beyondcommunication.zhdk.ch

Michael Jad Azkoul, known by the stage name “Dr Koul”, is a rapper, poet, author, martial arts instructor and massage therapist based in Geneva, Switzerland. His most important solo production was a book and album entitled Prophet of Doubt, which has been followed by various short projects, residencies, and collaborations. Hailing from an international background (Lebanese-American and Anglo-Uruguayan), he has always considered himself a freethinker, passionate about transdisciplinary approaches to what he perceives as universal themes. Sometimes political, sometimes philosophical, Dr Koul’s music combines “conscious” Hip Hop with jazz and traditional instrumentation, and he is most recognized as being one of the lead vocalists of Captains of the Imagination, a Geneva-based, English-speaking rap group.

Pauline Agustoni is a Swiss designer and artist based in Berlin. Her work explores the poetry of encounters between materials, production techniques, and gestures of making. Through her projects — scenographies, publications, and series of objects — she encourages a heightened awareness of the gestures and techniques that shape our material world.

Lena Bakker is a doctoral student working on better understanding the role of soil microorganisms in a greening Arctic. She works within a multidisciplinary team at ETH Zürich’s Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life, studying microorganisms at the interfaces between bedrock, organic soil, plants, and the atmosphere. Her science is deeply rooted in fascination for the diversity, complexity, and drivers of life and the many facets in which it interacts with its surroundings. geobiology.ethz.ch

Delphine Chapuis Schmitz (F/CH) is an artist, writer, and researcher trained in philosophy and visual arts. Her process-based practice explores the poïetic potential of language through thinking-in-the-making, unfolding across writing, installations, and lecture performances within collective and cross-disciplinary constellations. She teaches at ZHdK’s Department of Cultural Analysis and holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She co-founded DEARS, a platform for cross-disciplinary writing practices, and is part of WITHING, a durational project in language-based artistic research. dchapuis-schmitz.com

Sophie Falkeis is a Vienna- and Zurich-based designer exploring socio-ecological and geopolitical complexities of climate change through speculative design. Her work is part of the MAK permanent collection and has been exhibited in London, Vienna, Eindhoven, Almere, Beijing, Bern, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Gothenburg, and was featured in the New York Times. She currently acts as Co-PI of the project ECHOES at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, funded by the SNF. sophiefalkeis.com

Born in China, currently based in Switzerland. They studied Audiovisual Communication in Spain. Back in China, They co-founded Fantastic Studio. In 2024, They completed her Master in Cinema at ECAL/HEAD in Switzerland. Their work across film, digital art, and writing. Often moves between documentary and fiction, exploring a blend of realist visual language with abstract and dreamlike worlds. Combining personal narratives with experimental aesthetics, their work reflects on how human emotion endures within systems and uncertainty. They has participated in the First International Film Festival’s Training Camp and the Locarno Film Festival Basecamp, and their works have been shown at various festivals, including Visions du Réel, Winterthur International Short Film Festival, and DokuFest, etc.

Irène Hediger is head of the artist-in-labs program (AIL) at Zurich University of the Arts. Through her long-term engagement as head of the AIL program, she promotes inter- and transdisciplinary exchange and praxis at the interface of art, technology and science. Since 2026, AIL is part of the NCCR Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research “Muoniverse”, a major initiative that uses muons (heavy cousins of electrons) to explore the hidden structures of materials in completely non-destructive ways. Hediger has curated numerous exhibitions and accompanying programs on contemporary art, technology and science.

Benjamin Hofmann is a Group Leader at the Transdisciplinarity Lab (TdLab) in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich, and a Guest Researcher in the Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research Group at Eawag. With a background in political science, his current research focuses on knowledge coproduction and its use in the context of environmental change and society. He teaches a transdisciplinary case study at ETH Zurich, where he collaborates with Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). In 2024/25, he conducted the art–science project Science in the Anthropocene: A Transdisciplinary Visual Exploration in the Icelandic Westfjords together with illustrator Elisa Debora Hofmann.

Sabine Hoffmann is group leader of inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) research group at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, and lecturer at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on integration and integrative leadership in large inter- and transdisciplinary research programs. She is member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net).

Monica Ursina Jäger has established an artistic practice at the intersection of art and ecology. Exploring different forms of art–science collaboration is at the core of her practice. Her latest long-term art project Liquid Territory was an exploration of the possibilities that arise when an artist thinks like a geologist and works from a poly-temporal perspective to examine geological and conceptual processes of erosion and sedimentation. muj.ch

David Janssen is a research group leader at Eawag. His research in aquatic geochemistry focuses on trace elements as nutrients, toxins, and tracers of biogeochemical processes. His group uses a combination of field and lab techniques, often working in collaboration with physicists, ecologists, and microbiologists.

Dirk Karger is a senior researcher at the interface of macroecology, biodiversity research, and climatology at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. His research focuses on how climate and biodiversity are linked in time and space, with particular attention to algorithms for downscaling climate data to biologically relevant scales. He is currently studying how extreme weather events such as megadroughts affect vegetation and biodiversity.

Luisa Last is the Program Coordinator for the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center’s PhD Program in Science and Policy (ETH Zurich, UZH and University of Basel), and an Educational Expert.

Patrick Müller is Professor of Transdisciplinary Media at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he has been co-leading the master’s program in Transdisciplinary Studies since 2008. He is associate researcher at ZHdK’s Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology. His multifaceted work operates at the intersection of composition, art, science, and technology, with a particular focus on sound studies and telematic performance practices.

Yvonne Schmidt is a professor, founder, and head of the EcoArtLab and responsible for the research field of art education at the Institute Practices and Theories in the Arts at HKB/BFH. She teaches and researches on arts-based research, transdisciplinarity, performance and disability, art (mediation) and climate change, curating as political practice, and the digital transformation of cultural institutions — including the SNF-funded projects “Aesthetics of the Im/Mobile” (2022–2026) and “EcoArtLab. Relational Encounters between the Arts and Climate Research” (2023–2027). ecoartlab.ch

Nele Schuwirth is a research group leader on Integrative Ecological Systems Analysis and head of the department Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling (SIAM). Her group works on inter- and transdisciplinary projects in the fields of ecological modelling, decision support and ecological assessment of freshwater ecosystems.

Nadine Schütz works at the intersection of art education, curatorial research, and graphic design with a focus on art–science practices. Since 2020, she has been involved in projects with the Ars Electronica Festival, Mediamatic Amsterdam, and WSL Birmensdorf (artists-in-labs program). She holds a Master’s degree in Curatorial Studies (ZHdK). Her master’s research examines how mycological data is produced in the field, questioning the notion of scientific objectivity. Currently, she works as an Artistic Assistant in the Minor Material: Biological Co-Creation at ZHdK.

Martijn Sonnevelt is Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Systems Science of ETH Zurich and Executive Director at the World Food System Center of ETH Zurich.

Eva-Maria Spreitzer is a Zurich-based PhD candidate in Organization and Cultural Studies (Leuphana University Lüneburg), a research fellow at ZHdK, and a practitioner–researcher working at the intersection of futures, transdisciplinary collaboration, and arts-based inquiry. Her research explores how futures can be engaged as relational and transformative processes, with a focus on futures reflexivity, transformative learning, and aesthetic practices.

Jana Thierfelder studied visual communication design and transdisciplinary practices in the arts in Stuttgart and Zurich. She holds a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Bern. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Inter- and Transdisciplinary (ITD) research group at Eawag in Dübendorf, and a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Her research focuses on art–science transformations, research practices, and feminist science studies.

Dr. Artemis Treindl is a mycologist specialising in fungal diversity and conservation. At the National Data Center SwissFungi (WSL), she conducted large-scale national monitoring of fungal diversity in Switzerland for the revision of the Swiss Red List of macrofungi. Today, she is Curator of the Fungarium — the mycological collection of ETH Zurich — where she studies archived and contemporary fungal biodiversity, systematics, and the ecological roles of fungi in a changing environment.

任可, Ke REN is an multidisciplinary artist and researcher, currently active in Zurich. Her work has been exhibited in cities such as Paris, Zurich, Shanghai, Hangzhou, New York, and Tokyo. Grounded in semiotics, she draws on her frequent mobility and exploration of relational fissures as the starting point of her practice, flowing between the personal, the collective, and the dispositif. Through installations, experiences, workshops, publications, and food-based projects, she shares time with participants, allowing sensitivity, absence, care, memory, and reflection to inhabit, feel and collectively reimagine.

Jialin Zhang is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Eawag, working in the Inter- and Transdisciplinary (ITD) Research Group within the Department of Environmental Social Sciences.