ARCHiVe

Course Year: 2024

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 continue 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

Full Professor of Comparative Private Law at the Iuav University of Venice, she 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

Full Professor of Architectural and Urban Composition at the Iuav University of Venice. He graduated in architecture in 1989, PhD in Architectural Composition in 1993, and from 1994 to 2004 was a researcher in Architectural and Urban Composition at the Iuav University of Venice. From 2004 to 2014, he was Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Trieste. Since 2010 he has been a member of the College of Teachers of the IUAV PhD School. Since 2023 Scientific Referent of the IUAV Project Archive.

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.

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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.

Registration

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
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

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.

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

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.

 

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

Access to image-based resources in the context of the IIIF protocol

key details

17, 23 September
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)

Reference

  • Fondazione Giorgio Cini
  • Factum Foundation

about

Access to high-resolution image-based resources is fundamental for research, scholarship, and the transmission of cultural knowledge.

The IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) standard is a set of technical specifications designed to enable the sharing, reuse, dissemination, and scientific research of digital images. Numerous projects and institutions worldwide have adopted IIIF to make collections accessible and interoperable online. IIIF supports the uniform presentation of images of cultural heritage items, allowing for display, manipulation, measurement, and annotation by scholars and students worldwide. Although initially conceived in libraries and primarily used by academics, IIIF also benefits a wider public.

Programme

September 17, 2024

Improving the access of cultural heritage through IIIF

  • Gennaro Ferrante | Università Federico II, Napoli
  • Flavia Bruni | Università di Chieti-Pescara
  • Ilenia Maschietto | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
  • Dario Peluso | Fondazione Giorgio Cini
The lecture aims to present a selection of projects on a variety of scales leveraging IIIF to improve the accessibility of collections. The examples show how IIIF connect cultural heritage scattered in different parts of the world, providing users high-quality image-based resources, ready to be compared, shared, reused, annotated and studied.
The first example is Europeana and its latest strategies (including Europeana Pro and the Europeana API), a project funded by the European Union that provides access to millions of items from institutions across Europe, allowing users to interact with them dynamically.
The second is the Illuminated Dante Project, born within the University Federico II of Naples, a systematic survey of early illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy virtually united on the same platform, carefully described and put in context. The project includes a digitization campaign, and the first clear classification and explanation of the illustrations that these precious artefacts contain.
The third is the work in progress of the new Digital Library of Fondazione Giorgio Cini which showcases the digital collections of the Venetian institution, IIIF compliant and based on contentDM, a software to store and display digital collections conceived by the largest international library network (OCLC, also full member of IIIF Consortium).

September 23, 2024

3D image-based resources and IIIF

  • Thomas Flynn | IIIF 3D Community Group
  • Richard Allen | Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University
  • John Barrett | Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University
  • Dylan Schirmacher | Bodleian Imaging Services, Oxford University
The IIIF standard, originally designed for 2D images, is being extended to support 3D content. This evolution allows for the sharing, viewing, and annotation of 3D models using the same principles that have made IIIF popular for 2D images. This represents a significant step forward in making rich, interactive media more accessible and usable across a wide range of disciplines.
The lecture introduces the work of the IIIF Consortium and the community, particularly the IIIF 3D Community Group, being the role of IIIF community and users extremely relevant to the development of software and technologies. Moreover, the lecture addresses technical aspects of the recent challenges faced by developers in presenting three-dimensional images within IIIF-compliant viewers. The ARCHiOx team provides updates from the Digital Bodleian platform and shares insights into the ongoing research on implementing 3D viewers with material qualities—such as texture, moving lights, and reflectance—to enhance user experience and deepen the understanding of the artefacts’ materiality.
1/2 Access to image based resources in the context of the IIIF protocol
2/2 Access to image based resources in the context of the IIIF protocol

Workshop on Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Venice

key details

30 September — 2 October 2024
20 hours / Location: Venice / Cost: €350
Deadline 8 September 2024

about

The ARCHiVe Centre of Fondazione Giorgio Cini is presenting a workshop for the second consecutive year, focusing on the application of high-resolution, contactless digital technologies for the digitisation of documentary, archival, and library materials. Over 20 hours, the intensive workshop will introduce participants to specific 2D digitisation technologies and methods, as well as the application of deep learning techniques, computer vision, and the use of artificial intelligence in the post-production of digital files.

The three-day workshop will be held in person and will be based on a learning-by-doing approach, alternating theoretical training on photography, archives, and the preservation and enhancement of digital heritage with practical sessions, allowing participants to experience the handling and acquisition of materials. 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 ARCHiVe 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

September 30, 2024

Day 1

Morning (11am – 1:30pm)

  • Welcome, general intro and programme overview
  • Ice-breaker: student presentations (3 mins each)
  • Presentation of Fondazione Giorgio Cini and its Archival Funds and Collections + Q&A
  • Visit to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (including the Library, the Rare Books Collection and the Photo Library)

Afternoon (2:30pm – 5:30pm)

  • ARCHiVe presentation (projects, research and technologies)
  • Introduction to the principles of Photography + Q&A
  • Feedback and reflections from day 1
  • Optional: visit to the Homo Faber exhibition

October 1, 2024

Day 2

Morning (9am – 1:30pm)

  • Introduction to the different types of documents and how to handle them + Q&A
  • Practical 2d recording (session 1 and 2), divided into 4 groups
  • Post-processing

Afternoon (2:30pm – 5:30pm)

  • Practical 2d recording (session 3), divided into 4 groups
  • Post-processing
  • Feedback and reflections from day 2

October 2, 2024

Day 3

Morning (9am – 1:30pm)

  • Practical 2d recording (session 4), divided into 4 groups
  • Post-processing
  • Lecture on metadata creation, digital archives and digital library + Q&A
  • Developing projects for final presentation, divided into 4 groups

Afternoon (2:30pm –5pm)

  • Final presentation of the preliminary results of the workshop and possible outputs for the data recorded
  • Reflection on how to use the recorded information to preserve, study and disseminate cultural heritage
  • Feedback and reflections
  • Certificates and celebration drinks
  • Close

Useful information

The course will only proceed if 12 participants are reached.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an email by September 11 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

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