Combining Art with Immersive Technology
A New Artcast4D Project Boosts Cultural Creative Industries in Europe.
Combining art and immersive technology for people to interact with culture and unleash creativity? This is what Artcast4D, a European consortium of research, technology, culture, and media partners is developing, working with artists, cultural organisations, creative businesses, museums, city, and local authorities to develop new, immersive experiences in public spaces.
“What does the term ‘immersion’ mean? Does it mean ‘emotionally involved' ‘blurring reality with virtuality’? There are different experiences that can be labelled ‘immersive’: reading a book, watching a movie, attending a concert or opera, experiencing wild nature, spiritual experiences and more. The ability to feel ‘immersed’ differs from person to person,” according to Professor Alfredo Ronchi, scientific coordinator of the Artcast4D project and active in the interactive virtual reality field since the 1980s.
The Artcast4D project will publish an open-source program using, refining, and extending the proven AAASeed real-time 2D/3D software.
"Piloting the application with creative users in living lab settings will make the latest immersive technology usable and accessible to the creative and cultural sector,” added Mâa Berriet, designer and developer of AAASeed.
Artcast4D will implement 4 pilots with different cultural and creative topics and experiences: Citizens Engagement, Art in Public Spaces, Innovation in Art and Experience, Wisdom Tourism, bringing together creative actors and industrial partners with civil society.
Pilots will include training workshops, and open training modules designed for developers and artists. They will also help to derive policy guidelines on how to strengthen competitiveness and innovation in Europe.
“Advances in immersive technologies represent an important driver for the experience economy, enhancing breadth, depth and intensity of artistic performances and visitors’ experiences in public areas and at arts and cultural institutions,” said Xavier Maître, leading the research study on the triggers for immersion in open spaces by Université Paris-Saclay.
"The project aims to demonstrate the potential of immersive experiences and promote cultural and creative industries by incorporating online impact analysis and measurement techniques from the outset" underlines Dr Christoph Glauser from the Swiss digital research partner IFAAR.
Artcast4D kicked off in Milan in September 2022. The consortium will carry out research and development, pilots and living lab demonstrations, communication and dissemination of findings and recommendations over 36 months.
Consortium Partners:
The consortium is coordinated by Politecnico di Milano and brings together 10 partners from 7 European Countries, merging research, technology, creative, media and cultural backgrounds. Pilot partners include: Issy-les-Moulineaux municipality, France; Watermans, an arts centre in London, UK; cultural consultancy CulturaLink in collaboration with regional associated partner Espai LaGranja - IVC, in Valencia, Spain; and CERTH research centre with technology partner EXUS AI Labs in Athens, Greece. The only Swiss partner for the research and especially for the digital impact research of the digital worlds of experience is the IFAAR Institute in Bern (https://ifaa.ch/en) under the direction of Christoph Glauser, Peter Kropf and Loris Schmid.
CERTH (GR)
CulturaLink (ES)
EXUS AI Labs (GR)
Fondazione/Politecnico di Milano (IT)
IFAAR (CH)
IssyMédia (FR)
MDLite (FR)
The Battleground (BE)
Watermans (UK)
For more information: artcast4d.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research & Innovation programme under grant N° 101061163. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held accountable for them.
This work was funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).