An online presentation of the research conducted by Cristina Dondi (University of Oxford) and her colleagues on the collection of the incunabula to be found in the library of the former monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. This will be followed by a talk given by Carolina Gris (Factum Foundation) on the collection of medieval Arabic manuscripts on falconry, the protagonists of the Middle-East Falconry Archive (MEFA) project. 

ARCHiVe’s first intensive, in-person, limited-attendance workshop dedicated to the application of non-contact and high-resolution digital technologies for the documentation of artistic, archival and architectural heritage. With a duration of thirty hours, the residential workshop is based on a learning-by-doing approach, and alternates theoretical lectures with practical sessions, offering training of a professionalising nature. 

Participants are introduced to specific 2D and 3D digitisation techniques and methods that ARCHiVe has pioneered over recent years in the context of projects developed in Venice and abroad. The workshop will be held on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, and places are open to students and professionals of different backgrounds and even without experience, who will have the chance to practice in the field alongside experts from Factum Foundation and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. 

An online course split into two modules in partnership with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Theatre and Opera and Clara Tosi Pamphili, former director of the Accademia Costume e Moda in Rome as well as the creator and curator of A.I. Artisanal Intelligence. 

The first module (17 – 19 October, 4pm – 6pm CET), entitled The archives of costume: digitisation, description and reuse, consists of two lectures by Maria Ida Biggi (director of the Institute of Theatre and Opera) and Amin Farah (digital fashion designer, Theblacklab Digital Studio). Starting with a reflection on the Foundation’s collections, the lectures present a number of examples of costume archives, with a focus as much on the aspects of archival description and the digitisation of assets as on digital fashion, an executive application that represents the marriage of virtual reality and tailoring. 

The second module, New archives visible and invisible: the archive as a place for digitising memory, consists of an online talk by Clara Tosi Pamphili (24 October, 4pm – 6pm CET). 

An online meeting, 3pm – 5pm CET, dedicated to the potential of a digital company archive and the methods of preservation and sharing, in particular of the extensive documentation tracing the history of the Italgas company. The lecture will focus in particular on the case of Heritage Lab as a model of digital transformation and an example of business heritage management, digital formats, integrated processes and the role of GDPR.

Guests of the meeting include Daniela Marendino (Curator Archivio Storico Italgas), Katya Corvino (HeritageLab Manager), Matteo Allasia (HeritageLab) and Giovanni Michetti (La Sapienza University, Rome). 

A study day 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. 

An online panel discussion curated by Virginia Marano (University of Zurich), a Fondazione Giorgio Cini fellow in the PNRR–PEBA project for the Removal of Physical, Cognitive and Sensory Barriers in Cultural Sites (EU-funded grant – NextGenerationEU). The event features four professionals and experts in the fields of accessibility and emerging digital innovations: Kamran Behrouz (visual artist), Saverio Cantoni (visual artist), Georgina Kleege (University of California, Berkeley) and Nina Mühlemann (Bern Academy of the Arts). The event explores the role of new digital technologies from an artistic and academic perspective, delving into issues related to digital knowledge and spatial fruition. Guests and the participating group will have the opportunity to discuss and initiate a discussion on the points of convergence between art, scientific research and digital innovation with a view to new strategies for accessibility and inclusion. 

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.

An online course in which two works are presented: the digitisation of the Palazzo Cini Gallery (47 paintings), carried out last winter by ARCHiVe, and the digitisation of a canvas by Jacopo Tintoretto belonging to the collections of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice (The Creation of the Animals, 1550–1553). An in-depth study is proposed on the digital acquisition of the works and the opportunities for investigation made possible only through the three-dimensional digital recording of the painting surface and the support itself.

Speakers include Luca Massimo Barbero (Institute of Art History – Fondazione Giorgio Cini) to introduce the Palazzo Cini Gallery collection and the digitization project, Carlos Bayod Lucini (Factum Foundation) on the methodologies used for the digital acquisition of works, Sanne Frequin (Utrecht University) on the importance that digital technologies and facsimiles can have for the conservation of works, Helena Loermans (Lab O) on the research and re-creation of historical textile patterns, and Cleo Nisse (University of Groningen) on the new opportunities offered by digitisation for the study of painting supports.

Online lecture by Sarah Kenderdine, appointed professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where she has built the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), whose research reaches beyond object-oriented curation to blend experimental curatorship with contemporary aesthetics, digital humanism and emerging technologies. The lecture will offer an overview of Computational Museology and the EPFL Pavilions exhibitions, focusing in particular on Deep Fakes: Arts and Its Double. The lecture will be held on Zoom from 3pm to 5pm CET and in English.

The online lecture, 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. The lecture will be held from 3pm to 5pm CET on Zoom and in Italian.