Artistic Practice
At the core of Verena Lercher’s artistic practice lies a radical interrogation of the artificial voice as a resonant potentiality that operates beyond mere imitation of the human. Navigating the intersections of electroacoustic spatial composition and experimental performance, she stages voice as a techno-poetic ‘becoming’—a fluid, never-exhausted identity situated between human and machine, intimacy and the public sphere, body and algorithm. Lercher conceptualises the artificial voice as an inherently spatial multiplicity—phenomenon that carries the potential to subvert dominant socio-cultural paradigms and to circumvent the commodification of the vocal. In doing so, she employs a diverse array of audio technologies, ranging from the tactile nature of low-fidelity turntables and tape delay units to prepared megaphones, volatile microphone circuits, and advanced 3D-audio loudspeaker instruments such as the IKOsahedral loudspeaker (IKO) alongside live-generated synthetic voices.

Academic Background & Research
Following a fifteen-year tenure as a performer collaborating with distinguished directors such as Christoph Schlingensief, Krystian Lupa, Katie Mitchell, Wojtek Klemm, Anna Mahler, and Yael Ronen Lercher pursued postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). In 2020, her work Authentic Fake News Apparatus was honoured with the Digital Dramaturgy Prize NRW. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious TECHNE AHRC DTP scholarship for her PhD in artistic research at the University of Roehampton, London. She completed her doctorate with distinction in June 2025, culminating in the solo exhibition “Sounding Out Identities of Artificial Voice” presented at the Sound Chamber, Funkhaus Berlin.

Selected Exhibitions & Performances
Since 2016, her work has been showcased internationally at venues and festivals, including Kontakte Festival Berlin (DE), steirischer herbst Graz (AT), Club EXIT Glasgow, FACYL: Festival for Contemporary Music and Media Art (ESP), PACT Zollverein Essen (DE), Spreehalle Berlin (DE), Singapore Art Museum (SGP), Vancouver Art Gallery (CAN), Mosart Gorzów (PL), SESC Pompeia São Paulo (BRA), Errant Sound Berlin (DE), Stichting Rib Art Space Rotterdam (NL), and Kiasma Theatre Helsinki (FN).

In 2023, supported by the Goethe-Institut, she undertook a month-long IKO-New Zealand tour, featuring vocal performances and workshops at Victoria University of Wellington, Christchurch Arts Centre, the Audio Foundation (Auckland), and the Adam Art Gallery. Since 2017, she has been the recipient of numerous research fellowships from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS), leading to residencies in Tokyo, Bangalore, and Chicago.

Current & Forthcoming Projects
In 2026, Lercher will co-curate the concert series “Crushed Now // After Turning // Beyond Presence: Hybrid Spatiology and Music” — www.crushednow.com. This initiative serves as a musical platform for hybrid relational spaces at the intersection of instrumentation, technology, and spatial design, hosted at the Konzertsaaal Funkhaus Berlin.

Furthermore, in 2026, she will establish her own laboratory dedicated to AI-based vocal transformation processes at Funkhaus Berlin. This venture is realised in collaboration with the Technical University of Berlin (Department of Audio Communication) and spæs: Lab for Spatial Aesthetics, Berlin.