CFP: Visual communication and IA: ethical and social challenges

The conference aims to explore, within the field of visual communication, the ethical and social challenges raised by images of AI, asking which imaginaries they rely on and what expectations of meaning they carry. Since the visual does not concern only the datum of sight, but evokes a discursive nature of the visual itself, this rooting of the image in the gaze—and in the media that shape vision—involves a historical dimension of the image: epochs not only have different styles, arts and images, but also different perceptions of them, and they nourish and construct new imaginaries. Images show certain things while hiding others, and they always involve a "partition of the sensible."
In this case, the predominance of AI imagery in public media is accompanied by an increasingly pervasive debate over their characteristics: dematerialized and distant, laden with outdated sci-fi clichés, guilty of anthropomorphism, bordering on religious iconography, perpetuating gender and racial biases, and instilling fear and anxiety.

The question at the heart of the conference therefore becomes: how can artificial intelligence be represented, and through which philosophical categories can we define the technological imaginary associated with it?

In summary, we can identify at least three axes of discourse that will guide the conference sessions:

a) Aesthetic/artistic axis: What is the relationship between AI-generated images and the concept of creation? Does the common and increasingly widespread use—often in a playful context—of platforms capable of generating images from simple linguistic prompts undermine the notion of authorship in visual production? Has art become an extension of technology?

b) Ethical/epistemological axis: Images generated by AI are woven from a vast corpus of invisible, stored data. These are non-human images that disrupt the referential topologies of ontology, indexicality, and the imaginary through which we have learned to position ourselves in the apprehension and judgment of images. How do these images relate to the culture of deepfakes? Is it useful—or even possible—to assess their truthfulness?

c) Social/semiotic/communicative axis: Given that AI-generated images are fed by large datasets, how and to what extent do cognitive biases influence their output? Can we map them? What is the relationship between databases and individual prejudices? What forms of visual communication can be said to be most effective for representing AIs—so close to us and pervasive in our lives, yet at times opaque, invisible, or stereotyped?

The program will include three sessions, each dedicated to exploring one of the research axes outlined above.

Researchers, scholars, and doctoral students are invited to submit proposals for contributions to the conference, which seeks to explore the philosophical, ethical, and social implications of visual communication in the age of artificial intelligence.

Submission guidelines:
Proposals should be sent as PDF files, prepared for blind review, to:
Dr. Alessandra Scotti – [email protected]

Each proposal must include:

·       Title of the contribution

·       Abstract (max. 500 words)

·       Three keywords

·       Short CV (max. 1 page)

Deadlines:

·       Submission deadline: 30 September 2025

·       Notification of acceptance: 15 October 2025

Languages: Italian, French, English

Presentation format:
Selected speakers will have 30 minutes to present their contribution.

Scientific Committee:
Graziano Lingua
Alberto Romele
Alessandra Scotti

Scientific and Organizational Coordinator:
Alessandra Scotti