At Maker Faire Rome 2025, art is primarily a matter for children

Makers are reinventing art, for music and also for the circular economy

Maker Faire Rome 2025 is an event where imagination and creativity take shape and innovation is explained in simple terms. Makers, innovators and creatives from all over the world present projects in electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual and augmented reality, gaming, music and art. Today we’re going to tell you about these four projects: Tratto helps children aged 3 to 7 express their emotions through drawing and movement. Mused VR is a virtual museum dedicated to the history of education. Ammilab aims to bring forgotten musical instruments from before the days of vinyl and radio back to life. Meanwhile, Bottiglie Vanitose is an experiment in art and the circular economy.

credits casapaganini.org

Tratto, emotions become images

The Casa Paganini – InfoMus group at the University of Genoa has created TRATTO, an interactive table that helps children aged 3 to 7 express their emotions through drawing and movement. Integrating motion tracking and non-verbal interaction, TRATTO recognises emotions in real time and transforms them into images. The prototype has already been tested in schools, with excellent results in the inclusion of non-verbal children or those with motor disabilities. The next step is to integrate it into curricular activities, expanding the project to interdisciplinary educational and museum contexts.

credits Mused VR

Learning is interactive and multisensory with Mused VR

Mused VR is a virtual museum dedicated to the history of education, where storytelling becomes immersive thanks to VR headsets and intelligent avatars. The aim is to allow visitors to “walk” through history, interacting with digital guides who enrich the experience. A prototype of ongoing academic research, the project envisages future developments with haptic gloves and live streaming guides, for an even more interactive and multisensory learning experience.

credits https://sites.google.com/view/ammi-lab/home

Ammilab and forgotten musical instruments

Ammilab was founded in 2013 as a project to bring forgotten musical instruments, predating vinyl and radio, back to life. The idea came from a group of music and technology enthusiasts who began restoring phonographs, gramophones and mechanical instruments, using making to restore their sound. Over the years, the project has expanded to include 3D reproductions of historical mechanisms, digital documentation of vintage sound media and interactive installations for museums and schools. At its core is the desire to preserve the sound memory of the past, but also to make it accessible to young people. Ammilab is where heritage, making and passion come together to give voice to what would otherwise remain silent.

credits Nicoletta Assié e Martina Manno

Circular economy and art: Vanitose Bottles

From San Cesareo, just outside Rome, comes a lesson in beauty and regeneration. The protagonists? Plastic bottles. Or rather: Le Bottiglie Vanitose (The Vain Bottles), an artistic project by Nicoletta Assié and Martina Manno. Thanks to artisanal techniques and digital tools, the bottles become giant flowers, decorative elements and urban sculptures. ‘I’ve always liked giving objects a second life. PET has become my canvas,’ confesses Nicoletta. The project is a creative response to pollution and an invitation to look with new eyes at what we often throw away. A mix of sustainability and urban poetry that transforms waste into art.