San Francisco

Sound Memories: A Global Dialogue on Preserving Memory Through Sound

Swissnex in San Francisco, together with Swissnex in China and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich present "Sound Memories" a hybrid event exploring how technology can preserve and revive sound-related objects through audio visualization and design. This event is part of a global initiative.

Join us

This artist talk will shed light on new digital approaches to conservation, from reinterpreting historical sounds to creating contemporary ways of experiencing museum collections.

By bridging art, design, and technology, the discussion will highlight how digital approaches can enhance accessibility, engagement, and the cultural significance of sound memories worldwide.

In the US, artists Asma Kazmi and Jill Miller are reimagining the “Electronic Memory – Model 80-1” from the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (MfGZ) design collection.

In China, Yude Li is transforming the sound of Joachim Tielke’s Viola da Gamba from the decorative arts collection into audiovisual patterns inspired by Chinese cultural artifacts.

Join us for this unique opportunity to engage directly with artists and designers envisioning the future of sound preservation. Bring your curiosity, ask questions, and take part in a global dialogue on how technology is breathing new life into historical sound memories.

About this event

*This event is part of the Studio Crawl during SF Design Week. To participate, you have to buy a One Pass through the SF Design Week website.
If you are interested in joining only the Swissnex exhibition/event without purchasing a full SFDW pass, register here.

The Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Switzerland’s leading institution for design and visual communication, is pleased to announce a global digital exhibition and event series in partnership with Swissnex. This initiative is part of the museum’s 150th-anniversary celebrations and aims to strengthen its international presence and foster global collaboration. Attend related events in person or virtually. Details will be released soon.

Speakers

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    Bio

    Asma Kazmi

    Associate Professor in the Department of Art Practice and the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM) at UC Berkeley.

    Asma Kazmi’s large scale installations blend physical and virtual spaces. Her sculptures, connoting materiality, cultural lineage, and craft are juxtaposed with virtual and augmented reality models of art historical objects and particular geographies. Taking an expansive approach to installation art, she researches and reassesses the intertwining histories of Western colonialism and her diasporic Muslim culture.

    Kazmi’s selected exhibitions include: Gray Area, San Francisco; Goethe Institute, San Francisco; Galerie Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France; Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Shenzhen, China; San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco; the Espacio Laraña, University of Seville, Spain; the Commons Gallery, University of Hawaii in Honolulu; Faraar Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan; Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit; Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco; San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City; Queens Museum of Art, NY; H&R Block Space, Kansas City; The Guild Gallery, New York; and Galerie Sans Titre, Brussels, Belgium; LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; Gallery 210, University of Missouri St Louis; MassArt Film Society, Boston; Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis; and Gallery 400, University of Illinois in Chicago.

    Kazmi is the recipient of many grants including the C/Change Creative R&D Lab, Goethe Institut and Gray Area, San Francisco; Vagner Mendonça-Whitehead Microgrant, New Media Caucus, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Townsend Fellowship; the Hellman Fellow Fund award; the BCNM Seed Grant; Al-Falah Grant; the Fulbright to India; Faculty Research Grant, CalArts; the Great Rivers Biennial Grant, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; the Rocket Grant, Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas; and the At the Edge: Innovative Art in Chicago, Gallery 400, University of Illinois in Chicago.

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    Bio

    Jill Miller

    Artist and Professor at UC Berkeley

    Jill Miller is a visual artist who works across a wide range of media, from experimental digital art to public practices, and many hybrids in between. She often collaborates with individuals and local communities in the form of public interventions, workshops, and participatory community projects. Her work is playful, and she uses humor as a strategy for opening up meaningful conversations about difficult subjects. In past work, she: lived in the remote wilderness in search of the mythical creature Bigfoot, assisted mothers who were harassed for breastfeeding in public, and organized teenage girls who were closing the gender gap by learning to edit Wikipedia. She is the Area Head of Public Practice in the Art Department at Berkeley, Director of Platform Artspace, and a member of the Executive Committee in the Berkeley Center for New Media.

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    Bio

    Karen Cheung

    Curatorial Associate, Media Arts at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

    Karen Cheung is a curator and researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has contributed writings to Art Practical, Open Space, MARCH Journal of Art and Strategy, Voices in Contemporary Art Journal, Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, and monographic publications of Heesoo Kwon and Isaac Chong Wai. Previous curatorial projects include performances by Naama Tsabar, Suzanne Lacy, and Postcommodity; solo exhibitions by Julian Charrière, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Nam June Paik; group exhibitions at SWIM Gallery and Mills College Museum of Art. She has lectured at the Tainan National University of the Arts and presented at programs and symposiums organized by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and Mori Art Museum. She has held various positions at KADIST, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the De Young Museum, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, CA. She is currently Curatorial Associate of Media Arts at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she recently organized Janet Cardiff: The Telephone Call, Alexandra Pirci: Re-collection, New Work: Samson Young, and is working on a new commission by Raven Chacon.

Sophie Grossmann – Curator

Research Associate at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Sophie Grossmann studied Cultural Publishing at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and holds a second-graduate degree in Art History, with a focus on the History of Textile Arts, from the University of Bern. Sophie joined the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich in 2021. Initially part of the Decorative Arts Collection, she has been a research associate since 2022, specializing in the challenges of collecting intangible cultural assets such as digital-born and hybrid objects, as well as digital documentation. In this role, she has led several case studies and collaborated with designers, artists, and institutions to commission exhibits and curate spaces dedicated to digital collecting. Sophie has presented her work on digital collecting at various institutions, including the Istituto Svizzero in Rome, the University of Bern, and others.

Partners