About

Practical Information

Dates
Summer school: August 31–September 6, 2026 (7 days)
Conference: September 1-3, 2026 (3 days)

Location
Cuneo and its surroundings, with a fieldtrip to Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Language
The working language is English. However, some evening events will be held in Italian.

Contact
For further information, please contact the organising team at centrostudi.cespec@gmail.com and lisa.henicz@ost.ch.

Organised by the SNSF Project “Aerial Spatial Revolution” with the collaboration of CeSPeC - Research Center on Contemporary Thought (Cuneo) and in cooperation with Politecnico di Torino - Diparti-mento di Architettura e Design (DAD).

Submission Guidelines
Deadline for both the summer school AeroSpaces and the conference AeroVisions is June 20, 2026. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by the end of June 2026.
Both participants in the summer school and attendants in the conference will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the ASR Lexicon and other related publication projects.

How to apply as PARTICIPANT at the SUMMER SCHOOL AeroSpaces
Submit the following to lisa.henicz@ost.ch by June 20, 2026:
• Expression of Interest (max. 1 page) outlining your research interest and how it relates to the summer school's themes
• Short CV
How to apply as ATTENDANT at the CONFERENCE AeroVisions
Submit the following to centrostudi.cespec@gmail.com by June 20, 2026:
• Expression of Interest (max. 1 page) outlining your research interest and how it relates to the conference’s themes
• Short CV

Accommodation and Travel
The summer school and conference are free of charge. Accepted participants and attendants will be provided with shared accommodation, one welcome dinner, coffee breaks, conference materials and all costs for trips during the summer school in the Piedmont area. Single room accommodation is available at an additional cost and subject to availability. Participants are expected to organize their own travel, a limited number of students and early career scholars can be supported with the coverage of travel expenses (up to 120€). If you’d like to be considered for support with accommodation, travel, or childcare, please note that in your application.

Credit Recognition
The summer school and conference will offer a certificate of attendance and participation if needed. The recognition of academic credits (ECTS or equivalent) depends on the policies of your home institu-tion. Participants are encouraged to verify the requirements and procedures for credit recognition with their own institution.

Summer School AeroSpaces (August 31–September 6, 2026)
Conference AeroVisions (September 1–3, 2026)

Call for Participation

Conference AeroVisions. Aerial Aesthetics and the View from Above

Cuneo, September 1–3, 2026

The view from above is a mediated perspective in multiple ways. Technologies of the air have become increasingly complex and diverse: airplanes and drones, but also satellites and spacecraft make climate-monitoring devices and observational tools extend our gaze far beyond the limits of our atmosphere. These technologies are not only part of but also fundamentally condition the aesthetics of contemporary aerial visions.

The so-called Aerial Spatial Revolution has undeniably had pivotal political, economic, and social implications. Inextricably linked to these, however, is also a profound transformation of human perception and sensibility. The multi-layered mediations between sensing instruments “revoluting” the Earth generate not only a vast amount of data shaping the aerial view, but also recalibrate how we perceive the planet on and from the ground.
The view from above—an experience that for millennia had been merely imagined, used as a metaphor or as a symbolic device—has finally become possible, and technology now allows us to experiment with unprecedented sensory perspectives. Images of space—and from space—have radically transformed our perception of our place in the cosmos; meanwhile, everyday life in industrialized societies unfolds within environments made possible only through an interaction between the horizontal and the vertical dimensions.
The conference AeroVisions. Aerial Aesthetics and the View from Above will address these themes by fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue at the intersection of philosophy, art history, media theory, and science and technology studies. The event will offer three intensive days of talks, discussions, and exchange among scholars from different generations, traditions, and disciplines.

The conference would like to address some of the following questions:

What does it mean to observe from above?
What is the role of verticality in arts and sciences?
Through which cognitive transformations and media-technical changes can we trace the genesis and development of the relationship between air and land?
To what extent do many of modernity’s artefacts turn out to be ‘aerofacts’?
What is the impact of the vision from above in architecture and visual arts?
Are all aero-technologies technologies of power and surveillance, or can they be turned into civic counter-technologies?
How are artists and activists devising tactic uses of airborne devices to offer other perspectives on the earth?
To what extent is vision a perceptual faculty granted only to living, corporeal beings, or should ‘vision’ be extended to all forms of airborne optical registration, such as unmanned drones?
Could it be the aerial view turns out to be at the intersection of seeing and reading, both visual and diagrammatic, experiential and cartographic?

Confirmed Speakers
Elie During (University of Paris Nanterre)
Noemi Quagliati (EUI Florence)
Joel Vacheron (University of Lausanne)
Jan Völker (University of Vienna)
Cristina Voto (University of Turin)
Nicola Zambon (University of Würzburg)

Summer School

Call for Participation

AeroSpaces: Spatial Practices in Architecture and Urbanism

Cuneo, August 31–September 6, 2026

All throughout history, humanity has fantasized about what an aerial gaze from high above might look like. Since the beginnings of aeronautics and later astronautics, imagination gave way to new concrete possibilities of perceiving space from above and afar. Yet this Aerial Spatial Revolution set into motion by different media and technologies goes beyond a mere engineering achievement; it has also profoundly transformed the way we understand, survey, control, represent, plan and practise space. This mental and material shift intrinsically involves the production and application of new images, data and techniques.

Fake aerial selfie of Carlo Mollino flying over Manhattan (Photo: Fondo Carlo Mollino, PoliTO)

Still image from the film "Ritratti di Città – Cuneo", 1967 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjRBD8rwdsw)

From aircrafts to satellites, from lenses to sensors, from paper to screen, the emergence of aerial views and the movement in the third dimension thoroughly impact our notion of space, time and artifacts. The Summer School AeroSpaces. Spatial Practices in Architecture and Urbanism aims to explore the implications of the view from above in architecture, urban design, art, society, science and technology at the interface of planning, philosophy and politics by asking some of the following questions:

What does it mean to perceive and observe from above?
What is the impact of the view from above in architecture, urbanism and visual arts?
What images are generated, how are they collected, systematised, read and used?
How does the new imagery affect our thinking of the earth, bodies and space and the relation-ships between air and land?

The Summer School AeroSpaces in Cuneo is conceived as an intensive, interdisciplinary program that unfolds over the course of one week, combining research, dialogue, and public engagement. Its structure is designed to foster both theoretical reflection and hands-on exploration, creating a dynamic environment for knowledge exchange among emerging and established scholars. As such, it becomes a platform for interdisciplinary exchange that seeks to rethink how we perceive, represent, and theorize space from above. It brings together researchers with an interest in architecture, urbanism, visual culture, philosophy and related fields, alongside established scholars and practitioners.

The program of the Summer School AeroSpaces invites participants to challenge conventional modes of research and explore new conceptual and methodological approaches to aerial spatiality. It includes the three-day Conference AeroVisions featuring invited speakers.

The summer school provides a setting for presenting research, debating approaches, and synthesizing insights gathered during the workshops. Rather than a lecture series, it emphasizes dialogue and co-production of knowledge through a combination of hands-on methods and fieldwork explorations.

Cuneo, Turin and Piedmont will serve as the foundation to develop a historical, spatial, empirical, and material understanding of aerial planning, vision and politics and their interdisciplinary dynamics. Throughout the week, public events—including lectures, exhibitions, and evening programs—will be interwoven into the schedule, opening the summer school to a broader audience and reinforcing its commitment to cultural exchange beyond academic boundaries.

The Summer School AeroSpaces is held from August 31st to September 6th 2026 including the conference AeroVisions, from September 1 to September 3, that will be part of the summer school’s programme. Participants can expect seven days of activities with the ASR team members, alternating between conceptual laboratories, methodological discussions, and field studies in archives and urban contexts. These sessions aim to deepen participants’ understanding of aerial perspectives and their historical, material, and epistemological implications. Through workshops, excursions, and collaborative exercises, participants will engage with theoretical frameworks, archival practices, and material experiments, while developing skills for presenting and publishing research. The Summer School promotes a dynamic environment for debating topical issues, testing innovative research tactics, and crafting alternative ways of thinking about the relationship between air, land, and urban form. Participants will benefit from peer-to-peer exchange, constructive critique, and dialogue with leading experts, fostering both intellectual depth and practical skills for research dissemination.

With the participation of:
Valentine Bernasconi (Bibliotheca Hertziana)
Davide Deriu (University of Westminster)
Roberto Dini (Politecnico Torino)
Edoardo Piccoli (Politecnico Torino)
Albena Yaneva (Politecnico Torino)

We invite graduate and post-graduate (MA and PhD) candidates and researchers at any stage of career in the history and theory of architecture, urbanism, and urban planning, as well as design practitioners with expertise in related areas. Applications are also welcome from scholars in adjacent disciplines such as philosophy, human geography, media studies, art history and studies, anthropology, and the arts. To apply, please submit an “Expression of Interest” (1 page) and CV to the organisers at lisa.henicz@ost.ch by June 20th, 2026.

Each participant will be invited to develop their ongoing interest in dialogue with the summer school’s overarching themes. Participants will contribute to an original collective output – the iconographic Atlas – in the form of visual, written, or a combination of both works, grounded in empirical material and shaped through the week’s workshops, discussions, and fieldwork. The objective is to materialize the interdisciplinary dialogue of the participants in a visual and spatial form, enabling participants to trace conceptual shifts and relational patterns across the week.

Financed by