Personale docente

Danila Bertasio graduated in Literature (Materie Letterarie) in 1976, and completed a postgraduate Diploma in Sociology (Diploma di Perfezionamento di Sociologia) in 1981.
In the academic years 1982-3 and 1983-4 she taught Sociology of Knowledge (Sociologia della conoscenza) at the University of Genoa (Università di Genova), and, in the academic year 1985-6, Sociology of Communication at the University of Calabria.
In June 1987 she was accepted for a position as a researcher at the University of Urbino (Università degli Studi di Urbino “Carlo Bo”), and began her research in the academic year 1987-8.
In the academic year 1991-2 she was given a permanent post, and from 1992-5 taught Sociology of Art.
In the academic years 1995-9 she was a supply teacher of Sociology of Art and Literature in the same faculty.
In the academic year 2000-1 she was a second-level professor of Sociology of Art and Literature.
In 2004 she was granted permanent professorship.For the academic year 2006-07 she taught Sociology of Art and Sociology of Cultural Processes in the Faculty of Litereture and Philosophy at the University of Parma.
In 2012 she taught Sociology of Art and Sociology of Cultural Processes in Dept. Antiquities, Languages, Education, Philosophy (A.L.E.F.) at the University of Parma.

As part of her early work, she analysed the connections between cultural models and developmental models of computer-based tools, for which she received an award: Premio INFORAV 1981.

Her research since 1982 has concentrated on the relationships between culture and micro-informational technology. In this framework, thanks also to a number of visits to research centres and American universities, she has been able to develop numerous research projects, including some on the crucial issues of the relationship between education and information technology.

From 1983 to 1987 she collaborated in various empirical research projects on the community of researchers of artificial intelligence (AI), interviewing several hundred designers and scientific scholars from over thirty countries. The fundamental objective of this phase of the research was the comparison between, on the one hand, values, attitudes and models of scientific and technical thought, and, on the other hand, the different images and models of artificial intelligence.

Later, from the exploration of certain cultural prerequisites for this technology, as well as the critical analysis of its application to creative work, she developed an ever-increasing interest in artistic phenomena, and finally in the more general theme of art as a cultural phenomenology that generates artificial products and processes. To this day she is occupied with both theoretical and empirical investigations regarding this theme, and has conducted an extensive sociological research on two fronts. First, by adopting the apparatus proposed by the most recent theories of Sociology of Art, she has sought to identify certain phenomena that have characterized artistic activity throughout the ages; and secondly, she has conducted an analysis of data gathered via a questionnaire distributed to a selection of artists, critics and art gallery managers. The analysis was based upon the theoretical framework offered by various models and theories, including the Theory of the Artificial and the Theory of Cybernetics, as applied to aesthetics.

For the years 2003 and 2004, as the head of the jointly financed local research unit Urbino 2, and once again within the scope of empirical research, she conducted an investigation whose basic aim was to analyse the impact that the new media may have on the production of art. In particular, the research was based upon the observation and critical analysis of 1350 of the 8101 Internet sites produced and managed by local councils in Italy (source: ISTAT). Sample sites were chosen according to probabilistic criteria, and this method of selection proved capable of offering, under a methodological profile, greater representativeness and heterogeneity in comparison to other sampling methods. The analysis of the collected data was carried out in three basic directions:
1. an evaluative analysis of the web-pages of every single council, taking account of such aspects as accessibility to the site, readability, up-to-dateness, and presence of cultural and artistic activities;
2. a statistico-descriptive evaluation of the complete distribution, through the use of an electronic spreadsheet particularly suited to sociological investigations (SPSS);
3. a qualitative analysis with the aim of identifying a suitable functional model to determine whether the artistic events promoted are so altered as to compromise their artistic content.

In collaboration with Satinder Gill, she is a promoter of the European Society for the Sociology of Art and Design (ESSAD), and is also a member of MUSA (Music and Sociology of the Arts).

On the above-outlined themes she has published several books and articles in Italian and in English, and has held conferences, interviews and lessons in various universities in Italy and overseas.

She is currently developing a theoretic and empirical investigation of the members of the public who visit contemporary art centres in Italy.