LECTURES
This two-day symposium is part of a research project by the Cinema Department at ECAL focusing on the impact of artificial intelligence on cinema.
EXHIBITIONS
As part of the Milan Design Week 2026, ECAL and Google present the exhibition A Message From Tomorrow, featuring the projects of Master Product Design students.
EXHIBITIONS
ECAL Bachelor Industrial Design students present miniature versions of furniture pieces designed by Vico Magistretti in the exhibition Vico Magistretti and Japan in Milan.
EXHIBITIONS
At the exhibition Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026, ECAL presents two original installations that invite visitors to explore the concept of time.
LECTURES
In collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse, the ECAL Cinema Department organises a masterclass by director Joe Dante, a leading figure in 1980's fantasy cinema.
EXHIBITIONS
Curated by Master Type Design and Bachelor Graphic Design programmes, this project presents a wide selection of 300 typefaces created by ECAL students from around the world.
LECTURES
Charlie Fox, Banu Cennetoğlu, Nolan Lucidi, Antoine Idier and Anna Franceschini have been invited to ECAL as part of the symposium What Do Bodies Do?, organised by the Master Fine Arts.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Nicolas Poillot
By conceptualizing and producing visual content as part of an editorial series, students will explore the concept of applied photography in a practical, creative, and professional manner, working closely with Art Director Nicolas Poillot.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Anoush Abrar
DRIVE For this week’s theme, “Drive,” first-year photography students were asked to create a portrait shot on medium-format film. Inspired by the sensation of a first driving experience, travel, empowerment, or discovery, the week aimed to explore the relationship between one or more people and a vehicle.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Jean-Vincent Simonet, Léonard Guyot, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner
During a week of collaborative work, first-year students in the Visual Communication department at ECAL were given the ambitious task of creating a complete audiovisual experience, designing a light and sound architecture based solely on five original musical compositions. Using a central totem-like screen installation and projections on the surrounding walls, enhanced with lasers, they created a visual environment, broadcast in real time, which was presented as a performance to the public at the end of the week. The aim was to construct a universe capable of fully utilizing the space and the various stage elements, inviting the audience to move around and experience the live performance in its entirety. Five cross-functional creative groups, each with a different sound base, were supervised by Jean-Vincent Simonet and Léonard Guyot to produce images and test them throughout the week on the device, which was developed, set up and operated by a sixth group under the supervision of Florian Pittet, Matthieu Minguet and Achille Masson.
EXHIBITIONS
A festival for experimental media art and digital cultures, localhost returns for its second edition with three days of talks, workshops, and performances dedicated to experimental practices in digital art and design.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Tibor Udvari
Many platforms degrade over time, shifting from useful tools into manipulative systems. In this workshop, we explore enshittification as a creative method by modifying existing websites or developing small web experiments that exaggerate friction, automation, overload, and disorientation in order to reveal the underlying logics.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Congratulations to the ECAL Communication Team, whose posters were selected in the 100 Beste Plakate 2025 competition.
LECTURES
The ECAL Media & Interaction Design department is pleased to welcome Vera van de Seyp for a talk about her practice as a computational designer, artist, and educator.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Maxime Guyon
This semester, students will explore how reflective surfaces transform our relationship to image and object. They become thresholds: what the object shows sometimes matters less than what its reflection reveals. Like a photosensitive material, they capture and replay the world, even embodying a form of technological and consumerist sterilization. Mirror-objects disrupt perception: as simulacra, they distort, double, multiply, or elude like a trompe-l’œil. They question what lies beyond the frame, showing what the object “sees” rather than what it is, and can become a space for self-reflection a mirror of their creator sometimes even fostering a narcissistic dimension.
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
Congratulations to the ECAL members featured in the Swiss Art Awards 2026 exhibition, from June 15 to 21.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Abracadabra! Starting with projects centered on a common theme, students develop their own in-depth work exploring the concept of “magic” in photography. They create a project that explores the relationship between reality and the imagination, using photography as a tool for revealing, transforming, and interpreting reality.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Calypso Mahieu
Le temps des Fleurs This course, which is both practical and technical, requires students to develop a true photographer’s eye. Its goal is to introduce students to, or help them refine their skills in various photographic genres, such as still life, portraiture, and architecture, as well as documentary and staged photography. These disciplines demand particular attention and great precision in the selection of models, locations, and objects. Mastery of composition, framing, and the management of light, whether natural or artificial, is essential for a successful shot. Throughout the course, students are guided to refine their observational skills and their ability to create images that are both precise and expressive.
with Jamy Herrmann, Achille Masson, Julien Gurtner, Vincent Jacquier
From March 16 to 20, ECAL is taking part in Digital Cleanup Week, a worldwide event dedicated to raising awareness and taking action for a more responsible digital world. A week to repair, recycle, clean and think!
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Harry Bloch
Websites developed over the course of a semester based on books chosen by students, which they adapted into web experiences as part of Harry Bloch's Screen Design course, second year of the Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Rachel de Joode, Clément Lambelet
For this workshop, ECAL invited Rachel de Joode, Berlin-based artist whose practice explores the relationship between photography, sculpture, and digital images. During the week, students experimented with transforming photographic images into three-dimensional forms. Starting from simple concepts, they produced or gathered image material intended for printing and treated images as surfaces to cut, fold, layer, and assemble into sculptural objects. Through rapid tests and material experimentation, the workshop encouraged students to move repeatedly between image, surface, object, and documentation. By working with printing, scale, and spatial placement, they explored how photographic images can gain physical presence and occupy space beyond the screen.
EXHIBITIONS
ECAL presents a selection of projects developed in collaboration with Cristallina Design, focusing on a rare material: the only marble quarried in Switzerland.
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
Congratulations to Simone C. Niquille, ECAL resident at La Becque in 2020, for winning the Swiss Design Grand Prize 2026.
ANNOUNCEMENT
The computational designer, artist, and educator from the Netherlands, Vera van de Seyp, is an ECAL resident at La Becque during the spring semester of 2026.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Curated by ECAL, this project brings together over 300 typefaces created by ECAL students from around the world, developed within the Master Type Design and Bachelor Graphic Design programmes.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Milo Keller, photographer, teacher and researcher, a leading figure in contemporary photography in Switzerland and a recognised player on the international art scene, has passed away. His death deeply affects ECAL, where he played an essential role for nearly two decades, as well as all those with whom he shared his vision, his thoughts and his commitment.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Artist Louisa Gagliardi presents the 2025 greetings for ECAL with Aphrodisiacs (for 2026), a work that blends digital imagery and tactile materials.
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
The Jan Michalski Foundation and ECAL highlight the most outstanding Bachelor final-year thesis projects.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Bringing together craft, experimentation, and contemporary design, ECAL designers and alumni contribute to NOUVEL’s Glass Reflections showcased at Design Miami 2025.
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
Congratulations to BIG-GAME – Augustin Scott de Martinville, Elric Petit and Grégoire Jeanmonod – who have been awarded the 2025 Grand Prix by the Fondation vaudoise pour la culture.
Learn more about projects and activities
3'157
826
213