Catherine Walthard

Switzerland (residence), France, Switzerland (citizenship) °1958
research interests: process design, education, cultural spaces, ecology, crafts
affiliation: Academy of Art and Design Basel, FHNW
en

Catherine Walthard studied art education and has being working in this field since 1984. From 1999 to 2024 she was Professor of Process Design at HyperWerk, Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM), Academy of Art and Design Basel (HGK), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). From 2014 to 2019 she co-directed the international project and publication ‘Cultural Spaces and Design’, about the effects of globalisation processes on design and their consequences for design education. Form 2020 to 2025 she is partner in the international project 'peripher:ies' (soundscape and intercultural dialog). 

research

research expositions (collaborated)

  • Becoming Soundscape – Listening, Perceiving and Acting (2025) author(s): Max Spielmann, Daniel Hug, Andrea Iten, Catherine Walthard published in: Research Catalogue
    At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we, in our role as lecturers, conducted hybrid workshops with design and art students from ten partner institutions on five continents. Our goal was to explore soundscapes from different viewpoints, and we were deeply impressed by the outcome. The recordings and their accompanying images and conversations dissolved geographical borders along with social, cultural, and structural differences. We found that a re-sonance or con-sonance emerged from this collective work, in which sounds became manifestations of presence and agency; the sociality and simultaneity of the space we shared together remains with us today. With becoming soundscape, we attempted to bring the social resonance we had experienced in the workshops into the lecture hall.
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