Negli ultimi decenni, il concetto di biodiversità, sin dalla sua formulazione iniziale nel 1986, è diventato centrale sia nel dibattito accademico che in quello pubblico come strumento per valutare l'impatto umano sul benessere degli ambienti naturali. Di fronte alle sfide poste dal cambiamento climatico, questo concetto sottolinea le conseguenze delle azioni umane e promuove una migliore pratica di gestione del problema. Questo articolo propone una riflessione critica sulle premesse filosofiche alla base del concetto di biodiversità, evidenziandone i limiti e avanzando una proposta alternativa. Piuttosto che adottare un criterio di valutazione incentrato sugli individui, suggerisce di considerare i processi e le relazioni tra gli esseri viventi, adottando una prospettiva estetica, intesa come lo studio della percezione e dell'interazione con il mondo. Attraverso un'analisi della fenomenologia di Merleau-Ponty, viene proposto un nuovo modello teorico che concepisce la biodiversità come un sistema di relazioni, ridefinendo così anche l'identità degli esseri viventi. Questo approccio relazionale offre una visione più dinamica della biodiversità, con implicazioni significative per la comprensione e la gestione delle crisi ambientali contemporanee.

Il presente saggio esplora il concetto di estetica umida come forma situata di esperienza estetica e politica che emerge dall’interazione tra arte, ecologia e tecnologie ambientali. Attraverso un’analisi del progetto U-DATInos, creato dagli artisti Salvatore Iaconesi e Oriana Persico per l’Ecomuseo Mare Memoria Viva di Palermo, il testo indaga come l’acqua – nelle sue configurazioni materiali e simboliche – possa diventare un mezzo epistemologico e affettivo in grado di attivare forme di sensibilità post-antropocentriche. Attingendo agli strumenti metodologici delle Blue Humanities, delle wet ontologies e al pensiero di studiosi come Astrida Neimanis, Karen Barad e Donna Haraway, il saggio propone una lettura della pratica artistica alla foce del fiume Oreto come dispositivo per attivare un’estetica umida che consenta la riconfigurazione sensoriale, l’intra-azione multispecie e la cittadinanza ecologica. U-DATInos, attraverso l’uso partecipativo dei dati ambientali, modella un’esperienza immersiva che ricollega i corpi umani e più-che-umani al fiume, promuovendo una forma relazionale di custodia che sfida i confini tra natura e cultura, tra dati e affetti. L’estetica umida, come qui delineata, emerge quindi come una pratica sensibile e trasformativa che traduce la porosità del vivente in esperienza incarnata, aprendo nuove forme di alleanza tra acqua, tecnologia e comunità.

La moda viene paragonata da Eugen Fink ai fiori di ciliegio giapponesi, che, sebbene belli e luminosi, vengono rapidamente spazzati via dal vento: tradizionalmente considerata effimera e fugace, la moda è un fenomeno culturale da prendere sul serio. La sfida etica nella moda odierna è quella di salvaguardare il pianeta e rispettare l’ambiente. La rivoluzione verde nel settore della moda tende a sostituire i prodotti chimici con quelli naturali, tra cui i materiali vegani rivestono particolare importanza. Il saggio mostra come l’uso di tessuti eco-compatibili non riduca in alcun modo il valore estetico dei capi di moda e che i nuovi materiali riciclati, basati sull’economia circolare, consentano comunque di ottenere prodotti di alta qualità.

For more than a century now, Western museological institutions have been exhibiting expropriated heritage across their museum spaces, curating displays which conveyed prescriptive epistemic paradigms, informed by a rigidly imposed notion of primitive aesthetic. As the restitution of physical heritage is at the center of the international political debate, both museums and artists have started to employ digital technologies to engage with the looted heritage, envisioning new paths for access and experience, through projects which aspire to question traditional narratives. Interestingly, digital technologies offer the opportunity to mobilize a very rigid state of affairs, overcoming diplomatic stances and shifting the debate towards questions of identity, values and aesthetics. This paper intercepts the digital repatriation phenomenon, analyzing two case studies which relate to the Benin Bronzes: the international cooperative institutional programme Digital Benin and the AI generated work Igùn (2020) by artist Minne Atairu. These two projects, in their own media specific ways, create new modes of experience to interact with the Benin Kingdom heritage, operating at the intersection between research, display, creativity and meaning making. As the digital restitution debate becomes more and more pressing in the current scenario, the research offers an analysis of how digital technologies can be used to foster new paths to engage with expropriated heritage, overcoming rigid definitions of knowledge.

The literary criticism has long been concerned with highlighting the importance of dreams in medieval literature, particularly in Boccaccio’s Decameron. However, the degree of horror that characterizes these dreams remains a relatively unexplored topic, often touched upon but rarely central in the contributions that have offered excellent interpre- tations of the dream narratives in Boccaccio’s text. Dissecting bodies, dividing and nar- rating them through disgusting and horrifying descriptions or circumstances is often a way to communicate the instability of the subject, to multiply it, and to render its identity mutable and changeable. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the ways in which horror in Boccaccio’s Decameron contributes to reforming subjectivities and (de)constructing the status of the characters. Attention will be paid to the stories where the narration of dis- turbing bodies intersects with the themes of dreams and visions. This perspective, which is always visual and situated in an otherworldly dimension, allows the characters to take on appearances far removed from an ideal image of an intact and healthy body. In fact, the bodies appear crucial in their destroyed carnality in a world – the dream world – that paradoxically is not populated by flesh. However, they serve as witnesses or warnings, bearers of truth, the more their appearance and flesh have been marred by torment. This paper intends to reflect on these topics.

Visceral, instinctive, aversive: disgust takes the form of a complex, often overwhelming sensation. It represents the risk of jeopardizing the integrity of a vague and illusory purity. Indeed, the expression of disgust appears as a firm claim to superiority over the other, considered inferior, inhuman and infectious. According to Tuija Saresmo and Urho Tulo- nen, populist rhetoric uses precisely disgust to emphasize the sharp distinction between the superior, i.e., white, and racialized subjects, legitimizing the implementation of poli- cies xenophobic discrimination. Disgust then becomes the necessary means of consoli- dating social order by exerting violence against supposedly defiling bodies. In Una gran puzza di merda nell’aria, Wissal Houbabi addresses the structural racism inherent in the construction of Italian culture, focusing specifically on the murder of Younes El Boussettaoui committed by Massimo Adriatici in Voghera in the summer of 2021. Beginning with the title of the performance, the artist uses terms that can be traced back to disgust to describe the attitude taken by the Northern League alderman, nauseated by the presence of a man of Moroccan origin, therefore different, homeless, that is, on the margins of civilized society, and suffering from mental disorders, therefore infectious. At the same time, however, disgust in Houbabi’s work takes on a an unprecedented decolo- nial connotation, restoring the revulsion felt by Bahijia El Boussetaoui, the victim’s sister, in front of the impunity of the crime committed by Adriatici, who returned to freedom after a brief period spent under house arrest. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate the performativity of disgust from a decolonial perspective, examining Houbabi’s work as a significant case study significant, especially in relation to today’s national context.

This paper explores the intersection of music and artificial intelligence (AI). The document discusses significant projects like Sony's Flow Machines and AIVA, highlighting how AI is utilized in the musical domain as an assistive tool (e.g., in activities like editing), an analytical instrument (for understanding musical language, for instance, in musicological research), for profiling (for targeting purposes and beyond), and for generating music. The paper lists several open questions, such as issues related to the attribution of works, the originality of AI-generated music and copyright law and it also delves into the legal and ethical implications, particularly regarding copyright and the potential for AI to commit plagiarism or create derivative works.Key challenges and considerations in AI-generated music are addressed, including autonomy, creativity, and intentionality. While AI's capacity for creativity is still evolving, the need for human intervention in training and refining AI outputs is still crucial. The intentionality behind AI-created music and the integration of human values are critical in ensuring that the produced music is meaningful and resonates with human audiences. Finally, this study examines whether AI can be considered a creative entity or if it functions merely as an advanced tool for human composers, analyzing the aesthetic and functional transformations brought about by AI in the realm of music creation.

This article aims to investigate the documentary film image through the lens of phenomenological image theory. Specifically, it seeks to explore the genre of mockumentary, reflecting on the reasons behind the deception that lead the consciousness to believe that what it is seeing has really happened. In the phenomenological literature, the theme of deception has often been addressed through the case of hyperrealistic wax statues, which exemplify the typical perceptual misunderstanding of mistaking an image for a flesh-and-blood person. In contrast to the wax figures model, I argue that there is no perceptual deception in mockumentaries. On the contrary: mockumentaries work precisely because they do not attempt to deceive perception. Rather, the idea I propose is to interpret the deception of the mockumentary in terms of a narrative engagement of perception.

In the 21st century, where digital advancements change how we perceive art and aesthetics, there is a need to examine how empirical sciences and the humanities can collaboratively explore these complexities. This paper highlights the reciprocal relationship between these fields, arguing that a fusion of empirical methods and philosophical inquiry can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of aesthetics in the digital age. Empirical sciences bring robust tools for quantifying human experiences, yet they often reduce complex phenomena to measurable parts, potentially missing nuances captured by the humanities. Conversely, the humanities provide deep conceptual insights, but these can benefit from empirical grounding to enhance their applicability and relevance. This interdisciplinary approach is illustrated through the study of digital aesthetics, particularly focusing on the challenges of understanding art and aesthetics across varied human perceptions. Additionally, this paper explores the evolving concept of authorship in the digital age, complicated by AI-generated art and digital mediums. By bridging the strengths of both disciplines, the authors advocate for a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of these contemporary issues, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in navigating the digital landscape's complexities.

The task that awaits those who have noticed the devastation of the truth prevailing today lies in coming to terms with the illusory nature of the political proposals that European leaders formulated during the 20th century and which, despite their diversity, are based on a single interpretation of the sense of Being in terms of “nihilism”. Now, we do acknowledge that ample space has been reserved in the last fifty years to show the criminal nature of the fascist and Nazi projects, as well as the alienation that emblematically characterizes the liberal model, particularly in its American version. That is why it now proves extremely urgent to clarify the spiritual presuppositions that favored the disastrous advent of Bolshevism in the Soviet Union. Here is what E.E. Cummings set out to do during a trip made in the 1930s to Stalin’s Russia and whose ripest fruits the American poet collected in a very precious diary emblematically entitled Eimi (I am). Awakening a sense of Being thus becomes the escape route Cummings devised to bring Western man back into that dimension capable of renewing in each of us that need for rootedness, which guarantees the possibility of an authentic existence.