MESSINA – A well-known artist and artificial intelligence will compete for the first time in Sicily, down to the last shade of color, to decide who will create the most creative and innovative work of art, both starting from the same common theme. The relationship between the artist painter and generative artificial intelligence is opening new horizons in the field of visual arts, bringing with it a series of fascinating questions about the future of human creativity. On the one hand, artists can see AI as an extension of their creative process, a new tool that, similar to a paintbrush or canvas, can be leveraged to explore new aesthetics and ideas. Artificial intelligence, in fact, is not only capable of replicating existing styles, but can also generate completely new visions, often exceeding the traditional limits of human imagination. On the other hand, this relationship raises fundamental questions about the nature of art and the definition of the artist. This dialogue between man and machine not only enriches the artistic debate but also challenges our traditional perceptions of art and creativity. AI does not replace the artist but collaborates with him, opening new ways to explore and express artistic vision. This partnership enhances creative exploration, making AI a companion rather than a substitute in artistic practice.
The stage for the ‘singular combat’, Thursday 16 May at 7.30 pm, will be the Santa Maria Alemanna Auditorium in Messina, which will host a new appointment of the ‘Coffee Talk: ARTificial Intelligence – creative dialogues and visual arts’, with the participation of the well-known master Dimitri Salonia, founder of the Sicilian Coloristic School, who, aided by his student Lidia Monachino, will compete with the generative AI of Chat GPT led by Gaia Roccaforte, biomedical engineer from the CNR IRIB of Messina. At the end of the evening, the audience will choose the work they consider most exciting. During the meeting there will be an interesting speech by Alfredo Ferro, professor emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Catania who will discuss artificial intelligence and its future applications.
The event is managed as a format, moderated by the CNR technologist manager Marco Ferrazzoli, and favors an inclusive and multidisciplinary approach and discussion, in a context of open and informal dialogue, where art and science intertwine. The BNO Informatica company from Messina will show the surprising capabilities that even an old computer from the 1980s, a Commodore 64, can have when equipped with generative AI. “For some time – explains Dimitri Salonia – there has been a debate about the innovations introduced by generative AI in the field of visual arts. The impact of artificial intelligence on art must be understood in a broader sense, as it involves not only the contemporary art sector, but has an impact on the much broader field of visual arts. On the one hand, artificial intelligence has long been used by some contemporary artists for conceptual experiments, research that investigates the new boundaries of art, on the other it expands the perimeter of the visual arts, as other previously external figures can also make use of it to the discipline of image creation. Ease of production risks quickly creating a phenomenon of devaluation with which artists will have to compete and be distinctive. If we talk about art, advertising, fiction, entertainment, satire, generative AI can work. In other contexts, where the reality principle and the technologies of reality are in force, it could cause more problems than opportunities. However, this dichotomy between real and artificial does not in fact exist in art. Art is a very interesting application area for generative AI, as by its nature a work of art is made up of “artificial” imagery, it is never a mere reproduction of reality, it does not respond to the reality principle” .
During the event we will talk about “ADAPT-MI – Automatic Diagnosis, Assessment, Prognosis and Treatment of Motor Illness”, an innovative project financed by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (MIMIT), aimed at the development of new algorithms in the field diagnostic and rehabilitation based on generative AI. “The main objective of the project – explain Giovanni Pioggia, CNR IRIB manager of Messina, and Marco Ferlazzo, President of COT – is to improve the diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic management of subjects with trauma and motor deficits, through new decision support algorithms clinic based on generative AI, free from the current critical issues of AI systems and proposed as PoCs in Open-AI Innovation platforms. The project’s areas of intervention include pre- and post-surgical diagnosis and evaluation in orthopedics and neuro-robotic treatment in post-surgical subjects and in patients with sensorimotor deficits”.
“The partnership is made up of private and public entities of excellence in research and development, open innovation and the production of technologically advanced platforms, products and services,” added Flavio Corpina, CEO of the Mediterranean Health Innovation Hub (MHIH) Consortium.” . The proponents of the project are: COT Cure Ortopediche Traumatologica spa, the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the National Research Council (CNR-IRIB) and Cedel Cooperativa Sociale Educativa ELIS, in collaboration with excellence in Italian clinical research ( Campus Bio-Medico University Polyclinic Foundation and Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation), as well as with innovative SMEs active in the artificial intelligence sector (DeepTrace Technologies Srl) and IT technologies (Medilink Srl).
The meeting, sponsored by the Municipality of Messina and the Istituto Superiore Antonello, was proposed by the partners of the ADAPT-MI project in collaboration with CNR IRIB of Messina and Consorzio Mediterranean Health Innovation Hub (MHIH). The event, conceived and organized by Caffè Barbera and the members of the CNR IRIB of Messina Flavia Marino, Rosa Musotto, Alfio Puglisi, Stefania Gismondo, Giovanni Pioggia.
