Towards a ‘third life’? Robotics between media imaginary and technological singularity

30/04/2010

On April 22 I participated to one of the four meetings on the technological imaginary conceived and curated by Laura Gemini at the University of Urbino. I proposed the topic of robotics, and my intervention was titled: “Towards a ‘third life’? Robotics between media imaginery and technological singularity”. The other meetings were about the steampunk imaginary, by Antonio Caronia, the main symbolic figures in the technologies and the sciences (scientist, robot, cyborg, avatar), by Giovanni Boccia Artieri, and the imaginary of the videogames, by Luca Rossi.

About me

I am a researcher in the fields of media studies and on the relationships among art, science, technology and culture. I have been professor at the universities of Rome “La Sapienza”, Bologna, Florence, SUPSI – Lugano, Urbino, Udine, and at the fine arts academies of Carrara, NABA Milan, LABA Rimini and Quasar Rome. Currently I am a professor at the fine art academies of Reggio Calabria and Urbino. From 2008 to 2013 I have been a supervisor, and from 2013 to 2018 the Director of Studies, of the T-Node Ph.D. Research Program of the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth. I have internationally published more than 350 texts, essays and papers in books, magazines and conference proceedings. I have organized exhibitions, symposia, managed projects and participated to conferences worldwide. I have published the books "Realtà del virtuale" (Reality of the virtual), 1993 (also as an eBook), on virtual technologies and the relationships between culture and sensorial representations; "Il corpo tecnologico" (The technological body), 1994, on the impact of technologies on the human body; "Arte & tecnologie" (Art and technology), 1996 (also as an eBook), about art, science and technology. I co-curated the books "The New and History", 2018, about the relationships among innovation, history and cultural heritage, as well as the proceedings of art*science/Leonardo 50 International conference; and "Arte e complessità" (Art and Complexity), 2018, on the art forms dealing with complexity. In 1994 I founded and directed "NetMagazine/MagNet", the first Italian online journal, on the relationships between art and technology. In 2000 I founded "Noema" (https://noemalab.eu), an online magazine (ISSN 2283-3145) and a series of projects on the influences among culture, art, science and technology, I am the president of. I am the founder of the three-year research project (2018-21) art*science - Art & Climate Change (https://artscience.online). I am also a journalist, member of the Italian Journalist Association since 1998.