Valentine Bernasconi is a postdoctoral researcher in the Machine Visual Culture Group. She earned her PhD in 2024 from the University of Zurich (UZH), where she was a member of the Digital Visual Studies research group. Titled “Show Me Your Hand! Computational Methods for Hand Gesture Analysis in Early Modern European Painting”, her dissertation focused on developing new methodologies and critical approaches within digital art history. Among various topics, she explored automatic hand gesture recognition in artworks, their communicative role in relation to specific iconographies, large-scale detail analysis, and new forms of interaction with painted hands. During her first postdoctoral position at the University of Bologna (2024–2026), she continued her research on human–computer interaction and its potential to reveal phenomenological principles related to art perception. As part of the Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab, she explored the use of large language models and generative models in augmented reality art experiences. Her current work investigates embodiment in AI visual culture through transformations of pictorial forms.
