Publication 444

When Silvio Ceccato began to collaborate with D’ARS in 1963, in his first article, “Cybernetics and Art” (No. 2 March-May), he concluded that perhaps a new chapter of pedagogy in the field of art had opened. Although he was aware of the innovative strength of his ideas, he could certainly not predict the promising results that would have been achieved later with the experimentation in teaching and in particular in the context of aesthetic enjoyment. Even though schools were able to profit from his advanced ideas, the most important indication coming from his research certainly concerns its contribution to robotics. The model of mental operations that he designed from the sixties at the Center of Cybernetics and Linguistic Activities of the University of Milan can still help tackle the problem of artificial intelligence, which is, of course, controversial, but of compelling actuality.