Module 1
Digital Arts and Project Culture
Duration: 5 days · 7 hours per day
The first module introduces participants to direct dialogue with experts from the Italian and international landscape of digital, technological, and multimedia arts. Renowned artists and professionals will share experiences, methodologies, and tools useful for conceptualizing work and developing a solid critical approach to contemporary practice.
Creative studios and laboratories will support participants during the ideation and development phases of their projects, encouraging an experimental, interdisciplinary, and research-oriented approach.
Contents
This module guides participants in understanding contemporary languages, developing critical thinking, and learning how to identify and select coherent themes, tools, and design methodologies. Through theoretical analysis and case studies, the fundamental aspects of digital design and visual culture will be outlined, providing the skills necessary to translate an idea into a structured project outcome. During the module, participants will be introduced to software, sensors, and digital tools for the development of transmedia and interactive projects capable of engaging with the environment, integrating artificial intelligence systems, and visualizing content in mixed reality.
The objective is to prototype an initial part of the project, which will later be further developed, refined, and assembled in the laboratory of the second module, leading to the creation of a complex work integrating technology and material. This module is preparatory to acquiring the foundational knowledge in art and design required to successfully approach the second module.
Faculty
AUT Design Collective
Martin Romeo Studio
Guest lecturers and established professionals in the field
Module 2 – Manufacturing, Technology, and Material
Duration: 5 days · 7 hours per day
The second module focuses on the manual and mechanical traditions of the workshop, integrated with advanced production technologies. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their projects in a physical dimension, transforming concepts into tangible outcomes through a continuous dialogue between craftsmanship, digital processes, and material experimentation.
Experts, professionals, and specialists will guide each phase of the process, from research to final realization, with a strong technological, design-driven, and innovative approach.
Contents
The module explores systems, mechanisms, and production processes through an approach that combines hand tools, CNC machinery, and additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing. Participants will be guided through traditional manufacturing practices related to ceramics, wood, and metal, reinterpreted through the lens of contemporary digital production.
The relationship between the digital model and physical material becomes central: form is explored, modified, and materialized through processes that alternate human intervention and technological mediation, revealing how technology can extend and amplify the design gesture. Surface treatments, texture creation, the manipulation of heat and cold, electrical stimulation, and material responses to impulses become tools for formal and sensory research. These approaches allow participants to explore the expressive and structural potential of matter, ultimately defining the final forms of their projects.
The module supports participants in making informed choices regarding techniques, materials, and manufacturing processes, in continuity with the technological and conceptualcomponents developed in the first module, leading to the realization of a work that integrates technology, material, and contemporary languages.
Faculty
Aivox
Wood Milano
Guest lecturers and established professionals in the field
Final Output
Final Output
The outcome of the two modules is the development of a project positioned between contemporary art and design, integrating conceptual research, technological experimentation, and manufacturing practice.
The final work may take the form of an installation, object, prototype, or hybrid system, combining digital and physical components according to the participant’s research direction.
Where necessary, projects may be further developed within F.A.B.R.I.C.A. network of partner studios, production facilities, and companies, allowing for extended production timelines, larger scales, specialized materials, or advanced technical support.
Selected projects may continue their development after the program, with the goal of being presented in internationally recognized contexts, including Milano Art and Design Week 2027.