Look at a photograph of your choice. What is the medium you
are inspecting? What is proper to it? A longstanding, honourable
tradition has viewed the direct connection between the shot
and the instant, the experience in the present and its recording
for any future time as its distinctive trait. Recent research hasquestioned this link. The advent of advanced digital techniquespresents us with “photographs of the future”, crafted byalgorithms, and photogrammetric images that can be exploredfrom various perspectives. Even predating the digital revolution,and irrespective of it, an extensive scientific domain contributes
to unveiling an alternative perspective on the photographic.
From the moment cameras pointed skyward, the awarenessof the insurmountable gulf between the mechanical eye andthe celestial expanse challenged the notion that photography
inherently embodies the simultaneous presence of the observer
and the observed. Astrophotography perennially navigates thedelicate boundary between recording and visualization, as well
as between the human and the posthuman. It challenges theoperator to decipher visual traces, which extend far beyond
conventional notions of representing celestial bodies and yet
provide indispensable clues to unravelling their astrophysicalidentities. The “cultivation”, measurement, and digitisation ofthese photo-signals from elsewhere historically became a female
task. Women astronomers, often referred to as “computers”,
were a flesh-and-blood version of the calculating machines thatwere to become established in the following decades — they
constitute an archaeology incarnate of the digital. Rediscovering
their role, re-locating their figures somewhere between that of
the art curator and the engineer, also means to explore a femalearchaeology of the postphotographic image. This conference,characterized by its interdisciplinary approach, unites media
archaeologists, image theorists, historians and philosophers ofscience, women’s studies scholars, and artists delving into thenexus of astrophotography and visual culture.

Curated byBarbara Grespi and Luca Guzzardi(Department of Philosophy “PieroMartinetti”)
Scientific committee
Christa Blümlinger, Gabriele D’Autilia,
Rossella Catanese, Marilisa D’Amico,
Bernard Geoghegan, Giulia Giannini,
Jussi Parikka, Andrea Pinotti,
Antonio Somaini, Matteo Vagelli
Organising committee
Rosa Cinelli, Rossana Galimi,
Melania Mariconda

Photographsfrom Outer SpaceA Female Archaeologyof Image-Data

NECS MAAMedia Archaeology and the Arts

Università degli Studi di Milano
Sala Napoleonica
via Sant’Antonio, 12
20122 Milano
Università degli Studi di Milano
Room 211
via Festa del Perdono, 7
20122 Milano
Metro 3: Missori
Bus: 54, 60, 73, 84, 94 (via Larga)
Tram: 12,14,15, 16, 23, 24, 27 (via Larga)
Image Credits: Frame from The Edge of All We Know
(2020), a film by Peter Galison. Detail. Courtesy of theauthor.

International conference11-13 December 2023
NextGenerationEU

Sala Napoleonica - University of Milan

11 December
14:30 – 15:00 Welcome Coffee / Registration
15:00 – 15:15 Welcome address
Marilisa D’Amico | Vice-Rector for Legality,
Transparency, and Equality of Rights, University of Milan
Marcello D’Agostino | Director of the Department of
Philosophy “Piero Martinetti”, University of Milan
Andrea Pinotti | Director of the Research Centre EXT(Extended Realities), University of Milan
15:15 – 15:30 A Conference Guide
Barbara Grespi, Luca Guzzardi
15:30 - 17:00 Panel 1 Archiving the stars
Guy Consolmagno | Director of the VaticanObservatory
The Sisters Computers of the Vatican Carte du Ciel
Telescope
Brooke Belisle | Stony Brook University
Grasping the Moon, from Galileo to AI
Chair: Giancarlo Grossi | Catholic University of Milan
17:00 – 18:00 Artist Talk
Photographer Alberto Sinigaglia presents Big Sky
Hunting (Italy, 2012-2014)
in dialogue with Rosa Cinelli | University of Milan

12 December
9:30 – 10:45 Keynote Speech
A. Sissel Aurora Hoel | Norwegian University of Scienceand Technology
Operational Objectivity: From Human Computers toDigital Twins
Chair: Barbara Grespi | University of Milan
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee Break
11:15 - 13:15 Panel 2
Photography and visualization
Sara Romani | Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung
The visualization of fleeting celestial phenomena: modesof vision in Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli’s notebooks(1875-1877)
Laura Follesa | University of Milan
Before Photography: “Imaging” the Universe around1800

Joanna Zylinska | King’s College
Outer Space, Rescaled: Photography in the Perception
MachineChair: Pietro Conte | University of Milan
13:15 – 14:30 Light Lunch
14:30 - 16:30 Panel 3
Between art and science: art-based research
Abelardo Gil-Fournier | FAMU Prague
An inverted astronomy. On cultural techniques andplanetarity
Maria Ida Bernabei | University of Turin
Audouin Dollfuss’ astronomical films: Science,Experimentation, Art
Margherita Fontana | University of Milan
Domes and Mirrors: Some hints about the cultural historyof celestial immersivity in geodesic architecture
Chair: Fabrizia Bandi | University of Milan
16:30 – 17:00 Coffee break
17:15 – 19:30 Screenings with the Author
Room 211, via Festa del Perdono, University of Milan
Introduced by Luca Guzzardi | University of MIlan
The Edge of All We Know, by Peter Galison, US 2020, 99’
Shattering Stars, by Peter Galison, US 2021, 13’

13 December
9:30 – 10:45 Keynote SpeechPeter Galison | Harvard University
Who gets to record, experiment, interpret, speculate,discover?
Chair: Luca Guzzardi | University of Milan
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 - 12:45 Panel 4Black Holes and Their Revelations
Om Salafia | Brera Astronomical Observatory, INAF
The Event Horizon Telescope images of the M87 andSagittarius A* black holes
Emilie K. Sunde | University of Melbourne
From Outer Space to Latent SpaceFrancesco Giarrusso | Catholic University of Milan
Deciphering the Invisible: Chirp and Algorithmic
Photography of Black Hole M87
Chair: Roberto Lalli | Polytechnic University of Turin

12:45 – 14:00 Light Lunch
14:00 - 15:00 Artist Talk
Artist Ulrike Kuchner presents Measuring Mistakes(Austria, 2010-2014)
in dialogue with Rossana Galimi | University of Milan
15:00 - 16:45 Panel 5Media Archaeology as Women’s History
Miriam De Rosa | Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Snapshots from the stellar depth of knowledge. A
desktop cinema Cosmogony
Sara Damiani | University of Bergamo
The Cosmic Woman: The Historical Work of Female
Astronomers in Contemporary ArtIlaria Ampollini | University of Milan
The astronomical observatory of Maria Short (Edinburgh,19th century): science popularization and immersivity
Nicoletta Leonardi | Academy of Fine Arts of Brera
Messages from the outer world: radioactive energy,
negative plates, and the role of women in science andpsychic research at the turn of the 20th century
Chair: Carlotta Cossutta | University of Milan
16:45 – 17:00 Closing Remarks
Barbara Grespi, Luca Guzzardi
17:30 –19:00 Book Presentations
The following presentations will be held in Italian
Maria Pia Abbracchio, Marilisa D’Amico, Donne nella
scienza. La lunga strada verso la parità, Franco Angeli,Milano 2023
Introduced by Carlotta Cossutta | University of Milan
Anna Caterina Dalmasso, Barbara Grespi (eds.),
Mediarcheologia. I testi fondamentali, Raffaello Cortina,
Milano 2023
Curators and Translators in dialogue with Enrico Campo,
Luca Guzzardi, and the publisher

Full Program