Setting #1 - #29
Installation, ongoing since 2015Installation based on an ongoing, growing archive of recorded performances that include a “found outdoor stage,” a various number of performers interacting with a sound-making mobile phone app (or similar devices) and a mechanical or electrical audio amplifier, such as paper bags or megaphones
Materials used to date: personal phones & tablets with customary app written in Web Audio API, electronic metronomes, paper & plastic bags, megaphones, raspberry pi computers, and small bluetooth speakers
Audio used in the performances to date: site-specific field recordings, rhythm recordings made by performers, Gameboy 8-bit soundwaves under creative commons licence from freesound.org, recordings of megaphone feedback sounds, recordings of an Indian temple bell played by performers, recordings of musical instruments played by performers, metronomes, megaphone on/off switch sounds, sawtooth waves from free oscillator apps, and PureData patches run mobile via MobMuPlat
“Setting” is a series of living installation pieces that solely exist as mediated documents, with which Marcel Zaes aims to conceptualize an artistic practice transgressing the boundaries of visual arts, sound art, music composition, performance and installation art. The “Setting” series blends the ephemeral character of sound art and the three-dimensionality and site-specificity of installation art with the affordances of the medium that captures them. The resulting oscillation between the performative, as embodied by the performers employed, and between the installative, represented by the various objects placed in the scene, that is, in the screen, is what constitutes the “living,” and the “installation” element respectively, even though with the mediality that is at play, the line between the living and the installative are blurred. In merging objects and human performers into plain mediated sound-producing elements, both components are transformed into living sculptures; hierarchically equivalent constituents of a single, living space, taking place on a remediated outdoor lot, the “found stage,” and depicted on a screen.
SETTING #29, PITTSBURGH, 2023
With Lisa Egede, Jordan Liu, Kimi Wenzel, Zhen Wu (Yoyo), Marcel Zaes
Performed at DIS'23 Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA 2023
SETTING #28, SCHLEHDORF, GERMANY 2021
SETTING #27, BOSTON 2020
Pandemic version with masks and in social distance, outdoors
With eight performers, performed on an undisclosed parking lot
SETTING #26, CHICAGO 2020
With Alejandro T. Acierto, Darlene Castro, Oliver Hickman, Stephan Moore, Olivia Valentine, Cathy van Eck, and Viola Yip
SETTING #25, DENVER COLORADO 2019
With Marcel Zaes
SETTING #24, GREATER NOIDA 2019
With: Shruti Aggarwal, Jatin Arora, Prithvi Arunachalam, Pranav Asrani, Anushree Awathi, Anushikha Chaudhuri, Sumeet Dash, Khushi Dhasmana, Aastha Garg, Khushi Garg, Shubhangi Goel, Ananya Gurram Reddy, Akanksha Kaul, Janki Kaushal, Harshit Khandelwal, Niharika Maiti, Apoorv Mathur, Aayushi Mer, Pihu Mishra, Arya Misra, Divyangana Mittal, Ragamalika Muraleedharan, Venkata Pillai, Hrishika Rastogi, Anushka Saini, G. Savitha, Mrityunjay Singh, Rithvik Somalraju;
curated and directed by Meghna Bhardwaj
SETTING #23, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes
SETTING #22, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes
SETTING #21, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes
SETTING #20, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #19, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #18, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #17, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #16, SABIN POINT, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #15, SABIN POINT, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #14, BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #13, BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli
SETTING #12, PROVIDENCE 2018
With Mirjam Paninski
SETTING #11, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes
SETTING #10, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes
SETTING #9, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes
SETTING #8, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes
SETTING #7, MANIPUR 2018
With Achui Worchui, Abow, Bonny, Chaoba Thiyam, Jimbo, Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Premananda Nongthombam, Pa Taiwan, Sunil Singh, Ton Arambam, Tom Maisnam and Meena Longjam
SETTING #6, TILLINGHAST FARM 2017
With: Kourtnie Aileru, Jared Akerstrom, Bobby Anspach, Xiaopeng Qi, Evan Voelbel, Kelsey Wakefield, Marcel Zaes
SETTING #5, PROVIDENCE 2017
with Luis Achondo, Melody Chapin, Benjamin Silverman, Steven Velazquez
SETTING #4, RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN 2017With Laura Cetilia, Ashley Frith, Emmy Holmes-Hicks and Kate Outterbridge
SETTING #3, BERN 2016
With Franz Aeschbacher, Virginia Arancio, Philip Bartels, Madeleine Bärtschi, Marina Bolzli, Vanessa Gageos, Christian Kobi, Karin Jampen, Simone Keller, Milena Krstic, Cyrill Lim, Rebekka Meyer, Sophie Muralt, Lukas Poncet, Christoph Rihs, Franziska Ruoss, Julie Sas, Pascal Schärli, Lara Stanic, Cathy van Eck, Beat Vollenwyder and Kathrin Zurschmitten
SETTING #2, CLERMONT NEW YORK 2015
With Dana Shimkoski, Antonio Irizarry, Daisy Rosato, Ethan Rogers, Reeves Morris-Stan, Kedian Keohan, Abby Adler
SETTING #1, CLERMONT NEW YORK 2015
With Marcel Zaes