Merle Ibach researches, publishes, and teaches in the field of Design Culture. She is junior researcher of the SNSF-funded project “Commons in Design” and a PhD candidate in the doctoral research group “Digital Media / Knowledge Cultures” at Leuphana University Lüneburg.
Her PhD research focuses on rural maker communities, and explores how commons-oriented futures are negotiated in and through DIY making. This research is based on empirical studies in the field, autoethnographic investigations, and participatory workshops. Through different methodological approaches, she broadens the understanding of human and non-human entanglements, their practices, and eco-social imaginaries.
Merle has a multi-disciplinary background that spans from media theory to experimental typography and integrative design. From 2016 to 2019 she was a research assistant in the SNSF-funded project "Shift Register", led by Jamie Allen at the Critical Media Lab in Basel. The project was a workshop-based investigation of the critical markers of the Anthropocene. Among several international workshops, e.g. at Cité des Arts Paris, Transmediale Berlin, Art Electronica in Linz, the Offspace Kurant in Tromsø, she took part in an artist residency at the Biological Fieldstation in Kilpisjärvi, Finland. In 2018, she completed her Master of Arts in Integrative Design at the Academy of Art and Design Basel with a field study of the Open Movement, an open-source community in Switzerland developing an OS clock mechanism. Between 2021-22 Merle was a researcher in residence at the Critical Maker Laboratory at TU/UdK Berlin and visiting researcher at the Center for Invention and Social Process (CISP) at Goldsmiths University London.
She takes part in a number of conferences, and published in the Critical Makers Reader of the Institute of Network Cultures (2020), and in NERD 2 of the Board of International Research in Design (2021).

www.merle-ibach.de

• Visiting Research Fellow at Center for Invention and Social Process (CISP), Goldsmiths University London, 02-05/2022.
• Research Residency at Critical Maker Laboratory, Einstein Center for Digital Futures / Weizenbaum Institute Berlin, 09-12/2021.
• Schreibwerkstatt / Writing Workshop. Bi-weekly workshop at Masterstudio, FS/HS 2021.
• Local Tools for global Pandemic. Workshop at MA Transformation Design, FH Augsburg,19-22/07/2021.
• 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 and Papers

• Ibach, Merle: Unmaking Ready-Made-Futures. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Design-Theorie und -Forschung (DGTF): Design x Sustainability, 2-3 June 2022.
• Ibach, Merle: Printing Utopia – The domain of the 3D printer in the making of commons-based futures, in Design&Culture Journal. (Accepted)
• 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

• 06/2022 Unmaking Ready-Made-Futures. Paper Presentation at 18. DGTF Jahreskonferenz 2022, Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Kiel.
• 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.