How do spatial images and metaphors function as epistemic tools in different disciplinary contexts, and how can their roles and potentials be made visible and tangible through a spatially organized transdisciplinary setting?
- How do spatial metaphors structure processes of thinking and knowledge production in art and science?
- What kinds of spaces of thought emerge from discipline-specific spatial imaginaries?
- What happens when these metaphors encounter one another within a shared space?
- To what extent can a symposium and exhibition function as instruments of knowledge production?
- What forms of knowledge emerge between language, experience, and spatial arrangement?
Poster "Gedankenräume - Metaphern als Erkenntnisform zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft" (Spaces of Thought – Metaphors as Forms of Knowledge between Art and Science), Februar 2026; Konzept & Umsetzung: Martha Oelschläger / Grafik: Tim Frei
The starting point of this thesis is the observation that we often speak about thinking through spatial images: we orient ourselves, lose the thread, move between positions, or venture into unknown territory. Such metaphors do not merely serve as illustrations; they actively structure perception, thought, and the production of knowledge.
This thesis investigates spatial images and metaphors as epistemic tools at the intersection of art and science. It explores how different disciplines employ spatial figures of thought to organize knowledge and what happens when these distinct ways of thinking encounter one another within a shared setting.
Methodologically, the project combines two levels of inquiry. First, it includes the conception and realization of the symposium and exhibition Spaces of Thought – Metaphors as Forms of Knowledge between Art and Science, understood as a curatorial and scenographic experimental arrangement. Second, it draws on a qualitative analysis of the contributions, conversations, and materials that emerged from this event.
From this investigation, a glossary of nineteen spatial metaphors was developed, including Archive, Atelier, Construction Site, Bridge, House, Labyrinth, Resonance Space, and Mirror. These concepts are not treated as fixed definitions but as figures of thought in which different forms of knowledge encounter one another.
The thesis understands transdisciplinarity not as the fusion of disciplines, but as the creation of in-between spaces in which new perspectives, relationships, and forms of knowledge can emerge.
Impression aus dem Kunstraum, ZHdK, Veranstaltungsort des Symposiums ©Guillaume Musset
Eröffnung des Events durch Organisatorin Martha Oelschläger ©Guillaume Musset
Impression aus dem Kunstraum, Detail: Post-it Zeichnung ©Guillaume Musset
Impression aus dem Kunstraum, Vortrag von Bernhard Siebert ©Guillaume Musset
Impression von der Diskussion im Kunstraum ©Guillaume Musset
Impression aus dem Aktionsraum, ZHdK, Veranstaltungsort der Ausstellung ©Guillaume Musset
Impression aus dem Aktionsraum / Installation der Zines von Jonas Balmer ©Guillaume Musset
Martha Oelschläger
Martha works in transdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, theory, and space.