PhD students cycles XXXVII

Educational design. Semiotics and design for the construction of transdisciplinary knowledge.

 Abstract: The research project focuses on the form and role that digital platforms and media have had and are having in teaching practices, integrating and transforming knowledge transmission devices, especially in secondary education and academic research.

To this end, it is crucial to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, which, thanks to the doctoral internship (PON grant project), has the opportunity to become transdisciplinary.

As a research work that questions the epistemological level, the construction and dissemination of knowledge, the starting point is a framework based on the philosophy of science, the literature of which allows us to understand how, over the last few centuries, the scientific method has influenced the production of knowledge that characterises Western societies and cultures. The construction of disciplinary knowledge is thus also examined thanks to the interdisciplinary approaches to epistemology of Michel Serres and Edgar Morin.

A central role is also played by ethno- and socio-semiotic analysis, which, based on the analyses of Alessandro Zinna (2004) and from an ecosystemic-relational approach, makes it possible to analyse the interfaces of writing objects and the role that the textbook has played in school and academic education since the 18th century. 

Finally, the pedagogical approach to be adopted is based on the method presented by Diana Laurillard in her book Teaching as Design Science (2012). Here, the didactic point of view is shifted from learning styles or teacher-student interaction to the design of methodologies that integrate technologies for teaching.

Title: You, robot. An enactivist approach for Human-Robot Interaction

 Abstract:  The aim of my research is to reevaluate the interaction between humans and robots within an enactive conception of the mind. From its inception, robotics has employed a classical view of the mind associated with the metaphor of the computer, which conceives cognition as disembodied representational computation, to elaborate its models. This approach has yielded contradictory results and has thus far failed to create robots capable of engaging effectively and smoothly in interactions. My thesis posits that these issues arise from an undisputed overlap between human cognition and robotic cognition, which reduces interaction to an inferential mode of making sense of others' actions. Conversely, it is only by starting from the constitutive difference between human and robotic cognition and adopting a different conception of interaction that we can address some of the current problems in the field. Hence, we deem it necessary to embark on an unexplored path by approaching Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) through enactive theories of cognition.

To achieve this objective, the thesis will be divided into four parts. The first part consists of a critical reconstruction of the history of robotics, which is useful for demonstrating how the contemporary imagination regarding robots has been constructed and for revealing the intersections and mutual influences between robotics and cognitive theories. The second part addresses the issue of what a robot is today and how its representation fluctuates between two extremes: an artifact built to deceive, or a magnificent technical object. In the third part, I seek to problematize some theoretical concepts used in HRI, specifically the notions of interaction, social cognition, attributed intentionality, and perceived agency. This will serve to highlight the ambiguity and difficulties in defining the cognition of a robot, a cognitive agent that oscillates between autonomy and dependence and poses a unique challenge for human understanding. Finally, we will consider the phenomenon of the Uncanny Valley as a boundary example, revealing the shortcomings of a classical cognitivist approach and the potential advantages of an enactive approach.

Title: The reforms of medicine during the French Revolution. Social and technical consequences in obstetrics.

Abstract: My research revolves around the changes that affected midwifery practice in late 18th century Paris. It investigates the role that politics played in its transformation from the art of childbirth into the science of midwifery. During the last years of the Old Regime, the care of women in labour had been profoundly changed by newly invented instruments, such as the curved forceps. However, it was the emergence of experimental surgical practices such as symphysiotomies and in vivo caesarean sections that marked new boundaries in the epistemology of obstetrics. The use of obstetrical instruments and the frequency of surgical interventions on pregnant patients increased dramatically following the enactment of medical reforms sought by the revolutionary authorities.  These included the foundation of state medical schools, the introduction of the clinic in hospitals, the merging of the careers of physicians and surgeons and the opening of the first maternity ward. By analysing legislative texts, archival documents and midwifery publications of the time, I intend to study how these health polices affected the recodification of birth observed in revolutionary Paris. Birth changed from a private, domestic, female and manual physiological phenomenon into a public, political, technical and medicalised event. I also consider the debate that flared up in the Parisian midwifery community around the innovations introduced in the new midwifery, sometimes seen as epoch-making improvements, sometimes as cruelty inflicted on the women who underwent them and the cause of the degradation of a centuries-old art. These controversies are revealing of tensions, conflicts and collaborations between three different childbirth professionals, physicians, surgeons and sages-femmes. New instruments and new operations are significant for the material history of birth, medicine and surgery, and also for the social history of women's bodies. It had become legitimate to intervene with invasive and almost always fatal operations in the name of medical experimentation and France's much sought-after demographic increase.

-       Research topic PON “Ricerca e innovazione” 2014-2020: azione IV.5 – Green

-       Project title: Equality, well-being and climate policies through synergies and adverse effects

ABSTRACT: The project investigates the social and economic impact of environmental and climate policies. The need for green policies and the value of equality are placed in close relation and encompassed in their virtuous and potentially adverse outcomes. Understanding this principle provides the sense and purpose of the project, which focuses on analysing the democratic sustainability of environmental policies, decision-making processes, arguments and conflicts in the context of resource use and business ethics policies.

More specifically, the project aims to analyse the social, political and economic dimensions of the environmental and climate crisis. The study of the nexus between the reduction of socio-economic inequalities and environmental protection is at the core of the project. In this perspective, climate change is framed as the defining condition of the present, because it is both a fact, established by natural science, a heritage to bear, and an ordeal to be overcome - in other words, a political condition. I will attempt to show how socioeconomic inequalities plague society and how they causally contribute to climate change. I will then argue that a more systematic approach can successfully address both the inequality and climate challenge, i.e. what economist Éloi Laurent describes as the 'social-ecological approach'. I will attempt to synthesise the theory and evidence linking climate change to socio-economic inequalities. The numerous channels through which climate change exacerbates socio-economic inequalities and the opposite direction: from existing socio-economic inequalities to climate change. Finally, I will try to show how this pathway can be translated into new forms of policy that can lead to a socio-ecological transformation of societies and ensure social and environmental justice. In doing so, I will argue that in order to undertake such a transition process, one must break with the idea that productivity and economic growth systematically mean progress, and I will argue that progress does not hinge on productivity gains, but on the achievement of gains in quality and sustainability. 

Title: For a history of Kantian reflection on the unconscious

Abstract: The purpose of the present research is to reconstruct the historical genesis and evolution of the interest in "obscure representations" (or unconscious representations) in the thought of Immanuel Kant. While it is true, and widely acknowledged, that with the work of Leibniz we see the first thematization and philosophical legitimization of unconscious mental activity, it is equally true that this issue runs through all German-speaking thought in the eighteenth century, assuming particular relevance in certain Wolffian thinkers such as Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten and Georg Friedrich Meier. As authors of the textbooks used by Kant for the courses in logic and anthropology, the latter are usually referred to as the determining sources of Kant's reflection on the unconscious. In my opinion, however, the theory that Kant elaborates on the subject is the result of a more complex comparison, in which a non-secondary role is played by other authors: above all Johann Georg Sulzer, active at the Berlin Academy of Sciences, as well as Tetens and Platner. The determination of Kantian sources with regard to the problem of obscure representations, in other words, cannot be limited to valuing the more direct influences, traceable to the theoretical realm of "empirical psychology," but must also extend to consider the vast "physiological" front of doctrines on man, which from Halle to Berlin contribute extensively to the debate on the obscurity of the soul. In light of this conviction, our investigation aims to define the Kantian position within a much broader horizon than has been done so far, seeking to problematize and better understand Kant's so-called "rejection" of physiological anthropologies, without neglecting any debt to them. All this, finally, will serve to bring out more sharply the important contribution of novelty made by the Kantian treatment, which thus consciously develops a line of thought that characterizes, no less than that on Pure Reason, the essence of the Enlightenment.

Auditory spatial attention: investigating shifting across front and rear hemifield

Abstract: Auditory spatial attention involves focusing hearing perception to a specific location in space. Previous studies addressed the issue examining different portions of the front space. Present study aimed to investigate the whole surrounding space, using a Posner cuing task to compare front and rear attention effect and to assess whether existing models based on the front space can account for the whole auditory space. Each trial consisted of a visual arrow cue, followed by an auditory target (either high or low pitch ring sound). On 2/3 of trials, cue was predictive of target location (valid trials), while on the remaining 1/3 target appeared at uncued locations (invalid trials), with cue-target distances ranging between +/-60° to +/-180°. Participants were asked to discriminate between the two targets. As expected, responses were faster and more accurate for valid than invalid trials. The distribution of attention across 360° space showed a quadratic shape with steeper speed decrease for shorter cue-target angular distances. Furthermore, shifting attention from the rear to the front space resulted in faster reaction times than vice-versa. Results may reflect a slower disengagement from the front anchor, due to a visually-driven spatial representation of auditory scene, which is more fine-tuned frontally. Results are consistent with recent literature showing a quadratic rather than linear attention gradient, as a function of cue-target distance. More importantly, they shed new light on the dynamics of auditory spatial attention, providing further evidence of the quick alerting action of auditory stimuli, especially outside the visual reference system.

Title: Digital Grammars. Archives, discourse, codes, between media semiotics and new literacy

Abstract:  The research aims to reflect on digitalization within the field of media semiotics. While semiotics has indeed focused on the analysis of specific languages related to the use and consumption of digital technologies, the cultural phenomenon of digitalization has been little problematized by the science of meaning in a specific way.

For this reason, the study investigates on one hand the material, technical, and aesthetic relationship with the media technological object, and on the other hand it outlines the interpretative models - and therefore socially, culturally, and historically determined - that guide the approach to different media, avoiding both technological and social determinism but taking into consideration the material relationship with the medium as constitutive of the processes of meaning-making.

The work begins with an examination of semiotic, philosophical, and aesthetic approaches to mediations, both from a technical and semiolinguistic perspective, to inquire into the relationship that appears to be that between a subject-user and a support-object. It then proceeds to identify digitalization as a field of study that allows the emergence and identification of distinctly semiotic issues such as enunciation through technology, the emergence of new mediations, and the construction of interpretive paths within the informational disorder.

These themes and issues allow for the definition of the concept of digital competence based on the semiotic theory of the encyclopedia, which is finally put to the test through the empirical analysis of two case studies: interaction with the technological object and the cultural construction of digital competencies within the Digital Competence framework promoted by the European Union for education and policy-making.

Title: The modulation of attentional bottom-up and top-down processes by stimulus features and personality traits
Abstract: Organisms have evolved to develop the ability to recognize sources of sustenance in the environment. As a consequence food stimuli have acquired a special status, with a high positive valence, among the other environmental stimuli. However individuals with eating disorders may distort the meaning commonly associated with food. In this regard, the current research project aims to study  how features of the food stimulus can influence both automatic and voluntary attention processes. An additional aim of this research project is to examine whether certain personality traits, such as those associated with eating disorders, can influence individual judgments towards food. The first research question is investigated through behavioural measurements, including reaction times and eye-movements, while the second is implemented through data collection on explicit judgments of food stimuli, considering several dimensions such as valence, arousal, pleasantness, social interactions , and healthiness.

Title: “Husserl’s Concept of Leistung between Theory of Knowledge and Ontology”

Abstract: The project shows two main research aims: an enquiry into both the genesis and the development of the problematic concept of Leistung in Edmund Husserl's work (which still remains a major desideratum in the scientific literature); and a theoretical analysis following a systematic way. Indeed, it can be proved: how the term is central already from the earliest works of theoretical-epistemic and ontological-objective nature; its importance is confirmed in the development of transcendental idealism; it is a technical term in the phenomenology of temporality, even in its more speculative features (C-Manuskripte). The textual continuity thus traced will thus be examined by means of an analytical-conceptual method (i.e. within Husserlian phenomenology alone) and a comparative one. The purpose is indeed to show: how the fundamental conceptual determinations of the matter had already been elaborated by the Austro-German philosophy of Aristotelian derivation and by some neo-Kantian authors immediately preceding or contemporary to Husserl himself; how he managed to take possession of these acquisitions in an original manner, managing to exhibit their aporias and instead harmonise crucial aspects of them. Finally, the metaphysical and aporetic outcome to which the Husserlian elaboration of the theme in the late writings on temporality arrives will be pointed out. The major expected result of the research is the exhibition of the structural function of Leistung for the construction of the phenomenological idea of mathesis universalis and the problem that temporality represents for it. Indirect but ideal outcomes are the exhibition of a speculative continuity (albeit clearly layered) throughout Husserlian production and a non-naive comparison with salient aspects of Kantianism.

Title: Paracelsus and natural remedies in 16th and 17th century Italy: the historical roots of the green revolution.

Abstract: My research project aims to investigate how Paracelsian medicine and philosophy became popular in the XVI and XVII century Florence. To reconstruct what might have been one of the many historical-scientific experiences of the time, I will focus on the figure of Don Antonio Medici, his interests in alchemical practice, and his role in the activities of the Casino of San Marco. Don Antonio was the son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I and, as a member of the de' Medici family, he played an active role in the life of the Grand Duchy both by maintaining correspondence with the most important members of the Italian courts and by participating in the military campaigns of his century in aid of Emperor Rudolph II. Among his activities, Don Antonio spent part of his time at the Casino of San Marco where the rooms of the foundry were located, a proper alchemical laboratory dedicated to the production of medicinal remedies according to the doctrine of Theophrastus Paracelsus. Through an analysis of the sources of the time, an attempt will also be made to voice the more practical side of alchemic literature and to test some of the recipes taken from the books of Don Antonio's foundry to show what knowledge, tools, and methodologies were used in the production of medicinal remedies.

Title: “MASS - The Museum as lab of reinvention: for a new Art, Shared and Sustainable”

Abstract: The current PhD project aims at an interdisciplinary approach involving cognitive science, neuroaesthetics (psychology of art) and sustainability. Specifically, the main goal of the research concerns the study of the various mechanisms of perception related to an aesthetic experience (both in the artistic and ordinary sense) and how they may influence our decision-making processes toward the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors. The achievement of this goal requires multiple steps to develop in different studies.

The first study (paper in elaboration) investigated the relationship between the activation of affordances by everyday objects and the material from which they are made, comparing sustainable stimuli with non-sustainable ones, and analyzing the results in relation also to the environmental sensitivity of the participants (Menardo et al., 2019).

The second study, which will be carried out soon in Vienna during the visiting period at Professor Helmut Leder's EVALab (Empirical Visual Aesthetic), will instead deal with the perception of art and sustainability, and in particular with the search for mechanisms in art that can act as leverage toward the assumption of greener lifestyles. The hypothesis is that the aesthetic experience of beauty can act as an environmental nudge, and the theoretical and scientific premises underlying this hypothesis are described in the review "Beauty as Nudge: Affordance, Aesthetic Experience and Sustainability" (paper under review at the journal Sistemi Intelligenti).

In parallel, two other studies have been planned to be carried out at the Serre of Giardini Margherita (in Bologna) in collaboration with Kilowatt (doctoral partner company). Specifically, the first study focuses on the spatial communication of the Serre and the study of the surrounding environment, while the second will investigate, within the people who frequent the place, the correlation between the perception of beauty (natural and artistic) and the pro-environmental behaviors, recently highlighted by Diessner and Niemiec (2023).

Title: The semiotic process in the light of the ecosystemic view of life

Abstract: The research project seeks to analyze the use of the notion of “life” in the field of biosemiotics. Contemporary research takes its cue from the paradigm offered by Thomas Sebeok, according to which “life and semiosis are co-extensive”. Biosemiotics, by identifying life and semiosis, not only indirectly proposes its lower threshold, but also uses the notion of life as a clear and distinct object. The goal of the project is to show how this notion is actually hybrid and undecidable. Through an ecosystemic reinterpretation of life, the aim is to offer a fruitful extension of this paradigm. This provides an opportunity to integrate into the biosemiotic discourse various entities that cannot be captured by a rigid definition of life. The methodology will use complexity theories and the ecosystemic view. The ecosystemic view is a new way of thinking in terms of connections, relationships, and context the elements that are involved in the constitution of any environment. The attempt is to reinterpret the ecosystem and its elements as a unified holistic system from which it is not possible to extract the living from its context. Using an ecosystemic view, it will be shown that in some cases life is undecidable and semiogenesis is indeterminable a priori. If life is not taken out of context as an object separate from the whole, and if it is not used metaphorically but determined through its constitutive relations, two important theoretical consequences emerge: 1) the notion of life becomes a vague and undecidable concept; 2) the notion of agency and semiosis of life forms suggests an extension that transcends the field of biology. In this sense, the thresholds between organic and inorganic, living and nonliving become difficult to identify and often transgressed. By rereading the semiotic process from an ecosystemic perspective, it is possible to offer an “Ecosystemic Biosemiotics”, as a valuable tool that can integrate an innovative semiotic perspective on the notion of life.