Nicolas Henchoz

Nicolas Henchoz is the founding director of the EPFL+ECAL Lab, the design research centre of EPFL (the Swiss federal institute of technology, Lausanne) in cooperation with ECAL (University of Art and Design, Lausanne).

Its mission is to turn technical performance into impactful user experience, and to understand adoption factors for disruptive innovation. Having initiated projects with the Montreux Jazz Festival archives, Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, and Swiss National Library, Nicolas has established a strong research track on how to transform digital archives from hidden databases to emotional and cognitive experiences for the public.

The work of EPFL+ECAL Lab has been published academically in multiple conferences and journals, and has won awards including at the International Design Festival Berlin, Design Prize Switzerland as well as the Splash Awards Best of the Web and Best Application of the Year.

MuseumNext Digital Collections Summit
Tuesday, 11 October 2022

Curator-AI collaboration: Revealing the secrets of a digital poster collection

This talk takes you behind the scenes of a unique approach to valorizing digital collections. Bringing together experts in curation, design, and machine learning and working with the digitised poster archive of Zurich’s Museum für Gestaltung, we designed an interactive museum installation to showcase this rich and under-accessed collection. We’ll explain the techniques we used to combine curator expertise with artificial intelligence in order to balance the potential of new digital tools with expressive human narrative. We’ll also share insights into how we were able generate both cognitive and emotional impact for both graphic design experts and the general public.

Find the full schedule here