Marcel Zaes Sagesser | Creative Media + Sound + Technology

Art + Research

About + Writing + CV




Bio


Marcel Zaes Sagesser (he/him) is an artist and researcher investigating how humans are increasingly intertwined with their technologies. Focusing on the material qualities of sonic media, his work reimagines environments that let us listen to human-technological relations. Mixed practice-based and academic methods enrich this critical practice. The ongoing series, High & Low Tech Sonic Materialities, renders multiple strata of ‘tech’ audible to rethink how they shape human experience in dense urban spaces.

Marcel’s work has appeared internationally at Fridman Gallery New York, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Center for New Music San Francisco, Gray Area San Francisco, Hong Kong Arts Center, HEK House of Electronic Arts Basel, Wuhan Biennial and Shanghai Cadillac Concert Hall, but also at research-based venues such as at Columbia University, Standford University, CHIME Fest at University of Chicago, Designing Intearctive Systems at Carnegie Mellon University, ISEA at City University of Hong Kong, or ICMC at New York University Shanghai. His work has been awarded with prestigious grants such as the Fulbright Fellowship or Zhejiang Conservatory’s Keylab Grant for Digital Music. Publications include venues such as the Journal of Media Art Study and Theory, or Norient Sampling Politics.

Marcel received his PhD in Music+Multimedia Composition from Brown University. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Media Arts & Technology at Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen.

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    Writing
    The Grain No. 12/11 W4 102 1 From the City: Integrating a 3D Model with Audio Data as an Experimental Creative Method
    Enza Migliore, Marcel Zaes Sagesser, Yujing Ma
    In International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI), Taiwan
    Conference publication, 2024 (forthcoming)

    I Light U Up: Exploring a New Emergent Narrative Paradigm through Physical Data Participation in AI Generative Experiences
    Wu, Z., Wen, R., Sagesser, M. Z., Ma, S. Y., Xian, J., Wu, W., & Braud, T. (2024).  
    SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 Art Papers, 1–9. 
    Conference publication, 2024
    doi

    Metric Displacement: The Sound of Network Friction
    Brian House, Annie Aries, Marcel Zaes Sagesser
    The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory
    Journal article, 2023
    link

    Mediating Place as Staging Time in “Setting”: Sonic Interactive Mobile Technology as an Art Performance
    Marcel Zaes Sagesser
    In DIS Companion ’23: ACM Designing Interactive Systems, Pittsburgh PA
    Conference publication, 2023
    doi

    Listening Through Technology: an Interactive Sound Walk for a Suburb in Shenzhen
    Marcel Zaes Sagesser and Binghuang Xu
    In 12th International Conference on Design, User Experience and Usability, HCI International (HCII)
    Conference publication, 2023
    doi

    A Grain of: A Multimodal Representation of the City’s Ecology Through Material and Sound
    Enza Migliore, Marcel Zaes Sagesser, Hanyu Qu
    In Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) 
    Conference publication, 2023
    doi

    Rhythms, Textures, Identities: Folding as a Technique in Kyoka’s Signature Sound
    Marcel Zaes Sagesser
    In IIPC International Insitute for Popular Culture, IASPM South Korea
    Conference publication, 2023
    link

    A Digital Archive of Participatory Location Rhythm Performances: Listening as a Way of Attending to the Pandemic
    Marcel Zaes Sagesser
    In Sounds of the Pandemic: Accounts, Experiences, Perspectives in Times of Covid-19
    Focal Press, Waltham MA
    Chapter, 2022

    #otherbeats: A Hypermediated Playback System in Web Audio
    In ICMC International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Santiago, Chile
    Conference publication, 2021
    link

    #otherbeats: Performing a Participatory Archive of Social Rhythm
    Marcel Zaes
    In New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Shanghai, China
    Conference publication, 2021

    Within the Grid: Inquiries in the Socio-Rhythmic Ambiguities of Mechanical Time
    Marcel Sagesser
    Brown University    
    Ph.D. Dissertation, 2021
    link

    The Material Politics of Techno Punk
    Marcel Zaes
    In Sampling Politics Today, Norient Sound Series 1
    Norient, Switzerland
    Essay, 2020
    link
    doi

    Schnittmuster in der Populären Musik (in German)
    Brockhaus, Immanuel, Michael Harenberg, and Marcel Sagesser.
    In Inside The Cut. Digitale Schnitttechniken und Populäre Musik. Entwicklung – Wahrnehmung – Ästhetik
    Transcript, Berlin
    Chapter, 2010


    CV

    Academic Appointments

    Since 2022 — Assistant Professor of Media Arts & Technology, School of Design, SUSTech Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen
    Fall 2020 — Guest Lecturer, Department of Theatre, Williams College, USA
    2011-2012 — Research Assistant, Institute for Computer Music & Sound Technology, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
    2009-2011 — Teaching Assistant, Bern Academy of Arts, Department of Music, Switzerland

    Artistic Residencies

    Summer 2018 — Studio Residency, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Interdisciplinary Arts, New Delhi, India
    Winter 2017 — Mentor for Sound Design, Attakalari Biennial of Contemporary Dance, Bangalore, India
    Fall 2015 — Residency108, Fine Arts and Land Arts, Upstate New York, USA
    Spring 2015 — Landis & Gyr Studio Residency, Music Composition Budapest, Hungary
    Fall 2012 — Studio Residency, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Music Production, Cairo, Egypt
    AY 2011/2012 — Composer-in-Residence, Music Composition Swiss Institute at Rome, Italy

    Education

    2021 — Ph.D. in Computer Music & Multimedia Composition, Brown University, USA; Dissertation: Within the Grid: Inquiries in the Socio-Rhythmic Ambiguities of Mechanical Time; Dissertation Committee: Kiri Miller, Ed Osborn, Butch Rovan, Paula Matthusen
    2018 — MA in Multimedia & Electronic Music Experiments, Brown University, USA
    2010 — MA in Electroacoustic Music Composition, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland; With focus area at ICST Institute of Computer Music & Sound Technology, Zurich
    2007 — MA in Music & Media Arts, Bern Academy of the Arts, Switzerland
    2005 — BA in Music & Media Arts, Bern Academy of the Arts, Switzerland

    Creative Publications

    Exhibitions and Performances - Juried
    2024 — Intl. Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI), Hsinchu, Taiwan
    2024 — Chinese CHI, Shenzhen, China
    2024 — FOG Festival, Basel, Switzerland
    2024 — Musikfestival Bern, Switzerland
    2023 — DIS Designing Interactive Systems conference, Arts Track, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
    2023 — TEI International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, Warsaw, Poland
    2022 — New York City Electroacoustic Festival (NYCEMF), New York, USA
    2022 — International Computer Music Association (ICMA): Music Showcase Asia, Hong Kong
    2022 — Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Conference, Saint-Etienne, France
    2022 — NoiseFloor, Staffordshire University, UK
    2022 — Sonorities Festival, Belfast, UK
    2021 — New York City Electroacoustic Festival (NYCEMF), USA
    2021 — New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference, NYU Shanghai, China
    2021 — Canadian University Music Society MusCan congress, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
    2021 — Bay Area Pilot Project, American Composers Forum (ACF) & Innova Recordings, USA
    2021 — A (Post-)Pandemic Festival, Swissnex San Francisco, USA
    2021 — SloMoCo at International Conference on Movement and Computing, USA
    2021 — Verdant Vibes call for compositions, Providence RI, USA
    2020 — NowNet Arts Conference, USA
    2020 — Network Music Festival, UK
    2020 — 21st International Society for Music Information Retrieval, Conference (ISMIR), Montreal, Canada
    2020 — CHIME Fest 2020, Circulations: Symposium on Live Audio Feedback in Art, U. of Chicago, USA
    2018 — Musikfestival Bern, Switzerland
    2016 — International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA), City University of Hong Kong
    2015 — Festival Les Digitales, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
    2014 — International Society for New Music (IGNM), Bern, Switzerland
    2014 — Ostrale Art Fair, Dresden, Germany
    2012 — Kernel Festival (New Media Art Light Festival), Milan, Italy
    2010 — Festival OutNow!, Bremen, Germany
    2010 — Lab.30 Festival, Augsburg, Germany

    Creative Publications

    Exhibitions and Performances - Invited (Selection)
    2024 — Art Delivery Program, Pingshan Art Museum (PAM), Shenzhen, China
    2024 — Wuhan Biennale, Wuhan, China
    2024 — DeSound Festival, Bao’an Stadium, Shenzhen, China
    2024 — SeeDling Fair, CC Creative Commune, Shenzhen, China
    2024 — Shenzhen Design Week, Nanshan Museum, Shenzhen, China
    2024 — Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Macao Digital Design Exhibition, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzen, China
    2024 — Shanghai Cadillac Concert Hall, Shanghai, China
    2023 — Música Estranha, S˜ao Paulo, Brazil
    2023 — SeeD First Pilot Project, Exhibition, Longgang, Shenzhen
    2023 — Bao’an Live Music Association, Shenzhen
    2023 — Oil Club, Shenzhen
    2023 — Montreux Jazz Festival China, Kunshan, China
    2022 — Shunde Food Museum / Dakan Art Institute, China
    2022 — UABB Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, China
    2022 — Shanghai Jiaotong University’s Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry (ICCI), China
    2022 — Stanford University, USA
    2021 — Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF), Switzerland
    2021 — First Fridays with Robert Black, Bang On A Can, New York City, USA
    2021 — Gray Area, San Francisco, USA
    2020 — Fridman Gallery, New York City, USA
    2020 — Dampfzentrale, Bern, Switzerland
    2019 — Italian Academy at Columbia University, New York City, USA
    2019 — Symphony Space, New York City, USA
    2019 — Biennial of Contemporary Arts (BOCA), Lisbon
    2018 — House of Electronic Arts (HEK), Basel, Switzerland
    2018 — Oddbird Theatre, New Delhi, India
    2018 — San Francisco Center for New Music, San Francisco, USA
    2018 — Aviary Gallery, Boston, USA
    2017 — Attakkalari Biennial of Contemporary Dance, Bangalore, India
    2016 — Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong SAR
    2016 — Tráfo Contemporary Arts Center, Budapest, Hungary
    2015 — Echo-Raum, Vienna, Austria
    2015 — Quiet Cue, Berlin, Germany
    2015 — Officine Caos, Turin, Italy
    2013 — ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
    2013 — Schwere Reiter Theater, Munich, Germany
    2012 — Darb 1718, Cairo, Egypt
    2011 — Festival for Electronic Music RE-VOLT, Rome, Italy
    2011 — Fête de la Musique, Beirut, Lebanon
    2010 — Rote Fabrik, Zurich, Switzerland


    Musical Records

    Forthcoming — House/Aries/Zaes: Metric Friction, Editions Verde, New York, USA
    2023 — Aries Zaes: Dust, Prefermusic, Switzerland
    2023 — Dissolving Archive I, Kukuruz Quartet, Innova Records/American Composers Forum, USA
    2022 — Parallel Prints, with Yarn/Wire, Editions Verde, New York, USA
    2020 — Aries Zaes: Debris, Prefermusic, Switzerland
    2018 — Pulsations, Edition Dumpf, Switzerland
    2016 — Sjö: Två, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2014 — Sjö, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2014 — Prairie Urbaine, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2014 — Wüsten, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2014 — Cut Low from Above, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2014 — Lel Samar Project: Grain de Ciel, Tonus Music Records, Switzerland
    2011 — The Last Place (Left), Tonus Music Records, Switzerland

    Presentations & Talks

    Conference Presentations
    • 2024 — “Folding Raw Sonic Matter into Musical Beat: Kyoka’s Material Economy as “Techno Fluency” Society for Music Production Research Conference, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
    • 2023 — “Drum Machines in Popular Music Production: The Convergence of a Digital Logic in Technology and Aesthetic” The 3rd National Publishing Doctoral Academic Forum, University of Shanghai of Science and Technology, Shanghai.
    • 2023 — “‘Megaphoned Voices’ Amongst Skyscrapers: Mapping the Provisional Sound Infrastructure of the Pandemic in Shenzhen” SCMS Society for Cinema & Media Studies, annual conference, Denver, USA
    • 2022 — “Rhythms, Textures, Identities: Folding as a Technique in Kyoka’s Signature Sound” International Association for the Study of Popular Music - Australia and New Zealand Branch (IASPM-ANZ), yearly conference, RMIT Melbourne, Australia
    • 2022 — “Mediating Place Is Staging Time: How Digital Media Frames Time in Traces of Noise” Future Bodies Symposium, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg Virginia, USA
    • 2022 — “Designing Representation of Sound: Notes Toward the Convergence of Notation and User Interface in Digital Musicking Practices” Convergence Conference, De Montford University, Institute for Sonic Creativity MTI, Leicester, UK
    • 2022 — “Of Scrolling & Mixing: Simulated Motion in Web Audio as Practice-Informed Scholarship” Symposium on Music, Migration, and Mobility, Royal Collage of Music, London, UK
    • 2022 — “Rhythms, Textures, Identities: Folding as a Technique in Kyoka’s Signature Sound” International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), Annual conference, Daegu, South Korea
    • 2022 — “Being-Without. Gathering in Synchronous Isolation” Performance Philosophy, 5th Biennial Conference, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland
    • 2022 — “From Listening to Playing: An Idiosyncratic Spatial User Interface in Web Audio” Everyday is Spatial: Immersive Audio Conference, University of Gloucestershire, UK
    • 2022 — “Rethinking Time Keeping Histories: (Mechanical) Time Grids as Imagined and Social” Rethinking the History of Technology-based Music Conference, University of Huddersfield, UK
    • 2022 — “Pluse Geometries: Fixed Media Piece” Sound and Music Computing SMC 2022, Saint-Etienne, France
    • 2022 — “Reckoning with the Topographies of Listening: The Participatory Sound Archive #otherbeats” Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, Columbia College Chicago, USA
    • 2022 — “Michigan Avenue: Portraying Urban Centers in Electronic Dance Music” International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
    • 2022 — “Pulsations: Musical Work” NoiseFloor Art Festival and Symposium, Staffordshire University, UK
    • 2022 “Rendering Collected Ephemera Audible: Sonic Design as Attending to Multiplicity” International Seminar on Sonic Design at the Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Norway
    • 2022 “Of Prompting, Collecting, and Crossfading: Writing Community-Based Scholarship in Sound” Postgraduate Symposium for Creative Practices Research: Arts and Communities, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
    • 2022 “Composing Time: The Sonic Materiality of Grids, Deviations and Envelopes” Sonorities Symposium, Belfast, UK
    • 2022 “The ‘Perfect’ Ensemble Member: Time-Keeping as Negotiation of Individuality” Rethinking Participatory Processes Through Music, University of Huddersfield, UK
    • 2021 “From Listening to Playing – Browser-Based Music-Making” Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) Conference, USA
    • 2021 “#otherbeats: Resisting the Grid – Performing Asynchrony” IRCAM Forum, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
    • 2021 “Other Beats from 2020” Aesthetic Relations, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
    • 2020 “Deviant and Resistant Time Grids of the Pandemic” Sounds of the Pandemic, University of Florence, Italy
    • 2020 “When Noise Is Temporal, Drum Machine Histories of Failure & Gain” Residual Noise Symposium, Brown University, USA
    • 2020 “#otherbeats” 21st International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference ISMIR, Montreal, Canada
    • 2019 “Resisting the Grid – Performing Asynchrony” Rhythm in Music since 1900, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

    Invited Talks
    • 2024 — Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea
    • 2024 — School of Arts, Media and Creative Technologies, Salford University, Salford, UK
    • 2023 — SZTU Shenzhen Technology University, School of Design and Innovation, Shenzhen, China
    • 2023 — Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou campus), Ph.D. seminar, Division of Computational Media and Arts, Guangzhou, China
    • 2023 — DKU Duke Kunshan University, Division of Arts & Humanities, China
    • 2023 — CUHK Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Hong Kong
    • 2023 — Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Ph.D. seminar, Division of Integrative Systems and Design, Hong Kong
    • 2023 — CAC Chronos Arts Center, artist talk, Shanghai
    • 2023 — CSUSB California State University, San Bernardino, Dept. of Music
    • 2023 — CUHK Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Music, Shenzhen, “Music, AI, and Code”
    • 2023 — NYU New York University Shanghai, Department of Humanities, Talk “Music & Coding”
    • 2023 — USST University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, College of Communication and Art Design, China
    • 2022 — Zhejiang University, College of Media and International Culture, Program of Cross-cultural Communication, China
    • 2020 — Cornell University, Department of Music, artist talk
    • 2019 — BU Boston University, Department of Music, artist talk
    • 2019 — Manhattan School of Music, artist talk, New York City
    • 2019 — SNU Shiv Nadar University, Department of Art and Performing Arts, India
    • 2017 — Brown University, Department of Architecture, lecture on urban sound
    • 2012 — HEAD Geneva School of Art & Design, Geneva

    Academic Teaching Experience

    • Fall 2024 — Sound Design, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with the Shenzhen Accessibility Association, sound walks for cultural accessibility (8 students)
    • Spring 2024 — Composing Experience, SUSTech School of Design (17 students)
    • Spring 2024 — Circular Products: Experience, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with JMGO video projectors (22 students)
    • Fall 2023 — Sound Design, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with TCL (12 students)
    • Spring 2023 — Circular Products: Experience, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with C-Future-Lab Shenzhen (12 students)
    • Fall 2022 — Sound Design, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennial for Urbanism and Architecture (16 students)
    • Spring 2022 — Circular Products: Experience, SUSTech School of Design, in collaboration with Block 16 Cultural Center (11 students)
    • Fall 2020 — Digital Performance, Department of Theatre, Williams College (30 students)
    • Spring 2020 — MEME Ensemble: Anti-Fascist Drum Machines, Department of Music, Brown University (10 students)
    • Fall 2019 — Seminar in Electronic Music: Real-Time Systems, Department of Music, Brown University (12 students)

    Awards, Grants, & Fellowships

    • 2023-2025 — Zhejiang Coservatory & Ministry of Tourism, China: Digital Music project grant
    • 2022-2028 — City of Shenzhen “Pengcheng Peacock” fellowship for international talents
    • 2021 — Beyond 2020: A (Post-)Pandemic Practice, production grant, Swissnex San Francisco
    • 2019 — Brown Arts Institute, Public Presentation Grant, Brown University
    • 2019 — Joukowsky Summer Research Award, Brown University
    • 2018 — The Ned and Frances Black Fund, music composition grant, USA
    • 2018 — UBS Bank of Switzerland, artistic production grant
    • 2015 — Fulbright Grant, United States of America
    • 2015 — Lyra Foundation, grant for highly talented young artists, Switzerland
    • 2015 — Kunstschub, artistic production grant, Switzerland
    • 2014 — Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, music recording grant
    • 2014 — Isabelle Zogheb Foundation, artistic production grant, Switzerland
    • 2011 — UBS Bank of Switzerland, music composition grant
    • 2010 — Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation, award for an outstanding musical practice, Switzerland
    • 2009 — Société Suisse des Auteurs (SSA), music composition grant, Switzerland
    • 2008 — Société Suisse des Auteurs (SSA), music composition grant, Switzerland

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