Biography Dr. Simon Frisch

Dr. Simon Frisch has lectured in the Department of Film and Media Studies in the Faculty of Media since 2012. Since 2020, he has held the position of Programme Director in the department and, since fall 2022, he has held the Faculty Management position of Dean of Student Affairs. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Simon Frisch was a Senator representing the academic non-professorial teaching staff. He was also a member of the Student and Academic Affairs Committee. On 7 June 2023, Dr. Simon Frisch was appointed Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs. 

 Simon Frisch studied »Kulturpädagogik« in Hildesheim, where he focussed on the subjects of fine arts, literature/theatre/media, and philosophy. Following graduation, he completed his doctoral thesis on the French Nouvelle Vague. Since 1999, he has been actively teaching media studies and art courses, as well as working on various freelance visual arts, theatre and exhibition projects. From 2010 to 2012, Frisch worked as an academic employee in the »Filmwissenschaft« Department in Jena. He also was a guest lecturer in Zurich and Medellin.

Frisch’s work and research focusses on Denken in und von Prozessen und Vorgängen (thinking within and of processes and procedures). This is associated with his particular interest in  Spaziergangswissenschaft (promenadology, or the science of strolling) .

In his ten years of work at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Frisch has established a focus on East Asian aesthetics and East Asian cultural techniques. The result of this has been an active network with colleagues at Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese universities with annual workshops. Frisch’s work also concerns expanding modes of perception and perspectives and Dezentrierung der abendländischen Denk-Traditionen (decentering occidental though traditions) – based on the Dadaist Francis Picabia’s motto that »Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction«.

A second focus of Frisch’s work is the articulation of verbal expression, in particular verbal writing (Schreiben) as a critical skill for all university disciplines. Within this context, he finds it important to ask questions about the craft and media of writing in the present and the future. He hopes to expand upon these aspects beyond verbal writing and to explore the possibilities offered by new articulation, recording and distribution of media for the university. He is especially interested in audio, visual and audiovisual formats as practices of extended writing. He also continues to recognize the potential of older and more ephemeral formats such as conversation, performance and dance, in addition to handwriting and drawing in the fields of research, teaching and learning.  More recently, Frisch has made efforts to foster teaching formats for writing by involving writers and practising professionals (writing coaches, the »Literarische Gesellschaft Weimar«, freelance writers, etc.). 

Of particular importance to Frisch is the connection between theory and practice, and communicating and reflecting on the Praxis der Theorie (practice of theory), as well as its use in the arts and in science. While drawing attention to their similarities and differences. Since 2022, Frisch and other artistic staff members have been working on transforming the Bauhaus-Medien-Bühnen-Labor at the Faculty of Media into a practice, theory, learning and teaching lab.