How can artistic practices open up new perspectives on scientific research and societal challenges? The symposium, taking place on 4 and 5 May 2026, will explore this question.

Co-organizers Patrick Müller, Co-Director of the Master’s in Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts, and Jana Thierfelder, Lecturer in the Master program and Postdoc at Eawag, outline the context of "Beyond Communication" in an interview.

Eawag, the water research institute of the ETH Domain, the Master’s programme in Transdisciplinarity in the Arts and the artists-in-labs programme are jointly hosting ‘Beyond Communication’. What motivated you to attend the symposium?
When engaging with actors from the sciences, we notice—despite all our differences—how similar our preoccupations are: We share, for instance, a concern for the habitability of our planet or grapple with the ongoing erosion of democratic cultures—at the same time, we can be inspired by the richness and beauty of our naturecultural environments. Perhaps it is precisely these shared interests that have led to a growing attraction in recent years: science and the arts apparently find each other extremely appealing! In our exchange with Eawag, the water research institute of the ETH Domain, we were surprised to discover how many of their researchers have already developed practices of collaboration with artistic expertise—practices that are often largely invisible in mainstream scientific circles.

Is that why the word “beyond” is in the symposium’s title?
Many practices go far beyond the obvious questions of science communication. We have also expanded the symposium to include a political dimension. In many cases, the relevant projects—in the sense of equal working alliances—address the societal concerns already mentioned. Not infrequently, this also gives them a distinctly political focus, meaning they respond to the current transformations of our societies and seek to influence or help shape them.

What conditions must be met for art and science to enrich one another?
“The sciences generate knowledge, the arts enable experience”—that’s what I recently heard at an official reception. There may be a grain of truth to this, yet the relationship between the two fields is often more complex and less clear-cut: scientific methods, too, sometimes employ sensory-aesthetic approaches, and the arts, too, possess their own forms of knowledge. If there is a shared concern, exchange can succeed not only in accepting differences but also in bringing them into conversation and working with them productively. In concrete projects within the Master’s in Transdisciplinary Studies, we find that students need more than just tools for collaboration—they need spaces that enable such collaboration. In this context, we sometimes speak of “feral learning” or “ferality”: the idea of allowing one’s own disciplinary assumptions to run wild to some extent and stepping outside of academic or institutional “domestication.”

In which direction?
Toward environments where the usual structures, expectations, and disciplinary norms are loosened enough to allow new forms of thinking, perception, and relating to one another to emerge—while at the same time incorporating knowledge deeply rooted in disciplinary experience. Such spaces create room for slowness, ambiguity, and even for irritation or discomfort. This allows students—from both the arts and the sciences—to develop critical competencies, not only across disciplinary boundaries but also across different ontologies and epistemologies. Instead of focusing exclusively on results, these spaces prioritize the process: Here, learning takes place through interconnection, experimentation, and mutual attunement—and not least through social encounters, humour, and joy.

You are currently also preparing an art-science exhibition at the Toni-Areal, which will be on view at the Kunstraum from April 29 to May 6.
Due to the collaboration with Eawag, the symposium focuses more strongly on natural and environmental sciences. The exhibition, however, broadens the spectrum of the sciences involved even further: it is based on work by current students in the Transdisciplinary Studies Major and the Art & Science Minor, but also showcases results from earlier collaborative projects. These include, for example, projects with anthropologists from the University of Bern who study care practices in the healthcare sector, or with historians from the University of Zurich, with whom students have worked on migration-related topics. We also have a long-standing collaboration with the Transdisciplinary Lab at ETH Zurich; there, students from ETH and ZHdK work together with local stakeholders on case studies to examine phenomena such as climate change adaptation—for example, in the Surselva or Entlebuch regions. Instead of treating the interplay between the sciences and the arts in abstract terms, we consciously take an exemplary and practical approach in such collaborations: We test methods and forms of collaboration on concrete topics and subjects that are important to the participating stakeholders.

You mentioned the Art & Science Minor. What can students expect there?
In the Minor as well, it is important to us to convey that the boundaries between the various forms of knowledge and practice in the sciences and the arts are often less clear-cut than one might initially assume. This becomes particularly evident when one takes a closer look: at existing practices, projects, and examples, but also at the work of the students who come together in the Minor. Students have a say in shaping the minor to some extent. For example, the focus can be primarily on attending courses and projects within the Minor as well as the Transdisciplinary Studies major. Alternatively, there is the option to concentrate more heavily on a personal project proposal, which is supported by internal or external mentors from our network.

Does that mean they can immerse themselves in scientific contexts?
A unique opportunity is offered by the Artist-in-Lab residencies, which selected students can participate in as part of the Minor. In collaboration with the artist-in-labs program, we enable them to work in a scientific laboratory for two to three months. There, they can engage with the respective research community as “embedded artists,” so to speak, and further develop their own artistic work within this context. For students who have participated in this program so far, this has been an experience that has often had a lasting impact on the rest of their academic careers and even their professional practice.