Ettore Sottsass, l’attività grafica. Una ricerca d’archivio

key details

15 December 2025
Onsite at Fondazione Giorgio Cini
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

The talk will focus on a less explored aspect of Ettore Sottsass’s figure and career: his work in the field of graphic design, examined in the forthcoming volume Ettore Sottsass. L’attività grafica. Una ricerca d’Archivio (2025), edited by Fiorella Bulegato and Marco Scotti. The authors will engage in dialogue with Sergio Menichelli, a visual designer who worked at Sottsass Associati in the 1990s and is a keen expert on Sottsass’s practice.

During the event, the research that led to the publication of the volume will be presented, promoted by IUAV University of Venice and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, where part of Ettore Sottsass Archive is preserved. Starting from the archive and relating materials, connections, and references to other collections and holdings, the lecturers will illustrate the path that led them to focus on Sottsass’s graphic design activity, probably the least known area within the vast body of work of the celebrated architect and designer. Menichelli’s perspective will offer the opportunity to delve into the architect’s graphic work from the viewpoint of someone who worked alongside him and experienced first-hand his personal design approach.

The lecture will be held in Italian.

Lecturers

Marco Scotti

He is an art and design historian, currently a research fellow and adjunct lecturer in Design History at IUAV University of Venice. He holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Parma and has also collaborated with the university as a researcher, curator, and fellow at the CSAC – Study and Communication Archive Centre.
Together with Elisabetta Modena, he conceived the digital museum MoRE (moremuseum.org), dedicated to the preservation and promotion of unrealised contemporary art projects.

Fiorella Bulegato

She is an architect and design-history scholar, and a full professor at the IUAV University of Venice. She has carried out documentary research and provided support in the creation of design archives, and she serves on the scientific boards of various journals, including Progetto grafico (from 2025) and Graphicus (since 2013). From 2014 to 2019, she was assistant editor, together with M. Dalla Mura and C. Vinti, of AIS/Design Journal. Storia e ricerche, the journal of the Italian Association of Design Historians. She is also the editor responsible for the Arti&Design series published by Ronzani.

Sergio Virginio Menichelli

He is a Milan-based graphic designer. He studied graphic design at ISA in Monza, at ISIA in Urbino and at Atelier AG Fronzoni, and photography at the Scuola Umanitaria (now CFP Bauer) in Milan. In the early 1990s he worked in various design studios, including Ettore Sottsass’s studio, Memo New York, Studio Lissoni and Studio De Lucchi. In 1996, together with B. Forni and C. Bottino, he founded Studio FM Milano. From 2000, he has taught in numerous schools and universities, including Politecnico di Milano, ISIA Urbino, ISIA Rome, CFP Bauer, University of Design of San Marino, and IUAV Venice.

Registration

Countering the Eclipse of Sound Memories: Workshop on Audio Documents

key details

24 November — 26 November 2025
3 days / 20 hours / Location: Venice
Deadline 9 November 2025

Reference

about

The Digital Centre ARCHiVe of Fondazione Giorgio Cini, in collaboration with the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) of the Department of Information Engineering (DEI) at the University of Padua, is presenting Countering the Eclipse of Sound Memories: Workshop on the Digitisation and Preservation of Audio Documents, a workshop dedicated to scientific methodologies, technologies and international standards for the restoration, active preservation and digitisation of audio documents.

This three-day intensive programme on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore will introduce participants to the historical and technical aspects of sound carriers, the principles of audio preservation, and the methodologies for their digitisation and restoration. Combining lectures and hands-on sessions, the workshop will cover the preparation and repair of media, analogue-to-digital conversion techniques, metadata creation, and best practices for long-term digital preservation.

Through a learning-by-doing approach, participants will engage directly with equipment and workflows, gaining both theoretical and practical skills in the digitisation and safeguarding of audio heritage.

The workshop is open to a selected group of participants (students and professionals from various backgrounds) who will have the opportunity to learn and interact directly with the CSC team.
Accommodation for two nights at the Vittore Branca Centre Residence on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, lunch on the first day, and an ACTV pass for travel within the lagoon for the duration of the workshop are included in the participation fee.
A certificate of attendance will be issued at the end of the workshop.

Programme

November 24, 2025

Day 1 – Introduction and Historical Overview

Morning (11am – 1:30pm)

Welcome, general intro and programme overview
Ice-breaker: student presentations (3 mins each)
Presentation of Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Digital Centre – ARCHiVe + Q&A
Visit to Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Afternoon (2:30pm – 5:30pm)

Historical overview of sound carriers (engraved media: 78 rpm, 45 rpm, 33 rpm; magnetic media: open-reel tapes, audiocassettes, DAT) + Q&A
Feedback and reflections from day 1

November 25, 2025

Day 2 – Digitisation Methodology and Practical Session

Morning (9am – 1:30pm)

Digitisation methodology (Part 1) + Q&A
- Preparation and repair of carriers
- Equalisation curves
- Channel configuration
- The tape recorder

Afternoon (2:30pm – 5:30pm)

Digitisation methodology (Part 2)
- Analogue-to-digital conversion (A/D)
- Setting up the digitisation workstation
Feedback and reflections from day 2

November 26, 2025

Day 3 – Advanced Practical Session, Metadata and Post-production

Morning (9am – 1:30pm)

Lecture on metadata, digital archives, and best practices for long-term preservation + Q&A
Practical Digitisation (Part 1)

Afternoon (2:30pm – 17:00pm)

Practical Digitisation (Part 2), post-production and digital restoration
Feedback and reflections
Certificates and celebration drinks
Close

Useful information

The course will only proceed if 12 participants are reached.

Participation fee: 350€
For participants who will not require accommodation and the ACTV pass, a reduced fee is available.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an email by November 10 that will provide a deadline for accepting and paying for your place. Your place will be held until this deadline.

If you have any questions, please get in touch: info.aoa@cini.it

Restoration, Active Preservation and Digitisation of Audio Documents

Digitisation of magnetic tape using a STUDER A810 tape recorder

key details

6 May 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

Reference

Centro di Sonologia Computazionale | Università di Padova

about

The lesson “Scientific Methodologies, Technologies and International Standards for the Restoration, Active Preservation and Digitisation of Audio Ddocuments” focuses on the methodologies and technologies used by Audio Innova srl, developed at the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) of the Department of Information Engineering (DEI) at the University of Padua for the digitisation and restoration of sound documents.

During the meeting, various case studies will be presented, illustrating the challenges and solutions adopted by Audio Innova and the CSC research group in this field, offering a detailed overview of the digitisation technologies used.

Particular attention will be given to the international standard MPAI/IEEE-CAE ARP 3302-2022, which employs artificial intelligence for the automatic analysis of sound documents, improving the efficiency and accuracy of the digitisation processes.

The lecture will be held in Italian.

Lecturers

Sergio Canazza

He is a Professor at the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Padua, where he directs the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC). He chairs the Board of Directors of AudioInnova, a university spin-off. He holds a patent in the field of workplace safety and has won two Golden Palms at the Cannes Film Festival for artificial intelligence (2023–2024).

Alessandro Russo

Since 2016, he has been conducting research at the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) at the University of Padua, focusing on audio restoration, and at La Camera Ottica Lab (Udine), working on numerous projects involving the digitisation and restoration of film and audiovisual collections. He is currently a PhD candidate in Brain, Mind, and Computer Science at the University of Padua, with a project centred on the preservation and reactivation of multimedia art installations.

Registration

AI and Heritage: Practical Skills for Extracting Information from Historical Documents

key details

6, 11 and 13 March 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

Reference

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

about

The objective of this course is to introduce techniques and resources that help research on the digitisations of historical documents, in particular in the context of architectural and urban history. Over three two-hours sessions, we will cover all the steps that allow to move from a set of scanned historical documents to a structured geo-historical database.

The sessions introduce techniques as varied as image segmentation, text recognition, alignment on external databases, and geocoding. It will combine both lectures and hands-on tutorials on provided data. There will also be space for interested researchers to ask questions about their own data, and how studied techniques can be applied.

The lectures present more general theoretical concepts of information processing understandable by a professional but untrained audience; Knowledge of coding in Python is expected for practical tutorials. Other specific knowledge in computer science is also welcome.

For any questions on the content of this course, please contact: paul.guhennec@epfl.ch

Programme

March 6, 2025

From archive to segmented image

Introduction to the automatic processing of large digitised archives. Motivation and case studies;
Lecture: Image segmentation;
Tutorial.

March 11, 2025

From segmented image to extracted text

Lecture: Text segmentation, alignment on authority databases, named entity recognition;
Tutorial.

March 13, 2025

From extracted text to geo-historical database

Lecture: Geocoding and alignment on Linked Open Databases;
Tutorial;
Summary case study on corpus analysis.

Lecturers

Frédéric Kaplan

He is the director of the College of Humanities at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He also holds the Chair of Digital Humanities and is President of the Time Machine Organisation, a non-profit association of over 600 institutions. He is the author of a dozen books, translated into several languages, and over a hundred scientific publications.

Isabella di Lenardo

She is a researcher at EPFL’s Digital Humanities Institute, specializing in Art History, Digital Humanities, and Digital Urban History. She focuses on the circulation of artworks and historical cartography. Leading the Time Machine Unit at EPFL, she uses AI and digitization to explore Europe’s cultural heritage. She is the PI on European projects and co-PI on the SNFS-funded “Parcels of Venice” project.

Paul Guhennec

He is a post-doctoral researcher in the Digital Humanities Laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). His research focuses on the usage of new computational methods for architectural history, and their epistemological implications. He recently finished his doctoral dissertation on Venice’s urban history, with a focus on vernacular domestic architecture.

Parcels of Venice

key details

20 February 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

reference

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

about

This is a project founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and led by the EPFL, designed to facilitate the exploration of historical sources related to Venice.

The platform’s search engine allows users to find names, places, urban functions, and other data drawn from various primary and secondary sources, including census data, historical cartography, and trade annuaries across a broad chronological span. Each information is verifiable and traceable within the extraction process. The published datasets are accessible to both the scholarly community and the public for reuse in specific studies. The platform is designed to be incremental, allowing for the addition of new datasets and citations.

The course will cover the technical background, methodologies, and development choices, presenting datasets and analyses conducted by scholars on urban morphology and city functions. A follow-up workshop aimed at young researchers will focus on data analysis and interpretation.

The lesson will be held in English.

Lecturers

Frédéric Kaplan

Isabella di Lenardo

Paul Guhennec

Manuel Ehrenfeld

He is a software engineer at EPFL. He is the founder of Non-linear, a design studio specializing in visual communication and digital development. He lectures in Communication Design at IULM University and teaches Computer Graphics at Brera Academy. With extensive experience in front-end development, he has led projects for prestigious events and brands, pioneering in digital innovations and interactive design. Fluent in multiple languages, he is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Access to Materials in Digital Archives, Copyright and Related Rights: the Archivio Progetti IUAV as a Case Study

Archivio Progetti, Università Iuav di Venezia © Luca Pilot

key details

28 and 29 January 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

Established in 1987, the Archivio Progetti IUAV is an archival and research centre dedicated to the documentation and scholarly promotion of the documentary heritage of 20th and 21st-century architecture in its diverse disciplinary dimensions: building design, urban, landscape, and territorial planning, structural, technological, and systems design, urban development, interior design, industrial design, artistic craftsmanship, photography, graphic design, and communication.

Following the presentation of this Archive, the course will proceed with an overview of selected collections relevant to industrial design.

In this context, the legal issue of copyright and related rights (such as photography) will be explored, particularly focusing on the use of digitised materials from the archive (including photos, projects, etc.) with some examples of best practices adopted by the Archivio Progetti IUAV.

The course will be held in Italian.

Lecturers

Barbara Pasa

Barbara Pasa, Full Professor of Comparative Private Law at the Iuav University of Venice, teaches Comparative Intellectual Property, Contract Law, and Consumer Law. A graduate and PhD from the University of Trento, she worked for over 10 years at the University of Turin. A qualified lawyer, she is a member of national and international academic bodies, with research and teaching experience at universities across Europe and the US.

Rosa Chiesa

Researcher in Design at the Iuav University, she is an architect with a degree from the Politecnico di Milano and a PhD in Design Sciences from Iuav. Her research focuses on glass and design, exploring Murano’s entrepreneurial history through archival sources. A board member of AIS/Design and the ISEC Foundation, she has taught design history at several institutions, curated exhibitions on Luca Meda and Toni Zuccheri, and collaborates with scientific journals and publishers.

Giovanni Marras

From 2004 to 2014, Associate Professor of Architectural Composition at the University of Trieste, currently a member of the doctoral board in Architectural Composition at Iuav University of Venice, where he earned his PhD. His research focuses on form, construction, and architectural character, with emphasis on Latin America, cultural heritage, and landscape. He led the MIUR project re-HOUSING and has authored essays on memory and contemporary design.

Teresita Scalco

With a PhD in Design Science from Iuav, she is the Head of Archivio Progetti, the research and archival centre of the Iuav Library System, where she is in charge of the collection management, coordinating and supporting research, educational, editorial, exhibition activities, with the aim to improve the access and dissemination of archival fonds, such as the digital project Petit tour.

1/2 L'accesso ai materiali degli Archivi Digitali, il diritto d'autore e i diritti connessi: l'Archivio Progetti IUAV come caso studio

2/2 L'accesso ai materiali degli Archivi Digitali, il diritto d'autore e i diritti connessi: l'Archivio Progetti IUAV come caso studio

Art and Innovation, a new idea of Archives

key details

10 and 12 December 2024
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

The course, curated by Valentino Catricalà, focuses on the relationship between art and innovation, on how artists, using media that are changing our societies, not only open up new reflections on media but also create new practices that impact the world of innovation.

Therefore, the point of interest of the research is not only how the world of art can develop through technology but also how the world of innovation can benefit from the relationship with artists.

These issues will be developed through case studies with a focus on artists who use databases and archives, to understand how archives reinterpreted by artists can be a source of technological innovation. In the second lesson, the artist Donato Piccolo will discuss the poetics of his creative process and the ongoing dialogue between science, technology and art in his work.

The course will be held in Italian.

lecturers

Valentino Catricalà

He is curator and museum director. He has been founder and artistic director of MODAL Gallery at SODA in Manchester and lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is currently involved in a big new project in Saudi Arabia. He has curated exhibitions in important Museum and Galleries such as Fondazione Prada (Milan, Tokyo), Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco), Ermitage (Saint Petersburg), MAXXI (Rome), ADI Design Museum (Milan), Museo Riso (Palermo), Media Center (New York), Istituto Italiano di Cultura Nuova Delhi, Ca’ Foscari (Venice).

Donato Piccolo

His art investigates natural, physical and biological phenomena through design drawings and technological and mechanical installations. Through the study of human cognitive faculties, his art analyses the perceptive aspects of the natural world. Most of his works combine two complementary aspects: they are sculptures and machines, forms and processes at the same time. This hybrid character constitutes the very nature of a “holistic art”: an art whose essential function is to explore “the incomprehensible mystery of the visible world”. He is an acclaimed Italian artist on the international stage and his creations have been showcased in prominent museums and institutions worldwide.

1/2 Art and Innovation, a new idea of Archives

2/2 Art and Innovation, a new idea of Archives

Arnaldo Pomodoro Archive: digitising to preserve and enhance

Contact sheet of the photo shoot of the Rotanti sculptures located on the banks of the Ticino River. Photographs by Ugo Mulas © Eredi Ugo Mulas

Arnaldo Pomodoro's desk in the studio on Via Vigevano, Milan © Andrea Cerabolini

Arnaldo Pomodoro and Ettore Sottsass at the house on Via della Commenda, Milan. Photographs by Ugo Mulas © Eredi Ugo Mulas

The consultation room of the Arnaldo Pomodoro Archive in Vicolo Lavandai, Milan © Andrea Cerabolini

Raw file generated during the digitisation process, before post-production

Digitisation of archival materials at the Digital Centre of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini © Joan Porcel

key details

3 December 2024
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

reference

Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro

about

The Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, established at the artist’s behest in 1995, has the primary task of conserving and disseminating his work.

The Archive, managed by the Foundation itself, houses a wide variety of materials documenting the sculptor’s artistic production and professional relationships: photographs, exhibition catalogues, correspondence, models, and other working materials. To provide broader public access to this heritage, the Catalogue Raisonné and the Online Archive projects were initiated, including a collaboration with the Digital Centre of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini for the acquisition of fragile and complex materials, such as thirteen scrapbooks (1954-1984) and the substantial Ugo Mulas collection (1960-1970).

The lecture presents the Archive through its history, materials, and the management dynamics that the Foundation implements for its enhancement; it will also illustrate the ongoing digitisation process and the technologies used for rendering the digital files.

The lesson will be held in Italian.

Lecturers

Ilaria Sgaravatto

Archivist at the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation. She graduated in History and Criticism of Art from the University of Milan and completed a postgraduate specialisation course at the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, focusing on the History of Photography. Her thesis on Antonia Mulas was followed by further research and publications in the field.

Dario Peluso

Software developer specialised in computer vision, he currently leads software development at the Digital Centre of Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Coming from a decade-long professional activity in the field of music print (having worked for major music publishers such as Ricordi, Breitkopf & Härtel, Bärenreiter, Schott) he is today focused on the field of digital humanities and technologies at the service of cultural heritage.

Archivio Arnaldo Pomodoro: digitalizzare per conservare e valorizzare

MEET and Digital Experience: Revitalising an Archive

Renaissance Dreams, Refik Anadol_ph Elena Galimberti

key details

18 November 2024
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

MEET is the first International Centre for Digital Art and Culture, established in Milan in February 2018.
Maria Grazia Mattei is its founder and director and has been leading the Meet the Media Guru platform for meetings and knowledge since 2005.
Her aim is to support the development of a new awareness regarding technology as a resource for people’s creativity and the well-being of society as a whole. During this lecture, the curator will discuss the theme of immersiveness as a new form of entertainment, communication, and knowledge enjoyment, involving some of the most significant figures and phenomena in the sector.

The lesson will be held in Italian.

Lecturer

Maria Grazia Mattei

Humanist and art critic, she has been exploring digital territories for over thirty years. She has been investigating its frontiers and potential since the 1980s. In 2005 she founded Meet the Media Guru, a platform for discussion and public debate on innovation issues. With the support of Fondazione Cariplo in 2018 Mattei created MEET Digital Culture Center, the first International Centre for Digital Art and Culture based in Milan. She is now Founder and President of MEET Digital Culture Centre.

Digitisation and valorisation of Venetian Music Archives

key details

22 November 2023
Onsite at ARCHiVe / Online on Zoom
2pm — 6pm (CET)

Reference

about

A study seminar on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, in collaboration with the Institute for Music and the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

The meeting was created to take stock of the state of the art of projects for the description, digitisation and valorisation of the main sound and music archives belonging to various city institutes actively engaged in this regard. The aim is to share methods and technologies, good practices and virtuous choices adopted by the various institutions called upon to participate, highlighting the peculiarities of each archive and emphasising the links that unite them.

Programme

New IISMC proposals for audiovisual archives in ethnomusicology

Giovanni Giuriati | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
Marco Lutzu | Università degli Studi di Cagliari
Simone Tarsitani | Durham University
Costantino Vecchi | Fondazione Giorgio Cini

The IISMC (Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati) archive of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini holds documentation on the Institute’s activities since 1969. In addition to working on the preservation and enhancement of the archival materials (paper, audio, photographic and video), since 2004 the Institute has been systematically documenting its initiatives in audiovisual form.

The talk intends to present recent work carried out using digital technologies for the IISMC archive with particular reference to audiovisual documentation (S. Tarsitani), cataloguing and restitution (C. Vecchi) and the creation of audiovisual materials for educational and dissemination purposes (M. Lutzu).

LeviDigiLab: the digitisation project of the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi

Giulia Clera | Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi

With the LeviDigiLab project, the Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi in 2023 started a digitisation process for the preservation and online consultation of the documentary heritage of the Gianni Milner Library.

The project aims to bring the culture of digitisation into the Fondazione Levi, making the structure and the staff involved capable of dealing with the digital transformation of the holdings for conservation and enhancement and to increase the public’s accessibility through a dedicated platform searchable by the user through a dedicated front-end (Opac).
The foundation has equipped itself with an in-house laboratory that is currently being implemented thanks also to the numerous grants obtained.

Design and development of the digital archive of the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono: an interweaving of knowledge between musicology, archivistics and computer science

Alessandro Russo | Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) Università di Padova
Michele Patella | Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) Università di Padova

The Luigi Nono Archive was founded in 1993 on the initiative of Nuria Schoenberg Nono with the aim of collecting, preserving and promoting the composer’s precious legacy. Since 2015 the project of the creation of the Luigi Nono Digital Collection has been launched in collaboration with Paul Sacher Stiftung and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Between 2015 and 2017, a preservation and valorisation project took place, promoted and coordinated by the Soprintendenza archivistica e bibliografica del Veneto e del Trentino Alto Adige, which also involved the magnetic tapes of the Luigi Nono funds. The intervention was entrusted to the Centre for Computational Sonology of the University of Padua. In 2019, the online migration of the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono’s database began with the intervention of the company Audio Innova, a spin-off of the University of Padua.

ARMID@Venice: Music and Digital Humanism in Venice. The musical sources of the "Benedetto Marcello" Conservatory

Paolo Da Col | Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia
Alice Martignon | Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Giulio Pojana | Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

On 1 October 2021, thanks to a new scientific collaboration between the “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory of Music in Venice and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, it was possible to launch ARMID@Venezia (ARchivio Musicale e Iconografico Digitale A Venezia), a research project dedicated to the digitisation, virtual restoration and non-invasive diagnostic study of ancient musical sources (manuscripts and printed books) kept at the lagoon music institute. After a brief excursus on the main digitisation, cataloguing, conservation and valorisation projects currently active at the Conservatory’s “Mario Messinis” Library (Prof. P. Da Col), the technologies adopted and the results achieved within ARMID@Venezia will be described (Dr. A. Martignon, Prof. G. Pojana).

The Archives of the Institute for Music of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Francisco Rocca | Fondazione Giorgio Cini

The Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute for Music works for the acquisition, preservation, protection, and valorisation of 20th and early 21st centuries archives, with a focus on those produced by prominent personalities from the worlds of music, dance and audiovisual, which can be consulted through digital archives.

The presentation aims to illustrate this archival heritage and the enhancement initiatives implemented in recent years, focusing in particular on digital archives and their huge potential.