ARCHiVe

Course Tag: Digital Innovation

ESPACIAR 2025 – Digitalstage

"De la luz del sol y de la luna. Soledad Sevilla", 2021, Patio Herreriano Museum, Valladolid (Spain) © Juan Carlos Quindós
"Lo spazio del corpo – il corpo dello spazio" workshop exhibition, 2022, Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, Venice © Juan Carlos Quindós
"Digitalstage" workshop exhibition, 2023, Spanish Academy in Rome © Juan Carlos Quindós

key details

28 March 2025
Onsite at ARCHiVe / Online on Zoom
9:00am — 6:30pm (CET)

Reference

  • Research Group ESPACIAR | Universidad de Valladolid (Spain)

about

This academic and artistic meeting aims to deepen, from an architectural point of view, the new spatiality that has been generated since the 80s, and especially during the 21st century, in digital scenographic installations, due to the disruptive incorporation of software.

This innovative multimedia management has given rise to possibilities of expression and visual configurations previously unthinkable.

ESPACIAR. Spatial categories in art and architecture is a conference coordinated by the Recognised Research Group of the University of Valladolid (Spain) and is part of the Research Project DIGITALSTAGE. Spatial analysis of digital scenographic installations of the 21st century (2022-2025), funded by the Government of Spain and by FEDER, EU.

Programme

9:00 - 12:30 (CET)

Morning Session

  • Jorge Ramos Jular | Universidad de Valladolid
  • Francesco Zucconi | Università luav di Venezia
  • Edoardo Menon | Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Matteo Tora Celllini | CamerAnebbia
  • Liliana Fracasso
  • Lorenzo Galletti
  • Chiara Marsano
  • Zhenghao Yang
  • Diana Carta | Sapienza Università di Roma

9:00am-9:15am Welcome

9:15am-10:00am Keynote lecture | Dall’analogico al digitale. Bill Viola a Venezia
Jorge Ramos Jular (Universidad de Valladolid)

10:00am-11:00am Session 1 | Artistic projects & discussion
chair: Francesco Zucconi (Università luav di Venezia)

• Tra analogico e digitale. L’ostensione del patrimonio immateriale nell’opera di Studio Azzurro
Edoardo Menon (Sapienza Università di Roma)

• Compressione di spazio e tempo. Amplificazione dell’intensità espressiva
Diana Carta (Sapienza Università di Roma)

• Producción de presencia y evocación del lugar: un viaje interactivo en la laguna de Venecia a partir de Santa Marta
Liliana Fracasso, Lorenzo Galletti, Chiara Marsano, Zhenghao Yang (Scuola NTA, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia)

11:00am-11:30am Coffee Break

11:30am-12:30pm Keynote lecture | Vedere l’invisibile: Video installazioni immersive e metafore interattive
Matteo Tora Cellini (Collettivo CamerAnebbia, Milano)

3:00 - 6:30 PM (CET)

Afternoon Session

  • Federica Morgia | Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Manuela Ciangola | Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Francesco Masiello | Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Vittoria Silvaggi | Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Valentina Rizzi | Università Iuav di Venezia
  • Grazia Toderi
  • Gilberto Zorio
  • Renato Bocchi

3:00pm-4:00pm Session 2 | Academic research & discussion
chair: Federica Morgia (Sapienza Università di Roma)

• Metamorfosi teatrali: re-azioni nella scenografia contemporanea
Manuela Ciangola, Francesco Masiello (Sapienza Università di Roma)

• Materia oscura. O della pervasività del linguaggio
Vittoria Silvaggi (Sapienza Università di Roma)

• Homebodies in Pixels
Valentina Rizzi (Università Iuav di Venezia)

4:00pm-4:15pm Coffee Break

4:15pm-5:30pm Keynote lecture | Fra terra e stelle. Proiezioni dello spazio e nello spazio
Grazia Toderi, Gilberto Zorio
chair: Renato Bocchi

5:30pm-6:30pm Discussion & Conclusions

Registration

"*" indicates required fields

Newsletter
Consent*
Consent*
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Contemporary Art Animation Studio

Federico Solmi, The Bacchanalian Ones, Virtual Reality Experience for Oculus Quest 2, 2021
Federico Solmi, The Ship of Fools, Soft pastels, white pen and ink, gouache on canvas, 2024
Federico Solmi, The Painting Class, Single channel video loop, 2024

key details

13 and 18 February 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

about

The Contemporary Art Animation Studio is a class geared toward students who wish to learn how contemporary artists use animation techniques in the context of fine art. New York-based Artist Federico Solmi will demonstrate methods used in his studio, a process which integrates gaming, digital and VR technology with traditional painting and drawing techniques to create narrative moving image works.

The class will analyse how contemporary artists and Solmi himself have taken long-standing animation techniques and placed them into the context of fine art. Topics such as storyboarding, 3D software, production planning, stop motion, rotoscoping, collage, motion capture, and more are all potential subjects. In this course, animation and art will be hybridised in a personal way to each student’s practice, with a focus on formulating an original relationship between process and concept. A section of the course will also be dedicated to exploring new digital marketplaces like NFT Platforms and the blockchain.

The course will be held in Italian.

Lecturer

Federico Solmi

Born in Italy, he lives in New York. His groundbreaking work in video and audio was recognized with the award of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2009. From 2016 to 2019, Solmi was Visiting Professor at Yale University School of Art and Yale School of Drama, New Haven, Connecticut. He was appointed Guest Critic at the Yale University School of Art for 2022. In September 2024 his solo show Solmi: Ship of Fools was also the subject of a major exhibition in Venice at Palazzo Donà Dalle Rose, during the Venice Biennale in 2024.

1/2 Contemporary Art Animation Studio
2/2 Contemporary Art Animation Studio

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
Archivio Progetti, Università Iuav di Venezia © Luca Pilot
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

Collective Artificial Intelligence: Large Language Models and Human Sciences

key details

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

about

Curated by Cristiano De Nobili, this lecture provides an overview of recent advances in LLMs emergent abilities focusing in particular on multi-agents collective behaviour.

This refers to the collective (artificial) intelligence that emerges from the cooperation and interaction of several different agents. Multi-agent architectures show promising results for tasks where several ideas/feedback are needed or when the complexity of the problem requires collective intelligence. This is an exciting field where Physics, Computer Science and Sociology intertwine. Countless are the applications in Human Sciences and Human-machine interaction.

The lesson will be held in Italian.

Lecturer

Cristiano De Nobili

Theoretical Physicist, PhD from SISSA in Trieste. Ten years of experience in Scientific Computing and AI, mainly working on environmental challenges. Lecturer at the Master in High-performance Computing (ICTP/SISSA) and Emerging Tech Advisor for startups and VC fund. His collaborations range from ESA to the SIOS Remote Sensing Centre in the Svalbard Islands. He runs a newsletter: Beyond Entropy.

 

Portrait of Cristiano De Nobili
Collective Artificial Intelligence: Large Language Models and Human Sciences

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.

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.

The lesson will be held in Italian.

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.

 

Estetica Artificiale

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 Sunderland Collection Symposium, dedicated to digital innovation in the field of cartography, was conceived and generously funded by the Sunderland Collection. The symposium is organised in association with The Bodleian Libraries and ARCHiOx.

Complete recordings of the talks, along with insights about the speakers, are available at Oculi Mundi – Sunderland Collection.

 

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