Grounded Theories - Pluriversity in the Columbian Rainforest

“At the university, an adviser had interested her in Amerindian languages. Certain esoteric rites still survived in certain tribes out West; one of her professors suggested that she go live on a reservation, observe the rites, and discover the secret revealed to the initiates. When she came back, she would have her dissertation, and the university authorities would see that it was published. She set out for more than two years in the jungle, sometimes sheltered and sometimes in the open. She rose before dawn, went to bed at sundown, and came to dream in a language that was not that of her ancestors. One morning, without sayinga word to anyone, she left. In the city, she made her way to her professor's office and said that she knew the secret, but had resolved not to reveal it. "I don't know how to tell you this, but the secret is beautiful, and science, our science, seems mere frivolity to me now.”
After a pause she added: "And anyway, the secret is not as important as the paths that led me to it. Each person has to walk those paths themself." The professor spoke coldly: "I will inform the committee of your decision. Are you planning to live among the Indians?" "No," she answered. "I may not even go back to the jungle. What the people of the jungle taught me is good anywhere and for any circumstances.”— adapted from Jorge Luis Borges’ The Ethnographer (1969)

Our Fachsemester accompanies an ongoing project for a new university in the highland rainforest of Colombia by the Inga people, who trace their history in the Andes back to the Inca. The Inga have much to teach us. Although their population is small (around 30,000), their history is long. The Quechua people, of whom the Inga form a part, have already irreversibly shaped western medicine and colonial history, not least through teaching Jesuit missionaries about the use of quinine, the botanical basis for modern malaria treatment.

The Inga, together with their encyclopaedic knowledge of botany, medicine and agriculture, are under threat from mining companies, agricultural businesses and other cartels. Both their land and their identity are threatened precisely because of their role as custodians of
the headwaters of the Amazon. As protectors of the forest, they also defend us against global climate change. The Inga, whose language is to this day unwritten, now see the establishment of an institution as a means by which they can both assist the world, and maintain their own culture.

This university is a real project. It was initiated in 2018 by Hernando Chindoy, a representative of the Inga, and has been facilitated by the artist Ursula Biemann and Professor Anne Lacaton. Professor An Fonteyne will run a design studio on the topic in the fall of 2022. But the topicis also a problem, one that poses us questions about what a university is and does, and what and who it is for.

The group will meet on Tuesday and Thursdays. Students are invited to develop their own texts in relation to the overall topic. The collectiveresult of our writing will be a greater understanding of global interrelations, and the invention of new models of teaching from the history and theory of architecture.

Architektur VI

Gegenstand der zweisemestrigen Vorlesung ist die Einführung in die Geschichte der Kunst und Architektur seit ca. 1970 bis heute. Ausgehend von aktuellen Fragestellungen werden zentrale Themen anhand von Fallstudien geschildert. Im historischen Rückblick werden thematische Zusammenhänge unter Begriffen wie beispielsweise "Arbeit", "Ökonomie", "Erfahrung", "Forschung", "Natur", "Diversität" oder "Oberfläche" untersucht. Kunst und Architektur wird dabei nicht nur als Schauplatz kultureller Veränderungen, sondern auch als Indikator sozialer, ökonomischer, politischer Konflikte aufgefasst und damit als Gegenstand, durch welchen historische Dynamiken klarer erfasst und dargestellt werden können.

Vorlesung: Architekturgeschichte und -theorie VI

Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung

Digital Matters

Gleichen digitale Umwelten zunehmend bewohnten Laboratorien? Was ist die Materialität des Digitalen und welche Bedeutung haben digitale Medien für die Erfahrung, Nutzung und Produktion realer Umwelten? Dieser Kurs diskutiert Werke der Kunst und Architektur, die Beziehungen zwischen digitalen, physischen und sozialen Räumen ausloten oder neu definieren.

Dozierende: Dr. Nina Zschocke

Protect Us From What We Want

Hast Du schon einmal der Reiselust entsagt und versucht Dir diese Reise vorzustellen?

Was bedeutet Reisen im Zeitalter des Post-Holozäns?

Das Seminar untersucht die Relevanz der Seminarreise als Format im Architekturstudium und forscht gleichzeitig nach möglichen Alternativen aus der Perspektive von post-anthropozentrischen und postkolonialen Diskursen.

Vorstellungskraft und Abstraktion sind wichtige Fähigkeiten des Architekturberufs. Das Seminar will die Studierenden in präzisen Beschreibungen schulen und diese mit fiktionalem Inhalt ausbauen. In den Diskussionen sollen die Vor- und Nachteile des Reisens und des Vorortseins ausgearbeitet werden. Die Studierenden lernen mit Archivmaterial und mit digitalen Informationsquellen umzugehen, und diese im kreativen Storytelling auszuwerten.

Das Seminar wird begleitend zu einer Vertiefungsarbeit zu den Themen Forschungsreise im Anthropozän, Nachhaltigkeit und die Rolle der Architektur in diesem neuen Zeitalter angeboten.

Als Arbeitsplattform nutzen wir die Plattform Knowledge of Making – KOM:Protect Us From What We Want, HS 21

Welche Methoden, Praktiken und Möglichkeiten hat man die Reise intellektuell und emotional zu erfahren, ohne sich an den Ort zu bewegen? Diskutiert werden jene Elemente und Fakten, die durch die unterschiedlichen Wahrnehmungen profitieren oder aber schlechter wegkommen. In dem intensiven zweitägigen Workshop im Hotel Krone erarbeiten wir uns die bereits erfahrenen Reisen und überlegen uns neue Formen des Austauschs. Durch hybride digitale Kommunikation, luzides Träumen, autogenes Training, Austausch mit Künstler*innen und anderen Praktiken, versuchen wir auf eine teils fiktive, teils dokumentarische Reise zu gehen.

Seminar Seminar Spezialfragen zur Kunst- und Architekturgeschichte (052-0824-22)

Dozierende: Berit Seidel, Helene Romakin

KREIDEZEIT: In the Slovenian Karst, from Ljubiljana to Trieste

The seminar week will bring us to the Slovenian karst. Formed during the Kreidezeit (Cretaceous), the topography shaped by corroded limestone with its gorges, caves and subterranean lakes gave the name to geological formations which can be found world-wide. We will start in Ljulbljana and walk towards Trieste. Can the shared experience of this environment, halfway between a geological construc-tion site and a ruin, marked by a complex history, inspire us to find ways out of the tur-moil caused by the pandemic?
We will carry with us a black board, chalk and a sponge. Between walks we will gather around the blackboard, listen to guests, discuss, write down notes, leave traces, and erase them again.

Architektur und Fotografie FS22

Seminar Architektur und Fotografie (052-0822-22)

Dozierende: Tobias Wootton

Internationale Tagung
Digital Matters Symposium

This symposium is a collaboration between the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA) and The Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA), ETH Zurich. The performance by Madeline Gannon has been supported by the NCCR Digital Fabrication.

Concept and Organization:
Fabio Gramazio (Chair of Architecture and Digital Fabrication Gramazio Kohler)
Nina Zschocke (Chair of the History of Art and Architecture Philip Ursprung)

WORKSHOP: KÖNNEN WIR DAS KUNSTHAUS RETTEN?

Nachdem im November zwei durch die architektura organisierte Führungen mit Philip Ursprung in der Chipperfield-Erweiterung des Kunsthauses auf grosses Interesse gestossen sind, haben der Fachverein und die Professur sich vorgenommen, die angeregten Diskussionen in erweiterter Form fortzuführen. Am Freitag, den 18.3. und Samstag, 19.3. treffen sich Architektur- und Kunststudierende im ETH-Hauptgebäude und im Museum selbst, um den Neubau quasi von innen heraus neu zu denken. Denn wie die meisten Studierenden sich einig waren: Der Entwurf von Sir David Chipperfield erfüllt zwar mehrheitlich die Anforderungen, die an ein klassisches städtisches Museum gestellt werden, trägt jedoch mit seiner rigiden Monumentalität, so denn auch hinsichtlich der immer noch im Gange befindlichen Bührle-Affäre, herzlich wenig zu einer offenen Kunst- und Diskussionskultur bei. Dafür, wie sich das vielleicht verbessern liesse, ohne gleich abzureissen und neuanzufangen, suchen wir in diesem Workshop mutige, subversive und unerwartete Ideen. Denn die Geschichte von Kunsthaus und Heimplatz ist noch lange nicht zu Ende geschrieben. Mit Inputs von Philip Ursprung, Emanuel Christ, Anneke Abhelakh, Ella Esslinger und Fabienne Girsberger, Maurin Dietrich und Gloria Hasnay, San Keller

Organisiert von Berit Seidel, Simona Ferrari, Egon Wittig, Rami Msallam und Architektura

Symposium
A Pluriversity in the Colombian Rainforest

Our current Fachsemester builds on the ongoing project for a new indigenous pluriversity in the rainforest for the Inga people in Colombia. Initiated in 2018 by Hernando Chindoy, leader of the Inga community, and Ursula Biemann, artist based in Zurich, it led to a two-semester studio in HS 2019 and FS 2020 by Anne Lacaton and a seminar week with An Fonteyne.
The planned pluriversity aims at protecting and developing indigenous knowledge and strengthening the Inga in their role as guardians of the Amazon.

The workshop brings together students, researchers and political leaders from both the Inga and ETH Zürich.

Presentations by

Hernando Chindoy Chindoy, Representative of the Inga People, Colombia, Ursula Biemann, Artist, Zurich, Santiago del Hiero, LUS, ETH Zürich, Dr. Ivan D: Vargas Roncacio, McGill, University, Montreal, Juliana Ramírez, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá

Roundtable with

Annick Bächle, Alan Bigelow, Lizeth Códoba, Marine Gigandet, Hoi Ming Du, Zelda Frank, Nina Hsu, John Jairo Jansasoy, Freider Legarda, Maelle Odermatt, Alejandra Quiroga, Giacomo Rossi, Anastasia Skorik, Jhon Darwin Tisoy, Qianer Zhu

PETROGRAPHIES: Geological Thinking and Architecture

This course will examine the relevance of geological thought and methodology for the understanding of the built environment. Students will be introduced to key geological concepts and bring this knowledge into the analysis of built artefacts through the reading of texts, discussion of definitions and understanding of field discoveries. For the geologist James Hutton, “The crucial material link between human life and the earth is the soil”. The earth and its rocks have been a source of knowledge for the science of geology. Today we notice a proliferation of buildings resembling rocks, caves, geological formations and earthly excavations. Meanwhile environmental and philosophical discussions focus on the earth’s new epoch, one that is marked by human presence, activities and their after-effects. Shifting the discussion beyond formal resemblances, the seminar aims to provoke a more expansive and complex analysis of the relationship between architecture and the material earth, one that engages the interrelatedness between different scales, times and matters.

PhD Teaching: Lydia Xynogala

Nachglühen

Architektonisch-Biografische Geschichten

Vertiefungsarbeit von Ella Eßlinger und Clara Richard

Nachglühen bildet eine architektonisch-biographische Analyse. Wir befragen ältere Generationen, besuchen unsere Grosseltern, tauchen in unsere Familienarchive ein, für die sich bisher nur einige Verwandte interessierten. Dabei wollen wir den Begriff der modernen Architektur durch die Architektur unserer Grossmütter ersetzen. Wieso Grossmütter, Grosstanten, Frauen*, Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts? Im Diskurs mit den Schreibenden fällt auf, wie selten unsere Grossväter eine enge Verbindung zu ihren Häusern pflegten. Ihre Präsenz glänzte nur beim Mittagessen, denn sie waren Ärzte, Politiker, Journalisten, Landwirte und Minenarbeiter. Die Frauen* hingegen hatten – durch ihre unbezahlte Hausarbeit und die Kindererziehung – eine ungewollte und erzwungene Anbindung an ihre Häuser und Wohnungen. Fokussieren wir auf die zwischen 1940 und 1980 bewohnte Architektur, stellt sich heraus, dass Frauen* die Hauptakteurinnen waren.

KONZEPT , REDAKTION , LEKTORAT _ Clara Richard Ella Eßlinger KORREKTORAT_ Christine Richard BEITRÄGE_Ann-Kathrin Eickhoff, Clara Richard, Ella Eßlinger Gianna Ledermann Jakob Walter, Julia Gostynski, Julian Wäckerlin, Merve Yıldırım ,Myriam Uzor, Sacha Gengler, Tamino Kuny GESTALTUNG UND SATZ_ Studio SMS

PAYING ATTENTION:

a collective manifesto

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity” (Simone Weil)

“The astonishing reality of things Is my discovery eve-ry day. Each thing is what it is” (Fernando Pessoa)

Attention is a valuable resource. The astonishing re-ality of things — this is what attention uncovers, or rather, brings forth. Attention is neither simple per-ception, nor is it recognition. Rather it is an active at-tempt to allow the extraordinary richness of the world to surface. Ordinary attention is useful, standing in relation to the world like the opening and closing of the sensible doors in a well-maintained house. But unadulterated attention to what cannot be used, to what no one already wants, to what promises no knowledge or gain — walks through walls. Such clo-se attention always reveals the history of the presen-ce of others.

There is much competition to attract our attention. Attention has been monetized, transformed into a re-source that can be bought and sold. The four largest companies in the world (by market capitalization) are all in the business of tracking, atomizing, repacka-ging and selling your attention. These new informa-tion environments are now so prevalent that they can no longer be viewed as mere media systems, but rat-her constitute an irremovable part of our life worlds.
Architecture plays an important role both in gaining attention and making one attentive. It can facilitate the colonisation of attention, or it can offer sanctuaries of attentional autonomy. Design in general depends on the capacity of being attentive. By proposing the notion of “paying attention” we outline an emerging field of struggle between creativity and economy, per-ception and capital, authority and freedom. Students are invited to discuss these issues and develop them further.
While visiting different sites every week, students will develop during the semester written essays as part of a collective manifesto.

Our aim is to increase the facility of students for auto-nomous attention, to develop their skills in writing and reading, to equip them to remain sovereign within the emerging information economies, to make their voi-ces heard, and to develop a new teaching form for the history and theory of architecture.

Team: Philip Ursprung, Adam Jasper, Tim Klauser, Berit Seidel, Samuel Fuchs

Backround Montage:
Bas Princen, Vulcano Walk, Telega Warna, (Dieng Plateau), 2016

Protect Us From What We Want

Have you ever resisted the desire to travel and tried to imagine this journey?

What does travel mean in the post-Holocene era?

The seminar explores the relevance of the seminar trip as a format in architectural studies while researching possible alternatives in terms of sustainability. In the seminar we will experiment with different methods and forms of hybrid travel.


The participants will be divided into "travelers" and "non-travelers". They form a tandem and are in exchange with each other via different media. The seminar will allow participants to explore their own imagination and capacity for abstraction with diverse methods, media and formats such as lucid dreaming and storytelling with documentary and fictional content.


The discussions will elaborate on the advantages and disadvantages of
traveling and being on site. In the two different attentions of the students' tandem work, the digital experience and the real experience meet. Discussed are those elements and facts that benefit or come off worse due to the different perceptions.

Lecturers: Berit Seidel, Helene Romakin

ARCHITECTURE & PHOTOGRAPHIE

Representation of architecture is inextricably linked to photography since the mid 19th century. As buildings are commonly discussed on the basis of images, understanding their technical origin is key to reading and making them. By teaching students how to use a 4x5'' view camera, the artist and photographer Tobias Wootton will introduce different techniques of 'thinking through the lens'.

Lecturer: Tobias Wootton

Reflexionen über Ausstellungs- und Kunstpraxis heute: Künstlerische Recherche

Seit einiger Zeit ist die Bezeichnung «Künstlerische Forschung» in aller Munde. Ist dies ein Modewort für ein Phänomen, das es schon seit Jahrhunderten gibt? Oder handelt es sich um einen neuen Ansatz, der erst in den 1990er-Jahren aufgekommen ist? Wir machen uns auf Spurensuche, lesen Texte und befragen Künstler*innen.

Lecturer: Dr. Linda Schädler, Leiterin Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich

Abb. Monica Ursina Jäger, Shiifting Topographies 24, 2019

NISYROS NEW BEGINNINGS

After a period of crisis and disaster, we want to produce new perspectives. The tiny Greek volcanic island of Nisyros is our entry point. Located at the border between Greece and Turkey, it seems to be “remote”. What if we consider it the center? How can we connect the history of the earth with the recent geopolitical development? How are geology and architecture related? What can we learn from a place famous for its healing qualities since Antiquity? Following a stopover in Athens we will travel by boat. On the island we will walk, talk and draw.

Organized and performed by: Lydia Xynogala, Philip Ursprung, Sabine Sarwa, Tim Klauser, Nina Zschocke, Tobias Wootton, Adam Jasper, Berit Seidel, and the Students and Guests

ARCHITECTURE V

Gegenstand der zweisemestrigen Vorlesung ist die Einführung in die Geschichte der Kunst und Architektur seit ca. 1970 bis bis heute. Ausgehend von aktuellen Fragestellungen werden zentrale Themen anhand von Fallstudien geschildert. Im historischen Rückblick werden thematische Zusammenhänge unter Begriffen wie beispielsweise "Arbeit", "Ökonomie", "Erfahrung", "Forschung", "Natur", "Diversität" oder "Oberfläche" untersucht. Kunst und Architektur wird dabei nicht nur als Schauplatz kultureller Veränderungen, sondern auch als Indikator sozialer, ökonomischer, politischer Konflikte aufgefasst und damit als Gegenstand, durch welchen historische Dynamiken klarer erfasst und dargestellt werden können.

Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung

ARCHITECTURE AFTER CRISIS

Out of the Crisis: Architecture in Times of Disease

Which lessons can be drawn for architecture from the pandemic?

Will there be a back to normal?

How did concepts of space and time change?

How can architecture education react?

The lecture will pose questions rather than offer answers.

Each lecture will be structured by an input by the professor and guests and followed by a discussion with all participants.

Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung

Between Cosmos and Chaos: Gottfried Semper’s Theory of Architecture

The lecture discusses Gottfried Semper’s complex approach to architecture as the «small world» created by mankind within a global scope framing history and the present between a cosmological totality and chaotic fragmentation.

The seductiveness of Semper’s theory of architecture lies not least in the fact that he exploded world art histories popularized around the mid-nineteenth century through multifarious disciplinary borrowings ranging from anthropology to aesthetics and including natural sciences and linguistics, physiology and psychology, art and industry. This parallels his linking the smallest object and detail to the largest monumental building and his addressing philosophical questions centred around architecture such as those of the relation between nature and culture, the universal and the local, the material and the immaterial, body and soul, image and language, art and interpretation. In doing so, his global scope provokes political questions regarding the relation of identity and foreignness, of the West to the rest of the world.

Lecturer: Michael Gnehm

HALF LIVE

“In the shadow of the cooling tower – Maintenance manifestoes”

The master thesis theme that we propose deals with the notion of maintenance. Durability of objects is closely related to the care that is taken for them by people. Or, in the words of the artist Barbara Kruger: “It’s a small world but not if you have to clean it.”

The site we propose is everything that is in the shadow (real of imagined) of the cooling tower of the Gösgen Nuclear Power Plant. Operating since 1979 the plant is currently in the middle of its expected lifetime. Its future is unclear. The cooling tower remains an emblem of both hope and fear. Neighboring terrains are cheap.

The written reference we propose is Manifesto! Maintenance Art: Proposal for an Exhibition (1969) by the artist Mierle Laederman.

Groups of Tom Emerson & Philip Ursprung

EXHIBIT – INHABIT

A collective manifesto

"But Grandmother! What big eyes you have," said Little Red Riding Hood. "The better to see you with, my dear," replied the wolf.

Since when are windows so big?
Since when are exhibitions so real?
How does the inside and the outside relate?
Students are invited to give answers to these questions and develop them further.

Starting with three concrete sites – the grotto of the healer Emma Kunz in Würenlos whose artistic work will be exhibited in Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, IKEA in Spreitenbach, the first IKEA branch outside Scandinavia, and the village of Quinten at Walensee, a microcosm about to become a museum of itself - students will develop during the semester written essays, video-essays or exhibition scenarios as part of a collective manifesto.

Our aim is to increase the knowledge and sensitivity of architecture students toward the issue of exhibiting and inhabiting, to increase their skills in writing and reading, to make their voices heard and to develop a new teaching form for the history and theory of architecture.

Team: Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung, Dr. Nina Zschocke, Dr. Adam Jasper, Dipl. Ing. Tim Klauser, Dipl. Ing. / MA of Arts Berit Seidel, Niels Olsen, Fredi Fischli, Sacha Gengler

Students: Joel Berger, Caroline Dietmeier, Sophie Keel, Noëlle Hafter, Nicolas Rolle, Cilgia Salzgeber, Jonas Schüpbach, Maude Voulat, Wei You

Link: EXHIBIT – INHABIT

Joseph Beuys

Kunst Kapital Revolution

Philip Ursprung

Joseph Beuys (1921–1986): einerseits als Künstler von Weltruhm gefeiert, andererseits aber als «Scharlatan» angefeindet. Wie kaum ein anderer prägte und polarisierte er die zeitgenössische Kunst. Welche Rolle spielt der Mann aus Kleve, der zum Inbegriff der Gegenwartskunst geworden ist, heute? Philip Ursprung begibt sich auf eine zeithistorische Reise zu 24 zentralen Beuys-Schauplätzen und bietet dabei einen umfassenden Überblick über das Gesamtwerk des Künstlers im gesellschaftlichen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Zusammenhang der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

CH Beck

This first monograph of the artists’ collective U5 spans the first thirteen years of their artistic practice. The collective’s artistic methods and strategies have shaped and guided the publication’s graphic dimension, just as the texts published here were written in direct reaction to the artistic practice of U5. Following this approach, associative and simultaneous thinking was central in the creation process of this book. With a focus on the meaning of collaborative practice and authorship, digitality, and material aesthetics, the texts by artist and art critic Christian Egger, art historian Nina Zschocke, and cultural scientist and curator Helene Romakin provide an art theoretical framework for U5’s œuvre.

Christian Egger asks what it means to work as a collective and explores the inner workings of the group.

TRUST in negotiation.

Nina Zschocke focuses on digital techno-logy and its impact on our perception and behavior.

TRUST? Doubt. Wonder!

Helene Romakin analyzes the presence of matter and the value of senses in U5’s practice.

TRUST what’s arbitrary.

VfmK

WHO CARES ?

Architecture and Care : A Collective Manifesto

Fachsemester HS20 Finals

Chair of the History of Art and Architecture, Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung

With Works by

Tatjana Blaser, Kai Bührer, Dimitri Durst, Ella Esslinger, Sylvie Fontan, Samuel Fuchs, Frederik Kaufmann, Luca Meister, Sebastian Piel, Michaela Pöschik and Clara Richard

Guest Critics

Jürg Bertold, Elisabeth Bronfen, Finn Canonica, Emanuel Christ, Jan De Vylder, An Fonteyne, Teresa Galí-Izard, Elli Mosayebi

Team

Tim Klauser, Linda Schädler, Berit Seidel, Adam Smith, Philip Ursprung, Nina Zschocke, Sacha Gengler

ZOOM: Meeting-ID 939 1687 8779

Link to website

Many political leaders wish for a Grand Projet to leave a monumental mark on the fabric of the city, but no one wishes to be remembered for a ‘Grand Gesture’. A grand projet is a symbolic project that shapes the identity of the city as much as it serves its physical needs. As the name implies, a grand gesture is a performance in which the intention never quite determines the result. Its size is always too big, and its logic is that of hyperbole. Modernity is populated by many grand gestures. If they tend to failure, it is failure of an interesting kind, one that sometimes inadvertently succeeds in abolishing the context that engendered the gesture. This issue of gta papers deals with urban history, and architectural historiography, as characterized by irony. Irony is, as it were, not merely the inevitable outcome of any grand historical gesture, but appears as a mysterious force, seemingly guiding events to maximize the resulting anti-climax.

A virtual Apéro with short contributions by authors including Maarten Delbeke, Sarah Nichols and Davide Spina, amongst others—each author will speak for only a few minutes, and will elaborate on a single image from their articles, taking us on a collective slalom through the iconography of the "Grand Gesture".

Topic: gta Papers launch

Time: Dec 15, 2020 05:00 PM Zurich

https://ethz.zoom.us/j/3124212793

gta papers 4

Grand Gestures

ISBN 978-3-85676-407-4
Edited by Adam Jasper and Stefan Neuner, Designed by büro uebele (thanks Maks!)With contributions by John Macarthur, Maarten Delbeke, Sarah Nichols, André Bideau, Davide Spina, and others

Joseph Beuys: Social Sculpture

The lecture will follow the career of the most prominent German artists in the second halft of the 20th century and relate it to the most important political project of this era, namely the European integration. For a brief period of time - between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, art, and culture in general, get influential in the social and political realm.Beuys stands at the center of this historic constallation. While his work is gradually becoming a part of art history, some aspects remain present.

Link to website

X - cene. An Oral History Project

Special Questions in History of Art and Architecture

Dr. Dora Imhof, Helene Romakin, Berit Seidel

In the seminar we will explore different forms of interviews. The interviews will take place in the context and on topics of the “ X - cene Matinee“ in the wind tunnel of the ZHdK. This series of events will deal with the current discourse on the Anthropocene, Pyrocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene and Chthulocene. We will interview the invited artists of the series, but also security, facility management, students, visitors, etc. In this way, the wind tunnel will be recorded as a living laboratory, production and meeting place.

2 hybrid events took place:

10.10.2020 X-cene Matinee Clemens Krauss

31.10.2020 X-cene Matinee Isabel Lewis & Steffi Hessler

Link to website

JURA

The jura mountain range separates the Rhine and Rhone basins. Inhabited since the iron age, its cultural land has been divided by political borders, religion and language. It has been the site of separatist movements and struggles for social emancipation and independence.

Jura means forest. While vast oak woods disappeared with clearings during the 18th century, the industrialization brought firs and pines, new forms of agriculture and the railway. It also brought tobacco, textile and watch-making industries, each with its own history of production facilities and organization of work.
Jura is the name of a geological era. With folds that began to raise 10 million years ago, the jura is a geologically relatively young formation. Its sediments however hide fossils which tell secret tales about much older creatures that lived 200 million years ago in and on the coasts of a tropical shallow sea. Trapped in limestone, they populate the architecture of the region and attract tourists. The unknown histories of other ancient organisms have melted into the sticky black liquid of bitumen, exploited in the Val-de-Travers since the 19th century.

During the seminar week, we will hike the swiss jura mountains. We will explore mines and quarries, wander along rivers and past cloisters, watch birds, withstand thunderstorms and make a bonfire. We will meet artists and researchers. We will hear tales of precision and anarchism, of absinth production and entrepreneurial strategy, of empires, confederations, congresses and revolt, of global trade, tourism and population decrease, of extraction and spirituality, of erosion, power places and the jurassic age of reptiles. Along the way, we will practice writing (with Finn Canonica) and photography (with Tobias Wootton).

Architektur und Fotografie

Die Repräsentation der Architektur ist seit dem mittleren 19. Jahrhundert untrennbar mit der Fotografie verbunden. Viele Bauten werden ausschliesslich anhand von Fotografien diskutiert. Der Fotograf Tobias Wootton (HfG Karlsruhe) bildet die Studierenden in verschiedenen Techniken (Grossbild, Mittelformat, Kleinbild, Digitale Fotografie) aus, führt sie in die Arbeit in der Dunkelkammer ein.

Dr. Nina Zschocke

Link zur Webseite

This semester Don 18 builds on a lecture series on (“Digital Matters”) taught by Nina Zschocke. “Digital Matters” poses questions on the materiality of the digital and the significance of digital media for the experience, use and production of real environments. The seminar explores the material dimension behind seemingly immaterial data flows, but also the question of the different ways in which new information and communication technologies change reality.

Helene Romakin, Berit Seidel, Dr. Nina Zschocke

DON 18 BLOG

Dr. Nina Zschocke, Dr. Adam Jasper

Link zur Webseite

Die Repräsentation der Architektur ist seit dem mittleren 19. Jahrhundert untrennbar mit der Fotografie verbunden. Viele Bauten werden ausschliesslich anhand von Fotografien diskutiert. Der Fotograf Tobias Wootton (HfG Karlsruhe) bildet die Studierenden in verschiedenen Techniken (Grossbild, Mittelformat, Kleinbild, Digitale Fotografie) aus, führt sie in die Arbeit in der Dunkelkammer ein.

Tobias Wootton

Vertiefungsarbeit, HS19-FS20

Gionata Buzzi: Extractivism

Das Projekt fokussiert auf die Gewinnung von Ressourcen in der Schweiz, mit dem Ziel, die wichtigsten Abbaustellen zu lokalisieren und sie fotografisch darzustellen. Neben der Vielfältigkeit der Mineralstoffe des Schweizer Bodens werden auch die Landschaften, die der Abbau erst generiert ins Bild gesetzt. Wie bezieht sich der Mensch auf die Natur und welche Weltanschauungen sind in diesen Landschaften verwurzelt? Lassen sich über visuelle Schönheit komplexe Ideen und unangenehme Wahrheiten mitteilen?

Sempers theoretisches Hauptwerk, Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten, oder Praktische Aesthetik (1860/63), steht im Zentrum des Editionsprojekts. Der Stil fasziniert bis heute durch den Ansatz, Architektur als Produkt kultureller Praktiken zu sehen. Die Breite der Semper’schen Schriften umfasst Forschungen weit über die Grenzen von Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte hinaus, von der Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte bis zur Evolutionsbiologie und Anthropologie.

SNF-Forschungsprojekt
Projektverantwortliche: Philip Ursprung (ETH Zürich), Sonja Hildebrand (USI, Mendrisio)
Projektleitung: Michael Gnehm (USI/ETH)

Link zum Forschungsprojekt

Das Oral History Archiv der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Architektur (OHA) umfasst Interviews mit ProtagonistInnen der Kunst und Architektur in der Schweiz, die in Seminaren und Forschungsprojekten am Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architetur (gta), ETH Zürich und der Universität Zürich entstanden sind.

Dr. Dora Imhof

Link zur Webseite

Dissertation
Take Care: Mineralization, Hydrochemistry and the Environments of Greek Thermalism

Lydia Xynogala

Link zum Forschungsprojekt

Dissertation
The Anthropocene and Visual Culture: Material Strategies in Art and Architecture

Helene Romakin

Link zum Forschungsprojekt

Dissertation
Give us a break!

Paola de Martin

Link zum Forschungsprojekt

Dissertation
Regressive Architecture

Susanne Hefti

Link zum Forschungsprojekt

Dissertation
Real Estate Fiction. Branding Industries and the Construction of Global Urban Imaginaries

Marija Marić

Link zum Forschungsprojekt