Fantastic Smartphones

Fantastic Smartphones – a series of interactive installations developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, investigating in a critical and offbeat way our relationship with smartphones and the way they influence our daily behavior.

See the press room

Studio project (2021) by Antoine Barras, Maya Bellier, Pablo Bellon, Bastien Claessens, Ivan Chestopaloff, Antony Demierre, Basil Dénéréaz, Nora Fatehi, Paul Fritz, Sébastien Galera Larios, Souhaïb Ghanmi, Léonard Guyot, Rayane Jemaa, Dorian Jovanovic, Evan Kelly, Lisa Kishtoo, Kylan Luginbühl, Valentine Leimgruber, Valerio Meschi, Bastien Mouthon, Paul Lëon, Ignacio Pérez, Aurélien Pellegrini, Mika Pica, Jorge Reis, Yael Sidler, Malik Sobgoui, Diane Thouvenin

Assistants: Pietro Alberti, Lison Christe, Martin Hertig, Laura Nieder, Callum Ross
Know-how: Augmented Reality (AR, XR), 3D Graphics, Tangible Interaction, UX/UI, Robotics, Scenography, Web, Installation, Electronics, Machine learning (ML, AI)

Behind the derision-filled title Fantastic Smartphones, alternative accessories, interactive installations and machine performances highlight the excesses relating to our use of these devices. By imagining innovative ways of interacting with our smartphones or by delegating our repetitive actions to machines, this exhibition takes a critical look at a society that has become addicted to an object that seems to have become indispensable : the “smart” phone.

Is this object, which was initially perceived as an extension, still a source of pleasure or has it become a source of alienation? Bachelor Media & Interaction Design students provide answers to this question through a series of installations that address different aspects of this issue in an original and immersive way. Visitors will be able to discover how to save time when using a dating app; cheat on their personal health data through bots; illustrate the time lost away from their phone; engrave their name on a Wall of Fame to evaluate the value of their actions on social networks; attend a discussion between two smartphones; scroll to infinity in a mesmerising way; discover neologisms relating to new digital behaviours; free themselves from digital addictions; discover what really happens in the cloud thanks to a visual allegory; or witness the strange choreography of a robotic arm that takes pictures of itself with a selfie stick.

Brochure Fantastic Smartphones

Gianni Camporota , Léonard Guyot - Video sur Vimeo

Automač ECAL/Antoine Barras, Guillaume Giraud Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

1/2

A Screentime Connaiseurs Lexicon ECAL/Antony Demierre, Basil Dénéréaz, Nora Fatehi, Paul Fritz, Sébastien Galera Larios, Rayane Jemaa, Dorian Jovanovic, Valentine Leimgruber, Valerio Meschi, Ignacio Pérez, Michael Pica, Jorge Reis, Malik Sobgoui

Kinetic Scroll ECAL/Pablo Bellon, Kylan Luginbühl, Yaël Sidler Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Cardiobot ECAL/Bastien Claessens, Evan Kelly, Aurélien Pellegrini Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Sleepbot ECAL/Bastien Claessens, Evan Kelly, Aurélien Pellegrini Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Podobot ECAL/Bastien Claessens, Evan Kelly, Aurélien Pellegrini Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Biobots ECAL/Bastien Claessens, Evan Kelly, Aurélien Pellegrini Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

1/4

In the Cloud ECAL/Nora Fatehi, Souhaïb Ghanmi, Dorian Jovanovic, Michael Pica, Malik Sobgoui Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Meanwhile ECAL/Léonard Guyot, Maya Bellier, Paul Lëon Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Adam & Eve ECAL/Nora Fatehi, Michael Pica, Jorge Reis Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Selfie Robot ECAL/Basil Dénéréaz, Sébastien Galera Larios, Rayane Jemaa, Ignacio Pérez Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

Selfie Robot ECAL/Basil Dénéréaz, Sébastien Galera Larios, Rayane Jemaa, Ignacio Pérez Image ECAL/Basil Dénéréaz

Desktop Notification Center ECAL/Pablo Bellon, Ivan Chestopaloff Image ECAL/Lison Christe

Mistarget ECAL/Antoine Barras, Guillaume Giraud Image ECAL/Lison Christe

LIA – Leave It Alone ECAL/Bastien Classens, Léonard Guyot Image ECAL/Lison Christe

TicTocLock ECAL/Paul Lëon, Diane Thouvenin Image ECAL/Lison Christe

Anti-Stress Case ECAL/Kylan Luginbühl, Aurélien Pellegrini Image Lison Christe

Smartphone Symbiosis ECAL/Antoine Barras, Maya Bellier, Pablo Bellon, Ivan Chestopaloff, Bastien Classens, Guillaume Giraud, Léonard Guyot, Evan Kelly, Lisa Kishtoo, Paul Lëon, Kylan Luginbühl, Aurélien Pellegrini, Yaël Sidler, Diane Thouvenin

1/6

Taptaptap ECAL/Lisa Kishtoo, Bastien Mouthon, Diane Thouvenin Image ECAL/Jimmy Rachez

1/2

Wall of Fame ECAL/Pablo Bellon, Kylan Luginbühl, Yaël Sidler Image ECAL/Gianni Camporota

HEADS OF PROJECT: Vincent Jacquier , Pauline Saglio
HEAD OF PROGRAMME: Pauline Saglio
TEACHERS: Alain Bellet , Thibault Brevet (AATB), Jesse Howard , Vincent Jacquier , Eric Morzier (Sigmasix) , Florian Pittet (Sigmasix) , Pauline Saglio , Tibor Udvari , Roel Wouters (Moniker)
ASSISTANTS: Pietro Alberti , Lison Christe , Martin Hertig , Laura Nieder , Callum Ross
COORDINATION & DEVELOPMENT: Lison Christe , Julien Gurtner , Pascal Ospelt, Callum Ross , SIGMASIX, Tibor Udvari
EXHIBITION DESIGN: Anthony Guex
STUDENTS: Antoine Barras , Maya Bellier , Pablo Bellon , Bastien Claessens , Ivan Chestopaloff , Antony Demierre , Basil Dénéréaz , Nora Fatehi , Paul Fritz , Sébastien Galera Larios , Souhaïb Ghanmi , Léonard Guyot , Rayane Jemaa , Dorian Jovanovic , Evan Kelly , Lisa Kishtoo , Kylan Luginbühl , Valentine Leimgruber , Valerio Meschi , Bastien Mouthon , Paul Lëon , Ignacio Pérez , Aurélien Pellegrini , Mika Pica , Jorge Reis , Yael Sidler , Malik Sobgoui , Diane Thouvenin

exhibition of Fantastic Smartphones

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at Ars Electronica 2023,
06–10.09.2023

Ars Electronica is hosting the Fantastic Smartphones exhibition from 6 to 10 September 2023 in Austria.

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at Mapping Festival,
18–28.05.2023,
Geneva

Under the spotlight, the Fantastic Smartphones exhibition continues its tour and is presented at the Mapping Festival from May 18 to 28, 2023 in Geneva.

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at Bits n Bolts,
04–05.03.2023,
Bits n Bolts

Following its success at the Milan International Furniture Fair, the KIKK Festival in Namur (BE) and the HEK Bâle, the exhibition Fantastic Smartphones is participating in Bits n Bolts festival with a selection of its projects. To be seen on March 4 and 5, 2023 at the Zentralwäscherei in Zurich.

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at the HEK,
07–21.10.2022,
HEK, Basel

After the Salone del Mobile in Milano, the Galerie l'elac and the KIKK Festival in Namur (BE), the Fantastic Smartphones exhibition will be held at the HEK - House of electronic Arts in Basel from 7 to 21 October 2022.

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at the KIKK Festival,
04–07.11.2021,
Namur, Belgium

After the Milan Design Week and the Galerie l'elac, the KIKK Festival in Namur (BE) hosts the exhibition "Fantastic Smartphones" from 4 to 7 November 4. This event presents a series of interactive installations developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, investigating in a critical and offbeat way our relationship with smartphones and the way they influence our daily behavior.

ELAC GALLERY

Fantastic Smartphones at the elac gallery,
06–22.10.2021,
Gallery l'elac, Renens

After the Milan Design Week and before the KIKK Festival in Namur (BE), the Gallery l'elac hosts the exhibition "Fantastic Smartphones" - a series of interactive installations developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, investigating in a critical and offbeat way our relationship with smartphones and the way they influence our daily behavior.

EXHIBITIONS

Fantastic Smartphones at the Milan Design Week,
05.09–07.11.2021,
SPBH Space, Milan

ECAL presents a series of extraordinary projects and installations developed by Bachelor Media & Interaction Design students, investigating our relation with smartphones and the way they impact our day-to-day behaviour

Projects related to Machine learning (ML, AI)

See more projects

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Jamy Herrmann – MEMOGRAM

with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio

Today, for many, the memories that remain are only those of images taken with digital cameras. Through this continuous storage process, we offload those moments by trusting instantaneous backups. MEMOGRAM challenges this delegation by offering a time capsule in the form of tickets, accompanying our memories with textual clues and descriptions. www.memogram.ch

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Paul Fritz – Grappaa

with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio

Grappaa is an artist-run exhibition space that I began working on in early 2021. It was built based on makeshift institutional spaces, e.g. art fairs and more recently, mass vaccination centres. The walls and furniture in these mega events become modules in the landscape of barren multipurpose warehouses. For Grappaa, through a process of urban hacking, the car parks become the grid for any spatial configuration. I pay rent by the hour. It’s not cheap.

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Folklore Fusion

with Pauline Saglio

Folklore Fusion – a CGI character project developed by students in Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, exploring the creative collision between Japanese and Swiss folklore through the lens of contemporary visual storytelling.

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Valentine Leimgruber – Sanctuaires

with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio

Through a narrative experience, Sanctuaires invites visitors to discover their relationship with plants. This project is structured as an interactive exhibition on the great trees of the city of Lausanne. As in a treasure hunt, visitors have to look for the trees, thanks to clues and a map on the app. When they find one, they connect to it through touch, thus triggering the beginning of the experience. Like a wise storyteller, the sanctuary-tree shares a tale with the visitors, telling them about its sensitive experience and observable universe. Urban tree development coincides with the advent of issues related to the ecological crisis. What do trees have to say about this and how can their perception help us improve our lifestyles?

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

Iris Moine – Twist

with Alain Bellet, Christophe Guignard, Gaël Hugo, Laura Nieder, Pauline Saglio

Twist was thought out as part of the upcoming industrial design exhibition at mudac - Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains. The aim of this project is to engage children’s curiosity about design, for whom the idea of visiting a museum is often not the most exciting. How can we encourage a stimulating visit and discovery of the exhibits? By bringing out an object from the exhibition, the Bold chair by Big-Game studio, this project transforms it into an interactive installation. Guided by a character on screen, children are invited to interact with certain parts of the chair: sitting, pinching, turning, etc. These interactions trigger games, and information is presented in a playful way, thus creating a direct and memorable relationship with the object and raising awareness of design.

Related courses

See all courses

BA MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

exhibition of Fantastic Smartphones

Fantastic Smartphones at Ars Electronica 2023,06–10.09.2023

Fantastic Smartphones at Mapping Festival,18–28.05.2023,Geneva

Fantastic Smartphones at Bits n Bolts,04–05.03.2023,Bits n Bolts

Fantastic Smartphones at the HEK,07–21.10.2022,HEK, Basel

Fantastic Smartphones at the KIKK Festival,04–07.11.2021,Namur, Belgium

Fantastic Smartphones at the elac gallery,06–22.10.2021,Gallery l'elac, Renens

Fantastic Smartphones at the Milan Design Week,05.09–07.11.2021,SPBH Space, Milan

Projects related to Machine learning (ML, AI) See more projects

Jamy Herrmann – MEMOGRAM

Paul Fritz – Grappaa

Folklore Fusion

Valentine Leimgruber – Sanctuaires

Iris Moine – Twist

Related courses See all courses

Fantastic Smartphones at Ars Electronica 2023,
06–10.09.2023

Fantastic Smartphones at Mapping Festival,
18–28.05.2023,
Geneva

Fantastic Smartphones at Bits n Bolts,
04–05.03.2023,
Bits n Bolts

Fantastic Smartphones at the HEK,
07–21.10.2022,
HEK, Basel

Fantastic Smartphones at the KIKK Festival,
04–07.11.2021,
Namur, Belgium

Fantastic Smartphones at the elac gallery,
06–22.10.2021,
Gallery l'elac, Renens

Fantastic Smartphones at the Milan Design Week,
05.09–07.11.2021,
SPBH Space, Milan

Projects related to Machine learning (ML, AI)

See more projects

Related courses

See all courses