Elena Giulia
Rossi

Through a series of research-related activities, she has been exploring the intersection of art, science and technology since the late 1990s. Her analysis of new forms of experimental and multidisciplinary production has often coincided with her analysis of the numerous socio-anthropological facets of contemporary culture. After graduating from La Sapienza University with a degree in Literature and Philosophy (History of Contemporary Art specialisation), she completed a Master’s in Arts Administration at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the United States, she has collaborated with the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, with the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection (2002) at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and with the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (2001) in New York. She has taken part in various conferences and seminars in Italy and abroad. Her research also includes the projects she curated at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, with which she collaborated from 2003 to 2012: NetSpace (2005–2008) and NetinSpace (2010). In 2015, she contributed to the 9th Appendix of the Treccani Encyclopaedia, writing the entries on Internet Art and Bio Art. She is currently the editorial director of the online platform Arshake. Reinventing Technology (www.arshake.com), which she founded in 2013. She occasionally writes for catalogues, magazines and news outlets. She is the author of Archeonet. Viaggio nella storia della net/web art e suo ingresso nei musei tradizionali (Lalli Editore, Siena, 2003) and Mind the Gap. La vita tra bioarte, arte ecologica e post internet (postmedia, Milan, 2020), as well as numerous essays published in Italy and abroad, including: Sulla soglia di spazi liminali. From Live Architecture to Object-Oriented Space in Chiara Passa, Object-Oriented Space. Viaggio nelle dimensioni invisibili dello spazio, Gangemi Editore, Rome, 2019, pp. 38–47; The Vitalist Museum. Entre l’art de la vie et la vie de l’art, in ‘Bioart Et Éthique’, edited by Marion Laval-Jeantet, Paolo Stellino, and Guillaume Bagnolini, Édition CQFD, Mentreuil 2019, pp. 155–179; The Touch of Language in art, science, and in shaping the world, in: ‘The New and History art*science 2017 Conference Proceedings’, edited by Pier Luigi Capucci and Giorgio Cipolletta, NOEMA Media & Publishing, 2018, pp. 179–185, 187 (English); Photographing within the Ubiquitarian Image, in ‘Searching for a New Way. Critical Engagement in Contemporary Art since 2000”, Metronom Books, Modena, 2017, pp. 111–116; Nuove sensibilità elettroniche, in ‘Omaggio a Gillo Dorfles. Atti del Convegno’, Fondazione Filiberto Menna, Salerno 2012.

Formerly Theory of the Multimedia Arts

The objective of the New Media Aesthetics course is to provide students with the tools they need to navigate the vast landscape of multimedia arts and to place them within the broader context of contemporary culture and history. After providing an overview of the subject, the course delves into the heart of the discipline and its specific manifestations: video art, telepresence art, info-graphics, video mapping, climate art, bio art, nano art, sound art, art and blockchain, and art and artificial intelligence.

Overall, the course explores the field of multimedia in as interdisciplinary a manner as possible, ultimately arriving at its most refined form, that of the ‘interfacial image’. Each topic is structured as a series of connections to its antecedents in art history. The research work will be carried out over time and will require active participation throughout the course.

The course is delivered in person at Campo Boario, as indicated on the provisional timetable. In parallel, the Teams platform will be used solely to share course materials, provide information on outings, or for any other purposes that are complementary to and serve the purposes of the course. For communications, please use your institutional email address.

Information on the project and the examination:
During the course, prior to the exam, you will be required to complete a series of exercises to be discussed in class. These exercises will serve as a pre-exam and will account for 80% of the work carried out. We will ensure that these exercises are compatible with the time you have available for your other classes. The oral exam will consist of a discussion based on the topics covered during the course, the notes and handouts provided, and the book of the student’s choice.

Teams: bwxjpf8
Office hours: Thursday: 12:00–16:00: Teams / Office hours: 10:00–12:00 – Campo Boario (by appointment)

Essential reading: Lecture notes (uploaded as PDFs on Teams)

Text of the student’s choice from:
2004 – L. Valeriani, Dentro la Trasfigurazione. Il dispositivo nell’arte nella cibercultura, Il dispositivo nell’arte nella cibercultura, Meltemi, Rome
2006 – A. Ladaga and S. Manteiga, Strati Mobili: video contestuale nell’arte e nell’architettura, Edilstampa, Rome (updated English version, Moving Layers, Edilstampa, 2014)
2006 – T. Bazzichelli, Networking. La rete come network, Costa & Nolan, Genoa
2008 – M. Bolognini, Post-digitale, Carocci, Rome
2008 – T. Tozzi, Arte di opposizione. Stili di vita, situazioni e documenti degli anni Ottanta, Shake Edizioni, Milan Stili di vita, situazioni e documenti degli anni Ottanta, Shake Edizioni, Milan
2009 – F. Fishnaller, E-Art. Arte, società e democrazia nell’era della rete, Editori Riuniti, Rome
2013 – C. Guida, Spatial Practices. Funzione pubblica e politica dell’arte nella società delle reti (Spatial Practices. The Public Function and Politics of Art in the Network Society), published by Franco Angeli
2014 – L. Panaro, Casualità e controllo. Fotografia, video, web, postmedia books, Milan 2014
2016 – E. Kac, Telepresence and Bioart. Interconnessioni in rete fra umani, conigli e robot, Italian edition, Italian edition edited by P. L. Capucci and Franco Torriani, CLUEB, Bologna 2016 (original edition: edition: Telepresence & Bioart. Networking Humans, Rabbits, Robots, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 2005)
2017 – C. Zanni, Art in the Age of the Cloud, Diorama Edizioni, Milan (English)
2017 – G. Galati, Duchamp meets Turing. Arte, modernismo, postumano, postmediabooks, Milan
2017 – M. Di Paola, L’arte che traduce. La traduzione visuale nell’opera di Antoni Muntadas, Mimesis, Milan
2017 – V. Valentini (ed.), Studio Azzurro. L’esperienza delle immagini, Mimesis, Milan – Udine
2018 – Omar Kholeif, Looking at Art in the Digital Age, Sternberg Press, Berlin (English)
2018 – Timothy Morton, Iperoggetti, Nero Editore 2019 (Hyperobjects, University of Minnesota Press 2013)
2018 – Hito Steyerl, Duty Free Art. L’arte nell’epoca della guerra civile planetaria, Johan & Levi, Milan (Art in The Age of Planetary Civil War, Verso, 2017)
2018 – Simone Arcagni, L’Occhio della macchina, Piccola biblioteca Einaudi, Turin
2018 – Marco Mancuso, Arte, tecnologia e scienza. Le art industries e i nuovi paradigmi di produzione nella new media art contemporanea, Mimesis
2019 – Caterina Tomeo (ed.), Sonic Arts. Tra esperienza percettiva e ascolto attivo, Castelvecchi, Rome
2019 – James Bridle, Nuova Era Oscura, Nero Edizioni (original edition: New Dark Age. Technology and the End of the Future, Berso Books, London 2018)
2019 – Margaret A. Boden, L’Intelligenza Artificiale, il Mulino, Bologna (original edition: Artificial Intelligence. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press 2018)
2020 – Matteo Bittanti, GAME OVER. Critica della ragione video ludica, Mimesis
2020 – Marco Mancuso, Intervista con la New Media Art, Mimesis
2020 – E. G. Rossi, Mind the Gap. Life between Bioart, Eco-Art and Post-Internet, postmedia.books
2020 – Valentina Tanni, Memestetica, Nero Edizioni
2020 – Domenico Quaranta, Media, New Media Post Media, postmedia.books
2020 – Valentino Catricalà and Domenico Quaranta (eds.), Sopravvivenza programmata. Conservation ethics and practices. Dall’arte cinetica alla Net Art, Imprese Mediali series, Edizioni Kappabit, Rome 2020
2021 – D. Quaranta, Surfing con Satoshi. Arte, blockchain e NFT, postmedia.books, Milan 2021
2022 – C. Saba and V. Valentini (eds.), Il video rende felici, Treccani, Rome
2022 – J. Bridle, Ways of Being. Animals, Plants, and Computers: Beyond Human Intelligence, Rizzoli
2023 – M. Mancuso, Chimera. Il corpo espanso per una nuova ecosofia dell’arte, Mimesis
2024 – Francesco D’Isa. La rivoluzione algoritmica. Arte e intelligenza artificiale, Luca Sossella Editore