Critical Prompt Engineering for Creativity, Research and Generative Art
35% DISCOUNT ACTIVE UNTIL MAY 15
SIGN UP AND JOIN AS A GROUP, SHARING THE COSTS! (maximum 3 people total)
Are you an artist? A researcher? A cognitive worker? Then this course is for you!
At the end of the course, participants will receive a certificate of attendance.
WHAT
This course offers a critical and practical introduction to prompting as a form of writing, research, and creation with generative artificial intelligence systems. Through a path of eight lessons — combining theory, technical experimentation, and artistic practices — we will explore the history and archaeology of prompting, the logic of AI models, techniques for text, image, and video generation, and advanced uses such as APIs, fine-tuning, and embeddings.
The course is open to everyone, with no technical prerequisites, and is designed especially for artists, researchers, and anyone interested in using AI as a creative, critical, and knowledge-production tool.
LANGUAGE
English
WHERE
Online
WHEN
september (2 lessons) – october (2 lessons) – november (2 lessons) – dicember 2026 (2 lessons)
Notes
*Evening time slots: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM, available both on weekdays and weekends.
Once registration closes, we will send out a form for you to indicate your preferred dates and times.
*In case of unforeseen circumstances, the date of a single session can be changed by selecting another available option in the form.
*Each lesson will last approximately two hours (variable).
*Group registration is also possible (maximum 3 participants total), allowing you to split the participation costs. In the case of non-individual registration, please enter only the buyer’s details, who will act as the main contact person and receive the participation links to forward to the rest of the group.
COSTS
€80 (35% off) – if registering by 20 May
€100 (20% off) – if registering by 15 June
€120 (full price)
COURSE STRUCTURE AND DESCRIPTION (8 LESSONS)
1. Historical Framework and the “Archaeology of Prompting”
Critical theory – cultural and historical foundations
Origins of language-based interfaces in digital technologies
Genealogies of prompting: from text commands to natural-language instructions
“Archaeology of prompting”: protocols, scripts, templates, and control practices
The prompt as a cultural object and a form of technical writing
Distributed agency: humans, datasets, models, and infrastructures
2. How Models Work: From Dataset to Generation
Technical + critical approach
Datasets as discursive architectures (inclusions / exclusions / bias)
Natural language vs. the probabilistic language of the model
How to “read” a model’s behaviour
Workshop: first diagnostic exercises on LLM responses
3. Fundamental Prompt Engineering Techniques
Practical tools
Core prompting patterns (roles, structure, constraints, examples)
Strategies: decomposition, iteration, chain-of-thought, reframing, controls
Improvisation vs. control: how to manage unpredictability
Workshop: prompt variations and comparative output analysis
4. Multimodal Prompting: Text, Images, Video
Creativity and multimodal experimentation
Prompts for images, hybrid models, and visual generation
Introduction to video prompting (frame consistency, timing, style, motion prompts)
Techniques for aligning text–image–video
Workshop: multimodal chain (text → image → video → remix)
5. Creative Prompting and Artistic Practices
Generative art, creative protocols
The prompt as performative, ritual, situated gesture
Prompting as generative writing and “choreographic instruction”
Case studies from art, design, and digital experimentation
Workshop: designing prompt-based micro-generative systems
6. Advanced Use: APIs, Automation, Fine-Tuning, Embeddings
Advanced technical applications
How prompting works via APIs
Prompt automation systems and creative pipelines
Introduction to fine-tuning, assisted reasoning, retrieval (RAG), and embeddings
When fine-tuning is truly needed — and when prompt design is enough
7. Writing, Research, and Academic Production with AI
Academic and professional applications
Prompting for critical texts, essays, papers, and bibliographies
Strategies for control, revision, and fact-checking (reliable methods)
Using AI to support research: concept extraction, comparison, synthesis
Ethics of AI writing: transparency, citation, disclosure
Workshop: creating a mini hybrid human–AI research protocol
8. Ethics, Ecology, and the Politics of Prompting
Critical closing session and discussion
Epistemic, cultural, and political implications of generative systems
Ecology of prompting: computational costs, sustainability, local models
Responsibility, risks, limits, and conscious use of generative systems
Collective discussion: toward a situated, inclusive, and critical prompting practice
WHO
The workshop will be led by Angela Fusillo, a digital artist and researcher specialising in artificial intelligence and its social implications. After completing her bachelor’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Foggia, she completed her first master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples in 2022, focusing her thesis on critical dataset studies. In 2024, she obtained a second master’s degree from IULM University in Milan.
Her artistic research focuses primarily on exploring how art-based research can play a key role in developing more ethical and inclusive artificial intelligence systems. She has participated in group exhibitions, won awards, and published her work. Recently,
she received her first museum acquisition from MUSE – Museo delle Scienze.
IMPORTANT
Once the registration period has ended, we will send a form containing the available dates and time slots. These emails may end up in your spam folder, so starting from 15 March, please check that folder regularly as well. Thank you!
If you have any doubts or questions, write to us at [email protected]
with the subject line “Workshop Prompt Engineering”, or contact us on Instagram.