Pilots
Perfolab Genova
A week of performing arts and technology projects with students in videogame, acting, digital humanities, and computer engineering degrees from Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain focused on how science and technology can contribute to cultural welfare and well-being.
SECOND Pilot Workshop on transdisciplinary methodologies in Performing arts and technologies.
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Date
13th to 17th April 2026
Main theme
Cultural welfare and well-being
This pilot explores how art-driven technologies can promote cultural welfare, fostering health, inclusion, and social cohesion. Using a transdisciplinary approach, it explores both the potential and the ethical and accessibility challenges of digital tools in mediating art and cultural heritage experiences, with art as a source of inspiration for more human-centered technology.
Entry point
"humanizing technology”, “art”, “cultural interaction”, “well-being & health”, “inclusion & social cohesion” and “multimodality”
Challenges
This workshop encourages students to critically examine cultural welfare technologies and their influence on how art and cultural heritage are experienced. Instead of assuming that technology inherently improves access, understanding, or well-being, the project highlights the tensions that arise when technological aims fail to match users’ actual needs, abilities, and social contexts. It addresses issues such as digital exclusion,information overload and social discomfort as possible unintended effects of art-related technologies.
Students are invited to reflect on whether technology genuinely enriches cultural experiences or whether it risks substituting, accelerating, or diminishing them. They will explore how artistic practices can offer alternative perspectives, such as seamlessly integrating technology into everyday life, encouraging meaningful social interaction, promoting slower and more reflective engagement, and creating inclusive, personalized experiences for diverse audiences.
Participants will collaborate in interdisciplinary teams that bring together expertise from both performative and technological fields, involving students from the partner universities. Each team will develop a concept for active engagement with cultural and artistic content, potentially supported by technology. The outcomes may take the form of participatory installations, interactive performances, game-based experiences, or other experimental formats that critically engage with both the potential and the limitations of cultural welfare technologies.
COLLABORATION
LegaCoop Liguria
Auser Liguria
Master Degree in Digital Humanities - Interactive Systems and Digital Media, University of Genoa
Casa Paganini - InfoMus research center, University of Genoa
Musei Nazionali di Genova - Palazzo Reale, Ministero della Cultura
Schedule
Day 1 (13th April - Monday)
| Time | Duration | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 14:30-15:00 | 30m | Welcome address |
| 15:00-16:30 | 1h30m | Introducing challenges & Pre-assessment Antonio Camurri and Gualtiero Volpe |
| 16:30-17:00 | 30m | Coffee Break |
| 17:00-18:00 | 1h |
Results from Lisbon
Rui Antunes |
Day 2 (14th April – Tuesday)
| Time | Duration | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30-11:00 | 1h30m | Movement & Interactive Machine Learning Grigore Burloiu |
| 11:00–11:30 | 30m | Coffee Break |
| 11:30-13:00 | 1h30m |
Directions for projects & Individual brainstorming Oscar Ardaiz and Gualtiero Volpe |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h |
Lunch Break |
| 14:00–15:30 | 2h30m |
Motion capture and analysis workshop |
| 15:30-16:00 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 16:00-16:30 | 30m | Kick off Eleonora Ceccaldi |
| 16:30-18:00 | 1h00m | Augmented walk |
Day 3 (15th April – Wednesday)
| Time | Duration | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30–11:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 11:00–11:30 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 11:30–13:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break |
| 14:00–15:30 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 15:30–16:00 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 16:00–18:00 | 2h | Group work |
Day 4 (16th April - Thursday)
| Time | Duration | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30–11:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 11:00–11:30 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 11:30–13:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break |
| 14:00–15:30 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 15:30–16:00 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 16:00–18:00 | 2h | Group work |
Day 5 (17th April - Friday)
| Time | Duration | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30–11:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 11:00–11:30 | 30m | Coffee break |
| 11:30-13:00 | 1h30m | Group work |
| 13:00-14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break |
| 14:00-16:00 | 2h |
Rehearsals
The groups of students
Presentations
The groups of students
|
| 16:00-16:30 | 30m | Coffee Break |
| 16:30-18:00 | 1h30m |
Roundtable
Moderator: Antonio Camurri
Award announcement & Conclusion
|
How to get to Casa Paganini
By Metro:
Sarzano / Sant’Agostino
By foot:
Piazza Santa Maria in Passione, 34 - 16123 Genova (GE)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gKeoexudXRJYwr5SA
DOCUMENTS
Welcome info [download]
Overview and Challenges [download]
Suggested bibliography and videography [download]
Initial publicity [download]
Project results [download]
Satisfaction survey [download]