What is Degenerativa
Degenerativa is an artistic professional development program on generative AI running from October 2026 to February 2027 in Bologna: nine months in which 9 artists under 35 will work with generative artificial intelligence as a space for research.
The project stems from a question: is it possible to use artificial intelligence without passively accepting its logics, aesthetics, and imaginaries?
The prefix de- marks a gesture of deviation from the norm. Degenerativa pushes generative AI beyond its predictable outputs, working through its statistical shortcuts until desirable variants emerge. In this sense, “degenerating” becomes a way of inhabiting this technology without submitting to it.
Artists are invited to question cultural archives, explore the limits of datasets, make the biases of generative models visible, and turn errors and hallucinations into opportunities for research. Unlike other AI training programs for artists, which focus on learning tools and optimizing creative processes, Degenerativa chooses to work on the friction zones between art and technology, not with the aim of taming AI, but of developing artistic practices capable of understanding it, moving through it, and critically reinventing it.
The program will use cultural heritage datasets as raw material: the selected artists will work on digital archives to produce new knowledge through an ethical use of AI, in a collective practice that will offer technical foundations, critical exchange, and sessions with tutors and guests.
Degenerativa Bologna is a project designed by Sineglossa realised in collaboration with DumBO and supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture and SIAE, as part of the “Per Chi Crea” program.
How Degenerativa works
The program unfolds in three phases:
1. Online training, October–November 2026
Nine online sessions of two hours each (about 20 hours in total), dedicated to a technical and methodological introduction to the use of generative AI in artistic practice.
Teachers: Sei Iturriaga Sauco, Mateusz Miroslaw Lis, together with other guest artists and professionals
2. Research development, November 2026 – January 2027
An independent phase of deepening, exchange, and preparation for the residency.
3. Intensive artistic residency: Bologna (DumBO) in January/February 2027
Five days of residency in which participants will work in groups, alongside the other selected artists, in a collaborative process of research, ideation, and prototyping of a shared project work, with two hours dedicated to the final evaluation. For those taking part in the Bologna edition, the residency may culminate in a public presentation of the program’s outcomes during Art City Bologna 2027 (to be confirmed).
The call closes on September 5.
Contents and teachers
Over the course of Degenerativa’s training program, a range of technologies will be explored:
- image and video generation
- OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
- machine translation and language tools
- embeddings and knowledge organization systems
- creative use of cultural datasets and digital archives
- design of generative AI-based workflows
The training will be led by Sei Iturriaga Sauco and Mateusz Miroslaw Lis, together with guest artists and professionals still to be confirmed.
No prior knowledge of these technologies is required: the program is designed for those who already have an established artistic practice, not necessarily for those who have already worked with AI.
For more details:
What the program offers
- free participation
- specialist training with international teachers and artistic and technical mentoring
- intensive residency in Bologna
- the opportunity to present the collectively developed project work at Art City Bologna 2027
To support participation from across Italy, selected participants may request reimbursement of travel, meal, and accommodation expenses actually incurred for the residency.
Who can apply
Applications are open to artists who:
- have not turned 35 (which means, have not yet turned 36 as of October 30, 2025)
- reside in Italy, regardless of citizenship, or are Italian citizens residing abroad
- are active in the visual, performing, or multimedia arts, film, music, theatre, dance, or book and reading sectors
- already have an established artistic practice
No prior experience using artificial intelligence is required; however, availability to take part in the entire program, both online and in person, is required.
Selection and jury
Applications will be evaluated by a panel made up of Federico Bomba, Sei Iturriaga Sauco, and Mateusz Miroslaw Lis, who will take into account:
- the quality and maturity of the artistic practice
- motivation to participate
- interest in artistic research with AI
- attitude for collaboration and teamwork
- overall coherence of the application
Timeline
- Call opens: July 15, 2026
- Call closes: September 5, 2026
- Selection results announced: September 15, 2026
- Training begins: October 2026 (schedule to be communicated in September)
- Program conclusion and exhibit: February 2027
