PUBLIC ART AND DIGITIZATION PRACTICES

The Museum as a Public Space for Contemporary Art: Physical and Digital Environments
The course, structured around 30 hours of instruction, is part of the curriculum of the Master's Degree in Digital and Public Humanities and is affiliated with the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH) within the Department of Humanistic Studies.
The course aims to guide students through an exploration of artistic practices — from the Avant-gardes of the twentieth century to contemporary digital art production — that have contributed to shaping the earliest conceptions of the virtual museum and that have established this institution as a privileged site for forms of public participation and interaction.

- Knowledge and Understanding: Students will develop familiarity with the historical and artistic context that laid the foundations for the emergence of virtual museums and the proliferation of digital museums, drawing on the study of art history exhibitions and works by contemporary artists. Particular attention will be given to the methodologies adopted by digital artists in interpreting the exhibition space and its relationship with the audience within these environments.
- Applying Knowledge and Understanding: Students will be able to identify the diverse expressions of public art, with specific reference to those practices that have reimagined, through digital languages, the concepts of museum and archive. Students will also develop the ability to recognise and analyse the specific digital languages employed by artists, with an in-depth focus on the uses of generative Artificial Intelligence in the creation of artworks.
- Making Judgements: Students will develop the capacity to critically analyse the digital reproduction of art within online and virtual museum contexts, and to discuss their findings with appropriate linguistic precision and rigorous formal analysis.
- Communication Skills: Students will be able to employ accurate and field-specific terminology, to present and communicate the outcomes of their work effectively, and to engage with peers and instructors in a respectful and constructive manner.
- Technological Competencies: Students will be able to apply the art-historical knowledge acquired during the course, together with their skills in artwork analysis and use of digital applications, to produce an original critical and scholarly output.

No specific requirements, but knowledge of 20th century art is preferred.

The course examines the theories informing current debates on digital art production, with particular focus on the segment dedicated to Public Art engaged with the museum space. Beginning with the Avant-gardes of the twentieth century, the course will survey works by artists who, through diverse techniques rooted in audiovisual and digital languages, have interpreted the museum as a public space.
The analysis considers the role of museum institutions that, through their online dimension, have become exhibition contexts, repositories for digital artworks spanning from net art to generative art, as well as platforms for public interaction. The course will also investigate the most recent artistic productions engaging with Artificial Intelligence, both for creative purposes and for the exploration of methods of artistic making and research.
Particular attention will be given to the forms of representation of artworks, highlighting the role of digital productions, both within the artistic field and within the cultural and creative industries, in contributing to the curation and interpretation of museum spaces with the aim of broadening access to artistic heritage.
A dedicated section of the course will focus on digital art productions employing Artificial Intelligence algorithms, examining the most recent trajectories of artistic creativity.
The objective of the lectures, which complement the study of the assigned bibliography, is to provide students with the conceptual and methodological tools to understand the phenomenology of artistic processes that employ digital technologies and draw on the body of data made available through museum open access collections.

Chapters and essays will be defined during the lessons.
C. Paul, Digital Art, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2015.
C. Paul, A Companion to Digital Art, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2016.
T. Giannini, J. P. Bowen, Museums and Digital Culture. New Perspectives and Research, Springer 2019.
L. Manovich, AI Aesthetics, Strelka press 2019.
Cohen, K., Elkins, J., Aronberg Lavin, M., Macko, N., Schwartz, G., Siegrfied L., S, Stafford, B., Digital Culture and the Practices of Art and Art history, in «Art bulletin», 79, n.2 (1997), pp.187-216.
D. England, T. Schiphorst, N. Bryan-Kins (edited by), Curating the Digital. Space for Art and Interaction, Springer, 2016
Frieling, R., The Museum as producer: Processing Art and Performing a Collection, in New Collecting: Exhibiting and Audience after New Media Art, a cura di Graham, B., London, New York, Ashgate, 2014, pp.133-158.
Grasskamp, W., The Book on the Floor: Andre Malraux and the Imaginary Museum, Getty Research Institute, 2016.
Grau, O. The Complex and Multifarious Expression of Digital Art & Its Impact on Archives and Humanities, in A Companion to Digital Art, a cura di C. Paul, Wiley, Blackwell, Chichester, 2016, pp. 23-45.
Hall, D., The Original and the Reproduction: Art in the Age of Digital Technology, «Visual Resources», 15, nNo. 2(1999), pp. 269-278.

The final exam will consist of an oral presentation of a project developed on one of the topics covered during the course. It will be accompanied by a critical essay of at least 2500 words.
The evaluation will take into account the following elements
- The scholarly quality of the critical essay on the project developed (30%);
- The theoretical depth of the topics (30%);
- The clarity and accuracy of the project presentation (30%).
- The level of interaction in the lectures, seminar activities, and conferences offered (10%).

The exam program for non-attending students remains the same, but they must contact the teacher to agree on the topic to develop.

Attendance is strongly recommended.

oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

The oral examination requires students to present the topic developed in their written essay, which focuses on an exempted design subject. The criteria for the assessment are: a) the academic quality and thoroughness of the essay, including in-depth bibliographic research and the clarity and coherence of the topic’s presentation; b) a demonstrated understanding of key theories and central themes related to public art and digital technologies; c) the ability to critically analyze digital art practices within museum and archival contexts; d) edpth of insight into specific topics, including appropriate use and understanding of relevant digital technologies.
Grades will follow this range:
Insufficient (≤17) – Limited knowledge. Inadequate to reflect and present ideas.
Sufficient (18-20) – Uncertain or partially reworked knowledge. Basic or adequate skills.
Fair (21-23) – Sufficient or fair knowledge, reworked with some uncertainties. Decent skills.
Good (24-26) – Correct or complete knowledge, confidently reworked. Good skills.
Distinct (27-28) – Complete and confident knowledge. Notable skills.
Excellent (29-30) – Extensive knowledge, independently reworked. Excellent skills.
Outstanding (30 with honors) – Broad and in-depth knowledge, independently reworked. Full mastery of the language.

The lessons include video and power point projections and cover the history of digital art and public art related to museum exhibition space through the analysis of specific artists and exhibitions. The teaching aims to stimulate interaction between faculty and students, who will be invited to discuss and work on specific AI software for image manipulation and creation.
Lectures will be integrated with seminars, workshops, and in-class student presentations and debates.
The texts covered and discussed in class, with any supporting tools, are provided by the teacher during the course and made available on the Moodle platform. These texts, collected in a list at the end of the course, are an integral part of the exam program.

The programme is provisional and there could still be changes in its contents and texts.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development