The call we have just heard is perhaps addressed to all of humanity, whether we like it or not. Let us heed this call before it is too late. We want to be worthy representatives of the species into which misfortune has cast us. What do you think? / Estragon: I wasn’t listening.
Uttered seventy years ago, Estragon’s reply in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” could not be more topical: How do we respond to the human-made catastrophes of our time? By not listening? What can artistic research contribute to contemporary society what the natural sciences or humanities have long been seeking to address? Relevant IPF research includes:
Memory is the art of the future: Funded as part of Zurich’s Digitalization initiative (DIZH), and undertaken in cooperation with UZH and the World Association of Film Schools CILECT, CineMAP – Navigating through Artistic Film Research und CineMinds is creating a long-term online archive of specialist knowledge based on interviews with experienced filmmakers.
In 2023, IPF researchers actively engaged with the national and international scholarly community. Activities included the ZDOK Conference on Reality, Second Hand, where 200 experts from film academies, film universities and practitioners discussed archival material and found footage in documentary film. Also worth mentioning are publications such as Bernadette Kolonko’s Unsichtbares und Ungesagtes. 10 Female * Feminist * Gazes.
Special mention also goes to Marisa Godoy’s Artist residencies and/as pedagogy, a dance research project completed in 2023 and awarded a PhD degree at the ZHdK Graduation Day.
AI, avatars and software continue to exercise the minds of theatre researchers. In 2023, a 15-year interdisciplinary research venture exploring identity and individuality concluded with the SNSF-funded publication Actor & Avatar, a Scientific & Artistic Catalog. The volume ranges from brain scan analyses and emotion research to the manipulation of media addressees. With the rise of avatars, which until recently were primitive talking heads, digitalization is overtaking us and humanoid counterparts are spreading exponentially. Meanwhile, the analog world is ailing and resources are dwindling. Keeping materials in circulation for longer makes an important contribution to reducing waste. Exactly this is the starting point for the Mining Map Zurich, a project dedicated to creating a digital city map for reusable material. The map provides art and design students with free access to discarded materials, making the city a quarry. Developed by Sarah Burger and Nadia Fistarol, and presented at the Point of no Return symposium (link to highlight), the mining map enables preserving resources for theatre stages, film sets and other arts.
Under the direction of Ilse van Rijn, in 2023 the IPF continued to actively promote early career researchers: through two PhD programmes (funded by swissuniversities) and through the DDK’s pre-doc format PEERS. Other ventures included a symposium on Dramaturgien politischer Künste (R. Dreifuss) and LeKuLab, a research project on intangible cultural heritage as a field of learning (L. Heimberg, funded by the Wissenschaftsverbund der Vierländerregion).
Research and development remain attempts to explore the immense dimensions of the imponderable in art and to harness those dimensions for the benefit of society through expert practitioners.
Marijke Hoogenboom, Director of the Department of Performing Arts and Film DDK, March 2024