Diagonal is delighted to announce NORMIFICATION, a collaboration between Florian Hecker and Marcin Pietruszewski.
The project, initiated in 2016 in response to a request by the Zurich-based graphic design studio NORM, translates graphic design procedures and algorithmic processes into sound synthesis and composition through experimental auditory display—hence normification, rather than sonification. It employs custom synthesis and signal processing techniques, including iterative cycles of re-synthesis, wavelet-based transformations, and particle-scale recomposition, all while maintaining strict procedural ties to the algorithmic logic underlying NORM’s layout system.
As an algorithmic manifestation of this system, a text-column structuring program—which calculates integer divisors within two-dimensional fields—produces structured patterns of gaps and non-gaps that serve as the generative point of departure for sound synthesis. These divisor-based sequences are interpreted across multiple temporal scales: macro-level structural divisions, meso-level rhythmic patterns, and micro-level spectral movements.
NORMIFICATION establishes a recursive compositional ecology, where sound becomes a site of procedural inscription rather than representational output. It proposes a synthesis grounded in structural consequence and suggests listening as a mode of procedural inquiry.
The work comprises 115 tracks mastered by Rashad Becker. NORMIFICATION is presented via double CD, packaged in a double jewel case and accompanied by 2 x 16-page booklets. Product, packaging and sleeve design by Dimitri Bruni, NORM, Zurich.
Florian Hecker works with synthetic sound, the listening process, and the audience’s auditory experience. Recent exhibitions and performances include FAVN, Terraforma EXO, Milano, 2025, and TEMPLEXTURES, Galerie Neu, Berlin, Germany, 2022. Hecker has an extensive discography, including: Resynthese FAVN (Blank Forms, New York, 2024); Syn As Text [AC] (Etat, Vienna, 2021); and Synopsis Seriation (Editions Mego, Vienna, 2021).
Marcin Pietruszewski is a composer and researcher engaged in sound synthesis and composition with computers, exploring specific formal developments in the tradition of electroacoustic music and contemporary sound art. A recent sound installation—Love Numbers—with Anthea Caddy, was premiered at the Venice Music Biennale 2023, and he also presented commissioned work at Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2024); CTM Festival, Berlin (2021); and ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (2018), amongst many others.
