The workshop will take place in English at Istituto Svizzero, Via Liguria 20 in Rome, from 14:00 to 18:00. Following a closing gathering.
Free entry. Strictly upon registration here.

Connecting with the world: communication between living creatures and objects
A workshop curated by Val Minnig (Fellow Roma Calling 2022/2023).

The workshop focuses on the relationship between humans and machines, specifically with regards to the interaction with objects that evoke a strong emotional response. The workshop, with invited guests Melanie Bossert (Interaction Designer) and Gamba Podenco, aims to explore how we can interpret the language of objects, animals, and the environment through sensors. During the event, participants will design objects to respond like pets when their name is called and can elicit immense joy.

I pomeriggi series 
I pomeriggi is a series dedicated to the Fellows at Istituto Svizzero. It is an opportunity for the public to learn more about the projects they are working on during this year’s residency.

Biographies:

Melanie Bossert is an Interaction Designer based in Zurich. Her work focuses on multimodal interfaces that shape the core interaction models for intelligent, category-defining consumer devices and services. Beside her current position, Melanie worked for various research institutions and agencies in New York and Berlin in Product Design and Interactive Experiences. She is part of the Touring Agency collective which collaborates with cultural institutions to enhance their work using AI speech predictions. Melanie holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, New York, and a BFA in visual communication with a new media interaction emphasis from the University of Art, Berlin.

Gamba Podenco, artist, is a silent witness to many art events, sometimes collaborating for rich treats. Her appearance is a performance in and of itself. In Rome she reckons about her divine origin. She inspired many, and is inspired by some artists.

Val Minnig’s installative works employ simple materials, partly found on the street, to create room-spanning interventions. The pieces not only create a state of fragility, but often refer to the immediate surroundings of a place. At the same time, Val Minnig examines technical constructions and structures that reflect the tension in the human-animal relation between control and fascination and shows how these have an influence on our behaviour. Val Minnig searches for possibilities to break up habitual relationships and to propose different forms of encounter by means of a reduced formal language and often proceeding from subjective sensations. They love to turn conventional force relations upside down in an experienceable way.