The Rights from Future Generations. A Perspective on (A)rt and (I)nnovation
From the 1st to 30 September Villa Reale di Monza – Sala Conferenze and Teatrino di Corte presents The Rights from Future Generations – A Perspective on (A)rt and (I)nnovation an artistic project that proposes for the first time in Italy and in the world an interesting comparison between art created by men and art created through artificial intelligence.
The exhibition is conceived by Francesco Stranieri and curated by Vittoria Mascellaro and organized by the association of social promotion RIPETHUB APS in collaboration with the Consorzio della Villa Reale e del Parco di Monza, thanks to the contribution of the City of Monza.
The exhibition is spread over two exhibition paths. The first presents 24 works, 12 made by the human hand and 12 generated by students of the Higher Institutes of the province of Monza and Brianza through artificial intelligence. Students were selected thank to an open call, held from the 1 st of January to the 30 April 2023.
The work deal with the theme of human rights in the society of the future and they have been selected by the organizers, who discuss with a commission formed by three experts from different field: Fabio Stella, Associate professor at the Department of Informatics, Systematics and Communication of the University of Milan-Bicocca; Beatrice Catanzaro, professor at the Department of Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies of NABA in Milan; Jacopo Casiraghi, psychologist and relational systemic psychotherapist and head of the working group “The Rights of People with Disabilities” at presso ReDiPsi (Networks of Psychologists for Human Rights).
The works of the students not selected by the jury will be projected in digital format, in a screen located along the exhibition path. The origin of the works (whether made by human hand or with AI) will not be known and visitors can express their opinion through an interactive survey.
The second path involves emerging artists, who work with artificial intelligence tools in their productions.
Francesco D’Isa, Roberto Fassone and Andrea Meregalli are the artists who have worked on the relationship between (A)rt and (I)nnovation. Francesco D’Isa shows a selection of syntographies from Errori’s series. Images that admit the unexpected element generated by the sotware, Midjourney, which reveals here an alien imaginary compared to the compositions he used to do; Roberto Fassone presents
And we thought,
a work produced as part of the project FOOD DATA DIGESTION, a process of research and production that combines art and artificial intelligence curated by the cultural organization Sineglossa, in collaboration with Play with Food and Alchemilla, supported by the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo under the announcement “ART~WAVES. Per la creatività, dall’idea alla scena”. The dataset used for the training of Ai Lai comes from shroomery.org, available on Creative Commons; Andrea Meregalli proposes for the first
time his research with AI on canvas. From drawings, sketched and photographs made by him, the images, on display, are generated through artificial intelligence through numerous steps of blending and prompting to obtain the least predictable result possible from the software, trying to mislead the fundamentals of image generation through AI, that normally provides an accurate text input for the generations of the required image. The works represent the monster of the psyche, abstract entities that carry with them hidden truths. The choice of presenting them in a singular format shows the possibilities with which images generated through software can take on different characters depending on the performance.
“In recent years, the advent of software of artificial intelligence, that are able to create accurate and valid aesthetically graphic representations, is questioning the very definition of “art” and is raising ethical question – comments the Assessor fot Culture, for Villa Reale and for Parco di Monza, Arianna Bettin -; place our city within a global debate and of such epochal importance, that means getting in touch with the most advanced expressions of the century in the artistic field. For this reason, the administration has enthusiastically welcomed Mascellaro and Stranieri’s proposal for a project that looks both to the present and to the territory, with a strong involvement of the younger ones, and towards the future”.
For the duration of the exhibition, meetings, dialogues and conferences will be organized with a focus on artificial intelligence. The talk program is called What about (a)ctuality and (i)nnovation? And it will be an opportunity to deepen on the theme of innovation from an artistic, philosophical, anthropological and scientific point of view. Professionals from various fields, such as artists, curators, philosophers, computer scientists and university professors will be involved, ensuring gender equality. The plan of the talks will be presented at Manzoni16, an event space in the heart of Monza, and participation will be free, with the possibility of direct streaming allow greater participation during the meetings.