Robert A. Fischer

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Robert A. Fischer (also Bob Fischer ; born February 19, 1942 in Bern ; † August 21, 2001 in Zurich ) was a Swiss author , art critic , artist and media ethnologist. He was particularly committed to an artistic media anthropology.

life and work

Fischer grew up in Brussels from 1949 , where he completed his Baccalauréat (Abitur) in 1961 . He then began studying at the University of Zurich and, from 1963, in applied psychology at the Institute for Applied Psychology (IAP, today part of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW), which he graduated with a diploma in 1966. At the same time he studied Sanskrit in 1965 at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi ( India ), stayed in an ashram in Nepal and was interested in beatnik poetry.

From 1967 he lived in Zurich and Geneva and worked as a journalist for United Press International UPI. In Geneva he also met his future wife, Rosine Courtin. Together with her and others, such as the artist David Weiss , Fischer founded the macrobiotic shop “Mr. Natural », a forerunner of today's health food stores. Together they were also interested in the teaching of Guru Maharaj Ji .

After stays in Ibiza , Andalusia and various municipalities such as the H9 in Zurich, Rosine and Robert Fischer married in 1973 on the Spiegelberg with their mutual friend, the artist and collector Andreas Züst. The couple lived in Lugano from 1975 , where their daughters Alexandra (1976) and Jessie (1979) were born. Robert Fischer worked as a househusband , dealt with mail art , worked as a music journalist and was the editor of music fanzines .

From 1987 Fischer lived again in Zurich and worked mainly as a researcher, art critic , author and media artist . From 1989 he studied a second time at the University of Zurich and graduated in 1993 with a licentiate in ethnology with Michael Oppitz , for which he had carried out field research in Central Australia .

In 1991/92 Fischer worked as a research assistant for the video collection of the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich . He then held various visiting professorships and lectureships at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi ( Finland , 1994/95), F + F School for Art and Design (1996), Accademia Internazionale Arti e Media Torino (Italy, 1996/97), the Art History Institute of the University of Zurich (1998), and at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (1999).

Fischer's interest in video art , computer art, media art and especially the new media culminated in the development of an artistic media anthropology , which is documented in numerous texts by Ich / Letter Threscher, etc. (2011). What is important here is a new way of dealing with the media, in which art also plays a new role, as Fischer wrote in 1992: "The image in and of itself is given a position within a network of information, which deprives it of its primacy in the information process."

Fischer's archive was preserved thanks to the efforts of his daughter Jessie Fischer and his long-time friend Patrick Frey . For several years the archive was kept in the off-scene art house “Perla-Mode” in Zurich. In 2016 it was handed over to the Zurich Central Library in order to make it publicly accessible in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary Art Research at the Zurich University of the Arts .

A film portrait of Fischer can be found in Larguez les amarres (Belgium 2002) by André Colinet.

Journalistic activity

Fischer published the poetry fanzine The Cthulhu News (1966–67, 4 issues, Zurich and Kathmandu , Nepal), with illustrations by HR Giger and Franz Anatol Wyss . He also published the punk / artist fanzine Minimal Rock (1976–1982, 12 issues, Lugano) and Ex-Minimal Rock (1983–85) and together with Arnoldo Steiner the music fanzine Pin-up (Zurich, 1978–84 ).

He published his conversations with the musician Henry Rollins in Talks (1989), together with Pidu Russek published the overview Art in Switzerland (1991), for the art gallery Fri-Art in Friborg the publication Art / objet, art / information, art / texte (1994) and an edition of the Rote Fabrik Zürich newspaper on Guy Debord and the digitization of the Gesellschaft des Spektakels (1996).

The study The Wild Media. A media-anthropological evaluation of the technologicalization of aboriginal communication modes (licentiate, 1993) remained unpublished, as did the collections of essays Superboheme (around 1995) and Fliegende Echse (1997/98) and a reader on video art in Switzerland (around 1998) with extensive research apparatus.

A compilation of his texts was published posthumously in Ich / Alphabetrescher, etc. (2011) in Edition Patrick Frey, several texts appeared in the anthologies Hot Love (2006) and Die Not hat ein Ende (2015) on the Swiss independent music scene around 1980. In the exhibition Das Dreieck der Liebe (2015) in the Helmhaus Zurich, the issues of The Cthulhu News were exhibited and recognized in the exhibition catalog.

Journalistic activity

From 1967 Fischer worked in the editorial team of United Press International in Zurich, from 1969 to 1972 as a correspondent in Geneva. Since 1976 he has been writing music reviews and theoretical texts on music and music sociology as a freelance journalist for fanzines such as Sphinx (Basel), as an editor for the music fanzines Pin-up (Zurich, 1978-84) and Cut (Zurich, 1983-85) and from 1981 also for Tages-Anzeiger , Basler Zeitung , FOCUS or WOZ Die Wochenzeitung .

From 1988 he wrote regularly as a freelancer for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung with a focus on new media, video art and computer animation. Also in 1989 he was on the editorial staff of the film-video series, Experiments Switzerland on Swiss television , and in 1993 he worked on the VisionTeleVision project on the local cable TV channel in Zurich.

Artistic activity

Fischer published first poems from 1957 and several science fiction stories in French in the 1960s. He made experimental films like Blue Movie (1966), video experiments like Elvis is only sleeping (1978), video performances like Shave (1983), multi-media performances like Das elektronisch-existenzielle Biotop (1987) and internet experiments like riviera (1995), the latter is still online.

He was active in artist networks , around 1966 in the culture off space Platte 27 in Zurich, since 1972 in mail art, underground comics , copy art and other off art scenes. With his artistic work, Fischer has participated in around a hundred international exhibitions and festivals since 1967 and has given just as many lectures, shown interventions, curated exhibitions and exhibition programs, and participated in art judges.

He himself received three work grants from Pro Helvetia (1992, 1993, 1994) and one work grant from the Federal Art Commission (1992).

Participation in exhibitions and festivals

Participation (selection) with film, video, performance , installation in:

Publications

Editorships (selection)

  • The Ctulhu News (from No. 3 The Cthulhu News ), self-published, 1966–67, edited by Robert A. Fischer
  • Minimal Rock (1976–1982), Ex-Minimal Rock (1983–85), self-published, edited by Robert A. Fischer
  • Pin-up , self-published, 1978–84, edited by Robert A. Fischer and Arnoldo Steiner
  • Robert Fischer and Pidu P. Russek (eds.): Art in Switzerland . [Cologne]: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1991.
  • Robert A. Fischer: Art / objet, art / information, art / texte . Friborg: Kunsthalle Fri-Art, 1994.

Articles, monographs (selection)

  • Henry Rollins: Talks . Talks with Robert Fischer. Pictures by Yvonne Baumann. Production by Laurence Desarzens. Zurich: Action Press, 1989.
  • Robert A. Fischer: Wild World of Words. A media art project . Zurich: Art & Research, 1992.
  • Robert A. Fischer: I / literary thrashers, etc. Zurich: Edition Patrick Frey, 2011.
  • Bob Fischer: The Rock Writer as a Star (1982). In: Hot Love. Swiss Punk & Wave, 1976-1980 . [Ed. by Lurker Grand u. a.]. Zurich: Edition Patrick Frey, 2006, pp. 124–128.
  • Bob Fischer, Kleenex - "Art Punks" (from: Pin-up , No. 8/9, April 1979), in: The need is over . Edited by Lurker Grand. Zurich: Edition Patrick Frey, 2015, p. 181.

literature

  • Rutishauser, Kuhn: Robert A. Fischer. Conversation. In: Rutishauser, Kuhn. Conversations. Inserts. Triton, Vienna 1998, pp. 33-47.
  • Michael Hiltbrunner: The Cthulhu News. In: Helmhaus Zurich (ed.): The triangle of love. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2015, pp. 22–25.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ on the biography cf. Website about Robert A. Fischer and biography of Robert A. Fischer at t0.or.at
  2. ↑ cf. David Weiss: We were open to everyone and had no rules. In: Heinz Nigg: We are few, but we are all. Biographies from the 68 generation in Switzerland. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2008, pp. 431–441, here pp. 437–438.
  3. ↑ The board picture in the electronic network, in: Robert A. Fischer: Ich / Letter Trescher, etc. , Edition Patrick Frey, Zurich 2011, pp. 343–346, here p. 344.
  4. ^ Project «Archives of researching art» of the ZHdK
  5. ^ Michael Hiltbrunner: The Cthulhu News. In: Helmhaus Zurich (ed.): The triangle of love. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2015, pp. 22–25.
  6. ↑ riviera at t0.or.at
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Robert A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Robert Andreas; Fischer, Bob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss author
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 2001
Place of death Zurich