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Best of 2023

Institute of Landscape Architecture, Ludwig Berger

Dammed Landscapes (LP + Book)

Label: Institute of Landscape Architecture

Format: LP + Book

Genre: Experimental

Out of stock

Collective long-term documentation of the rapidly melting Morteratsch glacier in the Swiss alps through underwater and contact field recordings, and analogue photography. Recorded during the summers and winters of 2015-2018.

Few copies in stock, sold-out at source. Transparent Marbled Vinyl + Photo Book with point cloud visualizations  Field recordings, photographs and laser scans from hydropower dams in the Swiss Alps. The second part of our Swiss water trilogy, after "Melting Landscapes". The 20th Century radically transformed the balance of the alpine landscape by building impressive hydraulic dams, that became the Modernist pride of Switzerland. They changed the country by providing energy to the cities located in the valleys below. Today, these dams bare witness to a foregone era, when glaciers and snow covered peaks were abundant and thought of as the eternal water providers of the nation. Yet all these glaciers are melting rapidly nowadays, and bountiful water will probably be sorely missed soon. Whether the monuments of modernity will take on a new significance in the course of renewable energy strategies is yet to be seen. Visiting the pumped-storage power plant Punt dal Gall and Ova Spin up in the Grisons over the past three years, the Chair of Landscape Architecture of Professor Christophe Girot recorded and documented the dam infrastructures and their immediate surroundings with the help of ETH architecture students. Together they tested a mix of underwater, airborne, electromagnetic, and vibrational recordings as well as lidar technology and analogue photography to produce this compilation. Through a precise composition of images and sounds, the imposing stature of these dams, and all the technocratic power they symbolize, unfold in an overwhelming sensory discovery and experience of place.

«Dammed Landscapes» sounds quite ominous — and it is, for it questions first and foremost, the scale and passing materiality of time and space embodied through these objects in the alpine landscape. - Christophe Girot  

Details
File under: Field Recordings
Cat. number: 02
Year: 2023
Notes:
With 12 pages of analog photographies and 8 pages of laser scan images Field recordings, photographs and laser scans from hydropower dams in the Swiss Alps. The second part of our Swiss water trilogy, after "Melting Landscapes". The 20th Century radically transformed the balance of the alpine landscape by building impressive hydraulic dams, that became the Modernist pride of Switzerland. They changed the country by providing energy to the cities located in the valleys below. Today, these dams bare witness to a foregone era, when glaciers and snow covered peaks were abundant and thought of as the eternal water providers of the nation. Yet all these glaciers are melting rapidly nowadays, and bountiful water will probably be sorely missed soon. Whether the monuments of modernity will take on a new significance in the course of renewable energy strategies is yet to be seen. Visiting the pumped-storage power plant Punt dal Gall and Ova Spin up in the Grisons over the past three years, the Chair of Landscape Architecture of Professor Christophe Girot recorded and documented the dam infrastructures and their immediate surroundings with the help of ETH architecture students. Together they tested a mix of underwater, airborne, electromagnetic, and vibrational recordings as well as lidar technology and analogue photography to produce this compilation. Through a precise composition of images and sounds, the imposing stature of these dams, and all the technocratic power they symbolize, unfold in an overwhelming sensory discovery and experience of place. «Dammed Landscapes» sounds quite ominous — and it is, for it questions first and foremost, the scale and passing materiality of time and space embodied through these objects in the alpine landscape. - Christophe Girot Concept: Ludwig Berger, Dennis Häusler, Johannes Rebsamen, Matthias Vollmer Sound editing and mixing: Ludwig Berger Sound recording assistance: Ludwig Berger, Laura Endres Photographic assistance, image editing and point cloud visualisations: Dennis Häusler, Johannes Rebsamen, Matthias Vollmer Participating Students: Maximilian Appel, Vanesa Bijelic, Paula Bugla, Jan-Marc Castlunger, Tanguy Caversaccio, Giulia Cereghetti, Siyi Dai, Dianer Ding, Philip Einhaus, Elif Erez, Sandro Fischer, Anabell Fritsches, Vivienne Galliker, Carolina Grifoll I Argemi, Pascal Grumbacher, Reto Habermacher, Julius Henkel, Manuel Jäggi, Severin Jann, Noé Lafranchi, Jorgos Ledermann, Marc Lehmann, Cyriac Levet, Xuehan Li, Xiao Lu, Friederike Merkel, Julia Messerschmidt, Khevna Modi, Laszlo Nef, Eva Oberndorfer, Stefanie Peter, Loyse Rebord, Sacha Rezzonico, Raphael Ridder, Zofia Roguska, Sanjana Roy, Robert Schrammen, Moritz Schudel, Lian Stähelin, Noah Steiner, Meike Stender, Alice Tripet, Hao Wu, Jingfan Xue, Wei You, Wenjie Zheng, Qianer Zhu, Joel Zimmerli Teaching Team: Christophe Girot, Ludwig Berger, Laura Endres, Dennis Häusler, Johannes Rebsamen, Matthias Vollmer Graphic: Jacques Borel

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