Category: Three-year course

XMAS BAITAANT: An Evening of Celebration and Community at AANT

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Three-year course

A warm, informal and convivial atmosphere marked XMAS BAITAANT, AANT’s Christmas celebration held on Thursday, December 18, which transformed the Aula Magna into a cosy winter lodge.

Heavy sweaters, furry hats and “baita mood” details set the scene for an evening designed to bring people together, have fun and share the spirit of the holiday season. Mini-games and team challenges engaged students, faculty and staff in a light-hearted and participatory atmosphere, with a single goal: enjoying a pre-Christmas moment of togetherness.

The food van helped keep everyone warm, offering hot dogs, bretzel and beer, while the traditional holiday classics were not to be missed for the toast: panettone, pandoro and sparkling wine. There was also room for surprise with the gift exchange: everyone brought a present, entrusted to chance through a shared bag, turning the gesture into a moment of collective curiosity and fun.

XMAS BAITAANT thus confirmed itself not only as an end-of-year event, but as an opportunity for connection and shared experience—a different way to exchange greetings before the holidays, in true AANT style.

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New GeniaLAB Event: Artificial Intelligence, Storytelling of Reality, and New Horizons for Documentary

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Events
geniaLAB
Three-year course

Artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming the way reality is observed, interpreted, and narrated, redefining languages, creative processes, and modes of production within contemporary documentary filmmaking. These themes were at the core of “GeniaLAB – Artificial Intelligence in the Storytelling of Reality”, the final GeniaLAB event of 2025, held on Tuesday, December 17 at AANT – Academy of Arts and New Technologies, in collaboration with the Libero Bizzarri Foundation and moderated by Prof. Gianna Angelini.

The event opened with a brief introduction to the history of the Libero Bizzarri Foundation, a leading institution dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of Italian documentary cinema. Over the years, the Foundation has supported the growth of numerous authors and filmmakers, fostering a vision of documentary as a critical and cultural tool capable of interpreting the complexity of reality and questioning the present.

In her contribution, Prof. Gianna Angelini outlined the conceptual framework of the evening, linking it to the dialogue with Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove and to the thought of Marshall McLuhan, a central figure in media theory who explored technologies as extensions of human perception and cognition. This theoretical reflection was followed by the screening of a four-minute excerpt from Libero Bizzarri’s documentary on Marshall McLuhan, offering students enrolled in AANT’s undergraduate programmes a visual and conceptual stimulus to further explore the relationship between media, technology, and the perception of reality.

The core of the event was dedicated to the contribution of guest speaker Giacomo Cannelli, in dialogue with Prof. Valerio Di Paola, accompanied by the screening of selected reels and video materials. The discussion explored the potential of artificial intelligence across the different stages of documentary practice—from research and writing to staging and audience engagement. Alongside the narrative and productive opportunities offered by algorithmic tools, the conversation also addressed the ethical and critical implications of AI, questioning the role of the author, creative responsibility, and the relationship between human intelligence and intelligent systems in shaping new visual imaginaries.

The event marked the beginning of a collaboration between AANT and the Libero Bizzarri Foundation, which in the coming months will bring new guests to the Academy in Rome, fostering dialogue with students on innovation, research, and contemporary culture.

Guest note: Giacomo Cannelli is an author and screenwriter with extensive experience in audiovisual production for television and digital platforms. An AI Senior Artist, he focuses on artificial intelligence applied to narrative and visual languages, exploring the relationship between creativity, technology, and new imaginaries.

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Creativity, Research and Vision: 14 New AANT Graduates Present Their Thesis Projects

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Events
Three-year course

On December 13, AANT – Academy of Arts and New Technologies held a new graduation session in Rome, celebrating 14 graduates from its undergraduate (three-year) programs. The event marked an important academic milestone, highlighting the results of an educational path strongly focused on research, experimentation and interdisciplinary practice.

The graduates and their thesis projects are as follows:

Antonio Ciampa: “Ristrutturazione e Riqualificazione di un edificio storico a Fontaneto d’Agogna”;

Alessandra Brundu: “Esperienza multisensoriale immersiva nella Tuscia”; 

Dylan Leoni: “L’Espressionismo, la Fotografia, il Cinema: la rappresentazione emotiva e psicologica nel Novecento”; 

Brunella Iorio: “Step up Comedy”;

Carola Improta: “Masseria Gaggiano: Progetto di riqualificazione e riuso di una masseria in Puglia”;

Claudia Gulizia: “Casa Bongiorno a Stromboli: allestimento per la memoria e la conservazione”;

Maria Michela Salcuni: “Radici e futuro: come lo smart working può favorire il ritorno al Sud”;

Nita Tudor Dorin: “CON – La rinascita del collettivo”;

Lorenzo Lang: “L’evoluzione del design pubblicitario dalla stampa grafica all’utilizzo dei social media”;

Giovanni Conigliaro: “Serpenti Infinito Exhibition – India”;

Luca De Francesco: “FOMO L’ansia di restare indietro nell’era iperconnessa”;

Thiam Seynabu: “Zoo della cura: strategie di design e narrazione per umanizzare l’esperienza clinica del bambino”;

Valeria Giardina: “Tracce di libertà”; 

Andrea Piccardi: “Design Everything Nation: Manifesto del creativo”.

We wish all graduates a professional future filled with success and new opportunities!

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Le Chiavi di Casa: the AANT students’ documentary presented at the Pigneto Film Festival 2025

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Three-year course

On Wednesday, 10 December, at Nuovo Cinema Aquila in Rome, the students of AANT’s three-year academic programme in Videomaking, Story, Cinema and Media Design presented Le Chiavi di Casa, the opening documentary of the evening dedicated to the short films competing in the 2025 edition of the Pigneto Film Festival.

The project, developed within the Academy’s educational activities and in collaboration with AIPD (Italian Association for People with Down Syndrome), portrays the paths toward autonomy undertaken by the young residents of “Casa di Lorenzo”, weaving together observation, attentive listening and active participation.

Guided by AANT’s faculty, the students explored every stage of production—from concept development to on-site filming—experimenting with professional languages and methodologies in a real-world context. The screening reaffirms the value of AANT’s educational approach, which combines technical skills, visual research and social engagement, and highlights the role of cinema as a tool for inclusive storytelling capable of giving visibility to experiences often overlooked.

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OPEN AANT presents “Awake” by Christian Brogna and Claudia Zanella

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold

On Tuesday 9 December, AANT hosted a new event in the OPEN AANT series with the presentation of the book Awake, written by neurosurgeon Christian Brogna together with writer and actress Claudia Zanella. The event was an invitation to reflect on human potential in relation to machines and new technologies.

Awake offers a journey into the human brain and along the subtle line that defines human identity. Christian Brogna, an expert in awake surgery, describes operations on patients undergoing particularly complex brain tumor surgery while awake. By weaving together clinical cases with an autobiographical narrative, the book reveals the potential unleashed by human connections that go beyond the achievements of new technologies.

The event, moderated by AANT’s Scientific Director and Head of Internationalization, Prof. Gianna Angelini, was a unique opportunity for students of the three-year academic courses: a moment of direct dialogue with an author who explores the value of imagination and the role of thought from a scientific perspective.

About the guest: Christian Brogna is an internationally renowned neurosurgeon known for his expertise in complex brain surgery and for his practice of “awake surgery,” operations during which the patient remains awake, speaking, playing music, drawing—an experience at the crossroads of science, art and identity. Awake recounts not only his clinical experiences, but also seeks to convey what makes each brain and each life unique: memory, emotion, creativity, history.

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Presented at AANT: the Tales from Neurocene project

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold

On Wednesday, 3 December 2025, the Aula Magna of AANT in Rome hosted the presentation of Tales from Neurocene, an innovative experimental animated film project conceived by director Luigi Maria Perotti and inspired by the theories of Prof. Marco Gori of the University of Siena.
The event, organized as part of the activities of the new research HUB geniaLAB dedicated to artificial intelligence, was moderated by Prof. Gianna Angelini, scientific director and head of internationalization at AANT.
At the heart of the meeting was the screening of “The Final Chapter”, a short film of about 10 minutes that serves as a prologue to the narrative universe of Tales from Neurocene. This brief film – a teaser created entirely with artificial intelligence tools – immerses the viewer in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world governed by a centralized AI called “N”, tasked with re-educating humanity so that it “does not repeat the same mistakes” made in the past.
The idea of the Neurocene – the name given to this scenario – stems from the desire to imagine what might happen if, in the coming years, we fail to find a different approach to the potential of AI. The short film presented at AANT is therefore a creative provocation intended to prompt reflection on the future of artificial intelligence and on the ethical and environmental implications of its development.
During the presentation, Perotti and Gori explained how Tales from Neurocene was born from a meeting at the University of Siena, where Prof. Gori and his team (SAILab) are working on an approach to AI that is less energy-intensive and more decentralized than current models. In particular, they highlighted the problem of the high resource consumption of today’s AI systems: each individual query to an AI model can require the same amount of energy as charging a smartphone, and it is estimated that within five years the energy and water consumption of AI could match that of a country like Japan. These figures aroused considerable interest among students, opening a debate on the urgent need to rethink intelligent technologies in a sustainable way.

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Meet the Expert: Alessandra Reggiani and Federica Giuliani present “Because The Light – Light, Shadow and Harmony”

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Three-year course

On 27 November AANT hosted “Because The Light – Light, Shadow and Harmony”, a new event in the Meet the Expert series dedicated to contemporary approaches to lighting design and the role of light in architecture. The session featured a dialogue between Prof. Alessandra Reggiani, AANT lecturer and lighting designer, and Dr. Federica Giuliani, researcher at the University of Tuscia and specialist in natural light.

The conversation explored how light shapes perception, supports emotional wellbeing and defines the atmosphere of architectural spaces. Through an in-depth reflection on the relationship between light and shadow, the speakers highlighted how a well-designed lighting strategy can enhance spatial quality and transform environments into meaningful experiences.
The event offered students from our Academic Bachelor Programmes an opportunity to deepen their understanding of lighting as a key element in contemporary architectural practice.

About the speakers:
Alessandra Reggiani, architect and lighting designer, has extensive experience in the illumination of cultural heritage sites and is the author of numerous publications on lighting culture.
Federica Giuliani, architect, develops international research projects focused on promoting awareness and innovation in natural lighting.

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AI and Academic Pathways:
AANT Guest on LA7’s Coffee Tech

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold

On Saturday, 29 November, AANT’s Scientific Director and Head of Internationalization, Prof. Gianna Angelini, was a guest on the TV show Coffee Tech on LA7. The central themes of the episode were AI, robotics and, more generally, how technological innovation is influencing and will continue to influence everyday life in the future.

In the studio with journalist and TV host Ivo Mej, alongside Prof. Angelini, were: historian and essayist, as well as Director of the Vittoriale degli Italiani, Giordano Bruno Guerri; journalist and science communicator Emilio Cozzi; actress Antonella Attili; and comic actor and radio host Vittorio Pettinato.

During the episode, images of AANT were shown, with a particular focus on the Farms and the events organized within our academic programmes. Prof. Angelini presented the courses of the Academy in Rome, highlighting the continuous upskilling of the teaching staff in AI and new technologies, which have always been at the core of our curricula. At the same time, she stressed how critical thinking, developed through the theoretical subjects offered in all AANT academic pathways, is essential for the conscious use of the tools of the future.

Here the link for the streaming. 

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From Mimesis to Machine:
AANT at the Swiss Institute’s AI conference

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Events
Three-year course

Today, Thursday 27 November, the conference “From Mimesis to Machine: AI and the Evolution of Artistic Creation” is being held at the Swiss Institute in Rome, as part of the Innovation series and in collaboration with HEAD – Genève.

The event, held entirely in English, brings together designers, historians and educators for a day of talks and workshops, with the aim of exploring how artificial intelligence is redefining our relationship with images, tradition and knowledge. It also reflects on how academic art education is responding to these changes in a critical and creative way.

Representing AANT is the Scientific Director and Head of Internationalization, Prof. Gianna Angelini, who will speak about the Academy and describe how AI is now deeply integrated into AANT’s teaching across all study programs (Three-year Bachelor’s Degrees, Specialist Two-year Programs and Master’s) at AANT in Rome, during the panel: “Teaching Creativity in the Age of Algorithms.”

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OPEN AANT: Domitilla Dardi presents
EDIT Napoli

Posted on by Alessandro Arnold
Events
Three-year course

On Tuesday, 18 November, AANT hosted a presentation of EDIT Napoli, led by Domitilla Dardi. Students from the bachelor’s programmes had the opportunity to learn about the origins of this important editorial design fair, founded in June 2019.

Now in its 7th edition, EDIT Napoli was created to fill a gap in the landscape of design fairs. On one side are independent designers who are too small to take part in large international events such as the Salone del Mobile; on the other, companies that produce high-quality objects but struggle to establish a dialogue with buyers, designers, and industry professionals.
 Dardi’s project addresses this very need: to create a platform capable of connecting niche creative realities with architects, interior designers, retailers, and sector operators, while promoting an authentic, responsible, and research-driven approach to design.

About the guest: Domitilla Dardi is a design historian and curator. Since 2010 she has been the design curator at MAXXI – the National Museum of 21st-Century Arts in Rome, and in 2022 she was appointed Senior Curator. She has been a visiting professor at several Italian and international universities, collaborates with specialized magazines, and is the author of numerous monographs and essays on design culture.

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