22.11. - Melting Landscapes. Listening to a disappearing glacier

Melting Landscapes. Listening to a disappearing glacier

Ludwig Berger, Zürich/Mailand

Can we establish an intimate connection with a melting glacier through listening? How might this affect our storytelling of climate change? From 2015-2018, a course series at the Institute of Landscape Architecture of ETH Zurich documented collectively the rapidly melting Morteratsch glacier in the Swiss alps. Through hydrophones and contact microphones, the team and students listened to the glacier’s body, revealing hidden sonic worlds and engaging with it in a lively way. The lecture will trace the process of recording and explore our relationship with non-human life.

Ludwig Berger is a sound artist and composer based in Zurich. In his installations and performances, he engages playfully in more-than-human worlds such as beehives, glaciers, water infrastructures and trees. He has released various albums of field recordings, improvisations and electroacoustic music and composes for film, theatre and radio. He teaches sound and field recording at the Institute for Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich, where he studies the sonic dimension of Japanese gardens, alpine glaciers and urban landscapes