March 27, 2026, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Sala Biancamano, Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Via Olona 6/b, Milan
This one-day, in-person workshop explores AI as a geographical phenomenon, foregrounding distinct yet interconnected concerns across algorithmic, urban, and planetary scales. From the algorithmic operations that shape judgement and decision-making, to the urban infrastructures that organise and govern everyday life, to the planetary dynamics of infrastructure, computation, and geopolitical power, AI must be understood not only as a technical system but also as a spatial one.
The workshop invites collective inquiry into the transversal logics that bind these scales, asking how AI gives rise to new spatial formations entangled with shifting regimes of power, governance, and calculation. In doing so, it foregrounds the need for a geographical lens through which these transformations can be more fully understood and critically examined.
Free entry, registration is required via Microsoft form.
Programme:
09:00–09:30
- Opening Session
Simona Casonato (Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci)
Viola Schiaffonati (Coordinator of META)
Fabio Iapaolo (META)
Darío Negueruela del Castillo (DVS)
Ludovico Rella (ALGOSOC)
09:30–11:00
- Algorithmic Session
Chair: Darío Negueruela del Castillo
Vladan Joler (SHARE Lab)
Cartographies of Power: The Genealogy and Anatomy of AI
Marta Peirano (Journalist and Author)
Title forthcoming
11:00–11:30
- Coffee Break
11:30–13:00
- Urban Session
Chair: Fabio Iapaolo
Gillian Rose (University of Oxford)
Animated Urbanism: Bringing Cities to Life with AI-generated Images?
Antonello Romano (University of Pisa)
GeoAI in Urban Spaces: Automation, Autonomy and the Subsymbolic Turn in Spatial Modelling
13:00–14:15
- Lunch Break
14:15–15:45
- Planetary Session
Chair: Ludovico Rella
Devika Narayan (University of Bristol)
Cloud Capitalism: Infrastructural Dynamism and Why it Matters
Fabian Ferrari (Utrecht University)
From Full-Stack AI Sovereignty to Value Chain Leverage: Compute, Machines, and Markets
15:45–16:00
- Closing Remarks
The workshop will also host an Independent Publishers’ Corner featuring Nero Editions and Kabul Editions.
Scientific Committee:
- Fabio Iapaolo
- Simona Casonato
- Darío Negueruela del Castillo
- Ludovico Rella
Organisers:
The workshop is co-organised by META – Social Sciences and Humanities for Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Digital Visual Studies (DVS) project, a joint initiative of the Max Planck Society and the University of Zurich, and the Algorithmic Societies (ALGOSOC) research group at Durham University.
The Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci participates as cultural partner.