A week of research, debate, and collective experimentation around AI and consumer culture — here’s what happened at the 2025 edition of the Lake Como Summer School.
From September 22 to 26, 2025, the third edition of the Lake Como Summer School on Digital Methods for Critical Consumer Culture took place, focusing on artificial intelligence as a methodological resource and its applications in consumer culture research.
The school was organized by Alessandro Caliandro, Alessandro Gandini, and Massimo Airoldi, with the support of the Fondazione Alessandro Volta and MSMC.
The school was not only an opportunity for formal training but also a stimulating moment of collective scientific production. Divided into four groups, participants developed mini-research projects exploring AI both as an object of study and a methodological tool.
The students’ final reports will be progressively released in the coming weeks. Below are the titles of the projects developed during the School, each offering insights into the diverse approaches and questions explored
- Recommended Advertising on YouTube: Mapping Demographic Variation and Targeting Strategies in Italy
- The Gaza Effect? Shifts in LLMs’ representation of Coca Cola’s global brand image
- Haters will say it’s AI: Mapping AI-generated brain rot content communities on TikTok & YouTube
- Temporal Content Consumption on TikTok: How do consumers structure their TikTok content consumption throughout the day?
