The aesthetics of artificial intelligence: new forms of expression at Robot Valley Genova 2025
On April 12, 2025, during the third day of the Robot Valley Genova 2025 festival, a conference titled “The Aesthetics of Artificial Intelligence took place, as part of the session dedicated to the relationship between art, science, and technology”. The event explored how new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, are transforming aesthetic language and creative processes in the visual arts.
The speaker was Rocco Antonucci, professor of Semiotics at the University of Genoa (Department of DIBRIS), who led the audience through a critical and fascinating analysis of the applications of AI in contemporary aesthetic research. During his talk, Antonucci emphasized how visual art, thanks to artificial intelligence, is increasingly taking on the traits of a performative art form, where human actors are accompanied — and sometimes replaced — by intelligent artificial agents.
These agents can interact with both each other and humans using natural language, gestures, and facial expressions, opening up new narrative and expressive possibilities. AI is therefore not only used to generate images or content, but also to simulate the human perceptual process — the subconscious mechanism by which the brain interprets random and undefined stimuli, assigning them coherent meaning.
“I believe that the use of artificial intelligence technologies can lead to a renewal of the contemporary art world. This is because they revitalize aesthetic languages, encouraging new ways of making art and developing forms of expression that are still unexplored but highly innovative. I also believe that the use of AI technologies, as adopted by some artists in the contemporary scene, can breathe new life into the discourse of art, which is currently in a deep crisis,” commented Antonucci at the end of the conference.
The event offered the public a moment of reflection on the role of artificial intelligence not only as a technical tool, but also as a new cultural actor, capable of interacting with human imagination and generating meaning. The talk fit perfectly within the spirit of the Robo Valley festival, which for years has promoted dialogue between science, art, and society, with a focus on openness to the digital transformations of our time.
