Marcus Maeder

Artist and Research Associate
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Switzerland °1971
affiliation: Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK
en

Marcus Maeder is a sound artist, researcher and composer. He studied Fine Arts at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Lucerne, Philosophy at the University of Hagen and is currently absolving his PhD in Environmental Systems Sciences at ETH Zurich. Maeder runs the music label domizil, which he co-founded in 1996 with Bernd Schurer. He has worked as an editor and producer for the Swiss radio station SRF and has been working as curator and research associate at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) of the Zurich University of the Arts since 2005.

In his research at the ICST, Maeder is working on data sonification, acoustic analysis and artistic representation of processes and phenomena that are related to environmental pollution, climate change and global warming.

 

www.marcusmaeder.net

research

research expositions

  • trees: Pinus sylvestris (2016) author(s): Marcus Maeder published in: Journal for Artistic Research
    In the research project ‚trees: Rendering Ecophysiological Processes Audible‘, we worked on the acoustic recording, analysis and representation of ecophysiological and climatic processes in and around plants and studying the acoustic and aesthetic requirements for making them perceptible. We recorded sounds of plants and brought them in relation to other measurement data such as that relating to the microclimate, sap flow, changes in trunk radius and water potential in the plants’ organs – measurement data that is not auditory per se. How can processes that are beyond our normal perception be made directly perceptible, creating new experiences and opening a new window on nature for scientists, artists and the general public? To what extent is our sense of hearing of use? The product of our research project, the installation 'trees: Pinus sylvestris' replays sonifications of ecophysiological measurement data as well as recordings of acoustic emissions of a tree from early summer 2015 – the peak of the growth period of our experimentation plant, a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) located in the central Swiss Alps in Salgesch in the canton of Valais. The installation is designed as an artistic observation system that transforms ecophysiological data into a generative piece of music. 'Trees: Pinus sylvestris' makes experienceable and audible the normally hidden processes by which a plant copes with its local conditions.
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