El espacio mediterráneo. Fronteras y traducciones en la ciudad plural

[Resumen] En esta comunicación nos proponemos abarcar la complejidad de la ciudad mediterránea que por definición es una ciudad multicultural. El mensaje que la ciudad crea, y del que somos tanto destinadores, como destinatarios, es plural y entretejido. La ciudad que queremos narrar es compleja y plural, al igual que lo son los deseos de los ciudadanos que la viven y que quieren dar y darse una coherencia. En nuestra opinión es imposible encontrar en la ciudad mediterránea una única isotopía de lectura porque la entendemos como mecanismo que superpone espacios de significado plural. Las múltiples lecturas posibles, que tomadas de manera aislada son insuficientes, cobran sentido si se recomponen en un conjunto de orden superior. La semiosfera lotmaniana permite abarcar esta complejidad dado que está formada por la superposición de lenguas, prácticas sociales, culturales y subjetividades que se encuentran en encrucijadas y necesitan traducirse para cobrar significación. A su vez, los medios de comunicación contribuyen, en este proceso constante de traducción y formación de nuevo sentido, a crear imaginarios simbólicos. Nuestra pregunta es si el espacio que resulta de la construcción discursiva de los mismos es un espacio de convivencia o de separación. Nuestro punto de partida es que los aspectos culturales juegan un papel determinante en la construcción de la identidad mediterránea. Queremos investigar si esta identidad es aglutinante o excluyente

Cultura, texto y memoria : la construcción del espacio Euro Mediterráneo

En el marco teórico de la semiótica de la cultura, que reflexiona sobre las condiciones materiales de la significación tratamos el Mediterráneo como un espacio de sentido. Lo que es un espacio en semiótica prescinde de su ontología y se "reduce" a cuestión de método, una realidad que significa y que se presenta como una entidad multifuncional, un elemento activo que influye en la estructuración misma de la sociedad, formando parte del entramado simbólico en que los fenómenos sociales adquieren sentido y se desarrollan. Este enfoque permite considerar las múltiples atribuciones de sentido dadas al espacio Mediterráneo que lo configuran como un texto complejo, literalmente un tejido, una relación entre otros textos situados a un nivel jerárquico inferior que forman una realidad heteróclita de sentido que vale más de la suma de todas su partes

Urban-human faces and the semiotic right to the city: From the USSR propaganda machinery to the participatory city

Now that the usage and meaning of urban spaces have been dramatically challenged by the global pandemic, several debates and reflections are going on around the manner in which cities – both as concerns the public and the private spaces – have been designed. The article observes how “urban-human face” representations have served different models of urbanity across times and cultures. Using a framework deriving from semiotics of culture, according to which the city represents a model of the world, the article attempts to interpret how portraits of faces have been modelling the city through different urban faciality mechanisms. The focus is on a sample of what we call ‘urban-human faces’, ranging from Soviet propaganda posters to the digital #selfiecity project. The expression refers to series of representations that bring together the city and the face. It can be argued that both the city and the face, produced at a specific historical and cultural moment, with their figurative and plastic elements, deploy the struggle for the city ownership and authorship. Nonetheless, the commensurability of the city and the face can be just based on the fact that both semiotic configurations represent an excess with the help of cartographic reproduction (the city) and the portrait (the face), respectively. A city can be represented by a face to the extent to which it is also multifaceted as a polylogue. On the basis of such instable commensurability, the article will ultimately attempt to bring together the semiotics of the face and the semiotics of the city.    &nbsp

Artifacting Identity. How Grillz, Ball Gags and Gas Masks Expand the Face

By questioning the attribution of a primary role to the eyes as bearers of identity within traditional Western culture, this paper will problematize the agentivity performed by the lower mereology of the face, identified with the mouth-nose assemblage. In particular, the study will focus on the manipulation of such facial spatiality through the intervention of three “lower face” artifacts: the grill, the ball gag and the gas mask. This piece of work will examine their plastic and figurative dimensions in the technological interaction with the facial organs. Furthermore, we will take into consideration the sociocultural context of wearability performed by the different bearers with the aim of grasping the identity shift that the artifacts trigger. The study, therefore, will organize the corpus as a sequence that starts inside the oral cavity where the grill is worn; then moves to a progressive exteriority with the ball gag that emerges from the mouth through the straps fastened around the head; eventually dealing with the exterior projection operated by the gas mask which by means of its filters portends beyond the anatomical face. Ultimately the three artifacts are presented as a threefold articulation of a liminal agency towards an expanded form of humanity including animality embedded within and without the space of meaning represented by the face

AI for Facial Autobiographical Memory Recovering and Transmission. A Study for a Mobile and Web Application

Drawing on research conducted within the ERC Consolidator Project FACETS, this presentation aims at describing the state of art of solutions currently offered by AI for coping with loss of memory and identity in the pandemic scenario and at discussing advantages and disadvantages of these digital tools. On the one side, the presentation will focus on how the interpersonal physical distance imposed because of the risk of contagion might be dealt with by applications based on Artificial Intelligence purposed to mitigate the loss of memory in elderly people by building new bridges between them and the generation of digital natives. On the other side, the paper will concentrate on obstacles that hamper the adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the generations. Lack in digital literacy as well as inappropriate interaction design as obstacles to effective cooperation between humans and artificial intelligence will be particularly stressed.Finally, the presentation aims at presenting a concept study for a mobile and web application for autobiographical memory recovering, digitalization, preservation, recreation and transmission. The app is intended to bear on the visage as a memory and identity catalyst so as to enhance the neurophysiological functions of users, training their memory, and improving their ability to communicate.In seno alla ricerca condotta nell’ambito del progetto ERC Consolidator FACETS (Face Aesthetics in Contemporary E-Technological Societies) dell’Università di Torino, questo articolo mira a descrivere una serie di soluzioni attualmente offerte dall’Intelligenza Artificiale per mitigare il problema della perdita della memoria e dell’identità negli anziani acuito dalla pandemia globale. Da un lato, lo studio si concentrerà su come la distanza fisica interpersonale imposta del rischio di contagio da Covid 19 potrebbe essere colmata da applicazioni basate sull’Intelligenza Artificiale volte a creare nuove forme di comunicazione tra gli anziani e la generazione dei nativi digitali. Dall’altro lato, l’articolo prenderà in esame alcuni ostacoli al successo delle soluzioni basate sull’Intelligenza Artificiale rispetto al ripristino della comunicazione intergenerazionale.In questo senso, si metterà in luce la mancanza di alfabetizzazione digitale negli anziani e il frequente uso di design inappropriati come ostacoli alla cooperazione efficace tra esseri umani e intelligenza artificiale.Infine, l’articolo presenterà uno studio concettuale per una nuova applicazione mobile e web volta al recupero, alla digitalizzazione, alla conservazione e alla trasmissione della memoria autobiografica. L’app verrà concettualizzata come un’ “applicazione facciale” (face app), partendo dal presupposto che il volto possa funzionare come un catalizzatore della memoria e dell’identità ; in questo senso lavorare sul volto permetterebbe di potenziare le funzioni neurofisiologiche degli utenti, allenare la loro memoria e, in ultima analisi, migliorare la loro capacità di comunicar

Cultura, texto y memoria : la construcción del espacio Euro Mediterráneo

En el marco teórico de la semiótica de la cultura, que reflexiona sobre las condiciones materiales de la significación tratamos el Mediterráneo como un espacio de sentido. Lo que es un espacio en semiótica prescinde de su ontología y se "reduce" a cuestión de método, una realidad que significa y que se presenta como una entidad multifuncional, un elemento activo que influye en la estructuración misma de la sociedad, formando parte del entramado simbólico en que los fenómenos sociales adquieren sentido y se desarrollan. Este enfoque permite considerar las múltiples atribuciones de sentido dadas al espacio Mediterráneo que lo configuran como un texto complejo, literalmente un tejido, una relación entre otros textos situados a un nivel jerárquico inferior que forman una realidad heteróclita de sentido que vale más de la suma de todas su partes