Roberto Casati
From Shadowes
Contact
Institutional e-mail 
Personal e-mail 
Institutional address: Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
Representation: Marco Vigevani Agenzia Letteraria piazza S.Ambrogio 4, 20123 Milano - tel. +39.02.86996553; fax +39.02.86982309 e-mail:info AT marcovigevani.com
Bio and Curriculum Vitae
Roberto Casati (Milan, Italy, 1961) is a tenured senior researcher with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is based in Paris, France. He studied with Andrea Bonomi and Giovanni Piana in Milan, Italy, where he got his PhD (on Events) in 1992. He also holds a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (on Secondary Qualities, 1991), under the direction of Kevin Mulligan. He has worked on various research projects on philosophy of perception, in particular under the direction of Barry Smith, and has taught at several universities, among which the State University of New York at Buffalo. Most recently he has been visiting professor at the Università IUAV, Venice, and at the Univeristy of Turin. He is the recipient of various prizes and of grants from several institutions, including CNRS, MENRT, and the European Commission. He has been the responsible, for Institut Nicod, of the Enactive Network of Excellence (IST-2002-002114).
Casati has published on journals such as Analysis, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Studia Leibnitiana, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Perception, Trends in Cognitive Science, Journal of Visual Language and Computing, Dialectica, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Psychology. This somewhat nonstandard spread reflects Casati's interdisciplinary interest as a philosopher of the cognitive sciences, focussed on the psychological status of commonsense notions (such as that of object, event, colors, sounds, and holes and shadows) and the proper methodology for studying these notions. Having received a parallel education as a graphic designer, Casati is also interested in issues in the cognitive study of art.
Casati has a long-standing collaboration with Achille Varzi of Columbia University; they have co-authored 18 papers, co-edited 3 volumes, and written together the classic Holes and Other Superficialities (1994), and Parts and Places (1999), both published with MIT Press, as well as two books for the general public (containing stories for grown ups and children, respectively): Unsurmountable Simplicities, translated in 8 languages, and The Planet of Disappearing Things. He has also collaborated with Jérôme Dokic of EHESS on La philosophie du son, Chambon 1994, of which we recently posted an English version, and is currently working with Vittorio Girotto (IUAV, Venice) on a project on counterintuitive solutions.
A detailed CV with annotated references can be found here.
RSS feed for updating references to scientific production
Blog
Shadowes blog (previously: Omium Gatherum), mostly in Italian, with comments on many different issues, some unsolicited suggestions for making the world a better place, and popular science articles / di tutto un po', commenti di varia natura, inclusi molti articoli divulgativi per IlSole24Ore.
Recent books for the general public
In edicola con Il Sole 24 Ore il 31 Luglio, "Semplicità Insormontabili", libro di storie filosofiche scritto con Achille Varzi.
See also: The Italian blog of Il Caso Wassermann/Il blog in italiano del Caso Wassermann
Philosophy for children/filosofia per i piccoli:
With Achille Varzi Il Pianeta dove scomparivano le cose
Recent work on shadows
After the publication of The Shadow Club (New York: Knopf, 2002; original edition Milan, Mondadori, 2000; reprinted as Shadows, New York, Vintage, 2004; translated in 7 languages; new Italian edition 2008) I published a number of papers on various aspects of shadows perception and representation.
A rare picture of a shadow from a plane's trail. It's early morning, the plane flies towards the sun, so that its trail is aligned with the sun's rays. Picture taken from the Clochard, sailing towards Saint Tropez, July 2009.
What does this puzzling picture represent? An explanation can be found in the following article:
Casati, R., (2007), "How I Managed to Hide My Shadow", Perception, 36 1849–1852 ('Last but not least ' section). For more such pictures and a cute street performance video, check Marco Bacci and Marta Mellere's site.
And which of the two pictures is more convincing to you? Read an explanation in:
Casati, R., (2007), "The copycat solution to the shadow correspondence problem", Perception, 37, 4, 495-503.
Casati, R., (2009) “Die Kunst des Schattenwurfs” (original ms. in English, German transl. by B. Kalthoff), in N. Bätzner, W. Nekes, E. Schmidt, eds. Blickmaschinen. Köln: DuMont, 101-106
Casati, R., (2008), "Are shadows transparent? An investigation on white, shadows and transparency in pictures", to appear in Res.
Casati, R., (2006), “The cognitive science of holes and cast shadows”, Trends in Cognitive Science, 10, 2, 54-55.
Casati, R., (2005), “Shadow tales of knowledge and power”, in T. Sadowsky, ed. 2005 Shadow Play – Schattenspiel. Odense: Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik. [2]
Casati, R. (2004) “The shadow knows: a primer on the informational structure of cast shadows”, Perception, vol 33, 11, 1385-1396.[3]
Casati, R. (2004) “Methodological Issues in The Study of the Depiction of Cast Shadows”, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62, 2, 163-174 .[4]
Casati, R. (2003) “The availability of large size from shadow: looking for hidden assumptions”, Perception, 32, 1021-1023. [5]
Casati, R. (2003) "Towards a cognitively oriented database of early shadow depictions". Poster for the conference Shadows - From Art to Neuroscience, Rovereto -- MART (2003-11) [6]
Casati, R. (2002d) "The secret of shadow". The Secret of Light and Shadow, Frankfurt: Deutsches Architektur Museum.
Casati, R. (2001a) "The Structure of Shadows", in A. Frank, J. Raper, and J.P. Cheylan, Time and Motion of Socio-Economic Units, London: Taylor and Francis, 99-109. [edit]
Some unpublished material on shadows.
Last but not least, a clip from director Werner Weick's "Dalla parte dell'ombra", a RTSI documentary in which we explored the streets of Florence in search of intriguing shadows, and had shadow performer Francesca Bizzarri recreate for us some of her art at the Teatro della Limonaia.
Ongoing projects
Knowledge of Sound, with Nicolas Bullot, Jérôme Dokic, and composer Maurizio Giri.
Can you recognize the play in this musical example? Once you have listened to it, check out the solution
Creative Solutions, with Vittorio Girotto (IUAV Venice). Soluzioni creative, una conferenza preliminare con Vittorio Girotto al Festival Della Mente di Sarzana.
Why is it hard to produce cartoons from photographs? Look at the following movie
(Text of the explanation of why we can't produce cartoons from photographs)
A cognitively oriented database of early shadow depictions (with the assistance of Valentina Rachiele).
Metaphysics and Cognition
Public Representations
Former and current PhD students
Dario Taraborelli (on basic features in vision)
Elena Pasquinelli (on the epistemic aspects of haptic illusions)
Nivedita Gangopadhyay (on sensorimotor theories of visual consciousness)
Alessandro Pignocchi (on the cognitive aspects of drawing)
Yasmina Jraissati (meta-analysis of post Berlin & Kay literature on color naming)
Former and current PostDoc collaborators
Anne Tüscher (on VR credibility)
Elena Pasquinelli (On Enactive Interfaces)
Valeria Giardino on graphic-based reasoning (Marie Curie fellowship for 2008-2010).
Teaching
Work by MA students
Other items
The Review of Philosophy and Psychology
Lettera 27 - Promoting literacy
Groupe Compas On the impact of IT in the classroom
Cognitive science and responsible driving (work in progress)
Democrazia partecipativa (work in progress)
Unpublished
A note on 'shadowes'
Collaborations
My wife Beatrice Biagini' run for the Lower Chamber in Italy. See also here: Beatrice Biagini for the journal of the campaign.
New!
Stramaledettamente Logico: Esercizi di filosofia su pellicola (edito da Armando MAssarenti, con testi di Claudia Bianchi, Nicla Vassallo, Achille Varzi, e miei.
Mobile A2K with Lettera 27 - an international meeting sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, co-organized with Iolanda Pensa.
Online review of D. Dutton's The art instict on the Cognition and Culture Institute site.
Research CAMP a Parigi su Ricerca e Università in Italia Ci sono molte proposte di riforma del sistema ricerca/università in Italia, non è forse ora di chiedere agli attori di questo sistema che cosa ne pensano? L'associazione Democratici Parigi organizza un Bar Camp e invita i ricercatori italiani in Francia stabilmente o di passaggio a partecipare alla creazione di un questionario online destinato alla comunità scientifica. Sala "Fer-à-Cheval" alla Mairie del 13° Arrondissement, 1 Place d'Italie, 75013 Parigi, Metro Place d'Italie, sabato 13 dicembre 2008, ore 14-19. Grazie di segnalarci l'intenzione di partecipare a iresearchcamp@gmail.com. Documento di lavoro: Ricerca e Università Camp Parigi 13 Dicembre 2008 (con una sessantina di proposte di riforma!) In apertura e chiusura dei lavori, brevi interventi kick-up e take-home di: Roberto Casati (CNRS Parigi), Irene Tinagli (Carnegie Mellon, autore di Talenti da svendere), Maurizio Ferraris (Università di Torino, autore di Un'Ikea di Università), Maurizio Chiocchetti (PD Mondo), Ivan Scalfarotto (Londra e Costituente del PD)
Proste sytuacje nie do rozwiązania. 39 opowiadań filozoficznych Polish version of Unsurmountable Simplicities now published!
New edition of La Scoperta dell'ombra, in una nuova edizione con una postilla sugli ultimi dieci anni di ricerche, viene edito da Laterza nei Robinson/Letture.
Intervista su Radio24 di S.Carrubba intervista a Fahrenheit per il FestivalLetteratura di Mantova
EU funded project about "Changing the way scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, evaluated, and consumed". LiquidPublications project's website.
On air on France Culture La Part de l'Ombre On issues of general concern/filosofia e vita civile:
Not to be missed: the [Sat Sep. 29th 2007 issue of Il Sole 24 Ore with an inset on cognitive science and driving. Sul Sole 24 Ore del 29settembre 2007, un inserto su sicurezza stradale, scienze cognitive e guida responsabile.
With G. Roncaglia: the anatomy of a collaborative writing tool for public participation in democracy, The Italian version of which appeared in Rivista di Estetica, 2007: La struttura di uno strumento collaborativo per la democrazia partecipata ; videoepresentazione in italiano by Gino Roncaglia.
With A. Varzi: L'incertezza elettorale a booklet on voting systems whose error margin is larger than the difference between the votes of the two camps. R. Casati, A. Varzi L'incertezza elettorale di prossima pubblicazione sulla Rivista di Estetica.
On art and cognition/ Arte e scienze cognitive
Che cosa spiega una teoria dell'arte?
Mirror and canonical neurons are not constitutive of aesthetic response, (with Alessandro Pignocchi), in Trends in Cognitive Science
Disclaimers
This is Roberto Casati's personal home page. Opinions expressed here are not meant to reflect those of my employer and are my sole responsibility.
This page uses the standard monobook style of Mediawiki. It is not a wikipedia article (of course).
Updating old links: please note that some old domain names I used are no longer valid or are owned by someone else. So, if you look for old www.shadowmill.com or for old www.robertocasati.com you may want to point to www.roberto-casati.com
