Structure

With the three-year postgraduate program Being(s): Artistic Research in Transformative Contexts of Health, the HFBK aims to offer for the first time an internationally compatible postgraduate qualification in the field of artistic research for artists at the beginning of their careers.

The program is developed and closely supervised by a Doctoral Committee, which includes international HFBK lecturers: Prof. Kader Attia, Prof. Angela Bulloch, Prof. Simon Denny, Prof. Omer Fast, Prof. Rajkamal Kahlon and Prof. Adina Pintilie.

In close cooperation with the research area Life in the Anthropocene: Body, Health, Society as part of the BA program Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Hamburg (UHH), together with Prof. Dr. Sophie Witt (UHH, Professor of Literary Studies, in particular Cultures of Knowledge and Interdisciplinarity), research, study and teaching programs are developed and tested that link current issues of health with other contemporary discourses and explicitly situate them at the interface of science and art. For this theory-practice transfer, formats are created in specific thematic constellations that serve as a laboratory and practice hub.

Content framework

In the face of current challenges, the world is more dependent than ever on new impulses and a radical rethinking in all areas of life. At a time when profound transformation processes are fundamentally changing the conditions of life, consequences are emerging at local, global and planetary level that will have unforeseeable consequences for the health of all living beings on this planet. The ever-emerging question of the conditions of health can be seen as one of the most important problems at all levels, which is constantly being exacerbated by armed conflicts, climate crises, pandemics and growing challenges in public healthcare. It is essential not only to advance the development of medical sciences, but also to consider health in a broader field. This requires interdisciplinary strategies and radically new ways of thinking, because health means much more than absence of illness.

Artistic dimensions can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of health in present and future and become experimental, aesthetic and structural descriptive categories for specific world conditions and rapidly changing living conditions. By reflecting on the aesthetic-conceptual foundations and framework conditions that influence and shape the perception and experience of health and well-being, the research program aims on the one hand to analyze the mechanisms, instruments and orders that define existing systemic and normative structures. On the other hand, proposals from art are to be formulated in order to make new reference systems visible that understand health as a dynamic relationship between different forms of life, (im)material conditions and systemic contexts.

Curriculum

A specially developed curriculum is offered for doctoral students that is dedicated to the methods and practice of artistic research. For this purpose, seminars are offered that form a conceptual, methodological and structural basis for the joint work and also deal with practical research questions in the context of the individual projects.

A research colloquium, which focuses on the respective developments in the projects, takes place once a semester. Here, links and synergies within the group are worked out and networking is strengthened. External guests provide impetus and expand the network's connections. The format varies between workshops and presentations of prototypes, joint excursions as well as public and discursive events.

On a regular basis events are held for a broad interested public with an artistic-scientific lecture and discussion program, performances, exhibitions as well as curated insights into the doctoral projects. The events focus on specific topics and aim to increase the visibility of the program in the international research landscape and at the same time make research in the arts visible. They also serve to network with other institutions and academics in Hamburg in order to inspire new target groups for artistic research and to actively involve them.

The researchers gain experience as lecturers at the HFBK in preparation for a later position in art academies and universities, but also in international art and cultural institutions such as museums, galleries or cultural institutions. There is the opportunity to develop teaching formats in exchange with the supervising professors and in collaboration with cooperation partners, which can also be implemented in the context of the research area Life in the Anthropocene: Body, Health, Society as part of the BA program Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Hamburg.

Doctoral committee

Prof. Kader Attia

• Prof. Angela Bulloch
• Prof. Simon Denny
• Prof. Dr. Bettina Uppenkamp
• Prof. Dr. Sophie Witt
  

Deputies:

• Prof. Omer Fast
• Prof. Rajkamal Kahlon
• Prof. Adina Pintilie

Downloads

• Doctoral degree regulations and study regulations of the HFBK for the PhD in Art Practice in the currently valid version
• Guidelines for ensuring good artistic and scientific research practice at the HFBK Hamburg in the currently valid version in connection with
• German Research Foundation (DFG) - Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice (in German)

Hamburg Research Academy

The Hamburg Research Academy is the central port of call for prospective doctoral candidates, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, junior professors, and their supervisors at nine higher education institutions in Hamburg.

The website www.hra-hamburg.de contains comprehensive information on the advancement of a career within and outside academia at Hamburg's higher education and research institutions. The Hamburg Research Academy supports its users throughout their academic career or as they consider other fields with target-group-specific events and workshops.