Seeing Means Understanding? From Real Identity to Virtual Identity

The Educational Department of Pirelli HangarBicocca presents Seeing Means Understanding? From Real Identity to Virtual Identity, a new edition of the training course for secondary school teachers (grades 6–12), designed together with the artistic duo The Cool Couple, in collaboration with Corso di Laurea in Scienze della Formazione primaria, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione “Riccardo Massa” of Università degli Studi Milano-Bicocca..

The aim of this new training course is to guide teachers through a participatory design process starting from the insights offered by the exhibition “Neons Corridors Rooms” by Bruce Nauman at Pirelli HangarBicocca. The purpose of all proposed activities is to provide — through the vision and practice of The Cool Couple — new educational tools that promote the importance of physical experience and of the perceptual, sensory, emotional and rational apparatus of the body for knowing and knowing oneself, in contrast with the systematic digitalization of many actions, situations and areas of daily life. Within this context, we will reflect together on the relationship between the real and virtual world, addressing themes such as body dematerialization, the fragmentation and expansion of online identity, and the apparent dissolution of the boundary between public and private dimensions in digital spaces.

Following the project presentation — which took place on Monday, December 19, 2022, at 18:00 in a digital mode with mandatory registration — twenty teachers will be selected who will have the opportunity to participate in the training course, alternating in-person appointments at the Pirelli HangarBicocca exhibition venue with live streaming meetings.

The course is structured in three meetings, which include:

• an introduction to the practice of The Cool Couple, who have made the study and analysis of images and communication in the digital universe their main field of research and experimentation;

• the analysis of digital languages and technologies that young people use daily, aiming to transform them into educational tools to recover the real dimension of the world and reconnect it to the virtual;

• practical activities inside and outside the exhibition aimed at creating pathways based on the principle that physical, direct knowledge of the world through the body opens new perspectives of understanding and elaboration of the real.

Selected participants will work with the artists throughout all meetings and will be provided with study materials and in-depth bibliographies. After an initial phase of study and engagement in reflection and analysis activities, teachers will be invited to design educational pathways for their own students based on their disciplinary competencies, which will then be shared and discussed with the entire working group.

The course is free of charge and limited to a maximum of 20 participants, who could submit their application between Tuesday, December 20, 2022 and Monday, January 16, 2023, according to the procedures described in the “Useful Info” section.

Calendar of Appointments

• Monday, December 19, 2022, 18:00
Open event for everyone presenting the project Seeing Means Understanding?
Mode: Digital with mandatory registration by writing to hbschool@hangarbicocca.org

• Saturday, January 21, 2023, 09:30–13:30
Project kickoff: presentation of all participants involved, workshop, in-depth discussion and analysis on the theme of body and identity in the real and virtual world
Mode: In-person at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Via Chiese 2, Milan

• Monday, January 30, 2023, 17:00–20:00
The relationship between image, word and language in the creative process: in-depth discussion, analysis and workshop
Mode: Digital, remotely

• Saturday, February 04, 2023, 09:30–13:30
Ideation and participatory planning of classroom and distance learning pathways
Sharing and discussion of projects designed with all participants and trainers
Mode: In-person at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Via Chiese 2, Milan