Time: Monday - Thursday, 09:00 - 18:00 o'clock / Friday, 09:00 - 12:00 o'clock
CW 20: 11 / 12 / 13 / 15 May 2026
Interested students of other study programmes can register from 29. January - 9. February 2026 - by email to: studium.dfa@zhdk.ch. You will be informed until the end of calendar week 7 about a possible participation.
Universität / Haute École
for student applications
World history is full of apocalypses. And yet the world still exists. Precisely because the end of the world is unimaginable that it stimulates the imagination. Even though the old religious visions of the absolute end, of the great final disruption have lost much of their power, our present is still full of minor apocalypses and related fears, as well as hopes and visions. As after all, ‘apocalypse’ originally meant not simply the end of the world, but the revelation of a sacred truth, the dawn of a new, better time. This seminar will examine the manifold ramifications of apocalypticism in the visual arts and popular culture, from early religious depictions to subtle allusions in 1970s video art to the amplification of apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric in hip-hop, heavy metal, and blockbuster films, accompanied by readings from theoretical texts on apocalypticism.
About the lecturer:
Jörg Scheller (*1979) is professor of art history and permanent guest professor at the Poznan University of the Arts, Poland. His essays are regularly published a.o. in DIE ZEIT, NZZ, frieze magazine, Camera Austria. Besides, he is the singer and bassist of the metal duo Malmzeit and a fitness instructor. www.joergscheller.de
Course language: English
Learning objectives:
- Knowledge of art history and popular culture
- Knowledge of apocalyptic theories
- Knowledge of the intersections of art, religion, and pop culture