Biografie
Hannes Rickli is a visual artist and has held a professorship at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2004. At the university’s Institute for Contemporary Art Research, he launches and manages artistic research projects in the fields of art and science. Rickli has been a fellow of the Collegium Helveticum (https://collegium.ethz.ch/en/) 2016-2020.
Born in Bern in 1959, Rickli studied photography, the theory of art and design in Zurich and media art in Karlsruhe. From 1987 to 1994, he worked as a freelance photographer for various newspapers and magazines (incl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Das Magazin and Bilanz), and has staged visual art exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad since 1991. In 2004, he was awarded the Meret Oppenheim Prize from the Swiss Federal Office for Culture.
His teaching and research focus on the instrumental use of media and space as well as media ecology. Research projects: ‘Computer signals: art and biology in the era of digital experimentation’, 2012–2015, 2017–2021 and beyond; ‘Spillover. Videograms of experimentation’, 2007–2009 (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, SNSF). The results of his research are made available through exhibitions, book publications and conferences.
Project website Computersignals [https://computersignale.zhdk.ch/en/home]
SIKART Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz [https://recherche.sik-isea.ch/de/sik:person-9594167:exp/in/sikart/actor/list]
Individual exhibitions (selection):
Listening to Data. How the environment gets into the computer. German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven 2022 (with Valentina Vuksic, Birk Weiberg, Christoph Stähli) [https://computersignale.zhdk.ch/en/about/exhibitions/datenfluessen-lauschen; https://www.dsm.museum/en/museum/exhibitions/hannes-rickli-listening-to-data-how-the-environment-gets-into-the-computer]
Cichlid #3 – Soundscape Texas. Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zurich 2020 (with Valentina Vuksic, Birk Weiberg, Christoph Stähli) [https://computersignale.zhdk.ch/en/about/exhibitions/african-cichlid-3]
Fischen Lauschen. Beginn einer Datenübertragung aus der Arktischen See / Listening to fishes, Schering Stiftung, Berlin 2013
Kunst mit Experimentalsystemen/Art with Experimental Systems. Kunstmuseum Thun 2011
Videograms, Helmhaus Zürich 2009
Group exhibitions (selection):
Herwig Turk: Landschaft = Labor, Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Klagenfurt 2016
NIXE as part of ORF musikprotokoll (with Valentina Vuksic), Steirischer Herbst, Graz 2015
Cross Over. Photography of Science + Science of Photography, Winterthur Museum of Photography 2013
Publications (selection)
Monographs:
Monika Dommann, Hannes Rickli, Max Stadler (Eds.): Data Centers. Edges of a Wired Nation. Zürich, Lars Müller Publishers 2020 [https://www.lars-mueller-publishers.com/data-centers]
Philipp Fischer, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Christoph Hoffmann, Hans Hofmann, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Hannes Rickli (Eds.): Natures of Data. A Discussion between Biology, History and Philosophy of Science and Art. Zurich, diaphanes 2020 [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5119460]
Philipp Fischer, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Christoph Hoffmann, Hans Hofmann, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Hannes Rickli (Eds.): Datennaturen: Ein Gespräch zwischen Biologie, Kunst, Wissenschaftstheorie und -geschichte. Zürich, diaphanes 2020 [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5119387] (German)
Hannes Rickli (Ed.), Valentina Vuskic: Beginning Data Work in the Arctic Sea. Volume 16 of the Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR) series, Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK. Zurich, published by the authors themselves 2016 [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5077999]
Hannes Rickli (Ed.), Valentina Vuskic: RemOs1. Beginn einer Datenarbeit in der Arktischen See. Band 16 der Schriftenreihe des Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR), Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK Zürich, Eigenverlag 2015 (German) [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5077957]
Hannes Rickli (Ed.): Videograms: The Pictorial Worlds of Biological Experimentation as an Object of Art and Theory. Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess 2011 [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6330789]
Essays, Articles:
Hannes Rickl: "Strange Machines. Some Things between Art and Biology". In: Fabienne Liptay, Carla Gabri, Laura Walde (Eds.): Taking Measures. Usages of Formats in Film and Video Art. Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess 2023 (pp. 259 – 279). [DOI: 10.53788/TAME0001]
Gabriele Gramelsberger: "Reenacting Science – Wissenschaftsforscher*innen und Kunstler*innen in biologischen Laboren". In: Ralf Baecker, Dennis Paul, Andrea Sick (Eds.): Reenactments in Kunst, Art, Gestaltung, Design, Wissenschaft, Science und Technologie and Technology. Hamburg, Textem Verlag 2020 (pp. 173 – 185) (German)
Priska Gisler: "Artistic research as ‹participant perception›: Reflecting the project Computer signals from an arts-inspired STS-perspective". In: Paolo De Assis, Lucia D’Errico (Eds.): Artistic Research: Charting a Field in Expansion. London, Rowman & Littlefield 2019 (pp. 175 – 191)
Hannes Rickli, "Der unsichtbare Faden. Zu Materialität und Infrastrukturen digitaler Tierbeobachtung / The Invisible Thread. Materiality and infrastructures of digital animal observation". In: Marcus Maeder (Ed.): Kunst, Wissenschaft, Natur. Bielefeld, transkript Verlag 2017 [revised version of the article supplemented with illustrations in ZMK 7/2] (pp. 83 – 112 ) (German)
Hannes Rickli, "Der unsichtbare Faden. Zu Materialität und Infrastrukturen digitaler Tierbeobachtung / The Invisible Thread. Materiality and infrastructures of digital animal observation". In: Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung ZMK 7/2, Schwerpunkt Medien der Natur. Hamburg, Felix Meiner Verlag 2016 (pp. 137 – 154) (German)
Hannes Rickli: "Schwarzbäuchige Fruchtfliege #1, first tests 2006 / Common fruit fly #1, first tests 2006". In: Cord Riechelmann, Brigitte Oetker (Eds): Towards an Aesthetics of Living Beings / Zu einer Ästhetik des Lebendigen. Berlin, Sternberg Press 2015 (pp. 198 – 199)
Hannes Rickli: "Experimentieren / Experimentation". In: Jens Badura, Selma Dubach, Anke Haarmann, Dieter Mersch, Anton Rey, Christoph Schenker, German Toro Pérez (Eds.): Künstlerische Forschung. Ein Handbuch. Zürich-Berlin, Diaphanes 2015 (pp. 135 – 138) (German)
Heike Catharina Mertens: "Wissensinszenierung versus künstlerische Forschung. Überlegungen zu einem Missverständnis / Staging Knowledge versus Artistic Research. Considerations on a Misunderstanding". In: Hermann Parzinger, Stefan Aue, Günter Stock (Eds.): ArteFakte: Wissen ist Kunst – Kunst ist Wissen. Reflexionen und Praktiken wissenschaftlich-künstlerischer Begegnungen. Berlin, transkript 2014 (pp. 509 – 518) (German)
Hannes Rickli: "Electrical Images. Snapshots of an Exploration". In: Michael Schwab (Ed.), Experimental Systems. Future Knowledge in Artistic Research, Leuven University Press 2013 (pp. 26 – 40)
Hannes Rickli: "Precarious Evidence: Notes on Art and Biology in the Age of Digital Experimentation". In: Florian Dombois, Claudia Mareis, Michael Schwab, Ute Meta Bauer (Eds.): Intellectual Birdhouse. Artistic Practice as Research. London, Koenig Books 2012 (pp. 101 – 115)
Hannes Rickli, Christoph Schenker: "Experimentation". In: Practices of Experimentation. Research and Teaching in the Arts Today. Department of Art & Media, DKM, Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK (Ed.), Yearbook 4. Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess 2012 (pp. 146 – 159)
Hannes Rickli: "Kunst und Forschen. Arbeit am Partikularen / Art and research. Working on the particular ". In: Martin Tröndle, Julia Warmers (Eds.): Kunstforschung als ästhetische Wissenschaft. Beiträge zur transdisziplinären Hybridisierung von Wissenschaft und Kunst. Bielefeld, transkript Verlag 2012 (pp. 91 – 102) (German)
"Der Überschuss des Experiments der Wissenschaft in der Kunst / The Spillover of the Scientific Experiment into Art". Cord Riechelmann in conversation with Hannes Rickli. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, No. 5, 2/2011 (pp. 134 – 143) (German)
Hannes Rickli: "Zwischen Listen und Arena. Versuche zu Latenz und Potenzial biologischer Gebrauchsfilme / Between Lists and Arena. Essays on the latency and potential of biological utility films". In: Hannes Rickli (Ed.): Videograms 2011 (pp. 22 – 44). [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6330789]
Hannes Rickli: "Art and research. Working on the particular". In: Hannes Rickli (Ed.): Videograms 2011 (pp. 108 – 111). [DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6330789]
Hannes Rickli: "Livestream Knurrhahn / Gurnard Livestream". In: Elke Bippus (Ed.): Kunst des Forschens. Praxis eines ästhetischen Denkens. Zürich/Berlin, Diaphanes 2009 (pp. 49 – 63) (German)
Hannes Rickli: "Raumbild Labor / The Lab as a Stereogram". In: Trajekte Nr. 16, Zeitschrift des Zentrums für Literatur und Kulturforschung Berlin 2008 (Ed. Sigrid Weigel). Berlin (pp. 40 – 45) (German)