Turin, 06/25/2024.
The collaboration between Oliviero Toscani and the Polytechnic of Turinformalized in 2023, today sees its first results thanks to the activity carried out in the Systemic Design Research Education Center (SYDERE) and Artificial Intelligence Hub (AIH) laboratories.
Starting from May 2024 – in collaboration with the company specializing in archives Promemoria Group – began in fact census project of the photographer’s existing heritage, estimated at over 500,000 negatives210,000 slides, 200,000 positives of various formats, 100,000 prints, posters and covers. Of these, approximately 2 thousand documents have been digitized and cataloged to become part of the Toscani digital archive.
This is a pilot project, supported by experiments carried out thanks to technologies from Artificial intelligenceaimed at managing all phases of processing on a limited sample of services and projects by the Milanese photographer by examining every single step of the process: from the search for original materials, to the digitization of films, slides or other supports, up to the collection of backstage footage of the shootings .
The added value of this project is represented by the fact that the cataloging of all available information goes beyond the boundaries of Oliviero Toscani’s heritage and contextualises his projects by connecting them with other documents – articles, promotional materials, bibliography – in order to describe the impact of his works on the society of the time and on specialist criticism.
The last step of this phase was the creation of a demo version of the digital archive to validate the database structure and find an optimized management system for all assets and related information. The collaboration between the SYDERE Center of the Polytechnic of Turin and Promemoria Group has as its further aim the understanding and analysis of the relationship between archives and Artificial Intelligence.
The proposal put forward – made possible by the study of the heritage created and made available by Oliviero Toscani – is to rethink archives as a tool of reliable and verified knowledge available to scholars. Starting from 2027, the results of this work will flow into the WDL (World Design Library) – spin-off of the Polytechnic of Turin and the Civic Library of the City of Turin, for public use within the Civic Library, currently under construction at Torino Esposizioni.
«I never thought that my work could become of public interest – he comments Oliviero Toscani – and I am very honored that it is of interest to a network of public libraries. All this is totally in line with my point of view on art which must be accessible and democratic.”
«The partnership with Oliviero Toscani allows the Polytechnic to explore Unpublished methodologies for the digitization, cataloging and use of a rich deposit of photographic materials – explains the professor Pier Paolo Peruccio, director of the SYDERE Center – By operating with Artificial Intelligence on extraordinary documents that recount fifty years of transformations in society, the aim is to innovate the ways of carrying out archive research tout court by providing new tools to scholars who deal with the great theme of sources . Experimentation with AI will support the entire archive digitization project, both because over time the amount of material available to researchers and AI will grow, and because we will continue to witness, in the coming years, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and its potential applications”.
Concludes Silvia Barbero, Vice Rector for Communication «This project represents a great opportunity to work closely with materials of great historical and artistic value from a master of photography like Oliviero Toscani in a totally innovative way by exploiting the potential of Artificial Intelligence. The collaboration with Promemoria Group not only enriches the cultural heritage available to society in an inclusive way, but also contributes to training a new generation of professionals capable of innovating and creating sustainable solutions for the future.”
