Burning Memories 2025
Reviving the rich heritage of the world-renowned festival, the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab I has stood the test of time. More than a decade after its release, this immersive installation demonstrates that digital innovation can remain relevant over time, when it is meaningfully designed. Celebrating the last song of this pioneer installation, the EPFL+ECAL Lab has underlined some insights on creating digital innovation with a lasting impact during the festive Burning Memories event.
Fifteen years ago, Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, was a regular visitor to the EPFL campus. The archives of the festival were being digitised, ready to be added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. But one fundamental question remained unanswered; how could the emotional, cultural and social experience of a real concert be recreated from a digital file?
In search of an answer, the EPFL+ECAL Lab, ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace) and the Cultural Heritage & Innovation Center at EPFL, developed three experimental immersive devices over several years as part of a collaboration with the Claude Nobs Foundation and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Each one took on the challenge to find new ways to revive this digitised content. The first installation won the Design Prize Switzerland, and the others have been the subject of major international academic contributions, exhibitions and events. All three have seen Claude Nobs and Quincy Jones immerse themselves in their music and atmosphere, each defining unprecedented principles for bringing digitised concerts back to life.
Fifteen years after its conception, the first installation, the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab I, is still functional and relevant. It serves as an example that when digital innovation is meaningfully designed, it can remain relevant over time. On the occasion of the Burning Memories event, the EPFL+ECAL Lab has retraced the history of this project together with some of its main contributors to this project, and shared insights on creating digital innovation with a lasting impact. After a live jazz performance, the guests have been able to immerse themselves in the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab I for the last time.
