As part of its artist-in-residence program Sonic Experiments, the ZKM | Hertzlab yearly awards scholarships for composers focusing on electronic music and sound art. In this year‘s international open call, composers and sound artists were invited to submit applications centered on the themes of science fiction and space travel. A total of four artists were selected to realize their new projects in the studios of the ZKM | Hertzlab for one month from the beginning of November. On December 10, 2026 they are going to present their works in the Kubus to the public.
Sonic Experiments 2026 – Resonating Futures
© ZKM | Center for Art und Media Karlsruhe, photo: Felix Grünschloß
Our residents
Lautaro Figueroa Balcarce
Lautaro Figueroa Balcarce (*1995, Buenos Aires, Argentinia) is a composer working at the intersection of experimental music and media art. His practice integrates instrumental composition, electronic music, and digital technologies to build environments where live performers interact with virtual systems.
He studied composition at the Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB) with Simon Steen-Andersen, completing his Master's degree in 2024, and later pursued advanced studies in mixed music at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg with Daniel D'Adamo. His music has been performed at venues across Argentina, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States.
© photo: Alexander David Anderfuhren
Abigail Toll
Abigail Toll is a sound artist and composer producing drone-based electroacoustic and chamber music, presented as solo and ensemble performances, and multi-channel installations.
Toll’s second album Idol (Superpang, 2025) was nominated for The German Record Critics’ Award 2025 and released alongside spatial installation Lick the walls to understand echoes during a residency at HOLON Berlin (2025). Other residencies include Amplify Berlin mentored by Caterina Barbieri (2018); tekhnĦ, GMEA, Albi (2024); ZK/U Berlin (2023). Upcoming residencies include: Serra da Estrela, Portugal (Goethe Institute); Unsound Lab, Poland; EMS, Sweden; ZKM | Karlsruhe, Germany.
© Abigail Toll, photo: Julia Lee Goodwin
Anaparn
Anaparn is a Thai-born sound artist, multidisciplinary artist, and composer based in Berlin. Her practice explores sound, perception, organic processes, and the relationship between humans and the natural world. She works with field recordings, voice, synths, sensors, and visual media.
In 2022, she was selected as one of the Goethe Talents and performed alongside international artists at the Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin. After returning to Thailand in 2023, she collaborated across disciplines on projects including RE:SYN with pioneering musician Wannarit Pongprayoon of Stylish Nonsense; sound design for Naraphat Sakarthornsap’s installation The Forbidden Marsh; live composition for Dark Horse, a choreographic work by Pavida Wachirapanyaporn; and a live sound performance with MsYves at Goethe-Institut Thailand.
© Anaparn, photo: Jakkrapat Tajan
David Tanner
David Tanner (*1999) is a musician and media artist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Informatics (2024) from the Karlsruhe University of Music, Germany, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the same field there. In addition to his studies, he works on external projects, including a contribution to the ZKM exhibition Fellow Travellers (2025), an audiovisual installation and I Thought Karlsruhe Was Flat (Orgelfabrik Durlach, Germany, 2026), and various ongoing live coding performances.
He is currently nominated, as part of the MAD collective, for the 3rd “Peter Weibel” Art Prize in the Karlsruhe Technology Region (2027) and the KUNST.PARK 2026 organized by Kunst.Ort.Rumpenheim e. V.. In addition, he is implementing a project with sound artist Jiyeong Lee for the UNESCO City of Media Arts as part of the exhibition Media Art Is Here (2027).
© David Tanner, photo: Katharina Stock
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Jury statement
What might music sound like if it unfolds in a fundamentally different environment, detached from the real-world conditions of Earth? Where do we end up when, inspired by sound, we embark on an imaginary journey through unknown internal and external spaces and overcome distances that we, as purely physical bodies, could never traverse? What defines us as human beings when we do not become alienated from the world around us and view decomposition as a journey into these unknown states of being? And how does it actually sound when the touted optimism of the Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s is contrasted with that of the current, megalomania-soaked Trillionaire Space Race waged by a handful of extremely wealthy private entrepreneurs?
We are eager to experience this immersive exploration of these speculative futures, as well as the fantastical-sounding worlds created by the selected sound artists - spanning live coding, audiovisual fixed-media works, and live electronics - who have completely won us over with their innovative compositional and conceptual work. We are therefore very delighted to award the four fellowships as part of Sonic Experiments 2026 – Resonating Futures to Lautaro Figueroa Balcarce, Abigail Toll, Anaparn, and David Tanner to journey towards these futures with them and venture into terra incognita. The future is now!
The juryDominik Kautz (Curator & project lead, ZKM | Hertzlab)
Götz Dipper (Music informatics, ZKM | Hertzlab)
Laura Benetschik (Scientific trainee, ZKM | Hertzlab)
Dan Wilcox (Artist & developer, ZKM | Hertzlab)
James Grabsch, they/them (Co-curator CTM-Festival & musical director @ Florentina Holzinger)
The series »Sonic Experiments« is dedicated to current developments within the various varieties of experimental electronic music. The program presents upcoming musicians and sound artists who either have a special sense for new, forward-looking impulses, or pursue particularly innovative compositional approaches. The aim of the series is to invite the audience to expect the unexpected.
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Funded by
The scholarship awarded to David Tanner for artists with a local connection to Karlsruhe is funded by the Fördergesellschaft ZKM / HfG e. V. -
