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.
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.
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.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
by Leandra Adler, Cansu Celen, Layana Comte, Anaïs Dermont, Camille Genoud, Eve Gremaud, Eloïse Guillod, Mathis Harmant, Marie Hintzy, Matteo Lucca, Maxime Manera, Gaëtan Mauclair, Mathys Mauron, Emma Morisseau, Sara Pedersoli, Lucie Pittet, Hélène Prongué, Leonardo Mariucci, Alice Refachinho, Justine Renevey, Gaspard Schlatter, Laura Simons, Vu Toni Thien Duc, Maïa Yassin, Jonas Zesiger
In November 2025, 27 ECAL students took part in Work and Turn, a workshop led by Geoff Han exploring the theme of labor and the often overlooked work that sustains the school. Located in a former IRIL knitwear factory in the industrial area of Renens, ECAL occupies a vast building whose daily functioning depends on many visible and invisible forms of labor. Over five days, students worked in small teams to produce a collective 96-page pocket-sized publication. Each pair created an 8-page photographic visual essay focusing on a specific aspect of labor at ECAL. Rather than relying on traditional portraits, the projects explored more poetic and indirect ways of documenting traces of work through spaces, gestures, materials, and infrastructures. The entire publication was manually printed on an offset press by the students themselves, in either black or red and black. The printing process was a central part of the workshop: participants prepared the plates, set up the press, and ran the prints. This hands-on production process echoed the theme of labor explored throughout the publication.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Mario Von Rickenbach
This project brings together a series of experiments created by students exploring the intersection between physical reality and immaterial imaginary worlds. Using a mixed reality headset, they transform their environment into experimental spaces where real elements become supports for digital creations.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet
By combining code, electronics, and physical prototyping, first-year students design interactive objects that react, respond, and invite interaction, gathered under the title Talk To Me. Using dialogue as playground and inspired by conversational interfaces, the projects transform physical objects into new forms of interaction.
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGN
with Antonin Waterkeyn
From connected watches to large-scale billboards, digital interfaces now operate across all scales. Designing a visual identity in this context requires thinking in terms of systems that can adapt to multiple formats, uses, and rhythms. This workshop explores the creation of modular, animated identities for a fictional music label, drawing on motion design and procedural logic. Using Cavalry, students develop dynamic visual systems that transform according to precise rules, while maintaining graphic coherence and a strong relationship to the sound universe.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Angelo Benedetto
Beyond the screen - is a series of interactive machines developed by students in their first year of Bachelor Media & Interaction Design. These systems are inspired by the relationship between instructions and execution within a computer system. These machines create text through a modular typographic system.
FILM STUDIES
Workshop led by Michael William Farino, Jonathan Ricardo Argudo and Herbert Mayer and given to students in the Bachelor's degree programmes in Cinema and Industrial Design.
FILM STUDIES
by Noé Bregnard, Eva Rust, Victor Durand Matinella, Lou Haenggi, Samuel Harari, Hana Magimel, Nolan Grando, Mileny Viera de Andrade, Zélia Zanone
Second-year Bachelor's students attended a workshop with Belgian cinematographer Benoît Dervaux, known for his work on the Dardenne brothers' films. He was responsible for the cinematography on the Swiss films Laissez-moi by Maxime Rappaz (2023) and À bras-le-corps by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (2025).
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simone Niquille, Milo Keller, Clément Lambelet
For this workshop, ECAL invited Simone C Niquille, Swiss designer and researcher based in Amsterdam whose practice investigates how digital images, computer vision, and 3D technologies shape the way bodies and objects are represented in contemporary visual culture. Through her research platform Technoflesh, Niquille examines the infrastructures behind digital imagery (from stock images and 3D assets to machine vision systems) and the cultural assumptions embedded in them. Her work reveals how datasets, rendering software, and visual standards influence how bodies, materials, and environments are modeled and understood.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Mario Von Rickenbach
The students worked on an interactive countdown in a web environment. Each day, they were tasked with creating a new sketch, culminating in their own collection, which could also be combined with projects from the entire class.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Area Of Work
The Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) Workshop is an introduction to 3D creation software that allows you to create images with photographic qualities that are not photographs. This workshop centers on the theme of “Minimal,” inviting students to explore the creative and technical foundations of contemporary CGI image-making. It emphasizes materiality and the expressive impact of reduction. Every form, light, and texture has a specific role, negative space guides the emotional tone, and fine details unify the composition.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Bruno Ceschel, Nicolas Polli, Milo Keller, Clément Lambelet
During Paris Photo 2025, ECAL will present a selection of its books at OFFPRINT Paris. ECAL Master Photography is pleased to present a selection of books created by its second-year students. This event offers an opportunity to engage live with the young photographers, exploring the origins of their projects and the stories behind each of these publications.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Maisie Cousins
The aim of this workshop, led by photographer Maisie Cousins, is to use photography as a tool to broaden our powers of observation. During the week, students explored macro photography to create miniature and abstract worlds using everyday objects and accessories. This invites us to reflect: what else are we overlooking in our immediate environment?
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Sébastien Matos
A collection of interface buttons designed and animated by first-year students of the Bachelor’s program in Media & Interaction Design. Each element includes a standard animation, an exaggerated animation, and an unexpected version. https://toggle.ecal-mid.ch/2025
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Douglas Mandry
This workshop brought together ECAL graduate artist Douglas Mandry, the Polaroid Foundation, and around thirty Bachelor Photography students. They had the exceptional opportunity to work with a camera that produces Polaroid films in a 40 × 60 cm format and weighs nearly 200 kg. This experience was made possible thanks to its operators, John Reuter and Harriet Browse, who introduced the students to the use of this unique device and the Polaroid Foundation team. Douglas Mandry provided the project’s artistic direction and supported the students in their experiments carried out directly with and on the films. The final result was presented as a collective exhibition on ECAL’s premises, revealing a particularly rich diversity of approaches and visions.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Dimitri Bruni (NORM), Manuel Krebs (NORM)
How can graphic design be promoted by demonstrating its fundamentals? Led by the studio NORM for first-year students, this workshop aims to highlight ECAL’s Graphic Design programme through the didactic lens of elementary instruction. Each day, students were assigned a global theme (A – Words, B – Images, C – Graphics, D – Drawings), along with a series of simple questions. By combining this input, they produced three collaborative double-sided posters, intended to be offset-printed for ECAL’s Open Days. Each poster features its own duotone combination and folds into a booklet. This project emphasizes how the combinatory potential of simple elements can become a powerful tool in graphic design, while underlining the importance of process in creation.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Irene Pereyra
Where does our attention go? In this workshop, first-year students become their own data researchers for 24 hours, observing when and why their phone draws focus. They track triggers, emotions, recovery time, control, context, apps used, duration, body language, energy, and inner dialogue. These everyday traces are then transformed into a one-page scrollytelling experience, a visual story of how attention moves through a day.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Talia Cotton
First-year students designed a series of audioreactive posters for a music festival. They utilized dynamic tools and live data input to explore sound-responsive visuals within social media's digital format, creating a cohesive and recognizable festival identity.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Mario Von Rickenbach
Using a mixed reality headset, the students used their surroundings as playground. Through creative gestures, each experiment proposes a way of interacting with the environment.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
with Alice Franchetti
During this workshop, each student was tasked with designing a poster inspired by the architectural legacy of Richard Neutra. Drawing from his modernist philosophy and formal principles — clean lines, transparency, strict geometry, and integration with the landscape — each student visually reinterpreted Neutra’s ideas within a 2D graphic format.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Harriet Davey
Who are you in the digital realm? Your avatar, your videogame skin, your alter ego. Second-year students, led by Harriet Davey, crafted digital alter egos from scratch. They used Daz, Blender, and VR to explore an alternate personality or expression through the digital self.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Jaya Pelupessy
This exhibition presents the outcome of a five-day workshop led by artist Jaya Pelupessy, where students explored the unstable terrain between creation and reproduction. Through hands-on experiments with various duplication methods and strategies of appropriation, the workshop invited a reconsideration of the image—not as a final product, but as a process, a question, a site of continuous transformation. Embracing moments of uncertainty, trial and error, and unexpected discovery, participants focused on what Pelupessy calls The Indecisive Moment: the in-between phase where outcomes are unclear and intention is disrupted by chance. These works reflect a shift from the pursuit of fixed meaning toward an image in flux—unfinished, open, and relational.
FINE ARTS
Une semaine focalisée sur la spéculations et les nouvelles histoires déclenchées principalement par la matière avec l'artiste Una Szeemann. Les étudiant.exs ont orienté leurs réflexions sur le pouvoir des objets, du point de vue de l'art, du fétichisme, de l'object oriented ontology, de la psychanalyse et de la magie…
FINE ARTS
HUM HUM MAGAZINE est une publication-exposition nomade conçue par le Bachelor Arts Visuels de l’ECAL dont le premier numéro investit la galerie parisienne Treize. Organisée autour d'une série d'invitations, chaque édition est pensée par les étudiant·e·s du Bachelor Arts Visuels comme une exposition facilement diffusable et activable à l’infini. À l’occasion du lancement de son premier numéro, HUM HUM MAGAZINE investit Treize à Paris pour y déployer son sommaire à l’échelle du lieu. Un projet initié par Philippe Decrauzat, Gallien Déjean et Stéphane Kropf.
FINE ARTS
with Stéphanie Moisdon, Shirin Yousefi
In practice, Trajal Harrell will introduce participants to runway categories and dance techniques, guiding them through warm-up exercises and curated music playlists that shape his artistic approach. Meanwhile, Cecilia Bengolea will explore the concepts of self-presentation and performativity, inviting participants to engage in a dynamic investigation of identity, whether real or constructed. Through movement and expression, she aims to question the fluidity of identity and the ways in which it can be shaped or reimagined in a performative context.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Vincent Veillon, Paul Walther, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner
During an intensive week, first-year students from the Visual Communication department at ECAL had the opportunity to create and produce the first edition of ECAL Night Live. The goal was to design a show inspired by satirical television formats. Divided into multidisciplinary teams—including students from the Bachelor programs in Graphic Design, Media & Interaction Design, and Photography—they collaborated to create all the content, set design, and visual identity of the show, delivering a fully homemade project in record time. The main theme revolved around self-mockery, targeting the visual communication professions, students, and the institution itself, with a subtle touch of current events. This project was supervised by Vincent Veillon and Paul Walther, directors of the RTS show 52 Minutes, as well as Florian Pittet, a digital scenography expert who guided the creation of the show's set design.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Thomas Rousset
The aim of this workshop is to explore the boundary between docu-fiction and magic realism in photography, using the architecture and spaces of the ECAL as a narrative framework. Both approaches are rooted in reality, but differ in the way they inject fiction.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Alain Bellet
Talk To Me is a series of interactive objects designed by first-year students in the Bachelor Media & Interaction Design program. These creations use dialogue as a playground, drawing inspiration from conversational interfaces to create new forms of interaction.
FINE ARTS
Inspiré·e·s par un atelier intense et stimulant avec l'artiste américain Kenneth Goldsmith, les étudiant·e·s du Bachelor Arts Visuels ont valorisé des signes subtils du quotidien, transformant des pensées errantes en un tapis : non pas comme un dessin, mais comme un détour ; non pas comme une déclaration, mais comme une collection d'absurdités oubliées. Poète distingué par le MoMA, Kenneth Goldsmith s’inspire de son manifeste Uncreative Writing pour créer notamment livres, textes critiques, émissions et installations à partir de collages de matériaux trouvés.
FINE ARTS
by Zuzana Baková, Caroline Bischoff, Emma Blanc-Germser, Mykolya Churmantaiev, Anna Cocimarov, Oana Cuozzo, Mayalène de Roquemaurel, Eulalie Félix, Louis Fontaine, Duna György, Marsaili Venus Haas, Olivia Handschin, Amina Loumachi, Clara Luna, Céleste Meylan, Diego Mühlematter, Paul Reachi, Baptiste Schaerer, Charlie Schär, Jamie Soria, Nayla Younes
Pour célébrer les cents ans de la mort de Félix Vallotton, le Musée Jenisch Vevey invite le Bachelor Arts Visuels de l'ECAL à rendre hommage à cet artiste suisse emblématique dans une exposition collective. S'inspirant de ses gravures qui reflètent l'ambiance parisienne de la fin du XIXe siècle, des colonnes Morris sont recréées dans le musée comme supports modulaires. Elles accueillent affiches, tracts et posters, échos de la culture contemporaine et des questionnements des étudiant·e·s d’aujourd’hui.
FOUNDATION YEAR
Film Option Christophe M. Saber This workshop aims to give young filmmakers the tools they need to obtain more precise and nuanced performances from their actors. Directing actors, the very heart of a film's success, will be explored from a number of angles: how to make relevant casting choices, work on the rhythm and dynamics of a scene, and communicate effectively with actors to translate an artistic vision into a convincing performance. Media & Interaction design option Floating Point Studio Introduction to 3D through a week-long workshop on the theme of CGI still lifes, designed to familiarise students with this medium. Photography Option Sabina Bösch Free photographic work on the body or bodies from different angles: The body as a physical entity and as a functional system, The body in digital space, Touch as interaction and its dimensions, The body as material and medium, The space of the body and its symbolic significance, Societal significance and the construction of the body. Graphic Design Option Eilean Friis-Lund Based on an unchanging timetable, this workshop provides an introduction to risography and explores a number of technical principles (screen, resolution, file preparation). Visual Arts Option Chloé Delarue In a world saturated with images and simulations, where the real and the virtual are intertwined, Chloé Delarue's aim is to create a world where the real and the virtual are intertwined.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Kushagra Gupta
Third-year students in Media & Interaction Design created posters depicting insects whose appearance is inspired by their evolutionary adaptation to their environment. This week-long workshop was led by artist Kushagra Gupta.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Louie Banks
Returning to the basics and origins of photography will allow students to focus their energy and ideas meaningfully on their concept and subject. Louie Banks provided them with three keywords to consider as a way to create photographs with more impact than what is typically expected from today’s editorials and campaigns. The students were free to draw inspiration from one of the following keywords or to try incorporating a bit of each into their project: "Movement," "Costume," "Emotion."
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Chaumont–Zaerpour
Each group was tasked with creating a series of fashion images by appropriating or subverting visual codes from existing images. Everyone approached this exercise with creativity, exploring a variety of references, whether iconic fashion shots, works of art, or visuals from popular culture. Once all the series were completed, they were compiled into a printed and bound magazine. The assembly of the images gave rise to a unique object, where each project found its place within a coherent and visually striking whole. This magazine thus became the tangible trace of this collective exploration of fashion imagery and its multiple reinterpretations.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Mario Von Rickenbach
The students worked on an interactive countdown in a web environment. Each day, they were tasked with creating a new sketch, culminating in their own collection, which could also be combined with projects from the entire class.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Gaël Hugo
During this workshop, second year media & Interaction design students crafted interactive 'wonder-rooms' inspired by curiosity cabinets, blending 3D environments with real-time interactions. A collection of bizarre, imaginative little worlds to be explored.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Simon Lehner, Milo Keller, Clément Lambelet
For this workshop, ECAL invited Simon Lehner, a Vienna-based visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans photography, 3D rendering, AI-generated imagery, lens-based paintings, and sculptures. Social media algorithms manipulate memory and emotions by trapping users in echo chambers of repetitive imagery and ideas. These visual cycles exploit memory processes, triggering emotional responses—such as fear, envy, or desire—that reinforce behavioral patterns. Corporations leverage photographic images to target insecurities, activating primal instincts to drive consumption and engagement. Before the workshop, students were invited to reflect on their personal echo chambers—encountered on their social media feeds. They were asked to think about the following: • What trends or niches were suggested to you? • Which emotions played a role in these trends? • What emotional responses did they trigger in you? By analyzing these patterns, students gained insight into how photographic images and algorithms influence memory, emotions, and behavior. This critical awareness serveed as a foundation for exploring the broader societal implications of visual media.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Nicole Ruggiero
Guided by New-York based 3D arist Nicole Ruggiero, the first year students brought their most impactful digital memories to life. Using Cinema4D, ZBrush, and Substance Painter, they crafted animations exploring how technology has shaped our experiences through nostalgic tributes.
PRODUCT DESIGN
with Thélonious Goupil
During this one-week workshop led by Thélonious Goupil, edits were made to a ‘drop false ceiling’ in Bar Gala Lausanne. By hacking the system, playing with existing elements such as lighting or ventilators, the outdate ceiling was given new life without the need for full renovation.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
with Marc Morro
The WOOD PLAY workshop, led by Spanish designer Marc Morro, invited students to explore wood as an open construction system accessible to all audiences. The aim was to foster creativity and experimentation through the design of playful, reconfigurable modules, leveraging the material’s possibilities and constraints while avoiding an overly childlike aesthetic.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
with Clara Von Zweigbergk
Within the PAPER PLAY! workshop, led by Clara von Zweigbergk, students explored the expressive potential of paper and cardboard to reimagine lampshades for ceiling, wall, floor, bedside, table, or handheld lighting. The focus was on experimentation and play — testing the possibilities and limitations of paper, light, color, and form to develop new lighting expressions.
FINE ARTS
Week dedicated to experimentation with printing techniques
FINE ARTS
PRODUCT DESIGN
with Studio Isabel + Helen
This workshop was led by Isabel + Helen Studio, a duo of London artists known for their captivating kinetic sculptures and installations. They blend art with movement to create playful and thought-provoking works. During the week, they guided students through the fundamentals of creating dynamic, moving sculptures. Using umbrella mechanisms, students created fireworks.
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
with Angelo Benedetto
Beyond the screen - is a series of interactive machines developed by students in their first year of Bachelor Media & Interaction Design. These systems are inspired by the relationship between instructions and execution within a computer system. These machines create text through a modular typographic system.
FINE ARTS
with Stéphanie Moisdon, Shirin Yousefi
The POOL workshop focuses on interdisciplinary practices and involves a wide variety of mediums. Its core is rooted in the ideas of sculpture and painting, as seen in the work of Mathis Altmann and Vittorio Brodmann. The two artists explore techniques for embedding narrative structures, highlighting representational elements while investigating how abstraction can lead to distortion, the grotesque, and the fantastical.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Nikolas Venturakis
Athens, the cradle of Western civilization and the vibrant capital of Greece, offers a unique blend of ancient history and modernity.Taking advantage of the Summer University program, second-year Bachelor of Photography students had the opportunity to explore this mythical city and collaborate with photographer Nikolas Venturakis. Amidst ancient ruins, lively neighborhoods, and Mediterranean landscapes, the students were able to develop a rich photographic language. This immersion in the heart of the city, where the ancient meets the contemporary, allowed them to deepen their artistic vision while enjoying the local cultural vibrancy. The cobbled streets, bustling markets, and golden hues of the Athenian sunset served as the backdrop for a unique photographic project, capturing the soul and energy of this timeless metropolis.