Performance Lighthouse

Platform for the promotion of performance art projects driven by EPFL students

Public performance of Improgineering students at ARSENIC, Lausanne, May 2022 (Credits: S. Henein)

The mission of EPFL’s Performance Lighthouse, launched in Spring 2024, is to lead the conceptualization, organization, coordination, production, and promotion of performance art projects driven by students of EPFL, in collaboration with external art institutions.

Through this initiative, this platform aims to build a network that facilitates cross-fertilization between the artistic endeavors of EPFL students and alumi, local art institutions and relevant activities conducted at DHI labs and other EPFL labs.

Upcoming events

Are engineers improvisers?

Wednesday, November 13, 12:15-1:15pm, Rolex Learning Center: Simon Henein, Alain Bovet and Simona Ferrar will present the Improgineering course and the Performance Lighthouse. The discussion will focus on how performance art and collective improvisation can feed into the student curriculum.

Info and registration

Improvisation Workshop

Wednesday, November 20, 12:15-1:15 pm., Rolex Learning Center: Two students from the Improgineering course, accompanied by their teacher, will give an improvisation workshop open to all, to share some of the essential elements that the Improgineering course has taught them. Open to all upon registration.

Info and registration

DAENCITY: Artistic residency for EPFL Students at Théâtre Sévelin 36

Dance workshop and reflective laboratory.

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The body on stage in light of improvisation

Workshop within the “BODY” module of the CAS “Dramaturgie et performance du texte” run by La Manufacture and UNIL.

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Education:

Research in learning sciences demonstrates that engagement in performing arts practices enhances students’ learning processes, bridging the gap between theory and practice and promoting boundary crossing from academic to extracurricular realms. This integration is rooted in the involvement of the body in knowledge acquisition and production, the collective essence of creativity and the potent role of improvisation in all living actions.

  • The course IMPROGINEERING: “Collective creation: improvised arts and engineering”, integrated into EPFL’s Human and Social Sciences (SHS) program, was developed by Prof. Simon Henein, in collaboration with performance artist Joëlle Valterio and the Arsenic (Lausanne’s Center for Contemporary Scenic Art). Since 2017, this course has been introducing students to improvisation techniques developed in the living arts (theater, music, dance, performance) and examining their possible transposition to engineering design practices.

Outreach:

Academically recognizing and supporting the artistic endeavors of EPFL students enables the valorization of these initiatives within the curricula such as through the allocation of ECTS credits to semester or master’s projects. Moreover, extending the reach of these initiatives beyond academia by creating public events in partnership with external artistic institutions enhances the exchanges with the city and broader community.

Research:

Performing Arts as Pedagogical Tool in Higher Education (ASCOPET)

Team:

  • Simon Henein
    EPFL Professor in Microengineering & Head of the Performance Lighthouse
  • Alain Bovet
    Postdoctoral researcher in sociology
  • Tanja Ulrich
    PhD Student, ETHZ-EPFL Joint Doctoral Program in Learning Sciences

Partners: