Festival of Robotics: in Volterra from Friday, May 12 to Sunday, May 14, the second preview by the Institute of Mechanical Intelligence of the Sant'Anna School. Conferences and art installations between artificial intelligence, culture and art

The third edition of the Festival of Robotics, scheduled to take place in Pisa May 19-21, 2023, is approaching, with the city of the Leaning Tower becoming the "RoboTown." The next stop before the Festival is scheduled on Friday, May 12, Saturday, May 13 and Sunday, May 14 in Volterra with a very special focus dedicated to the theme robotics art and culture. Already Tuscany's Capital of Culture 2022, the beautiful city of Volterra has been chosen as the ideal venue to address an innovative, fascinating and interest-provoking topic: what is the role of robotics in the creation of works of art and how human-machine interaction becomes a protagonist in the art world.

The three-day event in Volterra opens with the workshop "Robots, Consciousness and Art", curated by the Institute of Mechanical Intelligence of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, which will take place in the Salone Volterra of the Centro Studi of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra on Friday, May 12 from 9 a.m., with free admission. The workshop aims to gather research and artistic experiences in the multidisciplinary fields of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Art. For several decades more or less sophisticated robotic systems with different levels of autonomy have entered the design and realization of specific contemporary art installations. Thus, we see, on the one hand, the use of robots as an innovative tool for the production of artistic works that cannot be obtained in any other way and, on the other hand, the use of robots as an active tool in the realization of a specific performance or in the creation of dynamic installations in which sometimes aspects of direct or indirect interaction with the human observer may also be present. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence make it possible to exploit the perceptual and creative autonomy capabilities of an artificial system. This topic opens interesting considerations on the creativity and consciousness aspects of the machine and is very much related to current developments in disciplines such as Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology. Opening remarks by Mauro Ferrari, president of the Tech Care Foundation and scientific head of the Festival of Robotics 2023 will be followed by an introduction by Massimo Bergamasco, organizer of the event and professor of "Applied Mechanics of Machines" and director of the Institute of Mechanical Intelligence at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa; the vice president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra, Lilia Silvi, will bring a greeting on behalf of the Fondazione. Alice Barale, a scholar of Aesthetics and researcher at the Department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage at the University of Milan; Anna Maria Monteverdi, an expert in Digital Performance and lecturer at the University of Milan; and Simone Arcagni, a scholar and popularizer of new media and new technologies and lecturer at the University of Palermo, will speak at the workshop. Following this, an exhibition of art installations will be inaugurated on the premises of the Volterra Civic Art Gallery, which can be visited by the public, with free admission, on Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14. The installations, 'A View from Within,' 'A Robot Drawing Beautiful Portraits,' 'How can we visualize the contact between robots and humans?' are curated by the Institute of Mechanical Intelligence of the Scuola Superiore Sant' Anna. 

 The three-day event in Volterra is organized with the collaboration and support of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra and the Comune di Volterra.

The Festival of Robotics, with the Fondazione Tech Care (promoted by the University of Pisa, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Fondazione Arpa) as the implementing entity, receives the support of the Regione Toscana, the Comune di Pisa, the Fondazione Pisa, Fondazione Arpa and other organizations and institutions, and is sponsored by the University of Pisa, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra, the Comune di Volterra, the Comune di San Giuliano Terme, CNR and other organizations and institutions.

The Robotics Festival has the patronage of Rai Toscana and the media partnership of Rai Radio 3.