Current
Muddy Codes & Soft Infrastructures – Portals
@Stadtgalerie, Bern
Sept 13 2025, 2pm
Portal II: Powerful materials & rare earths – amulets and charms made from e-waste
Workshop
Sept 13 2025, 6pm
Portal 00: Digital materials and its stories
Reading and short films with Daniela Brugger, Maisha Maene, Tabita Rezaire, Elom 20ce, Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper
April 24 2025, 6pm
Portal 0I: Digital Ecosystems – a common practice
Online Conversation (in English) with Gemma Copeland, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou and Stefanie Wuschitz. Moderated by Daniela Brugger
Out now
Fundraiser Tape – Séance
10 years STUDIO 47
order here
Newsletter
Contact
E-Mail: info(at)danielabrugger.ch
Instagram: @brugger_daniela
Mastodon: @muddy_codes
@who_writes_his__tory
About
I’m drawn to spaces where people come together to organize, collaborate, and engage with digital technologies—not only recognizing their fallibility, but also using their potential as tools for self-empowerment.
Over time, my focus has shifted toward the underlying (infra)structures of these digital systems, including their (colonial) histories. In 2024, I began a new phase of artistic research called “Muddy Codes & Soft Infrastructures”, which explores the often hidden and non-binary aspects of digital technologies. As part of this, I recently launched “Portals”, a public event series where I share insights and inspirations related to socially and environmentally engaged technologies, in dialogue with experts from the fields of art and design.
My work is grounded in an artistic and intersectional feminist perspective, addressing themes such as peer-to-peer learning, open-source culture, and expanded knowledge spaces. Through this lens, I critically examine the conditions of existing systems and seek movement within seemingly rigid structures. Listening and exchange are central to my practice, which spans artistic production, collaboration, curation, and art education. I present my work through performances, installations, video, text, drawing, workshops, and audio pieces.
I am trained in the fields of art education, fine arts, business administration, and organisational development. I live and work in Basel, Switzerland, where I am also affiliated with the School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung, Basel).
For a bigger picture & a full CV please contact me via info(at)danielabrugger.ch
Daniela Brugger (she/her), May 2025
Website by
Studio KōAN — studiokoan.net
In the Portals event series, artist Daniela Brugger discusses approaches to the ecological and solidarity-based use of digital technologies with experts from the fields of art, design and architecture. In talks, workshops, readings and film screenings, she invites the public to get to know and help shape socially and ecologically motivated digital worlds.
UPCOMING
Portal 00: Digitale Materie und ihre Geschichten
September 13th, 2025, 6pm @Stadtgalerie, Bern
Portal II: Mächtige Materialien & Seltene Erden – Amulette und Charms aus E-Waste
September 13th, 2025, 2pm @Stadtgalerie, Bern
Portal III: Repair Café
November 1st, 2025, 10 am – 3pm @Kunsthaus Langenthal
PAST
Portal 0I: Digital Ecosystems – A Common Practice – Online
April 24th, 2025

Videoinstallation (2023)
Single Channel 10′
Beewax-Screen
Picture 1 videostill, picture 2 by Alice Speller
Shown at muddy fade (hum), sic! elephanthouse, curated by slot_, 2023
The AI generated video-snippets of due to technical problems are based on a personal text about the care of an ageing body – the artist‘s grandmother. A text which served verbatim as a promt. While looking for surprising moments of representation, due to the way artificial intelligence works, the results are a reflection of existing imagery and stereotypes. The speed with which these technologies develop is contrasted with the slowness of the ageing body.
In the exhibition muddy fade (hum) the video was projected onto a screen greased with beeswax, out of the collaboratively developed exhibition with Lean Rüegg and the conversations around collective bodies.


Performance (2022)
Smartphones, Wifi, Videocall, Microphone Stands, Projection
Duration: 3 hours
Performer: Ruxuang Yang / Pictures by Lana Mesic
Performed at V2 – Lab for the unstable media, Rotterdam, 2022
I am the collective shows four microphone stands and a performer, each one with a smartphone. On each screen there is the mouth of the artist visible: The image transmitted via a live videocall. The physical performer interacts with the stands and screens and changes its positions as well as its heights.
The speed of the video transmissions varies slightly from screen to screen, caused to the speed of the data transmission and therefore a spacious and multi-layered sound develops. The performers reflect on being a collective as well as the materiality and structures of digital technology.
The durational performance was shown during a public event at V2 – Lab for the unstable media in Rotterdam as a presentation of the current state of research of the residency. The visitors would individually zoom in and out of the research map, which was projected onto the floor.


Audio (2022)
25′ 31′
Voices: Dorothea Mildenberger, Marlon McNeill & AI voices / Recording & Mastering: Daniel Steiner / Co-Production: Lumpenstation
deep listening is an invitation to relax and focusses
on notification sounds present in our everyday life. The
electronic devices communicate by saying hello, goodbye,
well done, generally commenting, and observing the user.
The piece is inspired by the process of machine learning
and deep listening. The term “deep listening” is known as a
description for a meditative and concentrated form of
listening whereas “deep learning” describes a multi layered
learning system and the large amount of data used
to create AI. For the recording two improvisation artists
were asked to individually mimic the complex notification
sounds with their voice.
Videoinstallation/durational Performance (2022)
Loop, 15′
Smartphones, Videos, Microphone Stands
Picture by Franz Wamhof
Performed at Performing Traces, HEK Basel, Regionale 23, 2023
Something Invisible does not necessarily describe something absent mimics a durational performance: the two smartphones on microphone stands show the artist‘s eye as well as the mouth, and appear like a technoid apparition. The performer reflects it‘s feminist influenced point of view and its understanding as a body consisting of many. The spoken word refers to the discourses around cyberfeminism, given structures, the material presence, and social influences of digitality as well as our merging with it. The audio recording origins from a former performance, where the spoken words were sent via a zoom call to several smartphones in the same room, and the different speeds of data transmission created a layered voice which in turn was combined with the original video footage.

Performance (2021)
Smartphones, Wifi, Zoom, Carrier Bags, Boomboxes
In collaboration with Lea Rüegg / Performed by Annette Beil, Werner Kost, Lea Rüegg, Nina Schweizer, Hannah Stamm, Moyra Studach, Res Thierstein / Pictures by Guillaume Musset
Performed at Die Raum, Performancefestival, Garten zur Sandgrube, Basel 2021
Call me I’m there locates itself in the interstices of public and private, online and offline. The text-based performance uses voice to enchant everyday scenes of a digitalised society and creates an intimate and at the same time open framework between audience and performers, questioning given dynamics: Who listens and who returns the gaze?
Call me I‘m there was shown during the performance festival Die Raum, initiated by the Department of Culture of Basel and curated by Kadiatou Diallo and Madeleine Amsler, dedicated to performances in public space.


Video (2020)
HD video, 16:9, 13′ 34′
Video Footage taken from Second Life / Sound based on online videocalls
Exhibited at A-Part, Werkbeitrag Basel-Stadt, Kunsthalle Basel, 2020 and With(Out) Fear, Voltage Basel, 2020
What‘s your vision? started during the first lockdown in 2020 with a daily accessible open-source-based video-chat room. It ensured a personal exchange of information in a publicly accessible space during the isolated time at home with the idea to collectively rethink current standards. Excerpts of the audio material from the series are intercut with current footage from the virtual world of Second Life. Second Life peaked back in 2013 and presents itself today as an abandoned gaming landscape.

Video Installation (2020)
HD video, 16:9, 13′34′ Loop
Camera and editing by Daniela Brugger / Sound by Lukas Huber / Picture 1 by CE at Kunsthaus Langenthal, Picture 2 by Moritz Schermbach © Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt
Exhibited at Cantonale, Kunsthaus Langenthal curated by Raffael Dörig, 2021/22 and A-Part, Werkbeitrag Basel-Stadt, Kunsthalle Basel curated by Katharina Brandl, 2020
The video shows recordings of a basic computer course in a self-organised senior citizen activity group, taught peer to peer: By senior citizens for senior citizens. The close-ups show interaction of various hands with a computer mouse, keyboard and touch screen. The sound is not cut directly onto the image but shifts to the respective sequence. The title is inspired by Peter Kropotkin’s book: Mutual Aid – A Factor of Evolution.


Collaborative Wikipeda project (ongoing since 2016)
For more information, visit:
Since 2016 Who writes his_tory? hosted around 60 worksops and discussions in art institutions, universities, art schools, film festivals and off spaces.
References:
ZKM Karlsruhe
Wikipedia writing workshops and exchange formats focusing on the topic of art and feminism in collaboration with various groups and institutions. Who writes his_tory? is a collaborative project that questions the distinguishing structural characteristics of Wikipedia while addressing the challenges they pose. Who writes his_tory? sees itself as part of movements, works closely with other committed writers and groups and promotes gender-appropriate and situation-sensitive language use on the online encyclopaedia.
In 2019 Who writes his_tory? was initiator and co-founder of FemNetz, a feminist network within the German speaking Wikipedia. Since 2020 FemNetz organises a yearly conference and network meeting.


Performance workshop focusing on digital self-defence (2019/2020)
Created in collaboration with Kunstlehrstuhl BBB and with the support of the Chaos Computer Club Basel and Sophie Kellner / Pictures by Zlatko Micic
The workshops were held at Kunstlehrstuhl Baden, 2019, Kunstraum Baden, 2019, and Kunstraum Niederoesterreich in Vienna, 2020
Documentation at: twitter.com/trakkatakk
Follow up for the anniversary of Kunstlehrstuhl BBB, 2021: Data Detox – self-defence / Data Detox – self-care
TRAKKATAKK took place for the first time in May 2019 at Kunstlehrstuhl Baden and is inspired by the solidarity model of existing Cryptoparties. It is an adaptable exchange format on digitalisation and digital self-defence. The respective space appears to be a hybrid between performance setting, exhibition space, laboratory and bar, and the focus is firmly on exchanging thoughts about handling data online.



Performance (2017 and 2018)
Performance, publication & vinyl
A collective project initiated by Daniela Brugger & Vera Bruggmann / with Franziska Baumgartner, Daniela Brugger, Vera Bruggmann, Nadja Bührer, Daniela Caderas, Laura Endtner, Linus Gemsch, Lysann König, Nora Locher, Marlon McNeill, Julia Minnig, Lea Rüegg, Arlène Sagada, Sarina Scheidegger, Alena Stählin, Sara&Natascha / Pictures by Zlatko Mićić
Performed at New Swiss Performance Now, Kunsthalle Basel, 2018 and Riot of the Privileged, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, 2017
Vinyl available at A Tree in a Field Records
Publication & Poster available at Stingray Editions
The two bands OPPRESSED BY PRIVILEGE and PRIVILEGED BY OPPRESSION each perform at the same time.
In the run-up to the band rehearsals, the public were asked to send in self-penned lyrics in response to the respective band names. These lyrics then served as the raw material which the two bands interpreted musically and performed live.
The original versions of all the submitted lyrics were compiled within a publication that was launched on the day of the performance at Ausstellungsraum Klingental during Art Basel 2017. In February 2018, the 12″ vinyl EP was released on A Tree in a Field Records to accompany the performance at Kunsthalle Basel during the performance exhibition New Swiss Performance Now. The performances were staged under the title Aufstand der Privilegierten (Riot of the Privileged).


Performance in changing volumes (since 2016)
Soap water, aluminium pool, supply of air
Pictures by Daniela Brugger, Marc Dorazillo, Silas Heizmann
Performed at at zqm in Berlin,2016 Westwerk in Hamburg, 2018, Alpines Museum in Bern, Carosserie in Basel, ZHdK in Zurich and at Kunstverein Freiburg.
The temporary sculpture is created anew and filled with a different volume of liquid for each performance. Example of FFOAAM vol. 5. Sound, smell and movement are key components of the work.



Video Installation (2015)
3-channel HD video, loop 6min. 26sec.
Camera: Daniela Brugger & Patrick Meury / Sound Design: Lukas Huber / Sound Recording: Samuel Weniger / Editing: Daniela Brugger
Click here to watch the Video, Vimeo password: Fleisch
The three-channel-installation shows video and sound material shot in a small Swiss butcher’s shop that is on the verge of closing. The images are documentary videos of various work processes performed in the family-owned business. The sound is based on the original sound and creates a soundscape that enhances the imagery through repetition and displacement.


Live Sound Installation (2016)
2 Microphones, 2 Loudspeakers, 1 Mixing Desk
in collaboration with Deirdre O’Leary
Shown at FOAAM Vol 3/4 & Ritournelle, Carosserie Basel, curated by Deuxpiece, 2016
The microphones are aligned facing the street outside the exhibition space. In a parallel room apart from the microphones there are two speakers standing opposite with their respective membranes facing each other. What can be heard is the amplified live sound of the street and passers-by. In this setting the amplified sound and the visible movement on the street cannot be perceived simultaniously


Object & Performance (2013)
generator, light bulb, cable, plug, gasoline
Sound, smell and light are important parts of the work
Shown at Harbourspace, Husavic, Iceland.
