Marcus Maeder
Edaphon Braggio

In Edaphon Braggio a sound installation by Swiss artist Marcus Maeder, the sound of the earth becomes perceptible. A black wooden board placed on stands outlines the map of the natural area in the municipality of Braggio in the Calanca Valley in Graubünden. Howling, rumbling, and buzzing noises fill the space and become tangible by touching the board.

Maeder, who is also a scientific collaborator at the Zurich University of the Arts and a doctoral student in environmental sciences at ETH Zurich, refers to the term Edaphon coined by microbiologist Raoul Heinrich Francé, which refers to the entirety of subterranean life. The artist and scientist used a specially made contact microphone to capture and make tangible the acoustic life of the soil inhabitants in Braggio. The board is set into vibration by the sounds, and the sound source corresponds to the recording location within Braggio. Ants, grasshoppers, and other species communicate and navigate acoustically by utilizing the vibrations and frictions generated by their bodies. The sound varies from one type of ground to another, so a forest sounds different from a meadow.

Text by Sabine Himmelsbach