Tag Archives: Milano

Politecnico di Milano, May 30, 2019: From Sound Engineering to Engineering with Sound + DICA goes to Maremma

Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, Aula Citrini, 4PM-7PM (the actual time within this range will be confirmed ASAP).

Thursday, May 30, Politecnico di Milano will host a very peculiar event. This will be a lecture where a talk about sustainability on inner rural areas of Southern Tuscany will be mixed with live music performed by a rock-blues band based in the same region, and with the authors of the studies playing with the band.

The event has also been inserted in the official program of the third edition of the Sustainability Festival (running at the national level with numerous events from May 21 to June 6, 2019).

Confirmation of participation should be sent to info@pibinko.org or +39 3317539228 by May 29, 2019.

From Sound Engineering to Engineering with Sound + DICA goes to Maremma

Andrea Giacomelli, Dario Canal, Wolfgang Scheibe, Simone Sandrucci, Alessandro Ceppi, Giuseppe Milleo

When we speak of sound and engineering we tend to think about audio experts, mixers, decibel, wattage etc. In this lecture we would like to speak about engineering made together with sound, and namely with music…how can music be, in addition to a cool background, an element integrated with the life cycle of projects and studies in the fields of land protection, promotion, and environmental sustainability.

1-11-18, the JBCM in Sassofortino, Southern Tuscany

Namely, we will be presenting the case of the Jug Band dalle Colline Metallifere (JBCM, i.e. Metalliferous HIlls Jug Band). This is an inter-generational and international musical collective based in Southern Tuscany, founded in March 20017. The JBCM is active in the production of events where live music, monitoring, and outreach on environment and territory are intertwined so as to create a (typically acoustic) pleasing, entertaining, and instructive experience, which the group called “geomusic“.

The collective was given this name in September 2018, after about a year of experiments involving two young professional rockers (with three albums and hundreds of live concerts in their roster), and two professionals with a different core expertise (but a musical track record adequate to make them not feel shy on stage). One of the senior professionals is actually an environmental engineer and a PhD with 25 years of experience on geographic information systems applied to multiple international projects; the other professional has almost fifty years of experience in biodynamic agriculture, working as a consultant in Germany, Italy, and Maghreb.

The combination of music and technical expertise, especially on environment and agriculture, is the peculiarity of the JBCM project, combining melody, rhythm, cultural and environmental outreach in one situation (which can be related to Sustainable Development Goals 4, 11, and 12, for those of you into this topic).

In the same performance you can dance with a rock ‘n’ roll song, make light pollution measurements within international citizen science projects, join the chorus yelling “ahi ahi ahi….il vino neerooooo” , and eventually learning that half of the songs to which your were shaking your feet were, in fact, speaking of issues of your grandfathers in their rural settings, or of your friend who recently graduated, and had to leave his country to find a job.

A portion of the Farma Valley, half way between Siena and Grosseto, in Southern Tuscany

The lecture will also be the opportunity to present a summary of a mission that a team from DICA (the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Milano) will be having on May 10-11-12 in Southern Tuscany. They will be installing a weather station in the Farma Valley, as the consolidation of a set of mapping and monitoring activities undertaken by valley residents and visitors since 2007. Such activities have been developing in the years, through a combination of research, citizen science and territorial marketing projects (which have been presented at various stages in Politecnico di Milano in 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2018). Interestingly, the Jug Band Colline Metallifere represents one of the communication avenues for these projects, and these initiatives share some of the people creating and managing these activities (and the same people will be giving the lecture).

Last but not least, this will be yet another opportunity to learn about the PORGEP2019 program, and how you may collaborate with projects which will be showcased.

The poster for the JBCM geomusical tour in Germany, via Politecnico.

On this occasion we will have the full Jug Band Colline Metallifere, since they will be in transit by Milano for a tour in Germany, with four gigs in the Stuttgart area. The lecture will thus be an opportunity to learn about a diverse range of activities, and to attend a very, very peculiar event.

For more information: info@pibinko.org

Milan, Fri. Apr 5, 2019: a reporto after the mission to Bruxelles

From 6.30PM to around 8PM come to Soul Food, via Gola 3 to…

Keywords for the evening will be Jug, Band, Hills, Metalliferous, Politecnico, Stuttgart, BuioMetria, geomusic (search any of these terms on the pibinko.org website to see more links).

Per informazioni info@pibinko.org o 3317539228

To give you a mood for the event, “Dreaming about the Vatican”, JBCM cover, Nov. 1, 2018:


Thu. Nov. 22, 2018: Planning the upper half of the landscape at Politecnico di Milano with the BuioMetria Partecipativa project

Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018 from 2.30PM to 3.30PM with the landscape planning  course at the Faculty of Architecture, Politecnico di Milano (via Bonardi),  there will be a seminar on  Planning the “upper half of the landscape” (pianificare l’altra metà del paesaggio, in Italian) where we will explain the BuioMetria Partecipativa point of view on this topic. The lecture will be given in English (as all of the course lectures).
This is not the first time that BuioMetria Partecipativa goes to Politecnico (2011, 2014, 2015, 2017), nor is it the first time that we speak to architects (2014, Summer School in Porto). However this is the first time that we speak to architects from Politecnico, and for a Politecnico MS Engineer (and PhD) this is news.
As I think of it, actually it is not even the first time in this respect. The Politecnico Architecture Faculty hosted the final event of the m(‘)appare Milano campaign (a localized version of an OpenStreetMap mapping party), which interestingly happened in the same months when the BuioMetria Partecipativa project was being written. You may check this page on m(‘)appare and this video for a coverage of the first round of the mapping campaign (Apr. 6, 2008).

The closing of the m(‘)appare Milano campaign at the Faculty of Architecture, Politcnico di Milano (Jul. 3, 2008)

Independently of open data nostalgia (or the sense of putting a project in a perspective) please see below the abstract for next week’s seminar. Should you not be able to attend, but interested in learning more about these topics or sharing your views, please write to bmp@pibinko.org.
Planning the Upper Half of the Landscapa – A. Giacomelli

Montemassi Castle, Southern Tuscany, with the Milky Way and some populated places – F. Giussani 2015.

People are often used to think of landscape planning as a discipline involving elements with a connection to the ground, with the sky being merely a backdrop to our projects and our operations.

However, at night, lighting networks and installations have an impact on the conditions of night sky which is not only aesthetic (i.e. the reduction of our ability to contemplate a starry sky due to the excess of upward lighting), but also has significant impacts on ecology, astronomy, health and safety, and energy management.
In this respect, the night sky as “the upper half of the landscape” acquires an unprecedented relevance, and suggests planning indications that we can relate to elements we control on the ground.
Interestingly, we will find that mitigation actions on light pollution are not in conflict with lighting levels ensuring safety and security, and that a higher awareness on the effects of artificial light at night will indicate new directions on guidelines and regulations, which planners may want to consider.
While such an awareness has been growing over the past twenty years, lighting installations are also changing very fast, and possibly not always in a direction which is in tune with recent research findings on the effects of artificial light a night. For this reason, there is a need to strengthen an interdisciplinary approach on the topic.
The talk will provide:
(1) an overview of the light pollution issue and measures to mitigate it from various angles
(2) a series of ideas on the sustainable exploitation of night skies as a resource for tourism and education
(3) the presentation of experiences by the speaker’s team, where students may also be involved in 2019.
……
Andrea Giacomelli, PhD in Hydrology (1997), MS in Environmental Engineering (1993)
After his academic studies (Politecnico di Milano and University of Gent, Belgium), he worked for five years in the environmental modelling group at the Sardinia Science and Technology Park, for eight years for an environmental engineering corporation based in Milano, and since 2011 is operating as a free lance based in Southern Tuscany.
His activities cover a part of “traditional” services (primarily consulting on Geographic Information Systems and IT issues), and a part of innovative projects concerning the interdisciplinary promotion of lesser known resources, combining culture, environment, and open innovation.
His flagship initiative in the environmental sector is the BuioMetria Partecipativa project. Launched in 2008, this includes citizen science for night sky monitoring, outreach, and other efforts, primarily directed to the promotion of inner rural areas. Starting as a small community-based endeavour, the project has eventually triggered interesting developments, obtaining awards, frequent national media visibility, and de facto stimulating the birth of a national interdisciplinary network with significant international relations.
For more information: