Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Department of World Languages and Literatures, in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada – West, is hosting Italian Culture and Books: The World Between the Lines on Oct. 18 at SFU Venture Labs. Celebrating the 2024 Week of Italian Language in the World and Italian Design Weeks, this event traces the evolution of Italian printmaking and typography.
“It’s about finding ways for innovation to enrich and extend the legacy of Italian craftsmanship in the modern world,” says one of the event’s speakers, Dionysios Arkadianos, SFU’s digital learning specialist.
The event also explores how Italy’s printmaking legacy intertwines and extends modern language learning, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It further highlights the contributions of Italian language and culture to the broader, global society.
An Italian legacy in printing
“They are transferable, and they have been transferred many times over since their origin, which is one of the wonderful things about Italian culture; [it] permeates many other cultures that is part of a global vocabulary, whether it be [in] design, printmaking, culinary, unique sciences, [and] so on,” Arkadianos says.
The event’s keynote speaker, Enrico Tallone, inherited the love and expertise of printmaking from his father, Alberto Tallone. Alberto is widely recognized for having developed the “Tallone typeface,” which remains exclusive to his family’s press. Raised in this family of craftsmen, Enrico’s passion for letters and printing emerged early on.
“Innovation is a publisher’s daily bread, since each new translation, every new line of poetry he publishes, represents the latest frontier of contemporary thought,” says Enrico.
Enrico understands the significance of typography in transmitting culture and communication. Adapting to the contemporary with a myriad of innovations, he treats each title as a work of art – distinctive in format and style. His continual exploration in editorial design keeps his work creative while preserving the ancient roots of Italy’s typographical heritage.
New frontiers in learning
The event will also showcase SFU’s exploration of incorporating AI into literature learning and translation, while acknowledging its limitations. It does so by featuring a student project from an advanced Italian course that engages AI technologies, like Chatgpt and DeepL, to research Dino Buzzati’s Incontro Notturno for conducting applied learning.
“What expectations it created, and how these expectations came to fruition or not, and how things have been tempering as we approach a more rationalized implementation of AI in different aspects of learning, even in literature and translation,” says Arkadianos.
Students apply AI-based prompts to translate texts, summarize content, and analyze characters and themes. Comparing the results driven by different prompts, they then develop a group idea to envision the possibility of AI technologies in the framework of foreign language learning. One limitation of AI has already emerged.
“A cultural insight that has been discovered over the course of our preliminary research has been the specific dialect of this literary piece,” says student Eric Dye, who is minoring in Italian. “The difficulty with the AI has been the ‘incorrect’ translation of region-specific terminology.”
With respect to cultural traditions, Arkadianos suggests a cautious introduction and implementation when using new technologies in learning. Event coordinator Vlad Vintila adds that attendees might have the opportunity to appreciate some rare Renaissance books, specifically illustrated epics.
“I foresee, that these new technologies, at some point, will start to transform in order to complement the traditional way,” Arkadianos explains.
For more information, see https://events.sfu.ca/event/41667-italian-culture-and-books-the-world-between-the
