Pierce Warnecke and Matthew Biederman: Phytomorphic Topologies
Friday, August 21, 2026
Doors: 7 PM
All Ages
Seated performance
Strobe warning
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Pierce Warnecke and Matthew Biederman:
Phytomorphic Topologies
A captivating live audiovisual exploration of sound, image, and ecology.
Phytomorphic Topographies is a work which investigates fragile ecosystems of the Latvian wilderness through three-dimensional visual representations and near-field audio recordings. Gathered from forests, bogs and nature reserves, and guided by botanist Liga Pentjusa (University of Riga), the artists performed botanical surveys using photogrammetry and field recording as a means to document these protected environments. By engaging with these places on multiple audio / video scales in order to provide an alternative perspective of human and non-human relationships and interconnectedness.
Through a custom designed audio-visual instrument, we are able to traverse both the sonic and visual landscape in real-time to create a third space which serves as a metaphor for a systemic shift in our relationship to the environment - rather than impose a composition, the landscape itself becomes the instrument.
Phytomorphic Topologies focuses on natural environments by exploring their capacity as a compositional tool in order to foster novel views and reflections rather than simple representations. We both share a concern for our earth’s future, and desire to create a work that brings attention and consideration to both the visible and often overlooked life structures around us.
Artists
Pierce Warnecke
Pierce Warnecke is sound and video artist from the US, based in Europe for over a decade. He works equally in the sonic and visual domains via performances, installations and compositions. In addition to his solo works he collaborates with Frank Bretschneider, Matthew Biederman Keith Fullerton Whitman and more. He has received supporting grants from Germany, Canada, the European Union and France. He currently works as a professor at Berklee Valencia, Spain. Pierce has presented his works in many international festivals and spaces, such as MUTEK, ZKM, Sonic Acts, KW Institut Berlin, CTM Festival, Elektra, NEMO and more. He has released music on raster-media and Room40 and is represented by CTM’s DISK Agency.
Matthew Biederman
Matthew Biederman works across media and milieus, architectures and systems, communities and continents since 1990. He creates works where light, space, and sound reflect on the intricacies of perception. Since 2008 he is a co-founder of Arctic Perspective Initiative, with Marko Peljhan working on projects throughout the circumpolar region. Biederman was the recipient of the Bay Area Artist Award by New Langton Arts, First Place at Slovenia’s Break21. He has served as artist-in-residence at a variety of institutions and institutes, including the Iberian Nanosystems Laboratory, CMU’s CREATE lab, the Wave Farm and many more. His work has been featured at Lyon Bienniale, Istanbul Design Bienniale, The Tokyo Museum of Photography, ELEKTRA, MUTEK, Montreal Bienniale (CA), Bienniale of Digital Art (CA), SCAPE Bienniale (NZ) and the Moscow Biennale (RU), among many others.
Jorge Bachmann
Sculpture · Photography · Sound
Jorge Bachmann is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary artist and curator. He has been an active presence in the city’s experimental music and dance communities since the early 2000s.
Working across sculpture, photography, and sound, Bachmann’s practice is both eclectic and deeply rooted in attentive listening. His work ranges from subtle musique concrète soundscape installations inspired by the ideas of Dark Ecology to minimalist performances with analog modular synthesizers.
Since the early 1980s, he has explored the strange, unique, and often microscopic sounds of everyday life. Through field recordings and immersive installations, he blurs the boundaries between natural soundscapes and human-made environments, inviting audiences to reconsider their relationship to the sonic world.
Bachmann has exhibited and performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan.
