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Cose, oggetti e ultra-cose. Il contenuto della percezione tra fenomenologia e psicologia
No full textThings, Objects and Ultra-Things The Content of Perception Between Phenomenology and Psychology
This article explores the problem of perception and the paradoxes that characterize it from a phenomenological point of view. While the object always appears from a subjective standpoint, the thing as a total whole far exceeds the grasp of any single perspective. The issue of the transcendence of the perceived is thus analysed from Husserlian formulations up to the positions of Aron Gurwitsch and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Both philosophers propose a revision of Husserlian phenomenology that frees it from the morphogenetic bias that still underpins it. By considering the content of perception as a form in the Gestalt sense, Gurwitsch and Merleau-Ponty appear to be able to rehabilitate the presence of the whole within each of its parts. However, while Gurwitsch situates this topic on an ideal and hypothetical level—with no real consequences for our concrete and perspectival experience—Merleau-Ponty takes it as a prompt to reconceive transcendence and generality as inseparable from their sensible unfolding. By transforming the concept of constitution into one of communion and by replacing the ideal of complete adequacy with that of perceptual evidence, Merleau-Ponty seeks to account for our concrete relationship with the object as a bodily correspondence to things against the active backdrop of a shared world. At first, the article explores Phenomenology of Perception and, in particular, the chapter The Thing and the Natural World, criticised by Gurwitsch. Then, the focus shifts to Merleau-Ponty’s Sorbonne lectures. The aim is to highlight a certain convergence between child perception and philosophical vision. Merleau-Ponty’s reference to the notion of ultra-chose, borrowed from Henri Wallon, and his later claim that “all things are ultra-things” is examined. Finally, the article explores possible connections between Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perception and Donald Winnicott’s studies on child development in order to emphasise a relationship of communion with objects and a personal horizon that arises precisely through full contact with things and people that inhabit one’s world.Questo articolo esplora il problema della percezione e i paradossi che la caratterizzano da un punto di vista fenomenologico. Mentre l’oggetto appare sempre da un punto di vista soggettivo, la cosa nel suo insieme supera di gran lunga la comprensione di qualsiasi singola prospettiva. La questione della trascendenza del percepito viene quindi analizzata dalle formulazioni husserliane fino alle posizioni di Aron Gurwitsch e Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Entrambi i filosofi propongono una revisione della fenomenologia husserliana che la libera dal pregiudizio morfogenetico che ancora la sottende. Considerando il contenuto della percezione come una forma in senso gestaltico, Gurwitsch e Merleau-Ponty sembrano in grado di riabilitare la presenza del tutto all’interno di ciascuna delle sue parti. Tuttavia, mentre Gurwitsch colloca questo argomento su un piano ideale e ipotetico, senza conseguenze reali per la nostra esperienza concreta e prospettica, Merleau-Ponty lo prende come spunto per ripensare la trascendenza e la generalità come inseparabili dal loro dispiegarsi sensibile. Trasformando il concetto di costituzione in quello di comunione e sostituendo l’ideale di completa adeguatezza con quello di evidenza percettiva, Merleau-Ponty cerca di spiegare il nostro rapporto concreto con l’oggetto come corrispondenza corporea alle cose sullo sfondo attivo di un mondo condiviso. In un primo momento, l’articolo si sofferma sulla Fenomenologia della percezione e sul capitolo La cosa e il mondo naturale, oggetto di critica da parte di Gurwitsch. In seguito, l’attenzione si rivolge alle lezioni tenute da Merleau-Ponty alla Sorbona. L’obiettivo è quello di evidenziare una certa convergenza tra la percezione infantile e la visione filosofica. Viene esaminato il riferimento di Merleau-Ponty al concetto di ultra-chose, mutuato da Henri Wallon, e la sua successiva affermazione secondo cui «tutte le cose sono ultra-cose». Infine, l’articolo esplora le possibili connessioni tra la teoria della percezione di Merleau-Ponty e gli studi di Donald Winnicott sullo sviluppo infantile, al fine di sottolineare una relazione di comunione con gli oggetti e un orizzonte personale che nasce proprio attraverso il pieno contatto con le cose e le persone che popolano il proprio mondo
Estetica della zona critica: ecologia, scienza, politica
No full textAesthetics of the critical zone: ecology, science, politics
Starting from the concept of biodiversity, this contribution explores the intersection between aesthetics and environmental sciences, proposing a methodologically ecological co-implication. Bruno Latour’s thought – reinterpreted here through an aesthetic-ecological lens – plays a key role in deconstructing the modern ontological dualism underlying both certain strands of environmental aesthetics and the very notion of biodiversity. This opens the way for a relational and atmospheric aesthetics attentive to the co-presence of human and non-human actors, and enriched by a culturally situated science. This approach finds concrete expression in the concept of the Critical Zone, understood as a compositional paradigm where beauty emerges as an unstable balance of aesthetic, cognitive, and political elements.Prendendo le mosse dal concetto di biodiversità, questo contributo esplora l’intersezione tra estetica e scienze ambientali, proponendo una co-implicazione metodologicamente ecologica. Il pensiero di Bruno Latour – qui reinterpretato attraverso una lente estetico-ecologica – svolge un ruolo chiave nella decostruzione del dualismo ontologico moderno che sta alla base sia di alcuni filoni dell’estetica ambientale sia della nozione stessa di biodiversità. Ciò apre la strada a un’estetica relazionale e atmosferica attenta alla compresenza di attori umani e non umani, arricchita da una scienza culturalmente situata. Tale approccio trova espressione concreta nel concetto di Zona Critica, inteso come paradigma compositivo in cui la bellezza emerge come equilibrio instabile di elementi estetici, cognitivi e politici
When the Algorithm Takes Root AI-Generated Plants and the Crisis of Ecological Realism
No full textThis essay tracks the sudden bloom of AI-generated plants across social media and argues that their plausibility precipitates a crisis of ecological realism. These “algorithmic botanicals” borrow photography’s rhetoric of evidence while severing any indexical bond to the living world, producing images that are photographic without being photographs. Situating this phenomenon within lineages of realism—from Renaissance naturalism and Dutch still life to taxidermy, staged wildlife, and the spectacle— the essay shows how generative imagery weaponizes botanical desire for attention, clicks, and sales. The result is a miseducation of the gaze: an aesthetic norm calibrated to impossible perfection that diminishes the ordinary wonder of actual plants. Read through capitalist realism, AI flora offer frictionless connection without ecological consequence, anesthetizing care. The essay concludes by calling for new visual literacies and curatorial protocols, and by reframing realism as attunement—an ethics of looking that restores discernment between the living and the lifeless.This essay tracks the sudden bloom of AI-generated plants across social media and argues that their plausibility precipitates a crisis of ecological realism. These “algorithmic botanicals” borrow photography’s rhetoric of evidence while severing any indexical bond to the living world, producing images that are photographic without being photographs. Situating this phenomenon within lineages of realism—from Renaissance naturalism and Dutch still life to taxidermy, staged wildlife, and the spectacle— the essay shows how generative imagery weaponizes botanical desire for attention, clicks, and sales. The result is a miseducation of the gaze: an aesthetic norm calibrated to impossible perfection that diminishes the ordinary wonder of actual plants. Read through capitalist realism, AI flora offer frictionless connection without ecological consequence, anesthetizing care. The essay concludes by calling for new visual literacies and curatorial protocols, and by reframing realism as attunement—an ethics of looking that restores discernment between the living and the lifeless
Una singola definizione di lusso? Verso una lussuologia
No full textA single definition of luxury? Towards a luxury studies
Luxury is often described as a pervasive phenomenon across societies and is inherently linked to various forms of inequality. However, a universally accepted definition remains elusive, largely due to the limited attention philosophy has devoted to the subject. Despite this, numerous renowned philosophers have addressed luxury, either directly or through evaluations of its intrinsic characteristics. This paper aims to propose more than three definitions of luxury, each particularly relevant within a specific domain: moral philosophy, aesthetics, and economics. The final argument is that a comprehensive definition, as sought by luxuology, must integrate insights from all these fields.Il lusso è spesso descritto come un fenomeno diffuso in tutte le società ed è intrinsecamente legato a varie forme di disuguaglianza. Tuttavia, una definizione universalmente accettata rimane difficile da individuare, soprattutto a causa della scarsa attenzione che la filosofia ha dedicato all\u27argomento. Ciononostante, numerosi filosofi di fama hanno affrontato il tema del lusso, sia direttamente che attraverso valutazioni delle sue caratteristiche intrinseche. Questo articolo si propone di proporre più di tre definizioni di lusso, ciascuna particolarmente rilevante in un ambito specifico: filosofia morale, estetica ed economia. L\u27argomentazione finale è che una definizione completa, come quella ricercata dalla luxuologia, deve integrare le intuizioni provenienti da tutti questi campi
The project “GPTheatre: Generative AI for Humanities”
No full textThis issue originates from a one-year interdisciplinary project entitled GPTheatre, funded by the University of Milan between July 2024 and June 2025 as part of the “My First Seed” grant scheme. The project, led by Alice Barale (philosopher, PI), Luca Daino (literature scholar), and Matteo Zignani (computer scientist), aimed to investigate interaction with generative artificial intelligence, and in particular the peculiar form of dialogue that human beings are increasingly establishing with this technology. To do so, it intended to bring some of these dialogues onto the stage, as theatrical dialogues.
As the context in which to undertake this experiment, GPTheatre chose the university: several professors from the University of Milan would interact with ChatGPT, and from these dialogues — with the help of the AI itself — the performance would emerge. The staged reading ViaggIAccademici was presented in Milan at Teatro degli Angeli on May 8 2025, and in Verona at Spazio Vitale on November 16 of the same year (and it will return to Milan in February 2026). The story offered to the audience is that of a peculiar student who undertakes a “journey” through various classrooms of his university in search of a thesis advisor (and perhaps, at least for his human interlocutors, also in search of the meaning of their own research).This issue originates from a one-year interdisciplinary project entitled GPTheatre, funded by the University of Milan between July 2024 and June 2025 as part of the “My First Seed” grant scheme. The project, led by Alice Barale (philosopher, PI), Luca Daino (literature scholar), and Matteo Zignani (computer scientist), aimed to investigate interaction with generative artificial intelligence, and in particular the peculiar form of dialogue that human beings are increasingly establishing with this technology. To do so, it intended to bring some of these dialogues onto the stage, as theatrical dialogues.
As the context in which to undertake this experiment, GPTheatre chose the university: several professors from the University of Milan would interact with ChatGPT, and from these dialogues — with the help of the AI itself — the performance would emerge. The staged reading ViaggIAccademici was presented in Milan at Teatro degli Angeli on May 8 2025, and in Verona at Spazio Vitale on November 16 of the same year (and it will return to Milan in February 2026). The story offered to the audience is that of a peculiar student who undertakes a “journey” through various classrooms of his university in search of a thesis advisor (and perhaps, at least for his human interlocutors, also in search of the meaning of their own research)
From the represenationalist stance to conceptual blending in AI-generated images
No full textThis paper examines how AI-generated images reconfigure key aesthetic and epistemological categories within contemporary visual culture. Drawing on Nelson Goodman’s distinction between autographic and allographic art forms, we argue that AI image generation occupies a hybrid position, functioning as a “mixed case” where linguistic prompts serve as notational structures and generative outputs as autographic instantiations. Through the notion of semantic attractors, we describe how lexical inputs act as gravitational forces within the model’s latent space, guiding the emergence of visual and affective configurations. This dynamic is interpreted through conceptual blending theory, revealing how AI systems integrate heterogeneous domains into novel perceptual and semantic syntheses. Finally, we introduce the concept of the image-ideogram to analyze the cultural impact of deepfakes and synthetic imagery, suggesting that photorealistic synthesis now operates less as an epistemic index and more as a visual and linguistic resource within the accelerated economy of contemporary visual discourse.This paper examines how AI-generated images reconfigure key aesthetic and epistemological categories within contemporary visual culture. Drawing on Nelson Goodman’s distinction between autographic and allographic art forms, we argue that AI image generation occupies a hybrid position, functioning as a “mixed case” where linguistic prompts serve as notational structures and generative outputs as autographic instantiations. Through the notion of semantic attractors, we describe how lexical inputs act as gravitational forces within the model’s latent space, guiding the emergence of visual and affective configurations. This dynamic is interpreted through conceptual blending theory, revealing how AI systems integrate heterogeneous domains into novel perceptual and semantic syntheses. Finally, we introduce the concept of the image-ideogram to analyze the cultural impact of deepfakes and synthetic imagery, suggesting that photorealistic synthesis now operates less as an epistemic index and more as a visual and linguistic resource within the accelerated economy of contemporary visual discourse
Blob, or the Novel at the Dawn of the Third Millennium: The Narrative Act Between Cinematography and the Media
No full textThe emergence of cinematography, radio, and Television in the early decades of the twentieth century revolutionized the relationship between the arts, not only the literary ones, and knowledge with the various economic and cultural elements that constitute mass society. At the core of this revolution was the narrative act, which until then had been considered the basic principle of all religious, philosophical, scientific, poetic, and artistic literature. From that moment on, the narrative act also became central to the media which, starting with cinema, began to recount not only the lives of rulers, the great nobility, politicians, and revolutions with Lenin, but also those of the common people, the marginalized, and the tramps, with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
The power of the narrative act, until then dominated by the individual rhetorical skill of writers, philosophers, scientists, and theologians, was from that moment employed by veritable teams of scriptwriters and directors, to narrate and impose stories and subjects upon the masses, attracting them also with effects like fear and wonder, appealing more to instincts than to rationality.
The reaction of literature was almost immediate, as if those new arts had triggered a dialectic, generating the great masterpieces of the twentieth-century novel by James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Robert Musil. Literary criticism immediately became aware of the fruitful relationship between literature and media; in its search for the main aesthetic values, it generated a proliferation of methods and orientations, mainly represented by structuralism and deconstructionism, which led it to a kind of paralysis, as two thinkers like Paul Valery and Walter Benjamin had anticipated. From all those studies, the only certain point, as critics such as Roland Barthes and Franco Brioschi noted, was the centrality of the narrative act, paradoxically applied even to destructuring programs like Blob, which built a plot with fragments of television and cinema. A challenge between media and literature that has now become a dialectic, because ugliness always ends up triggering the search for beauty, of which true art and true literature are always an expression.The emergence of cinematography, radio, and Television in the early decades of the twentieth century revolutionized the relationship between the arts, not only the literary ones, and knowledge with the various economic and cultural elements that constitute mass society. At the core of this revolution was the narrative act, which until then had been considered the basic principle of all religious, philosophical, scientific, poetic, and artistic literature. From that moment on, the narrative act also became central to the media which, starting with cinema, began to recount not only the lives of rulers, the great nobility, politicians, and revolutions with Lenin, but also those of the common people, the marginalized, and the tramps, with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
The power of the narrative act, until then dominated by the individual rhetorical skill of writers, philosophers, scientists, and theologians, was from that moment employed by veritable teams of scriptwriters and directors, to narrate and impose stories and subjects upon the masses, attracting them also with effects like fear and wonder, appealing more to instincts than to rationality.
The reaction of literature was almost immediate, as if those new arts had triggered a dialectic, generating the great masterpieces of the twentieth-century novel by James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Robert Musil. Literary criticism immediately became aware of the fruitful relationship between literature and media; in its search for the main aesthetic values, it generated a proliferation of methods and orientations, mainly represented by structuralism and deconstructionism, which led it to a kind of paralysis, as two thinkers like Paul Valery and Walter Benjamin had anticipated. From all those studies, the only certain point, as critics such as Roland Barthes and Franco Brioschi noted, was the centrality of the narrative act, paradoxically applied even to destructuring programs like Blob, which built a plot with fragments of television and cinema. A challenge between media and literature that has now become a dialectic, because ugliness always ends up triggering the search for beauty, of which true art and true literature are always an expression
Music as the finest disgust? A Kantian take on cacophony in the Critique of Judgement
No full textLa musica come il disgusto più raffinato? Una visione kantiana della cacofonia nella Critica del giudizio
Il sistema kantiano delle belle arti colloca notoriamente la musica all\u27ultimo gradino della scala; per essere precisi, sembra quasi che non meriti nemmeno un posto nella classificazione, in quanto secondo Kant la musica dovrebbe essere considerata più un\u27arte piacevole che un\u27arte raffinata. Lo scopo del nostro articolo è quello di indagare se lo status peculiare che Kant attribuisce alla musica possa fornire un accesso unico ad alcune questioni di estetica negativa che si possono trovare nella Critica del giudizio: in particolare, questioni riguardanti il problema della forma della musica come arte in relazione alla sua capacità di provocare sentimenti sgradevoli e malsani. Solo quelle forme musicali che preservano la purezza formale del Ton dello strumento sembrano prefigurare la possibilità di una musica che pretenda di essere considerata più che semplicemente piacevole.The Kantian system of the fine arts notoriously places music at the bottom of the ladder; to be precise, it looks almost like it does not even deserve a place in the classification insofar as music, according to Kant, ought to be considered more an agreeable than a fine art. The aim of our paper is to inquire whether the peculiar status Kant ascribes to music can provide unique access to some issues of negative aesthetics that can be found in the Critique of Judgement: specifically, questions concerning the problem of the form of music as art in relation to its ability to cause unappealing as well as unwholesome feelings. Only those musical forms that preserve the formal purity of the instrument’s Ton seem to foreshadow the possibility of a music that claims for itself to be deemed more than just agreeable
La muffa suona. Suono, natura e tecnologia
No full textMould plays music. Sound, nature and technology
This article investigates the role of sound as a tool to rethink the relationship between nature, culture, and technology, questioning the modern dichotomy that separates them. Building on R. Murray Schafer\u27s reflections on soundscape and Steven Feld\u27s acoustemological approach, sound is understood as an ecological and multispecies form of knowledge, capable of establishing connections between human and non-human agents. Within this framework, artistic practices of sonification are examined as ways of making otherwise invisible biological phenomena audible, transforming data and vital signals into both aesthetic and epistemic experiences. The case study of artist and researcher Eduardo Reck Miranda, who experiments with the slime mold Physarum polycephalum in dialogue with artificial intelligence systems, demonstrates how living organisms can become compostional agents within a sonic interaction with humans. Though biomemristors and the Phy-Box device, the slime mold becomes part of a hybrid musical system, opening a broader reflection on the possibility of post-anthropocentric music. What emerges is an ecology of listening, where sound functions as an epistemic, relational, and intermedial practice, enhancing our coexistence with the natural world.Questo articolo indaga il ruolo del suono come strumento per ripensare i rapporti tra natura, cultura e tecnologia, mettendo in discussione la tradizionale dicotomia moderna che li separa. Partendo dalle riflessioni di R. Murray Schafer sul paesaggio sonoro e dall\u27approccio acustemologico di Steven Feld, il suono viene considerato una forma di conoscenza ecologica e multispecie, capace di costruire relazioni tra esseri umani e non umani. Inq questa cornice teorica si inseriscono le pratiche artistiche di sonificazione, che rendono udibili fenomeni biologici altrimenti invisibili, trasformandi dati e segnali vitali in esperienza estetica e conoscitiva. IL casto studio dell\u27artista e ricercatore Eduardo Reck Miranda, che sperimenta con la muffa Physarum polycephalum e con sistemi di intelligenza artificiale, mostra come organismi viventi possano diventare agenti compositivi all\u27interno di un dialogo sonoro con l\u27umano. Attraverso biomemristori e il dispositivo Phy-Box, la muffa diventa parte di un sistema musicale ibrido, aprendo a una riflessione più ampia sulla possibilità di una musica post-antropocentrica. Ne emerge un\u27ecologia dell\u27ascolto che vede il suono come pratica epistemica, relazionale e intermediale, capace di rafforzare la nostra coabitazione con il mondo naturale
From Miss Polly Had a Dolly to THE PØRNØGRAPHƏR: Hallucination as a Strategy of Resistance to the Inert Syncretism of Algorithmic Images in HARIEL’s Cinema
No full textThe article investigates the aesthetic and theoretical implications of image production through generative algorithms, focusing on the short films Miss Polly Had a Dolly and THE PØRNØGRAPHƏR by HARIEL – Italian collective for AI Cinema as case studies. Drawing on Pietro Montani’s reflection on the syncretic nature of digital images (Immagini sincretiche. Leggere e scrivere in digitale, 2024), it examines how algorithmic images – bound to their verbal labels – exhibit a combinatory and self-referential creativity, a sign of an inert syncretism incapable of producing genuine semantic mediation. This condition is discussed in relation to Vilém Flusser’s theory and to the author’s necessity to “fight against the apparatus” in order to generate improbable, and thus truly informative, images. In analyzing the visual outcomes produced by text-to-video models, the essay demonstrates how hallucination acquire both aesthetic and cognitive value, becoming an instrument of resistance to the classificatory logics of artificial intelligence. The article investigates the aesthetic and theoretical implications of image production through generative algorithms, focusing on the short films Miss Polly Had a Dolly and THE PØRNØGRAPHƏR by HARIEL – Italian collective for AI Cinema as case studies. Drawing on Pietro Montani’s reflection on the syncretic nature of digital images (Immagini sincretiche. Leggere e scrivere in digitale, 2024), it examines how algorithmic images – bound to their verbal labels – exhibit a combinatory and self-referential creativity, a sign of an inert syncretism incapable of producing genuine semantic mediation. This condition is discussed in relation to Vilém Flusser’s theory and to the author’s necessity to “fight against the apparatus” in order to generate improbable, and thus truly informative, images. In analyzing the visual outcomes produced by text-to-video models, the essay demonstrates how hallucination acquire both aesthetic and cognitive value, becoming an instrument of resistance to the classificatory logics of artificial intelligence.