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WORKSHOP - CGI WITH AREA OF WORK
with Area Of Work
This workshop is an introduction to 3D creation software that allows you to create images with photographic qualities that are not photographs.
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with Area Of Work
This workshop is an introduction to 3D creation software that allows you to create images with photographic qualities that are not photographs.
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by Gina Bolle, Mattia Dagani Rio, Benjamin Freedman, Aniket Godbole, Moritz Jekat, Amandine Kuhlmann, Gabriela Marciniak, Fumi Omori, Carla Rossi, Luísa Tormenta, Mykolas Valantinas, Yuji Wang, Yumo Wu
The second-year students worked on projects that they themselves had initiated, under the direction of Elisa Medde.
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with Bruno Ceschel
The photobook module introduces students to the history of photobooks and artists’ books and leads them to consider different strategies and approaches to contemporary book-making. In the first term students individually conceptualised a publication that have been designed, printed and distributed.
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with Maxime Guyon
Following a collaboration with the Swiss avant-garde brand On, ECAL is proud to present the interdisciplinary work carried out jointly by the 2nd year students of the Product Design, Photography and Type Design Masters.
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with Milo Keller
Following the success of the exhibition resulting from the Automated Photography research project at Paris Photo in 2021 and then at the Galerie l'elac in 2022, the ECAL is exporting this project to Plateform-L in Seoul from 17 September to 8 October 2022, through an immersive audiovisual exhibition.
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with Robin Bervini, Milo Keller
During this five days workshop mentored by Milo Keller and Robin Bervini, the students worked in groups to create sublime environments inspired from reference photographs. The goal was to bring the viewer to a strange location to be observed from a static landmark. The students learned the basics of environment creation with the Unreal Engine 4 and they faced the technical complications in order to have their projects running on the standalone headset Meta Quest 2.
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with Bruno Ceschel
The photobook module introduces students to the history of photobooks and artists’ books and leads them to consider different strategies and approaches to contemporary book-making. In the first term students individually conceptualised a publication that have been designed, printed and distributed.
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with Mazaccio & Drowilal, MAP
During this one week workshop, the students were challenged every morning with a sculptural challenge and in the afternoon they continued developing their semester projects with the guidance of artist duo Mazaccio & Drowilal.
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with Marco De Mutiis
In this one week intensive workshop, digital curator Marco de Mutiis tasked the students with creating a photographic project through a process of gameification, or with otherwise automated processes.
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with Nicolas Polli
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with Milo Keller, MAP
In Summer 2019, thirteen students from the ECAL Master’s in Photography programme supervised by Milo Keller travelled to Japan to work on thirteen individual projects in collaboration with Japanese photographer Taisuke Koyama within the framework of the Tokyo Photographic Research project. The students’ artworks range from still and moving images to computer-generated photographic visuals and explore multiple facets of the Japanese megalopolis which is, once again, undergoing major transformation in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Some projects focus on aspects specific to the city, from the destruction of small residential houses to the construction of the gigantic Olympic Village and the conquest of new territories by the sea. Other works investigate distinctive Japanese culture such as home-cooked food, the appetite for designing humanoid robots, the blending of child and adult worlds in manga, pachinko gambling, the reinvention of ikebana and young girls as ‘rising stars.’ Finally, the works seek to visually represent more abstract concepts such as loneliness, emptiness and intimacy in a city that, due to its density, size and power, offers a challenging, fascinating and extremely stimulating complexity to the eyes of the thirteen photographers. Higurashi has been presented at Espace Commines in Paris in November 2021, inside the exhibition Automated Photography during Paris Photo. Head of Photography Milo Keller Invited Teacher Taisuke Koyama Assistants Florian Amoser Calum Douglas Graphic Design Thomas Le Provost Typefaces Craft by ECAL/Benoit Brun & Raphaël De la Morinerie ITC Garamond Std Head of Culture and Communications Embassy of Switzerland in Japan Jonas Pulver DGES/Summer University Maxline Stettler Photography Students Emidio Battipaglia Robin Bervini Jasmine Deporta Anja Karolina Furrer Alessia Gunawan Christian Harker Jung-Ting Hu Johanna Hullár Philipp Klak Doruk Kumkumoglu Igor Pjörrt Jelly Luise Gedvile Tamosiunaite Publisher ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne higurashi.zone Higurashi is available at ecal-shop.ch .
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with Milo Keller
On the occasion of the Biennale dell’immagine Chiasso, the 2nd year students of the Master Photography programme presented, from 17 to 19 September 2021, “Exquisite Corpse” - a series of Virtual Reality (VR) projects at the Palestra CPC. Art Direction: Milo Keller Assistants: Florian Amoser Robin Bervini Students: Emma Bedos Alexey Chernikov Mahalia “Taje” Giotto Clemens Fischer Nikolai Frerichs Hikaru Hori Augustin Lignier Sophie Schreurs Alisa Strub Yang Su
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with Anniina Koivu
AUTHOR: Sara Bastai TITLE: How to build a collective memory in the digital realm? SUBTITLE: Depicting humankind through methods of preservation It seems, sometimes, like today’s main focus of interest lies in how future societies will perceive us. The traces we might leave behind can significantly impact the history and interpretation of our current present. Can we rely on digital preservation? What should we document for the future? How can we represent and preserve society in the 21st century without being reduced to mere computational information processing? This master thesis is a speculative reflection on our current and past methods of preservation of social history. ------ AUTHOR: Maeva Bosko TITLE: Dream worlds SUBTITLE: What happens when we’re asleep? Since my early childhood, I have dreamt a lot. Sweet, pleasant or strange dreams, nightmares, sometimes even lucid dreams. Night is when I escape to these virtual worlds. But what are these worlds? Why are they so different from my ordinary waking world? I’ve even gotten to the point, on various occasions, when I preferred these dream states to my everyday reality. This is a research project into the world of dreams as an attempt to decode the unconsciousness in relation to the virtual universe and reality we experience at night. ------ AUTHOR: Natalie Maximova TITLE: Walking the landscape, in video games With a focus on landscape representation in video games called “walking simulators”, this thesis attempts to uncover questions related to a complex and ambiguous notion of landscape, from its original conception to today. During my research, I applied the interpretive approach of “reading” and decoding landscapes that have been used by geographers, as well as sociologists, artists and historians. Video game landscapes could be thought of as a system consisting of natural, man-made and cultural forces which can be identified and studied. The landscape in this case plays as a medium that combines, holds and channels these forces. If video game environments exist as part of our culture, what kind of connections do these virtual spaces form? This thesis tries to uncover processes behind the construction of the “natural” in video game environments. ------ AUTHOR: Joanna Wierzbicka TITLE: Why should our bodies end at the skin? SUBTITLE: Rethinking bodily matter beyond a humanist imagination This thesis follows the turn to matter within the fields of body studies, posthuman feminist theory, and new materialism in order to rethink the definition of what a body is and, more importantly, what a body can do. The main research objective is to find out how through questioning the definition of a body and the use of metaphorical thinking in this process, we can establish a more ethical living ground among other bodies. ------ AUTHOR: Olivia Wünsche TITLE: Myths shape reality After having lived a deeply transformative psychedelic experience, all previously held beliefs and perceptions which conditioned my relationship to the surrounding reality, suddenly broke free from the prison of mental programming and limited awareness. Different aspects of this internal change manifested through an almost visceral connection to the Earth. I started to direct my attention towards subjects revolving around environmental and humanitarian crisis, simultaneously wanting to find the cause that has led to our current state of separateness, in which we distance ourselves from others and from nature. I understood quite rapidly that socio-political problem-solving is undoubtedly urgent and indispensable, however it remains shallow and incomplete by treating symptoms without curing the cause. ------ AUTHOR: Zhang Manqin TITLE: A diamond-shaped egg This master thesis is based on different tools that can be used to explore the power of memory. Closely related to the author’s “I’m not a loner” photo installation, this research project combines fictional writing with the documentary approach of a diary.
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with Rachel de Joode
First-year students have been tutored artist Rachel de Joode into using a more plastic approach in the way they conceive and display physical images.
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with Bruno Ceschel, MAP
First-year course with Bruno Ceschel
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with Milo Keller, Robin Bervini
Virtual Reality introduction workshop tutored by Milo Keller with the technical assistance of Florian Amoser and Robin Bervini. During this 5 days introduction, students learned to use Unreal Engine 4 to prototype and test their scenes in real-time. Working in pairs, each of them started to develop a level of a global VR experience that will be presented at the Biennale dell'immagine 2021 in Chiasso.
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with Lauren Huret, MAP
In this workshop, first and second year students had group discussions around what makes an image iconic and developed group and individual projects. The workshop was tutored by Lauren Huret
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with Simone Niquille
The assignment draws inspiration from traditional portraiture but intentionally diverges, enabling a critical exploration of the cultural and digital constructs of 'self' and 'family' through the lens of Neural Filters, emphasizing daily output over quality, with editing deferred until later in the presentation preparation stage.
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with Marco De Mutiis
2nd year Automated Photography course tutored by Marco De Mutiis.
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with Milo Keller
First-year students worked on self-initiated projects tutored by Milo Keller. Students had the option to propose projects that would explore technologies and themes related to the current master's research project Automated Photography.
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with MAP, Charles Negre
The first year students have been tasked with creating a story for Klima magazine. The course was tutored by Charles Negre.
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with MAP, Alix Marie
In this course tutored by guest lecturer Alix Marie, the second year students conceptualized and executed strategies to coherently materialize their image in the space.
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with Nicolas Polli
The workshop is a complement to the Photobook semester project during which the first year students, tutored by graphic designer Nicolas Polli, learned to think of the photobook as an object. Each student developed their sequence and made creative choices that led to the production of a dummy.
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with Area Of Work
A one week transversal CGI workshop tutored by Area of Work to the first year Master Photography students in November 2020. Tutors: Area of Work Students: Emma Bedos, Alexey Chernikov, Mattia Dagani Rio, Thomas Dreux (HEAD Geneva), Clemens Fischer, Nikolai Frerichs, Mahalia Giotto, Hikaru Hori, Joanne Joho (HEAD Geneva), Augustin Lignier, Yshao Lin, Sophie Schreurs, Alisa Strub and Renée Verhoeven. Assistants: Florian Amoser, Robin Bervini, Thomas Le Provost. Digital architecture: Florian Amoser Virtual walkthrough: Robin Bervini Soundtrack: Hatari - MSH03X
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with MAP, Charles Negre
During this practical workshop tutored by Charles Negres, the students have been introduced to studio lighting for still life photography and realized images on topics connected to climate.
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with MAP, Charles Negre
For the applied photography course, first year students were challenged with a commission for citizenM hotels. The students created several images following the client's guidelines. A selection of pictures was then printed as postcards and on plexiglas support to decorate the hotel's rooms. Students: Sara Bastai, Maeva Bosko, Sally Jo, Natalie Maximova, Joanna Wierzbicka, Olivia Wünsche, Manqin Zhang.
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with MAP, Charles Negre
The students created still life compositions developing a consistent body of images. Tutored by Charles Negres.
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with Milo Keller, MAP
Utopia is invisible; only utopians can see it. A class of 12 students from the Photography Master at the ECAL/University of Art and Design of Lausanne, in residence at Casa Corti in Pellio, Val d’Intelvi (Italy), elaborated the concepts of utopia and community. Identifying the malaise of a generation trapped in social networks, confused between reality and the virtual sphere, and in need of establishing new values, the group developed a range of different strategies: morning meditation sessions, walks to Monte Generoso, shared meals and discussions to produce photographs and videos which, while gradually shifting away from reality, reach imaginary dimensions that oscillate between utopia and dystopia, figuration and abstraction. --- Students Emidio Battipaglia Robin Bervini Jasmine Deporta Anja Karolina Furrer Alessia Gunawan Christian Harker Johanna Hullár Philipp Klak Doruk Kumkumoglu Jelly Luise Igor Pjörrt Gedvile Tamosiunaite Curator Milo Keller Assistants Florian Amoser Calum Douglas Graphic Design Nicolas Polli biennaleimmagine.ch https://casacorti.org/
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with Milo Keller, MAP
In Summer 2019, thirteen students of ECAL Master in Photography supervised by Milo Keller, traveled to Japan to develop thirteen personal projects in collaboration with Taisuke Koyama and TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH. From still and moving images to computer-generated photographic visuals, students’ artworks explore a wide variety of aspects of the Japanese megalopolis which is, once again, undergoing major transformations in preparation for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Some projects focus on concrete aspects of the city, from the destruction of small residential houses to the construction of the gigantic Olympic village and the conquest of new territories by the sea. Other works investigate particularities of Japanese culture such as food in a family setting, the desire to generate humanoid robots, the confusion of child and adult worlds in manga, Pichinko Gambling , the reinvention of Ikebana and the rising stars among young girls. Finally, works seek to visualise more abstract concepts such as loneline
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Area Of Work
This workshop is an introduction to 3D creation software that allows you to create images with photographic qualities that are not photographs.
PHOTOGRAPHY
We are living in a feedback loop between digital technologies and our perception of the world, and what surrounds are multitudes of constructed realities. Light fields, 3d scanning, and photogrammetry are advancing the potential of computational realism, drawing upon scientific principles, theories and techniques prior to the advent of photography. It was Leonardo da Vinci who originally conceived of the Plenoptic Function, and Michael Faraday who theorised light to have a field. What has had to happen is for technology to catch up, and the result is the rapid metamorphosing of lens-based media, and an explosion of a new kind of realism.
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with MAP
Results of the evaluations of the first semester for the first and second year MA students. During this semester the students had the chance to work with Milo Keller, Alix Marie, Bruno Ceschel, Charles Negre, Lars Willumeit and Kim Knoppers among other teachers and lecturer for workshops and portfolio reviews.
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with MAP, Charles Negre
‘There are many known connections between food and medicine but there is one quirky link which has not yet been explored: the culinary art of medical training. Despite all the fancy technologies available to educate doctors today teachers still turn to the kitchen fridge or pantry to train students in the skills of their profession. Grapes are perfect for practicing fragile skin suturing. Neurosurgeons learn how to measure the pres-sure of a robotic drill on eggshells.‘ We collaborated with The Gourmand, London based magazine initiated by art director David Lane.
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with MAP, Taiyo Onorato
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with Golgotha, MAP
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is everywhere. More real than reality, the images created by 3D software are mainly used in the advertising and entertainment industries. The photorealism of these photographic visuals blurs the boundaries between the real and the virtual. Guided by Golgotha studio, students from the Photography Master’s at ECAL have explored potential advantages and drawbacks of these particular processes by investigating their illusionary powers. During Paris Photo, an immersive installation will guide visitors through a labyrinthine space, a physical translation of the complexity of our relationship to photographic media. https://vimeo.com/302879066
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What does a global city look like? Over the course of one week, thirteen students of the newly-launched Master in Photography program at ECAL/ University of Art and Design of Lausanne, Switzerland were invited by Lorenzo Vitturi to explore London. The city’s diversity makes it unique as a global capital of the arts, economics, scientific and technological research and developments. 37% of the city’s inhabitants were born outsidethe UK, the highest foreign-born population of any city in the world with over 300 languages spoken. London is the contemporary Babel. Each student was assigned a different area of London in orderto engage with, observe and discover the diversity and specificities of various different cultures, contexts and realities. The work presented here is the result of three intensive days of shooting, one night of editing, one day of printing, endingwith a performative presentation during Offprint at Tate Modern, where the images are combined and sequenced in order to reveal a new vision of London. During Offprint, our thirteen students transform into merchants,lowering their prices as the evening approaches to aid in a successful sale, advising their customers not to combine still-lifes with portraits, or not to place studio-lighting next to natural light etc.
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with Golgotha, MAP
In our actual socio-cultural context where boundaries between reality and vir-tuality are blending, where connexions between virtual networks, art and beauty are influencing our everyday behaviours, where photography and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) never been doing so perfectly together through the infinite possibilities they offer now, it is now time to experiment and make our creativity travel through them. How a virtual shape can become real, and virtual again, and real again? When does the process stops?
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This workshop focuses on different uses of ‘installation’ in its broadest sense and its relationship to photographic practice. The starting point for this installation will be to explore the virtual world of interior architectural design. Each student will be given a “room” to create where they will extract objects/surfaces/motifs from the virtual domestic space and give it a physical presence. The imagery that students draw from might be their own constructed virtual objects, or found online virtual domestic interiors.
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with Bruno Ceschel
The photobook module introduces students to the history of photobooks and artists’ books and leads them to consider different strategies and approaches to contemporary book-making. In the first term students individually conceptualised a publication that have been designed, printed and distributed in the second term. In Spring 2017 each students publisheded a book that have been launched at Photo London / Offprint London.
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with MAP, Letha Wilson, Ethan Greenbaum
Dye City New York is an inescapable place of the world's artistic and photographic scene, and is experiencing an unprecedented effervescence in the revival of conceptual art. After the strong dematerialization of photographic practice, many artists working in New York have taken advantage of the technological upheaval to break the codes and social norms of photographic devices and objects. Without a doubt, the dynamic spatial framework of New York gives artists and art establishments a frenzied impulse of research and experimentation on the photographic medium.The students were able to follow a week-long workshop with Letha Wilson and Ethan Greenbaum, two renowned American artists working on the concept of three dimensions of the photographic image, enabling students to develop their knowledge of printing techniques but also their relation to the realisation of a physical work with few means of production and very short schedule.The result of the workshop was presented in Ethan Greenbaum's workshop in Long Island on Friday, May 12th as a collective exhibition where all the students showed them their successful project.In addition, students were able to benefit from a wide selection of artists' meetings and visits to workshops, museums and galleries, their best references and dreams with a view to achieving free artistic work. The boundaries that the photographic medium observes.
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with MAP, Thomas Traum
In CG you have total control over all aspects of the image, making it the photographer's perfect studio. In CG, space is even bigger than the studio, its infinite. The students were invited to dream of images that wouldn't be otherwise possible to make during a one week workshop with Thomas Traum.The students utilised different techniques such photogrammetry, found 3D models and their own photography to build their own dream images. This was presented as a group show in the photographic studio at ECAL. Accompanying the exhibition was a video of the virtual exhibition in the very same space.
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with MAP, Charles Negre
During the first semester of 2016/2017 academic year, the students worked with Charles Negre on the relationship between conceptual projects and applied works and how to appeal to a client’s needs as opposed to developing a project without constraint. The students collaborated with HYT, a luxury watch brand which gave a frame to develop a laboratory of ideas. The correlation between past inventions and avant-garde technology is a key aspect of this project as well as how science can be turned as a visual emotion. The subject focus on still life, however, following the motivations of each student, other photographic forms became relevant. The context of the brand gives the students the oppportunity to develop conceptual and unexpected visions within the realm of the subject, however the end goal is an understanding and realization independent of the brand.
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with Joe Hamilton, MAP
Image Archives Description: In this workshop, students will dive into the depths of online image archives and explore the potential for using found imagery as a material. Aesthetic, material, and political concerns surrounding images archives will be discussed. Students will get hands-on experience searching for images online, building their own image archives and exploring possible outcomes towards a final presentation. The workshop will conclude with an exhibition of final artworks. Objectives: Explore and discuss the world of image archives available online. Experiment with—and think critically about—methods of collecting, issues of ownership, techniques of manipulation, material and presentation. Create and exhibit an artwork that makes use of these learnings.
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To celebrate the launch of a new master’s degree in photography at ECAL in 2016, the first year students worked together with Taiyo Onorato and Milo Keller (Head of Photography at ECAL) in Berlin for one week to produce a book about the city’s architecture in turmoil. Using the wide streets of Berlin as a blank canvas, the students were encouraged to interpret rather than document the spaces of the vast metropolis and build their own story of its distinctive character. The picturesdepict the shift that Berlin has undergone in the past, from the perspective of unexpected encounters, vacant spaces, countless construction sites and shared revelations. The book was printed and bound at Helmut Newton Foundation during the C/O Berlin Book Days, 29.9 – 2.10.2016. Participants: Johannes Bauer, Vilhelm Björndahl, Senta Simond, Nicolas Toulotte, Laura Zoccarato, Marc Asekhame, Calum Douglas, Bastien Gomez, Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Yuliya Khan, Stéphane Mocan, Eunwook Nam, Shin Young Park, Robert Swierczynski, Maria Tasula, Justinas Vilutis, Maria Grazia Grasso The book has been produced in collaboration with C/O Berlin for the Book Days 2016.