Francesco Monico


Francesco Monico is a teacher, researcher, artist in Italy.

Previous activities

Monico worked for ten years as a director, screenwriter and program chief in Italian broadcast, sperimentale and interactive TV, is both a Technoetic researcher and artist. He was director and author for Rai3, Mediaset, Rai2, France 2, and channel manager for Tele+3, SeiMilano. Monico did research at Studium S3, at Fabrica, at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. Former member of the Scientific Committee of Milano in Digitale with Antonio Caronia, Paolo Rosa, Pier Luigi Capucci, and Franco Torrani. Former member of the Scientific Committee of the Leonardo da Vinci Science and Technology Museum in Milan, with Giulio Giorello, Emanuele Severino, and Enrico Bellone.In the past he was a regular media commentator for the International Herald Tribunes Italian news section.

Current activities

Today Monico is Dean at Accademia di Belle Arti Unidee at the Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella and Director of the School of Media Design & Multimedia Arts at the Accademia Costume e Moda in Rome and both working on research and development in education, technology and arts. Former director of the Media Design and Multimedia Arts Department he founded at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano in Milan. Former professor of Theory and Method of Mass Media at the same institution, as well as founder director of the PhD program M-Node, Planetary Collegium, today known as T-node and a Senior Fellow of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology in Toronto, Canada. He is an alumnus of Derrick de Kerckhove. Monico became more focused on how technology shapes human communication, behaviour, and thought and is currently researching with Roy Ascott as member of the board of the international PhD program Planetary Collegium.Member of the Programme Committee of the Isea 2011. Monico writes in online and print publications, and did New Media art commentary for Wired Italian edition. As Director of the Planetary Collegium's M-Node he was part, with Roy Ascott, of the 2011 World Universities Forum Award for Best Practice in Higher Education. As Director of Research & Development project he settled up in 2013, with IOCOSE, the Transmodal Research between Art & Technology of STMICROELECTRONICS STINNOVATIONCUP 2013. In 2013, he is invited by European Commission President José Barroso to join New Narrative for Europe, a working network of European artists, creators, scientists and intellectuals to strengthen the contours of European unity. He was selected for the 2015 Italian edition of TED, as keen thinker about Higher Education, Cultural Management & Entrepreneurships at TEDxRoncade. Monico was Professor of Social Digital Innovation at the Faculty of Scienze Matematiche, Informatiche, Multimediali of the Università of Udine, and Professor of Archetype of Imagery at Accademia Belle Arti di Milano Brera.Today is Professor of Sociology of Media at the Consorzio Universitario Pordenone ISIA Roma and Professor of Artchetype of Imaginery at the Accademia Costume e Moda in Rome.

Methodology

After a research stint at the McLuhan Program he changed his expression channel from video to art, with a penchant for interactive installations, telematic art, BioArt, and various art-science combinations. Deeply influenced by Roy Ascott, Monico believes science and art can contribute to expanding global consciousness, but only with the help of alternative systems of knowledge. His modus operandi is based on a combination of science, art, philosophy, and esoteric knowledge in which the artist recognizes the paradoxical nature of knowledge and the contradictions inherent in formal epistemologies, and in his deep speculation his dealing with an hermeneutical approach. His methodology is a syncretic, mixing critical theory and a pragmatic art approach that he applied as founder of the School of Media design & New Media Art at NABA.

Art career

Monico has changed his expression channel from video to art, with a penchant for interactive installations, telematic art, BioArt, and various art-science combinations.
Among his artworks is The Artist Formerly Known as Vanda and Is there Love in the Technoetic Narcissus? In 2009 he was curator for the first Italian solo show of bioartist Brandon Ballengée, Monstre Sacré. In fall 2011 Monico presented the tryptic The Hybrid Constitution at the Istanbul International Art Festival Amber.

Exhibitions