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.

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.

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.

Team:

  • Simon Henein
    EPFL Professor in Microengineering & Head of the Performance Lighthouse
  • Melanie Studer
    PhD Student, ETHZ-EPFL Joint Doctoral Program in Learning Sciences

Events:

Teaching:

IMPROGINEERING: “Collective creation: improvised arts and engineering”

Research:

Performing Arts as Pedagogical Tool in Higher Education (ASCOPET)

Publications:

BOOK: R. Tau, L. Kloetzer, S. Henein (Eds.), 2024, Barefoot academic teaching: performing arts as a pedagogical tool in higher education, SCENARIO Book Series, Schibri-Verlag Publisher

Rehearsal of Improgineering students at ARSENIC, Lausanne, May 2024 (Credits: S. Henein)