SENTIENT HORIZONS 2024, the new edition of the seminar series organised by Istituto Marangoni Milano • The School of Design with the patronage of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Institute of Technology, has officially commenced.

A cornerstone in the training of young talents through innovation and contemporary creative vision, the Milano School of Design returns to explore the relationship between design and emerging technological landscapes. The series of events will delve into connections with robotics, artificial intelligence, and virtual universes, central topics in this year's educational program titled Human-Machine Adaptation.

The inquiry proposed by Istituto Marangoni into the future of design and the role of future designers aims to restore design to its original purpose: making sense of the changing times and fostering a more "empathetic" relationship between humans and emerging technologies.

The events, moderated by journalists Valentina Croci and Laura Traldi, will feature discussions with several internationally renowned figures, engaging in dialogue about various aspects of the creative industry and project culture alongside the new scenarios of robotics in daily life, space exploration, and virtual universes.

The ADI Design Museum, established in 1956 to promote industrial design nationally and internationally and foster innovation across various fields, from product design to communication design, will host the two scheduled SENTIENT HORIZONS 2024 meetings:

• PAX AESTHETICA (8th May 2024, 6pm) featuring Anouk Wipprecht, Fashion Tech Designer, Maria Fossati and Manuel Catalano, Designers and Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology, and Marco Di Clemente, Head of Technology Unit at ASI - Italian Space Agency, moderated by Valentina Croci, a journalist specialised in design and architecture.
  The speakers will discuss how the proliferation of artificial intelligence, combined with cutting-edge robotics and smart materials, is profoundly revolutionising the design landscape, and they will explore how design can facilitate harmonious coexistence between humans and machines, paving the way for a future where natural and artificial intelligence coexist.

• VISUAL TRANSCENDENCE (6th June 2024, 6pm) where journalist Laura Traldi will moderate a discussion with Federica Cascia, Head of Brand Strategy Horizon Worlds & Avatars at Meta's Reality Labs division, Mauro Martino, a Scientist and Artist specialised in Artificial Intelligence and data visualization, and Domitilla Dardi, Design Historian and Curator and member of the scientific committee of INTERNI Magazine.
  The meeting aims to reassess fundamental concepts such as image, knowledge, and truth, which are now challenged by the unstoppable technological advancements we are witnessing. It will explore how the dissemination of narratives through images, videos, and multimedia presentations, which have become the means through which the new and complex nuances of our continuously evolving world are expressed, increasingly blur the line between tangible and digital.

These themes are part of a broader cultural research programme that the School of Design at Istituto Marangoni Milano has been pursuing for several years and continues into the academic year 2023/24, notably with the new Master's in Product Design for Human-Robot Interaction.