Dialogue and exchange play a central role in Jan St.Werner’s investigations into the interrelationships of sound and space.Building upon and moving outside his training as a musician and composer, notably as a member of Mouse on Mars, Werner’s dynamic sound installations and public sound works — which often feature custom designed instruments, objects, and loudspeakers that acoustically activate architectures and trigger psychoacoustic effects — explore the correlations between sound, space, sense, and the psychology of hearing. In this artist talk, Werner will introduce his practice, exploring the potentials of bringing together architects and artistsin contemporary sound research. He will introduce the concepts of ‘spacesynthesis’ and ‘vibraception,’ which are developed in recent projects:respectively, an architecturally-scaled sound work that turned a monumental neo-Classical building into a pulsating instrument, producing what one visitor described as ‘structural flow’; and bringing bodies, architectures, and spacesinto dialogue through the realm of vibration, touch, listening, and sensory overlap. How can we conceive of sound as spatial practice? Or create anarchic architectures that deploy sound’s material and physical properties, as well as psychoacoustic processes, to challenge the fixity and stability of architectural forms and structures? Werner’s current work takes as a starting point a shift from the sound object toward kinetic explorations of perception and the psychology of listening within actively sounded, dynamic environments.

Jan St. Werner is a Berlin-based electronic music artist and composer. Widely known as one half of the electronic music group Mouse on Mars, Werner always seeks a dialogue with the visual arts and architecture in his sound works. Werner has initiated collaborative projects such as the Transnational Sound Initiative and curated events and festivals such as the Sound of Distance at HKW Berlin or docu/fiction at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. His work has been presented at, among other venues, Ural Biennale, documenta 14, Lenbachhaus Munich, ICA London, daadgalerie, and MSU Zagreb. In 2023, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden presented his first solo exhibition, Space Synthesis. He is currently one of six artists representing Germany in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Werner has previously taught at the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and was Professor for Dynamic Acoustic Research at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg. He is a member of music groups including Mouse on Mars and Microstoria, and is known for his collaborations with musicians such as Mark E. Smith, Lee Scratch Perry, Stereolab, David Grubbs, and The National.