On May 17th, @maxgausepohl completed their New Media residency with us.

Max Gausepohl is a composer and sound designer from Hamburg, Germany. In his work as a film sound designer, he is continuously drawn to finding a strong and meaningful relation between two modalities, the visual and auditory. This exploration implies finding cross modal similarities, which has deepened his understanding of similar gestures and dynamics in different fields of sensory experience.

This insight serves as the foundation for his current research on the perceptual relationship between sound and space, which applies to the development of new performative tools and techniques that integrate spatiality into the process of designing abstract sound.

Gausepohl’s master’s degree in time-based media and sound design focused on silence as a means of communication inherent to sound design. Following his graduate studies, he has held teaching positions in sound design and music production. Throughout various theatre projects and fulldome planetarium shows, as well as in an academic context through master classes with Nicolas Becker, Gerriet K. Sharma, and Mathias Josefson, he gained a profound knowledge of different immersive sound design workflows and spatial audio techniques.

Max spent two busy weeks in the New Media studio, utilizing iea surround sound speakers and personal research equipment. A special thanks to Max Coker (BFA candidate) for being a terrific tour guide and sounding board, and for moderating the artist’s talk below!

“During my stay at the iea, I was able to focus more deeply on the mechanics of the spatial audio controllers. I developed three new techniques that enable seamless blending of a much broader sonic range of virtual sound sources, along with their spatial positioning. It has been a pleasure to dive further into the development of the instruments – from designing the control structure and rethinking modulation techniques to detailed spatial sound design. My time at the iea truly allowed me to concentrate on the fundamental principles of the instruments.”

Did you miss Max’s artist talk? Check it out on our YouTube Channel!

Max utilizing the iea large format digital printers to visualize his sonic research.

“I really enjoyed my stay here (Alfred, NY), the university is very impressive, people are very kind, the town is very beautiful and nature around here contributes to this. “

Max demonstrating his custom sonic joystick devices – learn more by listening to his artist talk!

The patch Max developed for his joystick controllers using Max (Cycling ’74) software.