/ecal (41)














Created by Rayane Jemaa, the project investigates representation and counterfactual histories of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in a selection of video games.
27/09/2021Created by Ignacio Pérez (ECAL MID), Overloaded.supply is a critical tool that questions our models of manufacturing and consumption, exploiting the control of creation algorithms in order to interrogate current patterns of design, production and legislation.
22/09/2021Fantastic 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.
07/09/2021Four projects by students at ECAL (Media Interaction Design) explore the possibilities of VR. From alternative interfaces and public space to architectural interface and what its like to experience the environment of yellow ants.
29/10/2020Created by Aurélien Pellegrini at ECAL , ‘Pump and Surf’ encourages internet users to find out how much energy is spent when they are surfing the internet. The user is asked to make a physical effort equal to the energy required to convey the data that will enable the site to be displayed.
27/10/2020‘Invisible Network’ is a portable device that makes communication between machines perceptible and tangible. This device acts as a mediator between the user and the machines that surround him. Through its screen, it indicates the relations that it maintains with its personal environment.
20/10/2020In November 2019, CAN joined the biannual ECAL Research Day to find out how methodologies borrowed from science and engineering can strengthen creative practice—and drive the conversation.
14/02/2020Created by Anouk Zibault at ECAL, ‘Lieux Ordinaires’ (Ordinary Places) is a project that explores new narratives of public space framed by surveillance – an alternative perspective and a medium with a power to ‘document’.
10/10/2019CAN will join (and report from) the ECAL Research Day, an eclectic symposium where artists, designers, and scholars will discuss the entanglement of technology and research.
03/10/2019Created at ECAL during a one week workshop led by Thibault Brevet, The Center for Counter-Productive Robotics is a collection of experiments where a robot was programmed to perform counter-productive tasks, with intention to develop a more human-centric approach to robotics.
17/12/2018Created by André Andrade at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), 300000 km/s is a data visualisation project to highlight the consequential delay in communication in the probable future (interplanatory) expansion of the territory of Man.
24/10/2018Created by Giulio Barresi at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), Connected Tools is a series of objects that explore alternative rituals that could lead to a more reasonable consumption of mobile technologies.
05/10/2018Created by Stella Speziali at ECAL, Tangibles Worlds explores the effects of tactile experience as a catalyst for full immersion in VR. It proposes a “black box” interface, an alt-plysical-universe to the VR experience, extending the immersion beyond visual and sound.
19/12/2017Created by Elise Migraine at ECAL, “Twin Objects” is a collection of devices (Tits Me, Pianoze, and Dual Drums) designed to act as a ‘hotline’ in attempt to nurture intimacy and telepresence that long-distance relationships need.
28/11/2017Created by Hélène Portier at ECAL, 20°C is a collection of devices designed to question our relationship to data through a series of physical challenges that enable/disable access.
23/11/2017‘Déguster l’augmenté’ is a collaborative project by Erika Marthins with ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design) that questions if food could be augmented and technology provide a new dimension to how we experience a meal.
21/11/2017Created by the ECAL’s Bachelor Media & Interaction Design students at ÉCAL, and led by Niklas Roy, Bouquet is a synaesthetic olfactory device which allows the user to perceive color through fragrances.
10/05/2017A complete redesign of his 2014 Jean Tinguely-inspired project, David Colombini’s Attachment is a “poetic machine” that renders physical manifestations of user-generated digital messages (text, images, or videos) and sends them off via biodegradable balloons.
04/01/2017Created by Lara Defayes at ECAL, UV Map, Vanishing Shades and FOMO Survival Kit are a series of project produced during her studies at the art and design school in Lausanne, Switzerland. All three projects, and others that can be viewed on her website, explore the contradictions and opportunities of digital in physical.
11/10/2016Created by Alexia Léchot at ECAL, Deltu is a delta robot with a personality that interacts with humans using two iPads. Created using arm technology normally found in 3d printers, Deltu uses three different applications on the iPad Alexia built for it, using symmetry as an interpretation, a mirror and a reflexion of our own image.
29/09/2016Created by Mylène Dreyer at ECAL, Scribb is a computer game in which the physical area scanned by the mouse is an integral part of the interaction. The player must draw black areas, detected by the mouse, to be able to evolve in the game, simultaneously managing the position of the mouse and the surface on which it is placed.
29/09/2016Created by Sebastian Vargas at ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design), Postgram is a bot for human storytelling that explores issues of public data, privacy and image making using a process of “fair hack” to develop a story narrative. It speculate about the social network behaviour and search for new possibilities for film content.
02/10/2015Created by Martin Hertig at ECAL, Sensible Data is a playful installation consisting of three machines that collect user’s personal data, evaluates mood, age, gender and beauty, to create a ‘passport’ that user can take away but which also randomly sent (without user’s knowledge) to another participant.
25/09/2015Created by Romain Cazier at ECAL, Rec All is an interpretation of the geometrical style puzzle games, widely popular on mobile. Taking some of this genre’s features, Romain designed a singular universe, where strange creatures with a cyclic behaviour are generated from a simple gesture.
23/09/2015Created by Nicolas Nahornyj at ECAL, Lazy Pen is an attempt to combine the practical side of computer-based word processing with the emotional aspect of one’s handwriting. The tool allows the user to distort the typeface as they write, using the moving palettes placed beneath their palms.
18/09/2015Created by Maxime Castelli at ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design), Nelson is a tiny connected module designed to bring life remotely to everyday objects. It’s based on a very simple foreward and backward movement as we do in the everyday life, like pushing a switch.
17/09/2015Earlier this year at ECAL (Lausanne/Switzerland), students were asked to develop projects using the Thymio robot during a one week workshop. Students worked then in group with the task to make Thymio(s) write a word, all those words was then put together to form a sentences that you can discover in the video below.
14/07/2015Created by the Bachelor Photography and Master Product Design students at ECAL, #PhotoBooth is a project and a series of interactive installations showing how mobile phone cameras and the selfie phenomenon changed the way we look at ourselves.
14/04/2015Rewind is a digital clock collection designed to revive a physical link with the reading of the time. For all three clocks, a unique way to rewind its mechanism is introduced making the stronger and more meaningful connection between the physical and the digital.
23/09/2013Created by Benjamin Muzzin for his Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, Full Turn explores the third dimension using the frame of a flat screen. By rotating screen around its central point at very high speed, Benjamin is able to create and manipulate forms in three dimensions that can be seen 360 degrees.
20/09/2013Created by Rayane Jemaa, the project investigates representation and counterfactual histories of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in a selection of video games.
Tags: archive / cinema4d / ecal / Games / mapping / Photogrammetry / real / representation / scanning / sdf zephyr / threejs / webgl
Created by Ignacio Pérez (ECAL MID), Overloaded.supply is a critical tool that questions our models of manufacturing and consumption, exploiting the control of creation algorithms in order to interrogate current patterns of design, production and legislation.
Tags: ecal / ESP32 / Firebase / GAN / generative / Ignacio Pérez / javascript / p5js / patent / python / Raspberry Pi / RunwayML / styleGAN2 / webgl
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.
Tags: Antoine Barras / Antony Demierre / archive / Aurélien Pellegrini / Basil Dénéréaz / Bastien Claessens / Bastien Classens / Bastien Mouthon / chatbot / cloud / Diane Thouvenin / Dorian Jovanovic / ecal / Evan Kelly / fitness / Guillaume Giraud / health / Ignacio Pérez / imessage / Interface / Ivan Chestopaloff / Jorge Reis / Kylan Luginbühl / Léonard Guyot / Lisa Kishtoo / Malik Sobgoui / Maya Bellier / Michael Pica / Nora Fatehi / opencv / Pablo Bellon / Paul Fritz / Paul Lëon / Rayane Jemaa / robotics / screen / Sébastien Galera Larios / sensor / servo / Souhaïb Ghanmi / Valentine Leimgruber / Valerio Meschi / Yaël Sidler
Four projects by students at ECAL (Media Interaction Design) explore the possibilities of VR. From alternative interfaces and public space to architectural interface and what its like to experience the environment of yellow ants.
Tags: arduino / ecal / HTC Vive / Interface / Kylan Luginbühl / Léonard Guyot / Maya Bellier / unity / unreal / virtual reality / vr / Yael Sidler
Created by Aurélien Pellegrini at ECAL , ‘Pump and Surf’ encourages internet users to find out how much energy is spent when they are surfing the internet. The user is asked to make a physical effort equal to the energy required to convey the data that will enable the site to be displayed.
Tags: arduino / Aurélien Pellegrini / consumption / device / ecal / extension / javascript / power
‘Invisible Network’ is a portable device that makes communication between machines perceptible and tangible. This device acts as a mediator between the user and the machines that surround him. Through its screen, it indicates the relations that it maintains with its personal environment.
Tags: arduino / data / ecal / Environment / epaper / Evan Kelly / featured / Firebase / google maps api / gyrOSC / infrastructure / machine culture / network / privacy / social network / visible / wifi
In November 2019, CAN joined the biannual ECAL Research Day to find out how methodologies borrowed from science and engineering can strengthen creative practice—and drive the conversation.
Tags: Addie Wagenknecht / ai / Ala Tannir / Alan Warburton / artificial intelligence / Bianca Berning / Bianca Berning (Dalton Maag) / Cathy O’Neil / Christian Kaegi (Qwestion) / Christian Mio Loclair (Waltz Binaire) / cloud computing / Davide Fornari / Dev Joshi / ecal / ECAL Research Day / EPFL+ECAL Lab / Fabrice Aeberhard (Viu) / featured / ghosts / Haunted Machines / Hugues Vinet (IRCAM) / Impakt Festival / IRCAM / James Bridle / Kai Bernau / Kate Crawford / machine learning / Mario de Vega / Matthew Plummer-Fernandez / max bense / Natalie D Kane / Natalie Kane / Neri Oxman / Nicolas Henchoz / Nicolas Nova / Patrick Keller / Random International / skylar tibbits / sustainability / Thilo Alex Brunner / Tobias Revell / v&a / Waltz Binaire
Created by Anouk Zibault at ECAL, ‘Lieux Ordinaires’ (Ordinary Places) is a project that explores new narratives of public space framed by surveillance – an alternative perspective and a medium with a power to ‘document’.
Tags: Anouk Zibaut / ecal / featured / film / javascript / narrative / process / public space / story / surveillance
CAN will join (and report from) the ECAL Research Day, an eclectic symposium where artists, designers, and scholars will discuss the entanglement of technology and research.
Tags: Ala Tannir / Bianca Berning / Christian Mio Loclair / Chrtistian Kaegi / design / ecal / ECAL Research Day / EPFL+ECAL Lab / Fabrice Aberhard / Hugues Vinet / IRCAM / Lausanne / Mario de Vega / Milan Triennale / Nathalie D. Kane / Nicolas Henchoz / Patrick Keller / research / technology / Thilo Alex Brunner / Waltz Binaire
Created at ECAL during a one week workshop led by Thibault Brevet, The Center for Counter-Productive Robotics is a collection of experiments where a robot was programmed to perform counter-productive tasks, with intention to develop a more human-centric approach to robotics.
Tags: AATB / Barras Antoine / Bellier Maya / Bellon Pablo / Chestopaloff Ivan / Claessens Bastien / ecal / Events / featured / Giraud Guillaume / Guyot Léonard / Kelly Evan / Kishtoo Lisa / Luginbühl Kylan / Marc Dubois. / Noël Paul / Pellegrini Aurélien / precision / Processing / robot / robotics / Thibault Brevet / UR10 / video
Created by André Andrade at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), 300000 km/s is a data visualisation project to highlight the consequential delay in communication in the probable future (interplanatory) expansion of the territory of Man.
Tags: Adafruit / André Andrade / communication / device / distance / DRV8871 / ecal / ESP8266 / internet / ping / stepper / time / visualisation / visualization
Created by Giulio Barresi at ECAL (Media and Interaction Design Unit), Connected Tools is a series of objects that explore alternative rituals that could lead to a more reasonable consumption of mobile technologies.
Tags: 3d printing / Adafruit / ANCS arduino / ANCS protocol / Apple Notifications / ecal / ESP32 / featured / Giulio Barresi / led / Nordi NRF52 BLE / NRF52 BLE / potentiometer / Quad Alphanumeric Display / stepper-motor / swift / vibrating motor
Created by Stella Speziali at ECAL, Tangibles Worlds explores the effects of tactile experience as a catalyst for full immersion in VR. It proposes a “black box” interface, an alt-plysical-universe to the VR experience, extending the immersion beyond visual and sound.
Tags: arduino / black box / capacitive / ecal / experience / Interface / Stella Speziali / tactile / Touch / vr
Created by Elise Migraine at ECAL, “Twin Objects” is a collection of devices (Tits Me, Pianoze, and Dual Drums) designed to act as a ‘hotline’ in attempt to nurture intimacy and telepresence that long-distance relationships need.
Tags: 3d printing / Adafruit Feather / arduino / ecal / Elise Migraine / Firebase / internet of things / iot / laser cutting / nodeMCU ESP8266 / project / prototyping / student / thermoforming
Created by Hélène Portier at ECAL, 20°C is a collection of devices designed to question our relationship to data through a series of physical challenges that enable/disable access.
Tags: access / arduino / data / download / ecal / Hélène Portier / interaction / javascript / mobile / newsapi / ownership / process / student / tangible
‘Déguster l’augmenté’ is a collaborative project by Erika Marthins with ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design) that questions if food could be augmented and technology provide a new dimension to how we experience a meal.
Tags: augmentation / ecal / edible robotics / Erika Marthins / food / Innovation / robotics / Sound
Created by the ECAL’s Bachelor Media & Interaction Design students at ÉCAL, and led by Niklas Roy, Bouquet is a synaesthetic olfactory device which allows the user to perceive color through fragrances.
Tags: arduino / colour / ecal / Events / Niklas Roy / olfactory / stepper-motor / student / Synaesthetic / workshop
A complete redesign of his 2014 Jean Tinguely-inspired project, David Colombini’s Attachment is a “poetic machine” that renders physical manifestations of user-generated digital messages (text, images, or videos) and sends them off via biodegradable balloons.
Tags: arduino / creative technology / creativeappsnet / critique / David Colombini / digital communication / ecal / featured / process / project / rca / vvvv / WebApp
Created by Lara Defayes at ECAL, UV Map, Vanishing Shades and FOMO Survival Kit are a series of project produced during her studies at the art and design school in Lausanne, Switzerland. All three projects, and others that can be viewed on her website, explore the contradictions and opportunities of digital in physical.
Tags: ecal / fabric / interaction / iPad / Lara Defayes / laser / object / printing / process / projection / social / social media / student / topography
Created by Alexia Léchot at ECAL, Deltu is a delta robot with a personality that interacts with humans using two iPads. Created using arm technology normally found in 3d printers, Deltu uses three different applications on the iPad Alexia built for it, using symmetry as an interpretation, a mirror and a reflexion of our own image.
Created by Mylène Dreyer at ECAL, Scribb is a computer game in which the physical area scanned by the mouse is an integral part of the interaction. The player must draw black areas, detected by the mouse, to be able to evolve in the game, simultaneously managing the position of the mouse and the surface on which it is placed.
Created by Sebastian Vargas at ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design), Postgram is a bot for human storytelling that explores issues of public data, privacy and image making using a process of “fair hack” to develop a story narrative. It speculate about the social network behaviour and search for new possibilities for film content.
Tags: automator / computation / ecal / film / generative / instagram / script / Sebastian Vargas
Created by Martin Hertig at ECAL, Sensible Data is a playful installation consisting of three machines that collect user’s personal data, evaluates mood, age, gender and beauty, to create a ‘passport’ that user can take away but which also randomly sent (without user’s knowledge) to another participant.
Tags: data / data collection / drawing machine / ecal / fingerprint / iPad / machine / Martin Hertig / privacy / raspberrypi / security / sensor
Created by Romain Cazier at ECAL, Rec All is an interpretation of the geometrical style puzzle games, widely popular on mobile. Taking some of this genre’s features, Romain designed a singular universe, where strange creatures with a cyclic behaviour are generated from a simple gesture.
Tags: behaviour / Cinder / creature / ecal / emergence / game / generative / multitouch / process / Romain Cazier / system
Created by Nicolas Nahornyj at ECAL, Lazy Pen is an attempt to combine the practical side of computer-based word processing with the emotional aspect of one’s handwriting. The tool allows the user to distort the typeface as they write, using the moving palettes placed beneath their palms.
Tags: ecal / emotion / haptic / Interface / Nicolas Nahornyj / prosthetic / tactile / type / typewriter / typing / typography / word processing
Created by Maxime Castelli at ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design), Nelson is a tiny connected module designed to bring life remotely to everyday objects. It’s based on a very simple foreward and backward movement as we do in the everyday life, like pushing a switch.
Tags: arduino / connected / device / ecal / internet of things / Maxime Castelli / openFrameworks
Earlier this year at ECAL (Lausanne/Switzerland), students were asked to develop projects using the Thymio robot during a one week workshop. Students worked then in group with the task to make Thymio(s) write a word, all those words was then put together to form a sentences that you can discover in the video below.
Created by the Bachelor Photography and Master Product Design students at ECAL, #PhotoBooth is a project and a series of interactive installations showing how mobile phone cameras and the selfie phenomenon changed the way we look at ourselves.
Tags: camera / collection / ecal / ios / performance / phone / photography / projects / selfie / students / video
Rewind is a digital clock collection designed to revive a physical link with the reading of the time. For all three clocks, a unique way to rewind its mechanism is introduced making the stronger and more meaningful connection between the physical and the digital.
Created by Benjamin Muzzin for his Bachelor Media & Interaction Design at ECAL, Full Turn explores the third dimension using the frame of a flat screen. By rotating screen around its central point at very high speed, Benjamin is able to create and manipulate forms in three dimensions that can be seen 360 degrees.
Tags: 3d / ecal / illusion / lcd screen / monitor / Objects / perception / photography / speed / vision