Merle Ibach works, researches, publishes and teaches in the field of Design Culture. Her research practice is shaped by a multi-disciplinary academic background that spans from media theory to experimental typography and integrative design. To get in touch with a research object, her approach is characterised by material investigation, empirical fieldwork or interventions. Merle is a junior researcher at the Critical Media Lab and the Institute Integrative Design, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel. Since 2019, she is part of the SNSF-funded project “Commons in Design” and a PhD-candidate at the doctoral research group “Digital Media / Knowledge Cultures” at Leuphana University Lüneburg. In her doctoral thesis, she focuses on the maker culture, specifically its approaches towards an eco-social transformation and how practices of making relate to design.

www.merle-ibach.de

• Co-Lab – An online tool for collaborative design processes. Team: Christine Schranz, Merle Ibach, Moritz Greiner-Petter, Jan Pistor. Project funded by “FHNW Lehrfonds” grant, 02/2020-12/2020.
• Verwobene Koexistenzen, CoCreate week: Critical Media Studies. Flavia Caviezel, Merle Ibach. HGK FHNW, HS 2020.
• Commons in Design. Team: Christine Schranz, Merle Ibach, Moritz Greiner-Petter. Research project funded by SNSF (No. 179178), 03/2019-02/2023.
• GARET (Gamified augmented reality exposure therapy). Lead: Dominique de Quervain, research at Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Basel, 03/2018-12/2021.
• Augmented Spaces – A Scenographical Observation, lead: Claudia Mareis, research project funded by SNSF (No.159277), 09/2018-03/2019.
• Shift Register – Media-geological Grounding of the Anthropocene through Artistic Research. Lead: Jamie Allen. Research project funded by SNSF (No.166400), 11/2016-09/2018.
• Living Data – Data visualization with living displays, project team: Merle Ibach, Benjamin Gaub (NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering), as part of the program Art of Molecule, ETH Zürich, 03/2017-06/2017.
• Typografie Grundlagen, Seminar Fachbereich: Transmediale Gestaltung. Jenny Baese, Merle Ibach. Universität der Künste Berlin, WiSe 2015/2016.
• Technosphere, Seminar Fachbereich: Elementares Gestalten. Myriell Milicevic, Merle Ibach. Fachhochschule Potsdam, SoSe 2015.
  

Conference Proceedings

Greiner-Petter, Moritz, Merle Ibach: Digital Tools for Collaborative Design Processes. Swiss Design Network: Design as Common Good, 25-26 March 2021.

Book Chapters

Ibach, Merle: Making a Cup – An autoethnographic study on the domain of making and its distinction from designing. In: Michelle Christensen, Ralf Michel und Wolfgang Jonas (eds): NERD – New Experimental Research in Design 2. Birkhäuser 2021.

Unmaking – Against General Applicability. In: Loes Bogers, Letizia Chiappini (eds): Critical Makers Reader. Institute of Networked Cultures, Amsterdam 2020.

Graphical contributions

Bentz, Dorothée, Nan Wang, Merle Ibach, Nathalie S. Schicktanz, Anja Zimmer, Andreas Papassotiropoulos, and Dominique J. F. de Quervain: Effectiveness of a stand-alone, smartphone-based virtual reality exposure app to reduce fear of heights in real-life: a randomized trial. Npj Digital Medicine 4 (1), 2021.

Drucker, Johanna: Visualization and Interpretation – Humanistic Approaches to Display. The MIT Press 2020.

Allen, Jamie: Sitting On Top of the World: Meridional Media, Arctic Condescension, and Northern Techniques. In: Technosphere Magazine. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2018.

Conferences / Presentations

• 03/2021 Printing Utopia. Paper Presentation at symposium Re-imagining the Futures of 3D Printing in Society, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
• 03/2021 Digital Tools for Collaborative Design Processes. Paper presentation at conference Design as Common Good, Swiss Design Network.
• 01/2021 Design Beyond Creative Industries. Lecture at Umeå Institute of Design.
• 07/2020 Participation at De/posium (international symposium for designers and researchers), Banska Stiavnica.
• 11/2019 Prototyping Resilience. Talk at Open Materials symposium, Weizenbaum Institut, Berlin.
• 11/2019 Additive Matters – On eco-social transformation in design processes. Paper presentation at 3rd NERD Conference, Basel.
• 04/2019 Additive Matters – Towards a more than human centered design?. Talk at By Design or By Disaster conference, Free University, Bolzano.
• 09/2018 Thoughts on socio-ecological prototyping. Paper presentation at Digital Cultures Conference, Leuphana Universität, Lüneburg.
• 08/2018 Design for Commons – Knowledge practices in the process of open design. Paper presentation at 12th ACS Xroads Conference, University of Shanghai.

Sensing Gaia (Patrick Salz, Paul Heinicker, Merle Ibach)

• Essay: Ich bin Gaia, In: Gutes Klima, +41 Magazin für Alltagskultur Schweiz.
• Tape Release: Listen Back. Basel 2020.
• Video-Sound-Installation: Sensing Gaia, Otherwise Festival. Zurich 2019.

Shift Register (Jamie Allen, Martin Howse, Merle Ibach)

• Workshop series EOA (Earth Observation Array):
  • Polar Eye, Solar Eye at Kurant, Tromsø 2018.
  • The Altering Eye, Cité des Arts, Paris 2018.
  • Transmediale Festival, Berlin 2017.
  • Ars Electronica, Linz 2017.
  • Pharmaziemuseum, Basel 2016.
• Artistic Residency, Biological Station University of Helsinki, Kilpisjärvi 2018.
• Technosphere Magazine: Sitting On Top of the World: Meridional Media, Arctic Condescension, and Northern Techniques. November 30, 2018.

Divers

• Workshop: 9 Hysterical Media Truths You’ll Never Believe!. Critical Media Lab. Transmediale
• Installation: Atlas of MediaThinking and MediaActing in Berlin. Institut für zeitbasierte Medien (UdK Berlin). Transmediale 2016.
• Installation: Users are people. Merle Ibach René Herzogenrath. Depot Basel 11/2016.
• Exhibition: The internet goes offline. Z/KU Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik. Berlin 09/2016.