Karl Salzmann (*1979 in Bludenz) is a sound and media artist currently based in Vienna. In his artistic practice he uses sound and noise and combines them in performance, conceptual and installation art. His work is characterized by the visual mapping and representation of sound, the incorporation of site-specific conditions and historical references, as well as the social and cultural implications of sound. His current artistic research focuses on the turntable as a research device that allows him to explore the above-mentioned areas.
Salzmann currently teaches at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna where he is the head of the ÆSR Lab - Applied/Experimental Sound Research Laboratory as well as the coordinator of the Sound Art Research Platform at Zentrum Fokus Forschung since 2023. He has held other teaching and workshop activities at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, and the HDPK - University of Popular Arts in Berlin, among others.
In 2013 he founded the festival series Klangkunsttage and from 2016-2019 he was - together with Thomas Wagensommerer and Paul Gründorfer - the artistic director of the art and performance space "Zentrale - Raum für Klang und Prozesskunst" in Vienna. Over the years he has also organized numerous festivals, exhibitions and concerts with a focus on sound art.
He is internationally active as an artist and his work has been shown among others at ACFNY New York, Kunsthalle Bratislava and Kunsthaus Graz. His works are part of the art collections of the Austrian state, the city of Vienna, and the province of Vorarlberg.
In 2017 he received the Erste Bank Mehrwert Art Prize and in 2019 he was awarded the State Scholarship for Media Art by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture.
Since 2021 he is a doctoral candidate at the ARC - Artistic Research Center of the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.