The Applied Research and Development sector of ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO) organises biennially a Research Day to present the developments of ECAL research activities, as well as to showcase inspiring experiences in the fields of arts and design.
ECAL Research Day

Design
Research
Design
Forschung
Recherche
Création
Ricerca Design

 

Swiss Design
Network
Symposium
 

4-5 December
2024
ECAL

Swiss Design Network Symposium
Design Research / Design Forschung / Recherche-Création / Ricerca Design

Design disciplines have entered the academic world in Switzerland relatively recently. Swiss design schools have only been required to perform research since the end of the 20th century to be qualified as universities of applied arts.

Yet what shape does the output of this research take? In many national and international contexts, design has become an academic discipline producing original knowledge in usual formats. Even so, design has designerly ways of knowing that are yet to be fully recognised and understood.

On the other hand, the paradigm of design research, or research through design, has emerged. It supplements new knowledge and regular publications with the production of new designs taking the form of prototypes, visualisations, performances and exhibitions, be they speculative or real.

These new, non-strictly bibliographic formats are particularly relevant for their impact on design schools as well as on a wider audience. Moreover, the advent of AI technologies and their consequences on the production of texts, images, objects and sound, put into a crisis the scientific paper format as the ultimate form of knowledge transmission.

This symposium questions the status of design within the academic system and examines how knowledge is produced by design disciplines. The conference aims to provide examples of virtuous practices and to create an arena for a discussion on the relevance of design research as a framework in the medium and long terms. Which experiences and practices are exemplary? Which possibilities does research through design unfold? What can we learn from them, and how can we further implement design research into research projects and activities?

For this conference, we invited practice- and theory-based contributions anchored in design disciplines (Industrial and Product Design, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Interaction and Service Design, Graphic and Type Design, Photography) as well as cross- or transdisciplinary approach (Social Design, Technology and Design) that present examples of research through design, discuss methodological and epistemological issues, and offer novel ways of approaching practice-based research.


Admission is free but capacity is limited. Registration required via Eventbrite.

Register

4 December

Afternoon

13:30
Registration
KUDELSKI HALL
14:00
Welcome and Opening Remarks
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Alexis Georgacopoulos, Sarah Owens, Davide Fornari, Jonas Berthod
14:15
Panel Conversation
Practice-based PhD Programs in Design
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Samuel Bianchini, Serena Cangiano, Sara De Bondt, Lucie Kolb, Aylin Tschoepe. Moderated by Jonas Berthod
15:15
Panel Conversation
Institutional Support to Design Research
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Joel Hügli, Anna Niederhäuser, Dimitri Reist, Cécile Vulliemin. Moderated by Vera Sacchetti
16:15
Coffee Break
16:45
Keynote Lecture
Predicting the Future by Creating It
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Bas van de Poel
18:00
Performance
Emoticons Don’t Have Wrinkles
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Luna Maurer
18:30
Exhibition Opening and Apéritif
ANRT – Research in Type Design
L’ELAC GALLERY
Curated by Thomas Huot-Marchand

5 December

Morning

8:30
Registration and Welcome Coffee
KUDELSKI HALL
9:00
Opening Remarks
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Davide Fornari, Jonas Berthod
9:15
Panel A1
The Discursive Image. Analysing, Organising and Producing Images as Means of Knowledge
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Paul Bailey, Floriane Fo Misslin, Tânia Raposo. Moderated by Jonas Berthod

Panel B1
Designing with AI. Critical Approaches and Methodologies through Design-Driven Research
LEENAARDS AUDITORIUM
Antonella Autuori, Gabriele Colombo, Matteo Subet, Vera van der Burg. Moderated by Anthony Masure

Presentation C1
Repair_Fashion. A Lecture Performance about Repairing
NUSSBAUMER AUDITORIUM
Evelyne Roth
Moderated by Davide Fornari

Panel D1
The Answer to the Crisis is the Crisis
BOUROULLEC ROOM
Rasha Dakkak, Dimitri Reist. Moderated by Sarah Owens
10:45
Coffee Break
11:00
Panel A2
Designing for Health: Research-Driven Strategies for Wellbeing
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Gianpaolo Fusari, Emily Groves, Nicolas Henchoz, Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken, Delphine Ribes, Fabien Roy. Moderated by Aylin Tschoepe

Panel B2
Physicalizing Research. Comparing Approaches in Participatory Environments
LEENAARDS AUDITORIUM
Antonella Autuori, Beatrice Gobbo, Ginevra Terenghi. Moderated by Andreas Unteidig

Presentations C2
Echo(re)locations of the Dolphin House: Voices of Trouble and Post-Natural Solidarities
Eloïse Vo
Embodied Experience in the Oral-Cavity and Frameworks for Multimodal Design
Luke Franzke
NUSSBAUMER AUDITORIUM
Moderated by Serena Cangiano

Workshop E
Moving on Design and Design Research on
TSCHUMI ROOM
Guillermina Noël. Moderated by Meret Ernst

Afternoon

12:30
Lunch Break
14:00
Panel A3
Desire, Politics, Our Lives
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Sabrina Calvo, Camille Farrah Buhler, Aude Fellay, Émilie Meldem, Peter Wiesmann. Moderated by Jonas Berthod

Panel B3
(Machine) Learning through Design. Collectives Modes of Engaging New Technologies
LEENAARDS AUDITORIUM
Aysun Aytaç, Adrian Demleitner, Max Frischknecht, Thomas Knüsel, Yann Martins, Janna Joceli Omena. Moderated by Paola Pierri

Panel C3
Shaping the Future of Type Design
NUSSBAUMER AUDITORIUM
Giulio Galli, Valentina Nitti, Ludovica Polo, Alice Savoie. Moderated by Davide Fornari

Workshop E
Moving on Design and Design Research on
TSCHUMI ROOM
Guillermina Noël. Moderated by Meret Ernst
15:30
Coffee Break
16:00
Closing Remarks
IKEA AUDITORIUM
Serena Cangiano, Davide Fornari, Anthony Masure, Sarah Owens, Paola Pierri, Aylin Tschoepe, Andreas Unteidig. Moderated by Jonas Berthod
16:30
Performance-Installation
Points of Failure
STUDIO CINEMA
Tim Shaw

Speakers

Antonella Autuori
Antonella Autuori is a researcher at SUPSI / University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. Her research focuses on the definition of new methodologies at the intersection of artificial intelligence and design.
Aysun Aytaç
Aysun Aytaç is a design researcher and design ethnographer working at HSLU / Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art. She combines approaches from material culture, visual ethnography, and design thinking to explore interactions between people and their environment.
Paul Bailey
Paul Bailey is a graphic designer, researcher and educator. He is Professor for Design in Visual Communication and Research at HfG Karlsruhe (DE) and pursuing a PhD in the Arts at KASK & Conservatorium (BE).
Jonas Berthod
Jonas Berthod is a postdoctoral researcher at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, and the coordinator of Swiss Design Network.
Samuel Bianchini
Samuel Bianchini is an artist and researcher. He is associate professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), PSL Research University Paris, where he heads the Reflective Interaction research group of EnsadLab.
Camille Farrah Buhler
Camille Farrah Buhler is a fashion designer, artist and co-founder of the podcast Front Row, invested in rethinking fashion through a feminist and decolonial lens.
Sabrina Calvo
Sabrina Calvo is an author, poet, visual worlds creator, and experimental fashion couturière, exploring and crafting fantasy worlds.
Serena Cangiano
Serena Cangiano is senior researcher at the Design Institute and head of Digital fabrication laboratory of SUPSI / University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland.
Gabriele Colombo
Gabriele Colombo is researcher at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano. His research explores visual formats for critical and collective analysis of digital media.
Rasha Dakkak
Rasha Dakkak is a Palestinian researcher and maker leading the Graphic Design department at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
Sara De Bondt
Sara De Bondt is a graphic designer, educator, and researcher. She teaches at ECAL and KASK & Conservatorium / School of Arts Gent, where she recently obtained her PhD.
Adrian Demleitner
Adrian Demleitner is a programmer and researcher in the field of video game studies.
Meret Ernst
Meret Ernst is curator at Musem für Gestaltung Zürich. Previously, she was a senior lecturer in Design History and Theory at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. From 2011 to 2025 she was the co-director of Swiss Design Association, professional association of Swiss designers.
Aude Fellay
Aude Fellay is a researcher at HEAD – Genève and a writer, whose work looks at contemporary image culture, cultural labour theories and fashion.
Davide Fornari
Davide Fornari is a full professor at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, where he has been leading the R&D sector since 2016.
Luke Franzke
Luke Franzke is a research associate and PhD candidate at the ZHdK / Zurich University of the Arts, where he heads the Physical Computing Lab. His current research deals with the design of Intraoral Computer Interfaces.
Max Frischknecht
Max Frischknecht is a PhD candidate at HKB in Bern, and a researcher exploring generative design for critical data visualizations in the humanities and lectures on data cultures and technology.
Gianpaolo Fusari
Gianpaolo Fusari is an industrial designer with over ten years of experience in design innovation in healthcare and a senior design associate at the Helix Centre, Royal College of Art, London.
Giulio Galli
Giulio Galli is a researcher and PhD candidate at Hasselt University, as well as a typeface designer, member of CAST Foundry.
Alexis Georgacopoulos
Alexis Georgacopoulos is a product designer and the Director of ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne.
Beatrice Gobbo
Beatrice Gobbo is a post-doc fellow at Politecnico di Milano. Her work and academic interests are positioned at the intersection between information design and computer science.
Emily Groves
Emily Groves is a senior designer and postgraduate programme coordinator at EPFL+ECAL Lab.
Nicolas Henchoz
Nicolas Henchoz is founding director of EPFL+ECAL Lab which explores the perspectives of emergent technologies through design research.
Joel Hügli
Joel Hügli works as a sustainable product designer and researcher at HSLU / Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art, and is the founder of the mattress start-up Ecomade. He received the Swiss Design Prize, the Swiss Design Award and various grants for his master's thesis ECOMADE - Ecological Mattress Design.
Thomas Huot-Marchand
Thomas Huot-Marchand is a type designer ant the director of Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT) in Nancy.
Thomas Knüsel
Thomas Knüsel is a media artist and educator working in the field of machine learning since 2020.
Lucie Kolb
Dr Lucie Kolb is a docent for critical publishing and research and co-head of the MAKE/SENSE PhD program at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, whose work involves studying and producing artistic knowledge.
Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken
Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken is head of the Institute for Design Research at ZHdK and founded the Digital Health Design Living Lab which collaboratively involves different institutions in healthcare to act as a catalyst for research.
Yann Martins
Yann Martins is a ‘debugger’ and researcher currently working at the Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) in Basel. His software practices lie at the intersection of debugging, computer music and game design.
Anthony Masure
Anthony Masure is associate professor and head of research at HEAD – Genève.
Luna Maurer
Luna Maurer is a mixed-media designer and artist who blends digital technologies with physicality to explore human characteristics. She co-founded Moniker.
Émilie Meldem
Émilie Meldem is a researcher at HEAD – Genève and a fashion designer, who has worked for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Peter Pilotto and Y/Project.
Floriane Fo Misslin
Floriane Fo Misslin is a researcher and design educator. They are a PhD candidate in Visual Sociology at Goldsmiths in London.
Anna Niederhäuser
Anna Niederhäuser has been the head of design promotion at the Federal Office of Culture since 2018. From 2012 to 2020, she served as the president of the specialist committee of the Bern Design Foundation, and since 2014, she has been a freelance curator and author.
Valentina Nitti
Valentina Nitti is a PhD candidate at Iuav University of Venice, specialized in design and typography history.
Guillermina Noël
Guillermina Noël is a design researcher and educator. She is the head of the Bachelor Design Management, International at HSLU / Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art.
Janna Joceli Omena
Janna Joceli Omena is an assistant professor in Digital Media and Methods at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Her research focuses on the practice and theory of digital methods, intersecting with web technologies, software studies, data visualization and philosophy of technology.
Sarah Owens
Sarah Owens is an award-winning design educator and researcher whose work centres on social and anthropological aspects of visible language and visual cultures. She leads the subject area and MA in Visual Communication at ZHdK / Zurich University of the Arts.
Paola Pierri
Paola Pierri, with a doctorate in Design Anthropology, researches the impact of design on society and political engagement, specializing in Anthropology of Technologies.
Ludovica Polo
Ludovica Polo is a PhD candidate at Iuav University of Venice, focusing on design history and typography.
Tânia Raposo
Tânia Raposo is a designer, educator and researcher. She is a PhD candidate at University of Paris VIII in collaboration with ANRT in Nancy.
Dimitri Reist
Dimitri Reist is a researcher and graphic designer. He is part of the fashion collective NCCFN (Nothing Can Come from Nothing) and co-founder of the studio for visual communication Bonsma & Reist, based in Bern and Brussels.
Delphine Ribes
Delphine Ribes is head of Design for Healthcare and Creative Coding at EPFL+ECAL Lab. and specializes in medical image processing and AI research.
Evelyne Roth
Evelyne Roth is a trained seamstress, active designer and lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Design Practice (ICDP), in the fashion design program at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. She is a doctoral student in the Make Sense program, a cooperation between FHNW and the University of Linz in Austria.
Fabien Roy
Fabien Roy is a Swiss product designer and architect who designed Robust Nest, a newborn incubator adapted to the context of district hospitals in sub-Saharan countries, developed in collaboration with EPFL’s Essential Tech Centre.
Vera Sacchetti
Vera Sacchetti is a Basel-based design critic and curator. Recently, she co-founded design magazine Fazer, and co-initiated the Design and Democracy platform. She teaches at Design Academy Eindhoven, and is part of the Federal Design Commission of Switzerland.
Alice Savoie
Alice Savoie is a researcher and type designer currently teaching type design at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne and supervising research projects at ANRT in Nancy.
Tim Shaw
Tim Shaw is an artist and researcher who works with sound, light, and communication media. He creates performances, installations, and site-specific interventions. His practice spans environmental sound art, digital media, media archaeology, walking, and installation making.
Matteo Subet
Matteo Subet is a researcher at SUPSI / University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, design education and AI-driven systems in the design field.
Ginevra Terenghi
Ginevra Terenghi is a PhD candidate at SUPSI / University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland and at Brunel University London. She is working on participatory approaches based on data physicalization to promote data literacy in healthcare.
Aylin Tschoepe
Aylin Tschoepe is professor of Design Anthropology at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, where she connects her experience as an architect, designer, anthropologist, gender and urban studies scholar.
Andreas Unteidig
Andreas Unteidig is a design researcher and educator. He co-leads the MA Eco-Social Design at HSLU / Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art.
Bas van de Poel
Bas van de Poel is the innovation director and co-founder of Modem, an Amsterdam based office for design and innovation dedicated to envisioning how forward-thinking companies and institutions can thrive amidst exponential change.
Vera Van der Burg
Vera van der Burg is a designer, a researcher, and a PhD candidate at Technical University Delft. She explores integrating AI into creative processes as a reflexive tool for makers.
Eloïse Vo
Eloïse Vo is an artist-designer and PhD candidate in the program between HEAD – Genève and EPFL. Her work has branched into performance, media installations, publishing and writing, alongside design commissions.
Cécile Vulliemin
Cécile Vulliemin has been the head of Design at Pro Helvetia since 2023. Previously she was head of Strategic partnerships at ECAL (2018-2022) and project leader for Art/Science programs at Swissnex Boston (2015-2018).
Peter Wiesmann
Peter Wiesmann is an independent jewellery and accessory designer, who has worked for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Mansur Gavriel and Supriya Lele.

Events

Exhibition / 4–19.12.2024
ANRT – Research in Type Design
Curated by Thomas Huot-Marchand
L’ELAC GALLERY, ground floor
This exhibition showcases a selection of research projects conducted at ANRT between 2013 and 2023, exploring the links among type design and world writing systems, digital humanities, history, pedagogy and language. Established in 1985 at the Imprimerie nationale to “reboot French type design”, ANRT settled in 2000 at the École nationale supérieure d’art et design in Nancy.

Performance / Wednesday 4 December, 18:00–18:30
Emoticons Don’t Have Wrinkles
Luna Maurer / Concept development in collaboration with Roel Wouters. Sound by Philipp Johann Thimm
IKEA AUDITORIUM, ground floor
Designing Friction: digital technology has long aimed to eliminate friction, striving for seamlessness while attempting to predict our behaviour. Instead of our whole bodies, we use our fingertips to swipe screens, promising a frictionless world. Designing Friction is a techno-optimistic counterargument, a call for connection in our increasingly technologized society.

Performance-Installation / Thursday 5 December, 16:30–18:00
Points of Failure
Tim Shaw
STUDIO CINEMA, ground floor
Points of Failure is an ongoing series of performance-installations in which miscellaneous objects and derelict electronics are used to create a dynamically changing media environment. By using DIY electronics, found objects, light and sound making circuits, the artistic potential of everyday materials is explored. By making and undoing objects, building hybrid mechanisms to make noise, deploying a disordered multi-sensory experience, a hypotonic environment is created in which sound, light and movement are intertwined.

Exhibition
Design Research for Sustainable Impact
EPFL+ECAL LAB, first floor
EPFL+ECAL Lab opens its doors and invites visitors to get an insider's view of its latest design research work. Discover immersive experiences, interactive installations and practical applications that use emerging technologies like AI and neurofeedback to tackle current challenges in cultural heritage, food, health, and environment. Fostering a close collaboration between science, technology, creativity and culture, the lab’s transdisciplinary team aims to create sustainable impact for society and the planet.

Installation
The Discursive Image
Paul Bailey, Jonas Berthod, Floriane Fo Misslin, Tânia Raposo
BOUROULLEC ROOM, first floor
What kind of knowledge and know-how are encompassed in the creation, the organisation and the archival of images? This panel examines their discursive potential in graphic design, art direction and fashion photography through three presentations which propose practice-based methodologies grounded in visual material. Linking practice and theory, the talks are accompanied by visual displays which support and extend the ideas discussed in the panel.

Installation
(Machine) Learning through Materialization
Aysun Aytaç, Thomas Knüsel
VAUTIER ROOM, first floor
How do machines learn to see and listen? This exhibition hosts prototypes to accompany the (Machine) Learning through Design panel. Throwback Environment by Thomas Knüsel is a post-photographic setup, creating a feedback loop between images and machine-generated text descriptions. The “provotypes” of the VA-PEPR research project utilize speculative design to demystify voice assistants, enabling people to interact with them through tangible representations. Both works foster a deeper comprehension of AI, challenging existing perceptions.

Installation
The Music is the Making of the Music
Dimitri Reist
BOUROULLEC ROOM, first floor
How can one as a graphic designer, shift and relearn understandings of visual knowledge towards the social political context each of us is living in? And can this eventually lead to a more inclusive, co-existing and community-based praxis? This installation elaborates on questions of responsibility and value-making, by creating space for voices that are “storying otherwise”. Dimitri Reist started exchanging with peers about the conditions in which we create work, how these circumstances shape our daily practice, our methodologies, our ideas, and how in the end these are materialized in our visual language. In conversation with: 40Mustaqel, Alliage, Engy Aly, Paul Bailey, Noah Bonsma, Atelier Brenda, Dayna Casey, Benedetta Crippa, Isabel Duarte, D-E-A-L, Rasha Dakkak, Garine Gökceyan, Sofia Gonçalves, Martin Groch, Eike König, Siwar Kraytem, Andriana Lagoudes, Francisco Laranjo, Drew Litowitz, Afonso Matos, Engy Mohsen, Richard Niessen, Nina Paim, Peet Pienaar, Olga Prader, Adriana Rojas, Sarah Saleh, Traduttore-traditore, among others.

Venue

The symposium takes place at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne, which is located in Renens, Avenue du Temple 5, to the west of Lausanne. If you are travelling by car, park at the City Hall (Hôtel-de-Ville) parking. There are a limited number of blue zone (1.5 hour) and white zone (3 hours) parking places around the ECAL building.

Lausanne is well connected to neighbouring towns thanks to an efficient public transport network. Lausanne and Renens are less than 45 minutes by train from Geneva Airport, with fast and frequent connections to other destinations throughout Switzerland. ECAL is accessible to people with reduced mobility. Lifts are available to access all floors.

There are several options to commute from Renens to downtown Lausanne and vice versa:

By train CFF
Renens station (train station 5' walk from ECAL)
By metro M1
Line M1: Renens station (metro stop Renens train station is 5' walk from ECAL)
By bus
Line nº17 and 19: bus stop Hôtel-de-Ville (2' walk from ECAL)
By car
parking at the Hôtel-de-Ville car park

About

Swiss Design Network Symposium 2024
Design Research / Design Forschung / Recherche-Création / Ricerca-Design

Organised by
ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO)

In Collaboration with
EPFL+ECAL Lab

With the contribution of
Federal Office of Culture
Pro Helvetia / Swiss Arts Council

With the support of
HES-SO/University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland
SDN/Swiss Design Network
SNSF/Swiss National Science Foundation

Graphic design and web development

Typefaces
Varia, Alexis Gargaloni, 2023
HLC Metra, Hugo Le Corre, 2024

ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO)
Avenue du Temple 5
1020 Renens
Switzerland
ecal logo Hes-So logo Swiss Design Network logo Swiss National Science Foundation logo