The Workshop aims to present the operational foundations of modern digital representation, with a particular focus on photography for artistic artifacts, architectural spaces, and urban contexts, using commonly available tools such as smartphones. The activities carried out during the laboratory will be organized according to a learning-by-doing approach, in which students will immediately engage in the practical application of principles and techniques. These principles and techniques will be detailed and addressed from a theoretical perspective concurrently with direct experimentation.

At the end of the Workshop, students will have developed the skills and critical sense for a conscious use of photographic techniques through smartphones. An individual exercise will be proposed to each participant to apply what they learned to their personal experience.

The syllabus of the Workshop is divided into three modules, each lasting 4 hours. The content for each module will be organized according to the following outline:

Module 1
- Brief introduction to the Drawing Workshop: objectives and goals
- Drawing and its graphic evolution in the era of ubiquitous computing
- Introduction to basic photographic techniques: from the camera to the smartphone
- The concept of the time/aperture pair for proper exposure
- Types of sensors, format, resolution
- Sensitivity: ISO and digital noise
- Shooting modes and automations related to various types of light
- Brief overview of issues related to color documentation

Module 2
- Introduction to Adobe Lightroom Mobile: turning the smartphone into a reflex camera
- RAW photographic formats and the importance of DNG files
- Practical exercise in the laboratory: photography of interiors and artistic objects
- Management of taken photographs: organization and data transfer
- Introduction to the individual exercise

Module 3
- Summary of activities carried out during the laboratory
- Discussion of the initial results of the individual exercise: virtual pin-up session
- Conclusions and future scenarios

No specific previous knowledge is required, but a basic understanding of smartphone usage techniques and some fundamentals of graphic file management (such as opening and saving images, basic editing, etc.) is recommended.

However, a personal smartphone of any brand and type is still required to perform the exercises in the laboratory and individually.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Since Adobe software (Lightroom Mobile for iOS or Android) will be introduced and used in the application of methods and concepts, students are encouraged to install a free copy on their smartphones. They should register on the Adobe website (https://www.adobe.com/it/) to activate and ensure the free use of the program on their smartphones.

Innovative teaching methods

This workshop is structured following a learning-by-doing approach.

Course books

• M. Docci, M. Gaiani, D. Maestri, (2021). Scienza del Disegno. CittàStudi Editore.
• I. Zannier, Storia e tecnica della fotografia, Laterza Editori, Bari, 2000.
• M. Capobussi, Fotografia. Conoscere e praticare la fotografia digitale e classica, De Agostini, Novara, 2008.
• M. Gaiani (a cura di), La rappresentazione riconfigurata, Edizioni POLI design, Milano, 2006.
• L. Cipriani, Esempi di disegno dell'architettura. La didattica del disegno nella Facoltà di Ingegneria di Bologna, CLUEB, Bologna, 2005.
• L. Cipriani, Il disegno del portico di San Luca, CLUEB, Bologna, 2005.
• F.D. Ching, Architectural Graphics, 6a Ed. 2015.