Dialogue Formats

06.03.2020
Zurich University of the Arts/Kunstraum Walchetum

Introduction to the concerts of Simon Grab (Zurich) and Marcus Maeder (Zurich) in the context of the interdisciplinary conference DATENNATUREN.

Concept: Hannes Rickli, Birk Weiberg, Christoph Hoffmann, Gabriele Grammelsberger

https://www.walcheturm.ch/agenda/simon-grab-marcus-maeder-sonic-ecologies
https://www.zhdk.ch/en/event/41718

Broadcast SRF Einstein, 21.11.2019, at 22:25:

“What does it sound like in the soil? What does the forest sound like in a dry summer? Eco-acousticians like Swiss sound researcher Marcus Maeder use sound recordings to describe nature in a completely new way. Sound becomes the indicator of an ecosystem. Einstein shows the opportunities that eco-acoustics opens up.”

Watch the 30’ broadcast about Marcus Maeder’s acoustic research in German:
https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/einstein/video/oekoakustik-die-tonspur-des-klimawandels?id=b075b9e9-a1cf-4b2d-89bb-772d5317ef4b

29.10.2019

Academy of Art and Design HGK FHNW
Lecture at the symposium future sense.

Program in German

23.10.2019
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art

Lecture and discussion in the interdisciplinary lecture series Sustainability in Art and Design. With Marcel Hänggi, David Hug and Yvonne Volkart. Moderation: Silvia Henke
http://www.hslu.ch/ringvorlesung

10.-12.10.2019
Eco-Data-workshop during Berliner Gazette’s 20th Anniversary MORE WORLD Conference 2019, Berlin

How can we connect climate narratives with data? How could we visualize the willingness of many individuals that want to make a change when it comes to global warming? Using data visualization techniques, two groups at the MORE WORLD conference came up with engaging and interactive projects. 

As climate change news travels the world, it is captured in local headlines and streamlined by news agencies. Disasters and crises spark Wikipedia entries and resonate in social media postings.

The coverage of typhoon Hagibis ranges from concerns about the scheduled Grand Prix Formula 1 in news outlets across Europe to the cancelled Rugby world cup and its effects on the Italian team. 

In Japan, besides the expected cautionary articles and sharing of tips and tricks of how to prepare for this tremendous storm, we see small messages of relief, of looking forward to the time that can be spent with family while hiding out from the typhoon. 

The storytelling platform presented here is inspired by such local stories of the everyday encounters with the impact of climate change, through drought, flood, storms, air pollution, migration, et cetera.

A project by: Andreas Schneider, Anna Meïra Greunig, Cagri Taskin, Carlo De Gaetano, Eirini Malliaraki, Erdem Şentürk, Kavya Sukumar, Sabine Niederer, Yvonne Volkart, Zoran Pantelic

https://projekte.berlinergazette.de/workshops/2019/11/01/everyday-encounters-with-the-impacts-of-climate-change/
https://kavyasukumar.github.io/bz-extreme-weather-site/

27.09.2019
University of Cologne

Lecture and panel discussion at the annual meeting of the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften gfm. With Daniel Fetzner, Sebastian Möhring, Birgit Schneider and Yvonne Volkart. Moderation: Evi Zemanek

05.09.2019
Ars Electronica Linz

This panel celebrated 100 years Bauhaus University and introduced lecturers who devoted themselves to arts education that straddles the humanities and the natural sciences. The aim of the panel was to take the time for a critical inventory that leads to a change in the design of cultural technology 100 years after the euphoria of the Bauhaus.

Participants: Frank Eckardt, Lasse Scherffig, Alexandra Toland, Georg Trogemann and Yvonne Volkart. Moderation: Ursula Damm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pna-yCGo2Hk

27.08.2019
nGbK/Nachbarschaftsakademie im Prinzessinnengarten Kreuzberg/Botanical Museum Berlin

Lecture in the context of the research and exhibition project Air, Light, Shit. Perspectives on Ecology and Modernity

While capitalism produces resource depletion and wasting, plants and their companions work the other way round: They transform death into life. Plants open us up to the transformative power of the living and the unpredictable dimensions of becoming. Referring to techno-eco-feminist theories, Yvonne Volkart pleads for a caring, experimental and open approach to the environment. In order to survive, an interrelated coexistence is required, in which human and non-human beings learn from each other and begin to work together. Aesthetic and communal gardening practices can help to develop such a relational eco-logic.

More info: https://archiv.ngbk.de/projekte/licht-luft-scheisse

26.08.-28.08.2019
Gut Wendegräben, Brandenburg

The goal of this internal workshop was to think about the dangers and perspectives of automatic processes and the production and use of data in science and art. The current practices of AI were to be questioned against the background of original concepts of cybernetics as a holistic discipline dedicated to the cultural development of being “human”.

Participants: Prof. Dr. Jutta Weber (Paderborn University), Prof. Dr. Hans-Günther Döbereiner (Bremen University), Prof. Dr. Georg Trogemann (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), Prof. Dr. Lasse Scherffig (KISD Köln International School of Design), Dr. Yvonne Volkart (Academy of Art and Design FHNW Basel), Jan-Peter Sonntag (independent artist, Berlin), David Hahlbrock (independent artist and designer, Cologne) Prof. Ursula Damm (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)

05.07.2019, 10.30-11.30
Art Academy Riga

Plenary session and featured project: During this session, the team Ecodata-Ecomedia-Ecoaesthetics and moderator Karin Ohlenschläger opened up a discussion in what sense data monitoring, visualization, sonification, critical mapping or maker-culture might enhance participation and raise awareness of the ecological.

More information: rixc.org

27-28.06.2019
Keynote lecture at Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt

The third International Workshop on Visual Research, organized in cooperation with the International Sociological Association, aimed to provide a forum for doctoral students who share a common interest in visual culture and visual sociology and to discuss ideas and research projects related to the workshops’ theme.
https://www.aau.at/blog/images-as-agents-in-digital-public-spheres

05.05.2019
Modern Art Museum Vilnius

Lecture at the conference Minds and Milieus, on occasion of the exhibition Shared Habitats

A critical view will be taken of man’s consumerist relationship with his surroundings and ecomedias, which with the help of cutting-edge technologies strive to communicate to us the signals of our surroundings. Participants of the conference will search for the answer to the question: what kind of art is significant in the current times of technology and ecological disasters? The conference, as the exhibition Shared Habitats, moves away from the contradictory view what human and non-human is. Speakers of the conference will analyse how we form our surroundings, how these surroundings form us and how significant art is in this context. The conference will be moderated by the philosopher, writer, translator, associate professor of philosophy at Vilnius University and an affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kristupas Sabolius.
https://mo.lt/en/parodos/conference-minds-and-milieus/?pagen=1

07.-09.03.2019
Symposium at Centre Culturelle Suisse CCS Paris 

The definition of culture was established with the working of the land and marks an important milestone in the history of human relations with nature. In the face of the degradation of biodiversity, the privatization of grain, pollution and climate change, diversifying forms of agriculture, finding alternative ways of using resources, rediscovering forgotten knowledge, or otherwise using the possibilities of digitization are urgent demands on society, technology and politics. Many artists, researchers, architects and designers are addressing these issues, using a variety of methods, both subversive and visionary.

Program by Claire Hoffmann and Yvonne Volkart.

Scientific support and partnership:
Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory IAeP / Academy of Art and Design FHNW / Swiss National Science Foundation / COAL - Coalition for Art and Sustainability

Project site in French: https://ccsparis.com/event/seeds-soil
Review in English, images and video: http://www.makery.info/en/2019/03/11/vous-aussi-devenez-humus-sapiens/

27.01.2019
Y-Table Talk at DAZ Deutsches Architekturzentrum Berlin 

How can art help sharpen critical views of the Anthropocene and enable opportunities for new scenarios? Yvonne Volkart discusses with Christophe Barlieb, Matthias Böttger and Lidia Gasperoni from Fieldstations. In recent years, more and more artists have been working on visualizing and representing the Anthropocene. This has led to a critical reflection on media and technologies. What is the impact of art in the age of the Anthropocene? 

Kunst gegen die Klimakatastrophe
09.01.2019

Marcus Maeder: Unbekannte Klangwelt leidender Ökosysteme
Watch the broadcast: https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/kulturplatz/video/marcus-maeder-unbekannte-klangwelt-leidender-oekosysteme?id=6388904d-7e3f-4274-a94d-dc8d0fcc36ea

30.11.2018
Academy of Media Arts Cologne KHM

Lecture and workshop in the seminar Re-Cycle? at exMedia Lab: https://exmedia.khm.de/dr-yvonne-volkart-okovisionen-kunst-und-medien-nach-dem-anthropozan/

16.11.2018
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, NTU

Lecture and workshop in the context of the program Acts of Life. Critical Research Residency Program:
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/collaborations/acts-of-life-critical-research-residency-in-manila-and-singapore/

16.10.2018
Umea Academy of Fine Arts, Umea University.
Open lecture and seminar in the Master program. 

06.10.2018, 19.00-20.30
HeK House of Electronic Arts Basel

What does the forest tell us? The philosopher Emanuele Coccia and the natural scientist Andreas Rigling try to answer this question on the occasion of the exhibition Eco-Visionaries.

Plants are the secret creators on earth: where they don’t grow, there is no organic life possible. Nevertheless, much knowledge about plants and their relation to other microorganisms has only been gained in recent years through technically supported experiments and observations. What can be drawn from these data? What does a tree – or an entire forest – tell us when we listen?

In two short presentations, Emanuele Coccia and Andreas Rigling present their approaches to these questions and their extraordinary knowledge of trees and plants. Afterwards, they discuss with co-curator Yvonne Volkart and the audience how their approaches meet and differ.

Forest Talks is a scientific collaboration of HeK with the SNSF research project Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics of the Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory IAeP which is part of the Academy of Art and Design, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.

29.09.2018
House of Electronic Arts HeK

On the occasion of the exhibition Eco-Visionaries, a sound walk with the artist and researcher Marcus Maeder takes place. Visitors will get to know the acoustics of the city.

In Eco-Acoustics, the area in which Marcus Maeder researches and works artistically, environmental sounds are examined for ecological and aesthetic aspects. In the soundwalk, visitors listen to more-than-human worlds in the city – the animals and plants, traffic noise and city sounds. Participants also use acoustic microscopy and listen to the inner life of plants and soils with special sensors. Marcus Maeder also explains how he explores and makes audible different soundscapes in his artistic work.

21.09.2018
Critical Media Lab and Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory IAeP, Academy of Art and Design, FHNW

The discussion series Schnittmengen of eikones – Zentrum für die Theorie und Geschichte des Bildes takes the exhibition Eco-Visionaries at HeK as an opportunity to explore the specific knowledge of media arts, and the connections between the human and the non-human: How can connections, relationships and mutual conditionality between man and nature be thought of through artistic works? How meaningful and productive is the dichotomy between nature and culture? What forms of knowledge can media art, BioArts or projects from the field of Art and Science provide? What forms of empathy or care for our non-human or even inorganic environment can such projects evoke?

Participants: Jens Hauser (University of Kopenhagen), Sabine Himmelsbach (HeK), Yvonne Volkart (IAeP) and Friederike Zenker (University of Basel)
Moderation: Katharina Brandl and Claire Hoffmann (both University of Basel) 

29.08.2018
HeK House of Electronic Arts Basel

On the occasion of the opening of the group exhibition Eco-Visionaries, a conversation between the artists of the exhibition and the curator and researcher Yvonne Volkart takes place.

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
13.07.2018

Lecture during the annual exhibition.

June 2018
This online conference was hosted by UC Santa Barbara, and intended to be A Nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference:

“Air travel to conferences, talks, and meetings can account for a third or more of the carbon footprint for a typical scholar or university. This symposium employed a nearly carbon-neutral (NCN) conference approach that reduced greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of 100.”

The team Ecodata-Ecomedia-Ecoaesthetics participated with a short video in Panel 13: Visualizing Ecomedia at the 2018 ASLE Symposium.

Joseph Heumann, Eastern Illinois University, wrote this comment at June 19, 2018:
“[…] While watching your presentation my first thought was how much do your individual studies of the Pfynwald effect the forest itself and all that live within it?”
How does the forest read you? The final third of the presentation gives us some ways to see that. Thanks for giving the earthworms a chance to comment on their lives in that forest.”

Watch the video in Panel 13: http://ehc.english.ucsb.edu/?page_id=17731

15.06.2018
University of Copenhagen

Presentation of the ongoing research by team Ecodata-Ecomedia-Ecoaesthetics in the panel session Art Matters. Eco-Aesthetics at SLSA Green conference.
Program: https://green-slsa2018.ku.dk

26.05.2018, 18.00-20.00
Lithuanian National Pavilion, International Architecture Biennale di Venezia / MIT Boston

Session with the team Ecodata-Ecomedia-Ecoaesthetics for Swamp Radio/Swamp Pavilion:

“In a time marked by radical instability and threats of total war and environmental collapse, the Pavilion illuminates the vital urgency of human cohabitation with other forms of life. The swamp gives an opportunity to test the idea of “sympoiesis”—making and becoming together in order to find a new ethos of coexistence, a direction that stems from the act of recognising the poetical power of the ecologies surrounding us.” (Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas)
http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/events/project/the-swamp-pavilion-lithuanian-pavilion-at-the-venice-international-architecture-biennale/

24.-25.05.2018
University of Potsdam, Institute for Arts and Media

Lecture in the context of the workshop Sensing Techniques. From the Perception of Nature to Nature as Medium
Program in German: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/fileadmin/projects/medienoekologie/neuspuertechnikenprogrammonline.pdf

What about nature's worth? Musik, Soundkunst und der Klimawandel

29.01.2018

Sound art: A day in the life of a Valais forest pine
Plants and trees are anything but mute, green matter: depending on the weather and time of day, their stems and trunks rustle, whisper and crunch.

These acoustic fingerprints of the trees interest not only biologists like Roman Zweifel, but also sound artists like Marcus Maeder. How do science and art together approach a topic like this?

Yvonne Volkart, curator and media scientist at the FHNW, observes the results of this artistic research.
Listen to the podcast

14.-17.12.2017
Woosong University Korea

Lecture and workshop with: Sungwoo Park, Woosong University, Korea; Andreas Zingerle, Woosong University; Jonathan Woodier, Woosong University; Nicholas Michelsen, Kings College London; Michael Rainsborough, Kings College London; David Martin Jones,

University of Queensland, Australia; Emilio Vavarella, Harvard University, Cambridge; Yvonne Volkart, Academy of Arts and Design FHNW Basel.
The main objective was to share knowledge, and to establish a network and a research program.