TRACES

Open call

TRACES errare humanum est International conference, 8th-9th December 2025, Val di Sella, Italy.

‘This mountain, -it does not need us.‘ (Giac o mo Bianc hi, President o f Arte S ella, 2023)

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In 1986, Arte Sella was born in the Villa Strobele Garden when a group of friends from the Borgo Valsugana region of Tyrol, conceived the contemporary park in Val di Sella on the premise that all artworks in this park must accept their eventual return to nature, to be part of the ecology and be silent in their exhibition. The presence of the yellow fungus on the Valley's birch trees visually refers to Physarum polycephalum, a culture of polycephalous slime used to test stigmergic behaviors, and laid the foundation of research precisely from the concept of: "stigmergy"-from the Greek στίγµα stigma "mark, sign" and ἔργον ergon "work, action" - particular form of indirect communication employed by social insects to coordinate their activities by modifying the environment in which they operate; a field of research of growing interest and application is focused on this mechanism. Stigmergy was first introduced as a concept by French biologist and philosopher Pierre-Paul Grassé in 1959. Stigmergy involves an element that wants to communicate information modifying the environment by releasing a marker, called a pheromone, which can be virtual or physical.

The concept of space in biology and architecture has been discussed a lot: how social systems use space both as a source of information and to translate social information; architecture transports social information that has the potential to influence the behavior of organisms beyond the simple physical constraints imposed by the organization of structure on them.

The arguments and studies are varied, but the project focuses on the concept of movement, and specifically movement in Villa Strobele, to identify the latent behaviors of people when they interact with art, then go on to investigate what the structure is.

Considering the natural systems at play in the park and the layer of art installations, we have decided to experiment the human experience of the park, especially what triggers certain pa erns of movement and how they change the perceived experience of the park goers. -This call asks participants to reimagine how pa erns of human movement and perceptions can be tracked, replayed and extrapolated beautifully. While the goals of the small research group from YACademy Marketing and Communications department were simply to start conversation and experimentations of the potential future park.

The primary issue, addressed by YAC MaCO group, to promote the values of the park is to inquire about the direction in which Arte Sella is moving technologically and humanely and the kind of tether that may exist between the actual park and its future. The study objective is to understand the behavior of people

trekking Atre Sella and interacting with the natural and artistic context (through observation survey and tracking sensors). Moreover, it is fundamental to translate data acquired into meaningful visualizations (maps sample of visitors’ path). Considering that research has shown a wide variety of factors and paradigms that affect human movement, these data will be collected into a digital catalog, which is meant to be a helpful tool for further considerations on the evolving culture of mobility.

The conference addresses the la er and hopes to create a platform for like-minded theorists and artists to exchange ideas and visions and to discover each other’s work. The aim is to collect a broad spectrum of contributions to trigger a discourse on contemporary design and theory. Submissions by multidisciplinary teams and collaborations are strongly encouraged. All work should deal with explicit examples and should include references.

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The conference address the following questions: o

Considering collective behaviors, is it possible to identify the aspects that represent “pheromones”, as well as for ants, which make up their structure/pa erns, in the human sphere?

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How do we break the dichotomy of art vs science in describing phenomena of human movement?

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Also taking into account the data collected in Arte Sella, how to express today's phenomenon of movement and what kind of transformation in both natural and urban landscapes can produce (as a fact or as a potential)?

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What kind of approach could be valuable for future design of navigation systems, orientation and circulation, based also on collective behavior, and not only on pure algorithms' maps, within the case study of Arte Sella?

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How to enrich the relationship between animal, human and environment through art and/or technologies aimed at improving the opportunities such as smart cities, pa erns of movement, perceived experience mediated by the environment?

Submission types: Projects: The call specifically asks for design work that extends the culture of mobility concept towards stigmergy traits and vice versa, artistically illustrates theoretical ideas from this discourse.

Project submissions are not limited to the presentation of design works per se, but can also include speculative experiments, theoretical arguments, mission statements, observations, multimedia (incl. AR/VR/MR) installations, or provocative artifacts. They will be discussed and showcased in an onsite exhibition.

Theories: Contributors are invited to use the stated questions as a starting point for their reflections. If particularly suitable examples are found, then the contribution may be based on a comparative formal analysis that may highlight differences and/or similarities.

This method is at the core of the theoretical side of the research project. We strongly encourage the interdisciplinary and experimental approaches on both methodology and topic chosen.

Both project and theoretical contributions can refer to any of the above-listed questions or spaces.

Submission format: **All submissions must provide: an abstract of a maximum of 500 words (excl. references) and can be accompanied by up to three images or movie links if applicable.

Submissions should be sent via email by 8th April 2025 to: artesellagoup1@gmail.com 3

1. The email should contain a single Microsoft Word file (.docx) with all images and links embedded, keywords and fields of study 2. Abstracts must be submi ed blinded including no information that can be used to identify the author(s).

3. Please indicate your name and affiliation in the email’s body only.

4. Please also indicate which submission type, format, and conference space you aim to contribute to.

5. Potential contributors will be notified and asked to submit the full paper. More details concerning the presentation format and length will be provided at a later stage.

Important dates:

Abstract submission: 8th April 2025 Notification of abstract acceptance: 1st May 2025 Full paper submission: 3rd July 2025 Registration: 16th October 2025 Project Exhibition: 7th-10th December 2025 Conference: 8th-9th December 2025

Web:

h ps://cataloguemaps.cargo.site/ h p://www.artesella.it/it/

Submission formats: Full papers : 4000 words + figures Work-in-progress papers : 2000 words + figures Projects : 500 words + images Films : 500 words + film (for films over 5 minutes please prepare a teaser ) Posters : 500 words + poster (undergrad./grad. students only, no PhDs) ** Conference format:

The conference will be held in person at Hotel Passo Sella Dolomiti Mountain Resort, situated over 2000 meters of altitude, pending further sanitary measures. It is planned to visit the park of Arte Sella and allow much time for discussions.

More information concerning the venue can be found here: h ps://www.passosella-resort.com/

Contact:

artesellagoup1@gmail.com 40121 Bologna (Italy)

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Scien fic commi ee: Prof. Lin Derry (IT), HUCE-Artist and designer Ass. Prof. Cole e Jeffrey (GB), BCU-Wayfinding and Inclusive Design Postdoc Researcher Francesco Consiglio (ES), UGR-Philosophy I M.S. degree Sara Egidi (IT), UniPi-Computer engineering M.S degree Alexander Mankowsky (DE), FUB-Social Science, Philosophy and Psychology; Research institute of Mercedes-Benz AG Architect Farzin Lotfi-Jam (USA) -Farzin Farzin design studio

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