Marcus Maeder is an artist, researcher and composer of electronic music. As an author, Maeder has written on a number of topics in the fields of sound art, acoustic ecology, artistic research and digital media.
Maeder studied Fine Arts at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences HSLU, Philosophy at the Fernuniversität in Hagen and completed his PhD in Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich. He runs the music label domizil together with Bernd Schurer. Maeder has worked as an editor and producer for the Swiss radio station SRF and has been working as a curator, researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) of the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK since 2005. He is visiting scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Landscape and Snow Research WSL and currently holds a position as Humboldt Research Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. Maeder is vice president of the Swiss Society for Acoustic Ecology SSAE and a board member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology WFAE.
In his research, Maeder is working on bioacoustic and ecoacoustic investigations of areas, communities and organisms under the influence of climate change and other environmental issues. He contextualises his scientific work in the fields of Acoustic and Soundscape Ecology, as well as Artistic Research. Marcus Maeder’s art is located in the field of envrionmental and ecological art.
On an invitation by French President François Hollande, Maeder presented his sound art installation trees: Pinus sylvestris at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21.
In 2017 Maeder presented his installation AmazonFACE: Ocotea at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington – the same year where he and Roman Zweifel received an honorable mention from the STARTS Prize by the European Commission at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz/Austria for their works under the moniker treelab.
In 2021, Marcus Maeder presented his Installation Silva (commissioned by the Goethe Institute Tallinn and in cooperation with Roman Zweifel) at the Estonian National Museum; Estonia’s President Alar Karis visited the exhibition and gave the opening speech.
In 2023, Maeder presented his installation Growth model on invitation of the Swiss embassy at the Tokyo Biennal at the University of Creativity in Tokyo. The installation was visited by the state secretary for science and education Martina Hirayama and the president of ETH Michael Hengartner. Growth model and the collective work Forest Voices were shown at the Yoshino Art Festival in 2024; Marcus Maeder performed a live version of the installation at the Swiss-Japanese Economic Forum in Tokyo.
Exibitions and projects
- 2024: Growth Model/Forest Voices, Yoshino Art Festival 20, Japan
- 2024: Perimeter Pfynwald V1, Valais Wallis Sound System, Musée d’Art du Valais, Sion
- 2024: Edaphon Toggenburg, Klangweg Toggenburg, Unterwasser
- 2024: Perimeter Pfynwald V2, Horizonte y limite. Visiones del paisaje, Caixa Forum, Barcelona
- 2024: Spreepark Multispezies Bau, Park Einsichten.Vier Positionen aus der künstlerischen Forschung. Spreepark Art Space, Berlin
- 2024: Edaphon Acla, Wälder. Von der Romantik in die Zukunft, Romantikmuseum, Frankfurt
- 2024: Imeall an chosta, Disquiet Frequencies, Goethe Institute, Dublin
- 2023: Perimeter Pfynwald V2, Horizonte y limite. Visiones del paisaje, Caixa Forum, Madrid
- 2023: EER X Chimoichi-cho, Performance with the EER collective, Chimoichi-cho/Tokyo, Japan
- 2023: Growth Model, Tokyo Biennal 2023, Tokyo, Japan
- 2023: treelab, Examples to follow/zur Nachahmnung empfohlen, Uferhallen Berlin
- 2023: Speculative Botany, Art and about. Artistic Research at Spreepark, Spreepark Art Space, Berlin
- 2023: Espirito da floresta, A bruit secret. über das Hören in der Kunst, Museum Tinguely, Basel
- 2022: Edaphon Braggio, Earthbound, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel
- 2022: Acla, Art Safiental, Versam/Tenna
- 2022: Growth Model, Touch Wood, ZAZ Museum Bellerive, Zurich
- 2022: Edaphon Braggio, Earthbound, Esch 2022/Möllerei, Luxembourg
- 2022: Nephoscope, Kunst forscht, Kunstverein Mannheim
- 2021: Silva, Estonian National Museum, Tartu
- 2021: treelab, Earth Beats, Kunsthaus Zürich
- 2021: On Land, Landliebe, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur
- 2021: Nephoscope, Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais
- 2020/2021: Perimeter Pfynwald, Critical Zones. Observatories for Earthly Politics, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien ZKM, Karlsruhe
- 2020/2021: Espirito da floresta/Forest spirit, And the FORESTs will echo with laughter…, ERES Foundation, Munich
- 2019: Perimeter Pfynwald, Eco-Visionaries, Laboral Centro de Arte y Creation Industrial, Gijon
- 2019: treelab, Of plants and People, Deutsches Hygienemuseum, Dresden
- 2018: treelab, Eco-Visionaries, Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel
- 2018: Sounding Soil, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern
- 2018: Espirito da floresta/Forest spirit, Bosque da Sciencia, Manaus
- 2017: Espirito da floresta/Forest spirit, Inter-American Development Bank IDB, Washington DC
- 2017: treelab, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz; BOZAR, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles
- 2015: trees: Pinus sylvestris, United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21, Paris
- 2014: trees: Pinus sylvestris, SoundReasons Festival, Outset India, New Delhi
- 2014: trees: Downy Oak 2, Baum/Klang/Kunst/Mensch, Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, with Ch. Kubisch, B. Traubeck, W. Ritsch
- 2012: trees: Downy Oak, swissnex San Francisco, Workshop in Muir Woods
- 2011: Der Pfad zur linken Hand/the left-hand path, a topographical play with Jan Schacher/Jasch, Musikprotokoll Graz and Shedhalle Zürich
- 2010: Curating of the exhibition Milieux Sonores, Grey Area Foundation, San Francisco and Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich
- 2008: Sonifications and compositions for the Nova light object by ETH Zurich, main train station.
- 2008: Die Wunschmaschinen, Surround radio play after Deleuze/Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus, 40 Jahre 1968, Frankfurt and Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich
- 2007: Davos Soundscape, a topographical composition with Jan Schacher/Jasch, Davos Festival 2007
- 2004: Transient Travels, Installation and compositions, World New Music Days 2004
- 2003: Electronic Music Archive, an exhibition by Gianni Jetzer and Norbert Möslang (Voice Crack), Kunsthalle St. Gallen
- 2002: Music and sound design for Expo.02, Expoagricole, Murten
- 1998: We Are Somewhere Else Already – Swiss Institute, New York
Discography
- 2024: Drifts, Online, domizil 51
- 2020: Crepuscule, Cassette, domizil 48
- 2017: non-human, CD, domizil 45
- 2015: Progeny, CD, domizil 41
- 2013: topographie sinusoïdale, CD, domizil 38
- 2010: annex, Mini CD, domizil 33
- 2009: Wire Tapper, CD/The Wire(Compilation)
- 2009: subsegmental, CD, domizil 32
- 2008: Opera Calling, CD (Compilation)
- 2008: Die Wunschmaschinen, DVD, domizil 30/ZHdK Records
- 2007: This ship in trouble, CD/online, domizil 24
- 2005: Transient Travels, VA, CD, domizil 23 (Compilation)
- 2004: domizil vs. Antifrost life, – Live CD, domizil 19 (Compilation)
- 2004: Club Transmediale, CD, Data Error (Compilation)
- 2004: La Suisse, CD, SME (Compilation)
- 2003: Bees & Honey, Andrey Kiritchenko, CD, Zeromoon (Remix)
- 2002: Quiconque, CD, domizil 17
- 2001: Poisonhats, CD, Arts Centre Dublin (Compilation)
- 2001: Substrat CD, CD, Stattmusik (Compilation)
- 2000: Institut für Feinmotorik: Verschiedene, CD, IFFM (Compilation)
- 1999: solipsistic_motion, LP, domizil 10
Bibliography
- Marcus Maeder (Hg.): Kunst, Wissenschaft, Natur. Zur Ästhetik und Epistemologie der künstlerisch-wissenschaftlichen Naturbeobachtung. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-8376-3692-5
- Marcus Maeder & Roman Zweifel: trees: Pinus sylvestris, an artistic-scientific observation system at the COP 21. Zurich: domizil; ISBN 978-3-033-05381-6
- Marcus Maeder (Hg.): Milieux Sonores – Klangliche Milieus. Klang, Raum und Virtualität. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2010; ISBN 978-3-8376-1313-1
- Bruno Spoerri (Hg.): Musik aus dem Nichts. Die Geschichte der Elektroakustischen Musik in der Schweiz. Zürich: Chronos Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-0340-1038-2