Time: Monday - Thursday, 09:00 - 18:00 o'clock / Friday, 09:00 - 12:00 o'clock
CW 40: 28 / 29 / 30 September / 01 / 02 October 2026
Interested students of other study programmes can register from 15 June - 26 June 2026 by email to: studium.dfa@zhdk.ch. You will be informed until the end of calendar week 28 about a possible participation.
Universität / Haute École
for student applications
The notion of light gives rise to a contrast between contemporary poetry and art. Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's writing emphasizes photons, for example, and this meets with Etel Adnan's insistent observation of the landscape. Each day, we will practise in the seminar how writing, seeing, and working with colours and materials interact. We will also explore the representation of light in art history and literature. Before our seminar, you are invited to share any texts, procedures or artists that are important to you, so that we can integrate them into our discussions.
About the lecturer:
Nils Röller is a professor at the Zurich University of the Arts. In autumn 2025 he has published "Philosophia – Poetik der Wahrnehmung", a book on the poetics of perception. His research focuses on the relation between art, poetry and philosophy. In the "Journal for Art, Sex and Mathematics" he has published experimental posts in collaboration with artists and poets since 2006. Recent publications in English and German include "Passages", "The Cut and the Book", "Interfacing Philosophy”. He edited the issue "Text-Image Parergon" for Koko magazine. Former publications as "Roth der Grosse", "Bittermeer", "Alpentram" evolve as discussions of processes established in contemporary poetry.
Course language: English
Learning objectives:
Students are able to,
- realize that poetry shares interests with artistic practice;
- reflect light as a subject and as a field of investigation;
- discuss todays and historic aspect changes in the notion of “light”.