ARCHiVe

Course Tag: AI

Artificial Aesthetics

Chinese landscape paintings produced using Generative Adversarial Networks (from: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.05552)
Images in Impressionist style generated by Generative Adversarial Networks in 2021
Arca Musarithmica, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680)

key details

22 October 2024
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

Curated by Professor Emanuele Arielli, this lesson will discuss the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems in the creation and interpretation of artworks raises questions concerning authorship, originality, and aesthetic perception. While machine learning algorithms can generate visual, musical, and literary works that emulate traditional styles, there is the dilemma of whether such creations can be considered genuinely artistic or merely technical reproductions.

This topic also explores how technology can extend or limit human understanding of beauty, proposing a critical reflection on how AI-generated art challenges established aesthetic categories. Artificial aesthetics, therefore, invites reconsideration of the definitions of art and creator in the digital age, offering new perspectives on the evolution of art and its cultural and social impact. Additionally, the ethical implications of these developments will be considered.

Lecturers

Emanuele Arielli

He is Associate Professor of Aesthetics at IUAV University in Venice. He has extensive teaching experience at several universities, including IULM University (Milan), G. D’Annunzio University (Pescara), Ca’ Foscari University (Venice), and the Technical University of Berlin. He has authored multiple books and academic papers, and collaborates internationally on research exploring the intersection between aesthetics, media and technology.

 

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Maps are too exciting! Digital innovations in Cartography

Celestial Globe by John Senex (1728), Rare Books and Manuscript Reading Room of the Weston Library, Oxford

key details

10 October 2024
On site (Weston Library, Oxford) – Online on Zoom
11am — 5pm (CET)

Reference

about

For the past two years, Factum Foundation has been working with the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford University on ARCHiOx (the Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Oxford), parallel project to ARCHiVe. Both projects share the vision of making high-resolution 3D and color-recording a regular part of the workflow in libraries, museums, and private collections, with the final goal of improving accessibility and research.

This symposium, dedicated to digital innovation in the field of cartography, is generously funded and co-organised by the Sunderland Collection. Co-organisers are Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University and Factum Foundation in the context of ARCHiOx.

Technologies continuously evolve transforming the representation of space and geography, shaping new forms of consciousness and knowledge. Digital technologies are mediating access to and research into cartographic material. 2D and 3D digital recording and display technologies are being employed to document rare maps, globes, and other cartographic material, enhancing research and playing a crucial role in the decision-making processes focused on both access and preservation. The same GIS being used to map our planet are also mapping the surface of vellum manuscripts, or mapping projected digital images. This material evidence, when combined with machine learning and immersive display technologies, has the potential to cultivate a new intimacy with the physical world.

As the physical world is digitised, the digital world becomes increasingly physical. Maps help us navigate this unfamiliar terrain. The symposium will bring together experts in cartographic history and cartographers of the digital world in a celebration and exploration of the role that maps play to provide access to real and imaginary worlds.

You can attend in person or online: please register here.

More info also on Oculi Mundi – Sunderland Collection.

This event is included in the AOA programme. Students from partner universities requiring CFU credits and attending on Zoom, are kindly requested to sign in and out by sending their name and University in a private chat message to Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Programme

11am (CET)

Morning Session: The art of cartography and new evidence

  • Richard Ovenden | University of Oxford
  • Judith Siefring | Bodleian Library
  • John Barrett | Bodleian Library
  • Nick Millea | Bodleian Library
  • Yossef Rapoport | Queen Mary University
  • Sanne Frequin | Utrecht University

11–11.15am: Welcome by Richard Ovenden OBE, Bodley’s Librarian, Head of Gardens, Libraries and Museums at the University of Oxford.

11.15am–1pm: Panel and Q&A: The art of cartography and new evidence
Chaired by Judith Siefring, Head of Digital Collections Discovery, Bodleian Libraries

  • Material evidence of the surface of objects (20 minutes)
    John Barrett, Lead Photographer at ARCHiOx and the first person to use the Selene Photometric Stereo System within a major library.
  • Spectacular! A digital exploration of medieval Gough Map of Britain (20 minutes)
    Nick Millea, Map Curator at the Bodleian Libraries
  • The Greatest Medieval Map-Maker: Al-Sharif al-Idrisi and Roger’s Silver Disc (20 minutes)
    Yossef Rapoport, Professor of Islamic History at Queen Mary University, London
  • A Ship’s Globe in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht (20 minutes)
    Sanne Frequin, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Art History, University of Utrecht

1.30pm (CET)

Special presentation – Nesting Globes: visualising the current global situation

  • Bruce Mau | Massive Change Network

1.30pm–2pm: Special presentation – Nesting Globes: visualising the current global situation
Bruce Mau, designer, philosopher, architect, and educator.

3pm (CET)

Afternoon session: Mapping in a digital world

  • Giovanni Pala | University of Oxford
  • Katherine McDonough | Lancaster University
  • Sarah Kenderdine | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  • Ed Parsons | Google Earth
  • Adam Lowe | Factum Foundation

3–4.45pm: Panel and Q&A: Mapping in a digital world
Chaired by Giovanni Pala, economic historian of technology and information

  • Map Search: Using AI to explore map content (20 minutes)
    Katherine McDonough, Lecturer in Digital Humanities at Lancaster University; Senior Research Fellow and head of the Machines Reading Maps Project at The Alan Turing Institute.
  • Deep Mapping: from archives to the universe (20 minutes)
    Sarah Kenderdine, Professor of Digital Humanities at École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland; Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Museology.
  • Geospatial transformation (20 minutes)
    Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, tech evangelist, and co-founder of Google Earth.

4.50pm–5pm: Conclusions: Adam Lowe, Founder of Factum Foundation and Factum Arte

Fashion and Textiles between Digitisation and AI

Prato Phygital, MIMIT-funded project for the development of 5G technology
Midjourney, outcome of 'Fashion editorial with models' prompt, 2023
Acne Studio, F/W 2020 men's collection in collaboration with Robbie Barrat and AI, 2020

key details

11 April 2024
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

Reference

about

The online course, curated by Elisabetta Cianfanelli, Paolo Franzo, Leonardo Giliberti, and Margherita Tufarelli (University of Florence), investigates the digital transition taking place in the fashion system and the implications of the diffusion of artificial intelligence in creative and production processes.

Through the presentation of a series of research projects and case studies, the ‘phygital’ landscape that has been characterising the textile and clothing industry in recent years will be analysed. It will explore how, in this evolution, archives are being transformed into multi-sensory and multi-vocal datasets that can be drawn on through algorithms to create new content, thanks to a redefinition of professional skills and design methodologies.

Lecturers

Elisabetta Cianfanelli

Full professor in Design, she has been president of the master’s degree course in Fashion System Design until 2023.

She is co-responsible for CU 2 of the Doctorate of National Interest ‘Design for Made in Italy’, scientific responsible for UniFI of the inter-university research centre ‘Fashioning AI’ and director of the journal Fashion Highlight.

Paolo Franzo

PhD at Iuav, he has been a researcher in fashion design at the University of Florence since 2023.

His international and transdisciplinary research activity focuses on the ecological and digital transition in fashion, in particular on pre-consumer waste in the textile-clothing industry and AI in fashion design.

Leonardo Giliberti

He is a PhD student at the University of Florence within the PON Research and Innovation programme with a thesis on the role of artificial intelligence in fashion design and its production processes.

He carried out a research period at the Lisbon School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon

Margherita Tufarelli

PhD, she is a researcher in fashion design at the University of Florence. Her research interests concern the opportunities and impacts of digital transformation on design, production and communication processes in the textile and fashion industry.

Her most recent research projects include: Prato Phygital and E tex – The haptic Library.

Fashion and Textiles between Digitisation and AI

Copyright for cultural property and AI

Cuarto Amarillo, Vettor Pisani, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ettore Spalletti and Franz West, 1992
Outcome of "Creativity, copyright and AI" prompt, 2023

key details

22 — 23 February
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

This two-lesson course will be an excellent opportunity to reflect on the value, legitimacy and ‘rights’ of contemporary works of art within our society and the relationship between copyright and artificial intelligence.

In the first lecture Virginia Montani Tesei (lawyer), Mario Pieroni (gallery owner) and Giovanni Floridi (notary public) will explore the themes of copyright, authenticity and different interpretations for works of art and the world of digital creativity.

During the second meeting, Francesco Paolo Micozzi (lawyer) will offer an insight into current regulations and future perspectives for adequate protection of intellectual property in the field of artificial creativity, examining both opportunities and emerging legal challenges.

Programme

February 22, 2024

Copyright for Cultural Heritage: a case study

  • Virginia Montani Tesei
  • Mario Pieroni
  • Giovanni Floridi

The issue of copyright for the cultural property will be discussed through the analysis of the case of the work Cuarto Amarillo, an installation created by four artists (Vettor Pisani, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ettore Spalletti and Franz West) on the occasion of the 1992 ARCOMadrid fair. The heirs of one of the artists requested part of the artwork after his death. After a brief excursus on the history of the eight-handed work and the risk of its destruction to dismember it, the topic of co-authorship under Italian Law and the difference between the joint ownership of the patrimonial copyright resulting from the co-authorship of the work and the joint ownership of the work will be discussed.

February 23, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright

  • Francesco Paolo Micozzi

During this meeting, the dynamic intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright will be explored. With the advent of increasingly advanced technologies, the field of AI has led to the emergence of relevant questions on intellectual property and artificial creativity. The basic principles of copyright law will be introduced and how these apply (or fail to apply) to AI-generated works will be discussed. Through a series of case studies, we look at concrete examples of how AI is transforming the intellectual property landscape, examining both the opportunities and emerging legal challenges. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the legal and ethical implications of content creation through AI, exploring topics such as authorship attribution, liability for copyright infringement and potential legislative reforms, including in the European context.

lecturers

Virginia Montani Tesei

She graduated in Law from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and pursued her studies between Italy and Spain. She perfected her studies with advanced courses in art law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and subsequent masters in the subject, including the Master of Art at the Luiss Business School. Following experience in international law firms, she founded his own firm specialising in art and cultural heritage law. Author of numerous essays and articles on the subject, listed by We Wealth among the top 200 professionals in the private wealth sector and invited speaker at the LUISS University of Rome master courses. In 2020, she promoted at ArtVerona the Montani Tesei Under 35 Prize, now in its third edition.

Mario Pieroni

Born in Rome in 1937, he moved to Pescara to follow his family’s textile and furniture business.  From 1971 he worked in contemporary art, starting with the realisation of Giacomo Balla’s furniture and tapestries. From 1975 to 1978 he opened and managed the exhibition space Il Bagno Borbonico in Pescara. In 1979 he moved to Rome where, together with Dora Stiefelmeier, he opened the Galleria Pieroni. In 1992 he ended the Gallery’s activity to found Zerynthia, Association for Contemporary Art. He is also Artistic Director of RAM radioartemobile, a platform for contemporary art created in 2003 and dedicated to sound research and exhibition activity. In 2017, he set up the Fondazione No Man’s Land in Loreto Aprutino (Pescara).

Giovanni Floridi

He was born and works in Rome, where he practises as a notary public.

Since the end of the 1990s, he started collecting contemporary art, now holding a collection ranging from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. Together with his wife Clara Datti, he also set up the Fondazione ‘D’ARC – Rifugio di Arte Contemporanea’, which is opening a new exhibition space in Rome.

Francesco Paolo Micozzi

Lawyer and lecturer in Legal Informatics at the Department of Law, University of Perugia, is author of monographs and essays on data protection, cyber security, computer crimes and copyright. He leads the Jean Monnet “CIBER” module at the University of Perugia on the subject of data breach and is a member of the academic board of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “BALDUS” at the same University on the subject of personal and non-personal data protection. Member of the Working Group of the Italian Foundation for Forensic Innovation at the CNF (National Forensic Council).

1/2 Copyright for cultural property and AI
2/2 Copyright for cultural property and AI