Revision of the Art History curriculum with basic and advanced modules for teaching digital visual competences and analytical skills

Innovative Projektidee

The provision of digital competencies has so far been limited to a few exceptional cases. Christine Grundig's courses under the Swissuniversities P-8 projects "Digital Skills in Art History/Digital Visual Studies" (Phase I 2019-2020) and "Digital Humanities" (Phase II 2021- 2024) received positive feedback and generated new interest among students. Recognizing the significant advancements in the digital realm, particularly in contemporary art production, the art market, and emerging trends in Digital Art History research related to AI, the Institute of Art History views this area as a crucial investment in its students' future competencies. The taught digital skills provide an educational foundation and allow for integration into diverse initatives within and outside academia. This approach strengthens project-based learning and creates opportunities for collaboration with museums and archives in Zurich, throughout Switzerland, and internationally, thereby enhancing both research-driven teaching and practice-based education.

Added value for students and teaching 

The new content of the WP and W modules, along with the innovative teaching methods applied (e.g., peer-to-peer learning, public-facing assignments), enables students to systematically familiarize themselves with the fundamentals, methodologies, issues, and applications of digital skills and computational methods in art history. This approach allows students to develop their own interests in this field and introduces them to research questions and projects in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, databases and archives, ethical and copyright issues, and contemporary media art. Additionally, the program addresses cross-cutting topics like the global/transcultural aspects of academic work in the digital humanities. This includes challenges related to the computational study of non-Western art materials, such as digitalization and access to
databases, as well as the theoretical and technological attention to cultural specificities of data and the customization of tools. These issues have previously received little attention in research and education, but this expertise is represented at our institute by Ewa Machotka

Factsheet