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Meaning, Culture and Digital Spaces

Research, strategy and education across semiotics, digital culture and AI.

My work sits at the intersection of research, strategy and education, exploring how storytelling, semiotics, digital culture and artificial intelligence shape new imaginaries and social worlds. I collaborate with universities, organisations, institutions and brands internationally to transform complexity into clarity.

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Federico Bellentani

Books

Faces and the City. An interdisciplinary approach to facial presence in urban space

London: Routledge (2026)

Segni del tempo. Il volto dell’anziano nell’era digitale

With M. Leone. Rome: Aracne (2026)

Semiotic approaches to urban space

With M. Panico & L. Yoka. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (2024)

The meanings of the built environment. A semiotic and geographical approach to monuments in the post-Soviet era

Berlin: De Gruyter (2021)

What I do

Urban space

I study urban space not simply as a physical setting, but as a living text: a dense field of signs, traces, conflicts and imagined futures.

Memory and identity

How memories and identities are built, contested and reinvented through material and symbolic forms such as monuments and memorials.

Digital culture & AI

How digital technologies reshape human presence, social relations and cultural meaning, with a focus on social innovation and AI.

Marketing & Communication

Marketing and communication as instruments for cultural positioning, connecting strategy, narrative and innovation.

Research

Urban space, memory and identity, digital culture and AI.

My research moves across three main constellations of interest: urban space, memory and identity and digital culture and AI. I combine semiotic theory with the analysis of physical and digital environments.

Core Expertise

  • Urban & Cultural Semiotics
  • Memory Studies & Heritage
  • Digital Culture & AI
  • Marketing & Cultural Positioning

Publications

Papers in Peer Reviewed Journals

Bellentani F. 2026. Semiotics of Umarèlls: reclaiming the elderly voice in the digital semiosphere. Semiotica.
Bellentani F. 2024. A Monument’s many faces: The meanings of the face in monuments and memorials. Semiotica 255: 96-116.
Bellentani F., Thibault M. 2024. The feast with the statue — Creative, playful and innovative approaches to controversial cultural heritage. Lexia 39-40: 333-357.
Bellentani F. 2024. A typology of faces of the city. Reti, saperi, linguaggi. Italian Journal of Cognitive Sciences 25 (1/2024): 97-116.
Bellentani F., Leone M. 2024. Ripensare il volto digitale nella Silver Age. Carte Semiotiche – Annali 10 (2024/1): 50-67.
Bellentani F., Arkhipova D. 2022. The built environment in social media: Towards a biosemiotic approach. Biosemiotics 15: 193-213.
Bellentani F. 2021. Pratiche istituzionali per la reinvenzione culturale dei monumenti controversi. Filosofi(e) Semiotiche 8(1): 8-21.
Yoka L., Bellentani F. 2019. Introduction. Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics 5(2): 5-10.
Bellentani F. 2018. Relocating the past: The case of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn. Translation. A Transdisciplinary Journal 7: 131-149.
Nanni A., Bellentani F. 2018. The meaning making of the built environment in the Fascist city: A semiotic approach. Sign and Society 6(2): 379-411.
Bellentani F., Panico M. 2018. Pour une approche sémiotique des monuments et des mémoriaux. Cygne Noir 6.
Bellentani F. 2017. Kultuurilise ümbermõtestamise tavad [Practices of cultural reinvention]. Maja. Estonian Architectural Review 1-2/2016: 118–119.
Bellentani F., Panico M. 2016. The meanings of monuments and memorials: Toward a semiotic approach. Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics 2(1): 28–46.
Cócola Gant A., Bellentani F. 2015. Mussolini y la política del pasado de la Roma fascista. Diagonal Revista de Crítica Arquitectónica 39: 10–15.
Montanari F., Frattura L., Chieppa A., Bellentani F., Molica R., Palestrini M. 2015. Prijedor, Bosnia. Making sense of emptiness. E | C Rivista on line AISS 9: 51–58.

Chapters

Bellentani F., Leone M. 2026. Segni del tempo: il volto anziano nell’era digitale. In: Segni del tempo. I Saggi di Lexia 64. Rome: Aracne, 9-29.
Hejazi S. et al. 2025. Isolated in connection. Un progetto di ricerca multidisciplinare sulla Silver Age e la sua cultura digitale. In: Nuove tecnologie digitali e immersive. I Saggi Lexia 61-63. Rome: Aracne, 63-77.
Bellentani F. 2025. The filtered face of the city and its cultural reinvention: the case of Estonia. In: Semiotica dei filtri. I Saggi di Lexia 60. Rome: Aracne: 163-180.
Bellentani F. 2025. La guerra dei monumenti: un approccio semiotico alle controversie su memoriali e monumenti in Estonia. In: Il senso della pace. Milan: Mimesis, 55-73.
Bellentani F. 2025. The cultural reinvention of monuments and memorials in Estonia. In: Architecture in the Baltic States. London: Routledge, 153-167.
Bellentani F. 2025. Eterni o effimeri? Come evolvono i significati dei monumenti e del loro volto. In: Il Volto Infinito. Turin: FACETS Digital Press, 98-130.
Bellentani F., Yoka L., Panico M. 2024. Introduction to Semiotic approaches to urban space. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing: 1-14.
Bellentani F. 2023. Evanescent faces: a semiotic investigation of digital memorials and commemorative practices. In: The Hybrid Face. London: Routledge, 192-214.
Bellentani F. 2023. Il volto latente della città. In: Il volto latente. Turin: FACETS Digital Press, 62-85.
Bellentani F. 2023. Semiotics and cultural geography: An interdisciplinary approach to the built environment. In: Open Semiotics. Paris: L’Harmattan, 105-118.
Dall’Acqua A., Bellentani F. 2023. How to build a chatbot: A semiotic approach. In: Semiotica e Intelligenza Artificiale. Turin: Aracne, 149-170.
Bellentani F. 2021. Translation and controversial monuments in Tallinn. In: The Routledge Handbook of Translation and the City. London: Routledge, 205-221.
Bellentani F. 2020. Diario del Coronavirus: Balconi. In: Diario semiotico sul Coronavirus. Palermo: EC-AISS, 52-53.
Bellentani F. 2016. Landscape as text. In: Concepts for semiotics. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 76-87.

Edited Issues

Bellentani F., Leone M. I Saggi di Lexia 64.
Bellentani F. 2023. Special Section of Semiotica 255.
Yoka L., Bellentani F. 2021. Interartive 101.
Yoka L., Bellentani F. 2019. Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics 5 (2).

Definitions

Bellentani F. 2024. Architecture. Semioticon. Open Semiotics Resource Centre.
Bellentani F. 2024. Soviet and Post-Soviet Monuments in Estonia. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan.

Reviews

Bellentani F., Giuliana T.G. 2026. Review of The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games (Aroni 2022). I Saggi di Lexia 47-48. Rome: Aracne, 377-383.
Bellentani F. 2023. Review of Daniel E. Agbiboa, They Eat Our Sweat. Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria. Oxford University Press.

Articles & Dissemination

Bellentani F. 2026. Non solo vivere più a lungo. La sfida è costruire un tempo che abbia senso. FRIDA.
Bellentani F. 2025. Souls are young: le storie dei nonni in un archivio digitale che unisce le generazioni. FRIDA.
Bellentani F. 2022. Kuidas muuta vastuolulised monumendid rahupaikadeks. Postimees.
Bellentani F. 2021. Interview on controversial monuments. Deník N.
Bellentani F. 2021. Federico Bellentani e la guerra dei monumenti. Estonia Magazine.
Bellentani F. 2021. Monuments to semioticians around the world. UT Blog.
Bellentani F. 2021. Eesti monumendisõjad pakuvad uurijatele väärtuslikku õppematerjali. Novaator – ERR.
Bellentani F. 2021. Notes on Leonidas’s photography portfolio. Interartive 101.
Bellentani F. 2021. How to deal with controversial monuments? Interartive 101.
Bellentani F. 2020. Dealing with controversial monuments in Estonia and beyond. Cardiff Alumni Blog.
Bellentani F. 2020. Contested Monuments in Post-Communist countries: Problems and Lessons. CommunistCrimes.org.
Bellentani F. 2020. Seven ways to deal with monuments in Estonia. Estonian World.
Bellentani F. 2020. Realised 5 interview podcasts with Fare Ricerca: Humanities skills for innovation.
Bellentani F. 2020. Podcast on Smart Working: how to start doing it now? Rinascita Digitale.
Bellentani F. 2018. Monuments and memorials in changing societies: A semiotic and geographical approach. SemiotiX.
Bellentani F. 2017. Re-creating memorial landscape in Estonia. Tallinn RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum.
Bellentani F., Zani A. 2015. Comunicare il cibo: i tipi di padiglione dell’Expo Milano 2015. TraMe.
Bellentani F. 2013. La reinvenzione culturale dello spazio urbano in Estonia. TraMe.