and is perceived.

    By applying the technique of collage—and the image-text arrangements that emerge from it, which can, for instance, take the form of a book—I place headgear within personal contexts. Taking into account the expertise of those who wear them, I examine these head coverings while simultaneously seeking to sharpen my awareness of everything that occurs in the process of artistic research. The focus is less on a scientific approach and more on chosen moments that poetically shape or set in motion the act of research itself. I refer to occurrences within a working process that may not justify themselves as valid methods of inquiry within their field, yet greatly enrich or even advance it.

    How can a (scientific) expedition be examined not in terms of its results, but in terms of its searching processuality? And how, through the use of artistic methods and by way of the extended function of headgear, might one approach a mysterious driving force—the joy of searching, groping, experimenting; the stubborn meandering into ever-new dead ends; and the rare moments when new insights flash forth? How might one draw nearer to the loneliness or the restlessness that can arise during the working process? Where do we find the beauty that we cannot explain, yet which holds so much power?

    © Nadine Städler

    Former Doctoral Candidates

    Michael Günzburger
    Hannah Walter
    Julia Weber

    Further Links

    Concept for PhD program with Florian Dombois at ZHdK (Switzerland) in cooperation with the University of Art and Design Linz (Austria)

    Formats of Sharing (PDF)