Binyu Lin — People — Network — School — ECAL

Binyu
Lin

Projects

Binyu Lin – Still Cruising

PHOTOGRAPHY

Binyu Lin – Still Cruising

by Binyu Lin

Still Cruising restages the scenes that have shaped the artist's desire. These desires are built through the accumulation of a particular queer male imagery: a body that is exposed, trained, and performed. Repeatedly consumed, these images gradually slip into a state of exhaustion. Using staged photography, this project attempts to re-enter this imagery. Through the lens, between aiming and focusing, the desired body is propped up, suspended, or revealed in states of fatigue. As the gaze drifts, attention gradually shifts from the object of desire back toward the self. Through this repeated process of reconstruction and return, Still Cruising seeks to negotiate a space between obsession and the self, a space in which to dwell.

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2025 - MAP2

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2025 - MAP2

with Elisa Medde

This module assists the students to develop into a finalized work a project that further expands their interests and research. The module gives the opportunity to take some of the ideas, skills and themes explores in the first semester and make into a brand new work that can take any possible form: a book, an installation, an online project, a performance.

Soft Photography - Fall 2025 - MAP2

PHOTOGRAPHY

Soft Photography - Fall 2025 - MAP2

with Marco De Mutiis

The course, tutored by Marco De Mutiis, explored how emotions are being exploited and transformed by social media practices and aesthetics (e.g. influencer photography and CGI, operational beauty and weaponized cuteness), as well as through recent image technologies (e.g. generative AI platforms and text-to-image services).

Materialized Photography - Fall 2025 - MAP2

PHOTOGRAPHY

Materialized Photography - Fall 2025 - MAP2

with Mazaccio & Drowilal

The purpose of this class is to examine the relationships between photography — in a context shaped by the digital — and its various modes of display. Students will have to consider what a photograph may be materially and explore how an image’s meaning is derived from both the mode of its distribution and the material form that it assumes. Although the final outcome has to include photography in a third dimensional way ( installation ), projects may use and combine image-based practices such as digital photography, collage, CGI, projection, printmaking, sculpture, objects, or performance, to encourage an expanded approach to photographic practice. The idea is to challenge the different types of engagement possible with pictures today.

Workshop - Simone C Niquille - 2025

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop - Simone C Niquille - 2025

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.

Contemporary Photography - Spring 2025 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Contemporary Photography - Spring 2025 - MAP1

with Kim Knoppers

Do Not Disturb – Curating in Progress The course Do Not Disturb – Curating in Progress is designed to give students a sneak peek into the craft of curating an exhibition from the perspective of an independent curator (formerly at Foam, Amsterdam 2011-2021). The course teaches to engage with the historical, theoretical, and practical matters of curating a photography exhibition, with issues regarding the desperate desire of mankind to display objects, the photography exhibition in the digital age, the blending of photography with other disciplines in a physical space, Imaging the Anthropocene and Photography in Times of Radical Change. Students were invited to create a group exhibition with a physical model and an online solo exhibition with their own work.

Self-Initiated Project - Spring 2025 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Spring 2025 - MAP1

with Bruno Ceschel

The course is a platform for the development of personal projects that arise from the desire and curiosity of each student. The basic concept of the work must be relevant to the field of contemporary photographic images. Each project can take a different form depending on the specificities, contents and inclinations of each participant. From books to multimedia installations, from performance to CGI, group discussions will articulate a plural vision of photography’s applications today.

Applied Photography - Spring 2025 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Applied Photography - Spring 2025 - MAP1

with Charlie Engman

This course explores contradiction, ambiguity, and authorship in photographic meaning and the role of aesthetics in shaping an image’s function across contexts. Photography operates in a complex space where visual style, context, and audience expectations interact to produce meaning. This course asks students to examine how photographic aesthetics influence interpretation and how an image’s function shifts when adapted for different applied photography frameworks. This course explores contradiction and ambiguity in photographic meaning and the role of aesthetic conventions in shaping an image’s function across contexts. Through the course, students will be expected to develop a coherent series of at least 10 images that applies a distinct treatment or aesthetic to a subject matter or multi-image narrative not typically represented in that style or aesthetic. Through this process, students will examine how visual codes, contextual shifts, and aesthetic strategies influence interpretation.

Materialized Photography- Spring 2025 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Materialized Photography- Spring 2025 - MAP1

with Felicity Hammond

In this module, we will explore the potential for the photographic image to simultaneously be a backdrop, object, and prop. We will make images both for the purpose of being re-imaged and for their sculptural possibilities, ending in a work that investigates the potential for an endless cycle of images and objects. Crucially, we will consider the staging of the work, and the conceptual and physical site for which it is intended.

Applied Photography - Fall 2024

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Applied Photography - Fall 2024

with Charles Negre

This course focuses on the ability to answer a commission within one’s own artistic practice, guiding students towards a deeper understanding of studio photography, the challenges of constructed images and the processes involved. With an emphasis on still life photography, this applied photography course aims to sharpen the students sensivity to photographing and interpreting objects. For this semester, the group of students will conceptualize, shoot, and designed an alternative issue of Paperboy Magazine. Founded by David McKendrick three years ago, Paperboy will serve as the creative platform for this project.

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2024 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2024 - MAP1

with Milo Keller

The course is a platform for the development of personal projects that arise from the desire and curiosity of each student. The basic concept of the work must be relevant to the field of contemporary photographic images. Each project can take a different form depending on the specificities, contents and inclinations of each participant. From books to multimedia installations, from performance to CGI, group discussions will articulate a plural vision of photography’s applications today.

Photobook - Fall 2024 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photobook - Fall 2024 - MAP1

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.

Materialized Photography - Spring 2024

PHOTOGRAPHY

Materialized Photography - Spring 2024

with Victoria Pidust

This course led by Victoria Pidust explored the creation and invention of visual languages for lens-based photographic objects and focused on the transformation of images into materialised forms. Students explored the practices of contemporary artists such as Katja Novitskova, Thomas Ruff, Seth Price and others and learnt how technologies such as CGI and photogrammetry have influenced artistic expression. The students explored the interplay between digital and physical spaces and developed unique approaches to creating photographic objects. The course focused on understanding historical and contemporary trends, analysing artists' case studies and creating materialised works, including single images, 3D objects, installations and immersive media such as AR and VR. Through research and practice, students conceptualised and materialised projects and presented their work as physical installations or objects. They developed the ability to articulate the meaning behind their creations, critique and collaborate with colleagues to expand their artistic practice.

self-Initiated Project - Spring 2024 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

self-Initiated Project - Spring 2024 - MAP1

with Bruno Ceschel

This module assists the students to develop into a finalized work a project that further expands their interests and research. The module gives the opportunity to take some of the ideas, skills and themes explores in the first semester and make into a brand new work that can take any possible form: a book, an installation, an online project, a performance.

Applied Photography - Spring 2024

PHOTOGRAPHY

Applied Photography - Spring 2024

with David Luraschi

This course focused on location photography. Students were asked to step outside the studio into the real world and amplify what they discover. Each student did develop one or several bodies of work around the theme of water. The water was their studio. Taking account of what has been done in different mediums in the past (cinema, literature, theater, fashion) - students were encouraged to build a visual dynamic with a strong point of view. A big part of the course was motivated by the idea of finding elements (people, places, things) and turning them into a story. A central emphasis was on collaborating with people: models, actors, dancers, strangers and building their story with them. Casting and creating a growing dialog with their models, finding a common interest and expanding a playful territory to photograph was a recurring exercise.

Photobook - Fall 2023

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photobook - Fall 2023

with Bruno Ceschel

The module introduces students to the history of photobooks and artists’ books prompting them to study different strategies and approaches to contemporary book-making. That will lead to students individually working on a publication that will be presented at evaluations in January 2023. Students will have the opportunity to create a new body of work in relation to the book form, learning about editing, sequencing and designing.

Applied Photography - Fall 2023

PHOTOGRAPHY

Applied Photography - Fall 2023

with Charles Negre

STILL LIFE PAPER - This course focuses on the ability to answer a commission within its own artistic practice and leading the students through a better understanding of studio photography, challenges of constructed images and their processes. This applied photography course has an emphasis on still life photography, our aim is to sharpen the students sensitivity to photographing and interpreting objects. For this semester, the group of students will develop their own printed magazine focusing on the practice of still life.

Photobook - Fall 2023

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photobook - Fall 2023

with Bruno Ceschel

<meta charset="UTF-8">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.

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2023 - MAP1

PHOTOGRAPHY

Self-Initiated Project - Fall 2023 - MAP1

with Milo Keller

The course is a platform for the development of personal projects that arise from the desire and curiosity of each student. The basic concept of the work must be relevant to the field of contemporary photographic images. Each project can take a different form depending on the specificities, contents and inclinations of each participant. From books to multimedia installations, from performance to CGI, group discussions will articulate a plural vision of photography’s applications today.