PROJECTS


Societies of Speculation (2017)

What does the way we speculate about the future tell about us? An ongoing virtual reality installation project by Bernd Hopfengärtner and me that immerses its visitors in a series of socio-cultural environments of speculative thought and practice.

New Needs in an Augmented World (2011)

The objects Dromolux, Optocoupler and Introspectre explore the future world of “digital natives”: the generation growing up with 21st century modern technology. It is visualized how information technology not only provides increasing power and knowledge, but also leads to unforeseen changes in traits, social interactions and self-conceptions.

Materiality of Data (2016)

A sonification environment designed to create fictional sonifications for the project ‘The Institute of Sonic Epistemologies’ in order to explore the materiality of data.

EUR/CHF (2011)

The project is a real-time visualization of the exchange rate between Euro and the Swiss Franc. It was shown as a contribution to the media facade event at the Manor warehouse in Basle in 2011.

Open Circuit (2006-2011)

A silent labyrinth created out of open copper trails on the floor carries the electrical signals of a multichannel sound repository. By putting wireless speaker-cylinders on them, the carried sound layers can become audible and the interpretation by the visitors gets possible.

Behaviouristic Instruments (2010)

Behaviouristic Instruments is a series of objects, an instruction manual, a performance and a video clip. In collaboration with Steffen Fiedler and Charlotte Jarvis.

Gene Collect (2010)

The goal of this speculative project series is the embedding of recent developments in biology and informatics into conceptual future scenarios. The methods of the field have been analysed in collaboration with system biologists of Imperial College London.

OpenSoundLab (2020–)

A fork of SoundStage VR that offers a virtual sound laboratory for the arts. We want to recreate the experience of working in spatial setups, but without being bound to mimicking the physical past. Where are the limits of the digital realm, and where are its sweet spots?

Sonic Imagination (2021)

Artistic media research project on the use of binaural audio techniques for stimulating intrinsic imagery in the context of speculative scenarios taking place on Freilager-Platz in Basel, Switzerland.

Life Is Good For Now (2015)

The project offers a speculative view on a Switzerland that decided to realize the right for informational self-determination. In four scenarios that are narrated through objects and speech from the perspectives of inhabitants of that world the cultural potential and consequences of Big Data in the context of medicine, property and literature are exemplified.

Creativity Disrupted? (2019–)

A workshop series about deep learning in the context of creative labour, which I developed together with Arno Schubbach and Yann Martins.

The Institute of Sonic Epistemologies (2016)

Site-specific sound installation by Ludwig Zeller & Martin Rumori. The project is part of the SNSF funded research project “Experimental Data Aesthetics” lead by Shintaro Miyazaki.

basil.js (2013–)

basil.js is an open-source JavaScript scripting library that brings the spirit of Processing to Adobe InDesign. A project of the Visual Communication Institute in Basel.

Pedestrian Light (2007)

A traffic signal in Kowloon (Hong Kong) is alternating its light between green and red. While showing red, the pedestrians have to wait and stand still. Cars and trucks are passing by. An experimental short created with a self-developed granular video synthesis algorithm.

timeslots (2006)

Timeslots is using the so-called “chrono-photography” to render the progress of time in space to a image in a scan like process. A self-developed algorithm is translating video frames slit by slit to a scan image, that rearranges the time to a transition from left to right.

PUBLICATIONS


Creative Amplifiers: Augmenting Human Creativity with Text-to-Image Generators

This paper examines the extent to which deep-learning-based gener-ative programs, particularly text-to-image generators, support human creativity in the sense Margaret Boden’s much-noticed definition.

Sonic Imagination:Aural Environments as Speculative Artefacts

The article is a working paper on ‘aurally induced mental imagery’ that covers a literature overview of the neuropsychology of the human imagination and discusses an eclectic corpus of sound work.

Multidimensional Protheses

Article contribution for the form magazine on deep learning in the context of the arts. Image by Philipp Schmitt and Steffen Weiß.

Life-world Fiction within Augmented Auditory Space

The paper explores a notion of life-world fiction within augmented auditory space by discussing a Speculative Design installation that explores the use of binaural techniques for stimulating sensorial and rational immersion within a thought experiment.

The B1/B2 Manifesto

An essay contributed the SDN Unfrozen Reader on the recent politicization of Speculative and Critical Design and the emergence of Transition Design.

Next Nature Network

A critical review of Next Nature Network for the FORM magazine.

Design Interactions alumni list

Listing the alumni of the former Design Interactions programme at the RCA in London.

Narrative World Constructions

An overview article about speculative design in the context of energy.

Visually Intelligent Machines

I have two articles in the #01 issue of the offtopic magazine. The overall theme was “Aufräumen” (clearing up). My contributions are discussing “Human Computation” in an interview with Severin Hacker from Carnegie Mellon University and a comment about visually intelligent machines.

ABOUT


AFFILIATIONS


EVENTS


Lecture on OpenSoundLab

2023 March, Lucerne / Switzerland

Lecture on Generative AI at KISD

2022 November, Cologne / Germany

Screening and panel at
KFFK Film Festival

2019 November, Cologne / Germany

Panel Chair at DGTF Summit

2018 November, Karlsruhe / Germany

Under Pressure at Q21

2018 September, Vienna / Austria

Lecture at Plan D

2018 September, Zagreb / Croatia

Constructed Realities

2018 June, Basel / Switzerland

Critical by Design?

2018 May, Basel / Switzerland

Lecture at RIXC Festival

2017 October, Riga / Latvia

Artist talk at NODE ’17

2017 June, Frankfurt / Germany

Exhibition at HEK

2016 April, Basel / Switzerland

Keynote at SDN Unfrozen

2016 January, Interlaken / Switzerland

Poetics and Politics of Data

2015 May – August, H3K, Basel / Switzerland

i.ch

2015 November – 2016 March, Pfäffikon / Zürich

Lecture at Humboldt Universität

2015 April, Berlin / Germany

HCII 2014

2014 July, Crete / Greece

Resonate

2014 April, Belgrade / Serbia

Workshop at ZHdK

2014 January, Zurich / Switzerland

Synthesize Conference

2013 September, Basel / Switzerland

New Talents Biennale

2012 May, Köln / Germany

Carrefour des Possible

2011 December, Mulhouse / France

MANOR video wall

2011 December, Basel / Switzerland

Lodz Design 2011

2011 October, Lodz / Poland

FILE Festival

2011 July – August, Sao Paulo / Brazil

HCI International

2011 July, Orlando / USA

FILE Games

2011 April – May
Rio de Janeiro / Brazil

Exhibition at MU

2010 November – 2011 January
Eindhoven / UK

DAAD stipend

2010 October

Exhibition at Arnolfini

2010 September – November, Bristol / UK

Performance at Barbican

2010 March, London / UK

f/stop festival

2009 July, Leipzig / Germany

Sigchi 2009

2009 April, Boston / USA

technarte conference

2009 April, Bilbao / Spain

Linux Audio Conference

2009 March, Köln / Germany

testlab @ v2_

2009 January, Rotterdam / Netherlands

Yahoo! Design Expo

2007 July, Sunnyvale / USA

Residency at Hong Kong University

2007 April, Hong Kong / China

MakeArt Festival

2007 February, Poitiers / France

Linux Audio Conference

2007 February, Berlin / Germany