On December 2-3 I will be at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) for the invited seminar "Methodologies in Visual Narratives". tinyurl.com/msemhdh3
The title of my presentation is going to be "(Why) does visual-material criticism matter in (post)digital urban research?" 1/

My paper for the Ethics and Aesthetics of Artificial Images conference is ready and I’m now on my way to Venice for this three-day international gathering: ai-venice2025.com

Looking forward to this event today with lovely colleagues and students from Paris, brilliant communication professionals and fab tutors and MA students from University of Milan!

AI ambient imagery in the city.

‘Traditional’ stock photography is still alive and well in the pursuit of generic urban ambience, but I have to say that its subjects seem to smile even harder than just a few years ago.

A great way to end my second to last week of teaching for this academic year: a hands-on workshop on visual generative AI with the fab @giuliagiorgi26.bsky.social and Ilir Rama, where Visual Communication students used a variety of prompts to ‘generate generations’ through DALL-E on Bing.

Many thanks to @gabrielecolombo.bsky.social for his brilliant lecture on prompt design for visual digital research as part of my Visual Communication seminar series at University of Milan today.

Today @abri1s.bsky.social gave a brilliant guest lecture in my MA course on Visual Communication at University of Milan, where she spoke about her insightful research on AI images of the Israel-Palestine war. A meaningful way to end yet another teaching week.

Here's some more ambient AI imagery, this time not in physical urban space, but in the digital spaces of banal, everyday online consumption.

Well, it’s here. AI images (or AI slop?) as urban ambient imagery. Pictured here, an ad for the Italian national lottery.

Milano

Today, in my Visual Communication class, I covered the research on trans self-representation that @katyjparry.bsky.social and I included in our book five years ago. Then, the issue of trans visibility was timely from a social/cultural standpoint but also vital on a political level. And so it is now.

For the first time ever, I’m teaching an extended version (60 hours instead of only 30 or 20) of my now classic visual communication course, so I got to watch and discuss the first episode of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing with my students today. It was great.

Shutterstock and Getty Images are merging. According to this announcement this will give us better access to "diverse, high-quality, ethically-sourced" imagery. Interesting times, where the increasing concentration of visual power is 'sold' as the best way to ensure diverse, ethical representation.

Beginning of a new teaching period and a new commuting season between Bologna and Milan.

Loving Enrico Baj’s Manifesto of Nuclear Painting. How does this resonate with the extractive forces of generative AI?

Today, with great University of Milan colleagues, I got to present the initial stages of our research project on the bottom-up uses and platform-mediated practices of visual generative AI at this brilliant conference at University of Bologna: eventi.unibo.it/ai-sps-works.... Here's a sneak preview.

Some of the amazing 1970s Red Women's Workshop posters that @uparisnanterre.bsky.social students got to work with yesterday. Such a great resource and opportunity to be guided by brilliant archivists from La Contemporaine

At the University of Paris-Nanterre today to lecture at this workshop using archival resources and the Munari method to get postgraduate students’ hands dirty with planning and designing visual campaigns supporting women’s rights, together with those of other gendered subjects.