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Original article Disabled patients and oral health in Rome, Italy: long-term evaluation of educational initiatives li na Laura Avenali, DDS Background Fabrizio Guerra, MD, DDS, PhD The body of literature speaking to oral health (OH) initia- Luigi Cipriano, DDS tives throughout Europe is vast and often country speci- io Denise Corridore, DDS fic. Sometimes this makes it difficult for policy makers and Livia Ottolenghi, DDS researchers alike to see the benefits of work done in one country applied to their own context. This is not so diffe- az rent from the experience in the United States where re- “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy search done in each state has to take into consideration Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences specific social and economic factors. Thanks to two im- Preventive and Community Dentistry portant initiatives undertaken in this last decade, it has been possible to go beyond the differences, to construct a com- rn mon framework and orientation for research in Oral He- Corresponding author: alth everywhere in the world. The U.S. Department of He- Dott. Denise Corridore alth and Human Services (2), and the World Health Or- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences ganization produced important guidelines, some of which te Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy he authors of this study used. They are as follows: Phone: +390649976642 E-mail: denise.corridore@gmail.com U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH In AND HUMAN SERVICES • Oral health is more than healthy teeth. Summary • Oral diseases and disorders in and of themselves af- fect health and well-being throughout life. This study is concerned with the educational inter- • The mouth reflects general health and well-being. ni vention layout proposed as a possible answer for the • Oral diseases and conditions are associated with other disparities in healthcare services for disabled persons. health problems. Material and methods. The data sampling was per- • Safe and effective measures exist to prevent the most io formed on individuals in Rome, affected by psycho- common dental diseases–dental caries and periodontal physical disabilities, living in residential care facilities. diseases. Participants were randomly divided into two groups: Study and Control Group, consisting of patients who iz WORLD HEATH ORGANIZATION did or did not participate in the Educational Phase. All • (available at http://www.who.int/oral_health/objecti- the caregivers participated in an educational course. ves/en/index.html) Screening period: September 2008 – March 2009. Exa- • Greater emphasis is put on developing global policies Ed minations were performed using Visible Plaque Index in oral health promotion and oral disease prevention (VPI), Gingival Bleeding Index (GBI) and Microbiolo- • Oral health is part of total health and essential to qua- gical Analysis. lity of life… Results. The total number of patients utilized for the • There must be a priority given to integration of oral he- study was 36 (18 in each group). The final sample alth with general health programs at community and amounted to 70% (14/20) in the Study Group and to national levels IC 75% (15/20) in the Control Group. In both examined groups Oral Hygiene, Gingival Health State and Mi- Development of community empowerment strategies are crobiological Analysis show an overall improvement essential. Over the last decades, there have been many of the indices, compared with the initial status, mostly significant studies documenting the inequities around the C at a follow-up after 4 weeks. However, Study Group world between oral health care (OH) for individuals with show a significantly better improvement. Conversely, disabilities and that provided for the general public. The- after 6 months the overall clinical indices worsened se studies have contributed to a more complete under- again. standing of: 1) the OH diseases prevalent among disabled © Conclusion. The difference in the significant impro- patients; 2) their possible causes; 3) possible discrepan- vements of the groups, even if only over a short-time cies in care. The majority of data to date has indicated the evaluation, endorses that the participation of the pa- following: tients as well as tutors in the educational phase is an effective strategy for the short-term. Disease profile of disabled patients: more frequent oral diseases among disabled patients are periodontal disea- Key words: oral health, oral diseases, disabilities, di- se (3-7) and carious disease (8-9), but there are also ca- sabled patients. ses of abnormal eruption and abnormal tooth development Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 25-30 25  L. Avenali et al. (10-14), diseases of the oral mucosa (5), changes in oc- ticipate in the Educational Phase. Each group was made clusion and masticatory function (5,10,15). For effective pre- up of 20 people. vention and therapeutic interventions, studies have hi- Though the patients were of legal age, it was not possi- ghlighted the need to consider patients’: type of disease, ble for ethical reasons to construct a project whereby any systemic status, and the specific needs that might arise of these patients would be studied without being accom- due to the particular patient profile (13,14,19,25,30). panied by a tutor. Therefore, patient Tutors from both groups li Possible causes of discrepancies in levels of care for participated in the Educational Phase. disabled patients: many studies pointed to unequal ac- na cess to care, which was tied to a host of underlying ele- Screening period and data collection ments, including: economic factors, lack of information, phy- Screening period: September 2008 – March 2009. sical/structural obstacles inherent to the institutions them- There were 3 sampling periods: T0 ,T1, T2 . selves, and inadequate preparation of health personnel io (19,31,37). T0 : first meeting for collection of data and educational en- Other factors contributing to a worse state of OH counters with patients and tutors. among disabled: low or absent self-sufficiency (16), phar- T1 : Follow-up after 4 weeks macological therapies (17,21) and particular systemic and T2 : Follow-up after 6 months az oro-facial features (10,22,24). The study was divided into two phases: Most of the studies concurred about the two primary are- as of intervention: 1) Education: prescribing increased dis- Phase 1 (T0): Educational encounters – duration 20 mi- rn semination of information regarding OH (prevention and nutes; and collection of data regarding clinical and mi- cure) to disabled patients and their caregivers: 2) Access crobiological parameters to Services: proposing careful analysis of possible barriers Phase 2 (T1, T2): Follow-up analysis of clinical and mi- (architectonic and cultural) to services for OH prevention crobiological parameters at 4 weeks (T1) and 6 months te and cure for disabled patients. (T2). Examiners were trained on data collection and the taking of Aim of study microbiological samples. Calibration included training ses- In sions, actually data/sample collection, and a discus- This study is concerned with the educational interventions sion/comparison of results. These sessions were comprised proposed by many studies as a possible area of inter- of a randomly selected group of 20 adult out-patients of the vention for the disparities in healthcare services. Though Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences Department of Sapienza they seemed to be pointing in a positive direction, few fol- University of Rome. They were divided into two groups of 10. ni low-up studies have been performed to evaluate these pro- The inter-examiner agreement was equal to 95%. grams over the long-term. The aim of this study is to eva- luate the efficacy of educational programs targeted to di- Intervention io sabled patients and their tutors (or healthcare professio- T0 educational meetings with a duration of 20 minutes were nals who assist them) over time. organized for Study Group patients and for tutors of both groups (Study Group and Control Group). Audiovisual de- iz vices and models for simulation developed by a professor Materials and Methods of Sapienza University, Rome were used. Then all patients underwent clinical examinations for the collection of data Ed Population studied - sampling pertaining to the Visible Plaque Index (VPI) and Gingival The data sampling was performed on individuals in Bleeding Index (GBI) (Ainamo and Bay) (39). Rome, Italy, affected by psychophysical disabilities, living Both clinical indices had Presence/Absence values and in residential care facilities with 24/7 professional assi- were chosen because of their optimal speed of execution stance. In Italy, these particular structures providing care and adaptability to a wide range of compliance levels to disabled residents are called “Protected Residences” and among subjects. are fully covered by the National Health Service. The measurement of the Visible Plaque Index (VPI), ex- IC The residences selected for this study are situated in the pression of oral hygiene status, was based on the detec- Municipality of Rome, Italy. They belong to the Association tion of the presence (positive value) of plaque clinically vi- called “Coop. Soc. Progetto ‘96”, that has been working sin- sible on the buccal, oral and interproximal surfaces of the ce 1999. They are part of a Protected Residential Project, teeth. The plaque had to be visible by all the examiners and C which focuses on providing a positive and motivational en- by the patient being examined (optimally), in accordance vironment to disabled individuals who can no longer live with the recommendations of Ainamo and Bay (39). at home and have a tutor/patients ratio is 1/5. The Gingival Bleeding Index (GBI), primary clinical ex- The selection criterion for this study was age. All individuals pression of the gingival inflammation, was evaluated by de- © older than 18 living in the above-mentioned residences tecting the presence or absence of bleeding after pro- were included (n = 40). No other inclusion or exclusion cri- bing/pressing the examined gingival parts. A PDT Sensor® teria was used. Participants were randomly divided into two periodontal probe (probe made of plastic resin with high groups: 1) Study Group, consisting of patients who parti- degree of flexibility and whose control device has probing cipated in the educational phase regarding direct hygie- force equal to 20 g) was placed into the gingival sulcus or ne and oral health using didactic materials designed by the periodontal pocket, parallel to the tooth’s long axis. The Dept. of Oral Health Science (Sapienza University, Rome). bleeding that appeared within 10 seconds was registered 2) Control Group, consisting of patients who did not par- as positive value. 26 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 25-30  Disabled patients and oral health in Rome, Italy: long-term evaluation of educational initiatives Furthermore, microbiological analysis was made, utilizing the Real-Time PCR (GABA International - meridol® Pe- rio Diagnostics) (40), for the quantitative calculation of six bacteria which are markers of periodontitis and of total bac- terial load. The bacterial strains identified which are mar- kers for periodontitis were the following: Actinobacillus ac- li tinomycetemcomitans, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tan- nerella forsythensis, Treponema denticola, Fusobacterium na nucleatum ssp., Prevotella intermedia. After sampling, the sub-gingival plaque samples were pla- ced in into the pipettes provided and were sent in the ori- ginal package for the Real-Time PCR analysis, according io to the meridol® Perio Diagnostics protocol. The results were obtained one week after the samples had been received by GABA meridol® Perio Diagnostics la- boratory. az In Phase 2, all patients underwent the same clinical and microbiological exams according to the same parameters during the initial data collection Phase. rn Data Analysis The collected data were stored using the Microsoft Excel Figure 1 - Flow of participants. (Windows XP) program and the statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 10, 2000 (SPSS Software te - Chicago). Table 1 - Characteristics of the Final Sample (T2). The first step in the data analysis was a unvaried statisti- cal processing, consisting of a descriptive analysis of data. The following step was the evaluation of the dependence between the considered variables, using Pearson Chi-squa- In re test. The comparison between the bacterial loads of the two groups was performed with the Mann-Whitney non- parametric test. As is standard, the level of significance for both tests was set equal to 0.05. ni Results Table 2 - Clinical Indices. io During the early phases of the project, two patients from each group were not compliant. Therefore, the total num- iz ber of patients involved for the study was 36 (18 in each group). Also, due to personal problems, some patients were unable to participate in all tests. The final sample amoun- Ed ted to 70% (14/20) in the Study Group and to 75% (15/20) in the Control Group (Fig. 1). At T2, mean age in the Stu- dy Group was 31.9 years old, and in the Control Group was 41.6 years old. (Tab. 1). Oral Hygiene and Gingival Health Tab. 2 - Shows the Visible Plaque Index (VPI) and the Gin- IC gival Bleeding Index (GBI) values for groups and phases. Microbiologic Analysis: T1, the Real-Time PCR microbio- logical analysis showed an overall quantitative reduction Visible Plaque Index (VPI) results: T1: compared to the ini- of the total bacterial load in both groups. tial phase, the VPI values were lower at this phase, both At T2 the total bacterial load is further reduced in the Stu- C in the Study Group and in the Control Group, with a si- dy Group and instead remains constant in the Control gnificant difference between the two groups. Group; in both cases the values show a significant diffe- T2, the values of positive VPI are higher than T1, but lower rence between the two groups (Fig. 2). Regarding bacte- than the values in the initial phase; also in this case the- ria marker (Tab.3), the qualitative analysis showed at T1 © re is a significant difference between the two groups. a reduction of all the bacterial strains in both groups, ex- cept for the Fusobacterium nucleatum’s value, which shows Gingival Bleeding Index (GBI): T1 this parameter shows a a slight quantitative increase in the Control Group. significant improvement only within groups. At T2 the analysis indicates: (i) Study Group a reduction, Instead, at T2 the indices are similar to the values recor- compared with T1 of all the bacteria, except Actinobacil- ded at T0 , especially in the Control Group; however, the- lus actinomycetemcomitans and Fusobacterium nuclea- re was no significant difference in this phase between the tum. Compared with T0 all the bacterial strains are redu- two groups. ced, except Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans; (ii) Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 25-30 27  L. Avenali et al. CONTROL GROUP (patients who did not attend the edu- cational program). In the Control Group, both clinical and microbiological va- lues decreased after one month (even if less significan- tly than the first group) and returned to initial values af- ter 6 months. li na Therefore the most important observation concerns the cli- nical and qualitative/quantitative parameters of the oral bio- film: its clinical indices, its total load and its pathogen- periodontal bacteria decreased more in the Study Group than in the Control Group. This was the case in both fol- io Figure 2 - Total bacterial load. low up periods T1 and T2. As a result, our data indicates that utilizing a structured edu- cational program for disabled patients together with their Control Group, compared with T1 all the bacterial markers az tutors (i.e. caregivers) can improve both their oral health are increased, except Fusobacterium nucleatum. Com- habits and the qualitative properties of bacterial plaque, pared with T0 all the values are increased, except for Por- reducing its pathogenicity over a brief period (4 weeks). phyromonas gengivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum. The difference in the significant improvements of the groups, even if only over a short time, documents that the rn Discussion participation of the patient as well as caregivers/tutors in The analysis of the results of the examination of Oral Hy- the educational phase is an effective strategy for the short- giene, Gingival Health State and Microbiological Analysis, term. shows an overall improvement of the indices, compared Our data confirms the hypothesis put forth in much of the te with the initial status, mostly at T1 in both examined groups. literature to date, which is that the active interest in disa- bled patients’ lives from people close to them, can positi- STUDY GROUP (patients who participated in the educa- vely affect their compliance. The fact that after 6 months tional phase of direct hygiene and oral health). In the clinical indices in our study returned to the initial va- The results show that 4 weeks after the educational pha- lues in both groups, demonstrates a decreasing motiva- se, the clinical and microbiological indices’ values de- tion and compliance over time. In patients this decreased creased significantly in the Study Group patient. Conver- motivation could be due to disability status itself and be- sely, after 6 months the overall clinical indices increased, havioural problems. Likewise, the tutors may be impacted ni although most microbiological values continued to de- by time-factor. For example, over a longer period, they may crease. tend to underestimate the importance of oral prevention. io Table 3 - Marker bacteria. iz Ed IC C © 28 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 25-30  Disabled patients and oral health in Rome, Italy: long-term evaluation of educational initiatives Our data clearly indicates that educational programs can- 7. Roizen NJ, Patterson D. Down’s syndrome. Lancet 2003; 361(9365): not be superficially evaluated without taking into consi- 1281-9. deration the time factor. As has been pointed out in many 8. Angelillo IF, Nobile CG, Pavia M, De Fazio P, Puca M, Amati A. Den- of the guidelines put forth in the global initiatives mentio- tal health and treatment needs in institutionalized psychiatric pa- tients in Italy. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1995; 23(6): 360- ned earlier, careful evaluation and monitoring over time are 4. critical to the long-term success of any program. li 9. 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Available on http://www.down-syndrome.org/re- Health care among caregivers is understandable given the ports/2022/ (last access 18-03-2009). high number of health and behavioural issues that they en- az 12. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). Oral counter in this patient population. However, caregiver awa- Conditions in Children With Special Needs: A Guide for Health Care reness of OH contribution to overall patient well-being is Providers. Available on http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/OralHealth/Oral- important and will hopefully be a focus for future studies. HealthInformation/ChildrensOralHealth/OralConditionsChildrenSpeci On-going review and follow-up, ideally at very short intervals alNeeds.htm (last access 18-03-2009). rn could significantly improve long-term success, especial- 13. 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Original article Evaluation of the efficacy of an hyaluronic acid-based biogel on periodontal clinical parameters. A randomized-controlled li clinical pilot study na Andrea Pilloni, MD, DDS, MS* crease of 92.7% and GI of 96.5%, whereas controls Susanna Annibali, MD, DDS# 75.8% and 79.0% respectively. The difference of PPD Francesco Dominici, DDS* in both areas was statistically significant (p<0.01) in io Carlo Di Paolo MD, DDS§ favour of the HA gel treated zone. Also PAL and Pl were Marco Papa, DDS§ reduced more with gel than with oral hygiene alone, Maria Antonietta Cassini, DDS* although this did not reach a statistical significant dif- az Antonella Polimeni, MD, DDS§ ference. Conclusion. It appears that an esterified gel form of HA has shown an effect in reducing the gingival in- “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy flammation when used as an adjunct to mechanical Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences home plaque control and that it could be successful- rn * Periodontics Unit ly used to improve the periodontal clinical indexes. This # Oral Surgery Unit pilot study will gain substantial scientific significan- § Gnathological Unit ce when both a higher number of patients can be uti- § Pediatric Dentistry Unit lized and also by adding any possible further biological te information, as with immunocytochemistry and hi- stology. Corresponding author: Dott. Andrea Pilloni Department of Oral In Key words: extracellular matrix, hyaluronan, perio- dontal disease. and Maxillofacial Sciences Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 - Rome, Italy Phone +39 06 44230809 Introduction ni E-mail: andrea.pilloni@uniroma1.it In normal conditions the gingival tissues carry out typical functions of fibrous tissues, although presenting features io Summary very similar to soft tissues. The “ground substance”, which is the supporting structu- Hyaluronic acid (HA) is an ubiquitous form of non-sul- re of the extracellular matrix and is formed by a highly struc- iz phated glycosaminoglycan of the extracellular matrix tured net of proteoglycans in perfect equilibrium one ano- of all mammalian connective tissues. It is mainly pre- ther, gives the gingival tissues a typical firm consistency. sent during tissue’s formation or during most of ini- In this context, hyaluronic acid or hyaluronan (HA), an ubi- quitous nonsulphated glycosaminoglycan, plays a funda- Ed tial tissue’s repair processess. Cell migration, adhe- sion and differentiation are only part of several unique mental role (2). In fact, it has been shown that among gin- biological characteristics of HA which have been un- gival diseases, periodontal disease is characterized by the der investigation in the past decades. loss of the normal gingival properties. Many studies Aim of the study. Evaluate the possible positive effect show that the most important alterations are related to the of an esterified form of HA on gingival tissues in mild reduction of the normal structural balance of the extra- chronic periodontitis patients, seeking for the reduc- cellular matrix (21,24). IC tion of all the periodontal disease clinical parameters In particular, the endogenous hyaluronan component re- PLI (Plaque Index), BOP (Bleeding on Probing), PPD sults to be lacking within the epithelium and the gingival (Probing Pocket Depth), GI (Gingival Index), PAL connective tissue with a consequent structural failure and (Probing Attachment Level). loss of normal features of the gingiva (2,4,7). It was de- C Materials and methods. The study is an open, intra- monstrated that in patients with chronic periodontitis, the- patient, controlled, single center pilot clinical trial in- re is a rapid loss of high molecular weight of hyaluronic acid cluding 19 adult patients with mild chronic perio- due to enzymatic digestive processes (3). Hyaluronidase, dontitis and shallow pockets (< 4 mm) in at least two an enzyme released by micro-organisms of bacterial pla- © different quadrants. One quadrant was treated with HA que, plays an essential role in such mechanism (14). The gel after regular toothbrushing (test), the other without supply of constituents that can be utilized by the regene- (control). rating tissues in order to re-establish their internal struc- Results. Although oral hygiene itself had a similar po- ture is, therefore, strictly necessary (10). sitive influence on the improvement of all the clinical In the dental literature, HA has been shown to be bacte- indexes for test and control, the treatment with HA gel riostatic with respect to periodontal pathogens (18) and ef- showed a greater effect almost always statistically si- fective in vitro when both intramembranous and endo- gnificant. BOP in the HA gel treated areas had a de- chondral models of osteogenesis are utilized (12,17). More Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9 3  A. Pilloni et al. recently HA appears to be effective for the treatments of be treated with HA gel or by normal oral hygiene proce- gingivitis (19). dures. Following initial assessment and after ensuring an An HA derivative, in esterified form, by maintaining the cha- adequate oral hygiene, HA gel was applied after scaling racteristics of biocompatibility and biointeractivity of hya- and root planning on the treated area (one quadrant) mas- luronic acid, (1,8), seems to be able to re-establish the saging the gingiva with a soft-bristles toothbrush for 2-3 ground substance’s normal equilibrium. Furthermore, it pos- minutes and then asking the patient to eliminate the ex- li sesses a very good bio-adhesiveness and fits tightly to the cess by rinsing once with tap water. The other randomi- gingival mucosa, to be then rapidly incorporated into the zed selected quadrant (contralateral) was considered as na epithelial layers (29). When compared to HA, the esteri- control and treated by normal oral hygiene procedures. fied form is more resistant to enzymatic biodegradation (20). The treatment was repeated daily by the patient who has Based upon such premises, a benzylic ester of hyaluro- been adequately instructed by the investigator for a total nic acid (HYAFF®, Anika Therapeutics Srl), for the treat- period of three weeks. The patient was asked to return to io ment of gingival inflammation, has been developed in a gel the office after 7, 14 and 21 days to assess parameters form for clinical use. The aim of this clinical pilot study is for tolerability and efficacy. to evaluate the efficacy of an esterified gel form of HA on Initial, control and final visits comprised: treatment com- the reduction of clinical indexes typically present in the ini- pliance, assessment of concomitant medications, objec- az tial stages of periodontal disease. tive oral exam, gingival tenderness or pain, root sensiti- vity, evaluation of clinical indexes (BOP, PAL, PPD, PLI, GI). Control and final visits included respectively safety details Materials and methods as adverse events and overall judgement of the investigator rn about tolerability and efficacy of HA gel. The study is an open, intra-patient, controlled, single cen- ter pilot clinical trial including 19 adult patients with mild Statistics chronic periodontitis: 10 male (55,6%), 9 female (44,4%), No statistical considerations were made in order to defi- te with an age range of 20-75 (mean 41,9 ±15,1). ne the sample size, considering a pilot study. After ethical committee approval received, at initial scree- Baseline, demographic and anamnestic data and effica- ning visit, patients who fulfilled the selection criteria and cy data were summarized by means of descriptive stati- with shallow pockets (< 4 mm) in at least two different qua- stics such as mean, standard deviation, standard error, mi- drants, were included in the study. One quadrant was trea- In nimum and maximum value, frequency distributions. ted with HA gel (test), the other without (control). Although it was not planned, statistical comparison between Patients had to return for the control visits after 7, 14 and the two zones at baseline and at different visits after tre- 21 days. The selection of study population has been ba- atment, was performed by mean of Paired Wilcoxon test sed on the following criteria: or Paired t-test. Before performing statistical analysis of ni • patients affected by mild adult periodontitis; data, the criteria for the identification of the population for • patients with shallow pockets (PPD <4mm), present in at the efficacy analysis were defined. The following three po- least two different quadrants of the oral cavity (PSR 4); pulations were identified: io • patients in good general health; 1. Safety population: All patients who receive at least one • no smokers; application of HA gel; • patients with given informed consent. 2. Intention-to-Treat population (ITT): All patients of sa- iz The exclusion criteria were: fety population who are assessed at least at one con- • patients who did not collaborate and/or were not tru- trol visit; stworthy; 3. Per-Protocol population (PP): All patients of Intention- Ed • smokers; to-treat population who have no major protocol viola- • PPD >4mm. tions. Patients were withdrawn from the study for the following Major protocol violations (that could affect efficacy) were reasons: patient request, failure to return to two consecutive classified following the definition here below: control visits, protocol violation, insufficient patient com- 1. Patients with poor compliance; pliance, serious adverse event, other reasons which had 2. Patients with no (or not recorded) periodontal di- to be justified. sease; IC Efficacy of the gel under investigation was assessed by 3. Patients without shallow pockets. measuring the following variables: Data were transferred on a database by means of • Reduction of BOP (Bleeding on probing); SAS/FSP software. Checks for inconsistencies and im- • Gain of PAL (Probing Attachment Level); plausibility were made via computer. C • Reduction of PPD (Probing Pocket Depth); • Reduction of PLI (Plaque Index); • Reduction of GI (Gingival Index); Results © Treatment Procedures Study population During the initial visit oral hygiene habits of the patients Of the 19 patients enrolled in the study eighteen were as- were assessed and an accurate exam of the oral cavity to sessed at all visits, while one patient (5.3%) withdrew be- detect any visible alteration of oral tissues was performed. fore completing the study because he did not return for the Measurement of clinical indexes (BOP, PAL, PPD, PLI, GI) final visit. No patient was excluded from the study and no was also performed and patient was also questioned re- patient was excluded from the analysis of efficacy that was garding root sensitivity and gingival pain. The two affec- performed on all 19 individuals. (Safety, ITT and Per-Pro- ted zones were randomly assigned by the investigator to tocol population were the same). 4 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9  Evaluation of the efficacy of an hyaluronic acid-based biogel on periodontal clinical parameters. A randomized-controlled clinical pilot study Table 1 - Demography Table 2 - Age distribution. HA-gel HA-gel Number (%) Number of patients 19 Number of patients 19 SEX <18 0 (0,0) li Male 10 (55,6%) 18<30 5 (26,3) Female 9 (44,4%) 30<40 3 (15,8) na 40<50 5 (26,3) AGE 50<60 4 (21,1) Mean 41,9 60<65 1 (5,3) SD 15,1 >65 1 (5,3) ES 3,5 io Range 20-75 N 19 Baseline Data az WEIGTH (kg) Demographic characteristic of the patients (mean, stan- Mean 68,2 dard deviation, standard error, minimum and maximum va- SD 14,7 lue) are reported in Tables 1 and 2. Ten patients were ma- ES 3,4 les, 9 females with an average of 41.9±15.1 years. Three Range 49,5-106,0 rn patients received some medications before entering the N 19 study, for a total of five drugs, while two patients received concomitant drugs also during the treatment period. HEIGTH (cm) The two zones, test and control, appeared to be compa- te Mean 171,3 rable for PAL, PPD, PI and GI. The same unbalance was SD 7,0 present for BOP, with a greater average score in the test ES 1,6 selected sites (39.6%), compared to the control sites Range 150-180 (29.3%) (p=0.03). The two affected areas were random- N 19 In ly assigned by the investigator to be treated with HA gel or by normal oral hygiene procedures. Although in favour of the control, this unbalance did not af- fect the comparability of the two groups. Protocol Deviations ni Neither major nor minor protocol deviations were registered Patient Compliance in the study. Consequently Safety, ITT and Per-Protocol po- All 19 patients (100%) applied the gel as prescribed. Oral pulation were identical. hygiene compliance was very good in 94.7% of them. io iz Table 3 - Bop (bleeding on probing) during treatment. BOP Baseline T7 T14 T21 Ed (Bleeding on Probing) (after 7 days) (after 14 days) (after 21 days) HA-gel Mean 39,6 20,8 5,2 2,9 SD 29,6 16,7 4,1 4,3 SE 6,8 3,8 1,0 1,0 Range 8,3-100 0-58,3 0-12,5 0-12,5 IC N 19 19 19 18 Control Mean 31,1 22,9 11,6 7,1 C SD 21,2 16,3 10,5 6,8 SE 4,9 3,7 2,4 1,6 Range 8.3-83,3 4,1-54,1 0-33,3 0-29,1 N 19 19 19 18 © Difference between treatments (*) 8,47 -2,09 -6,44 -4,18 Paired t-test 1,97 -0,50 -2,65 -2,84 p-value 0,06 0,62 0,02 0,01 (*) HA-gel/control Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9 5  A. Pilloni et al. to 22.9±16.3 % after one week, to reach the minimum va- lue of 7.1±6.8 % at the end of the study (percent decrea- se = 75.8 %). Both at 14 and at 21 days, the difference between the two zones was statistically significant, with p=0.02 and p=0.01 respectively (Table 3, Figure 1). li PAL (Probing Attachment Level) At baseline, the average of PAL was comparable in the two na zones (2.2±0.7 and 2.0±0.5 respectively for test and con- trol). This index decreased during treatment period in both areas, but even if the decrease was greater in the HA gel treated zones the difference between the two groups did io not reach the statistical significance at any time. After 21 days the averages were respectively 1.9±0.8. and 2.0 + 0.4 (Table 4, Figure 2). az Figure 1 - Mean (SD) of BOP during the study. Table 4 - PAL (Probing Attachment Level) during treatment. rn PAL (Probing Attachment Level) Baseline T7 T14 T21 HA-gel te Mean 2,2 2,1 2,0 1,9 SD 0,7 0,7 0,8 0,8 SE 0,2 0,2 0,2 0,2 Range 0,8-4,3 0,8-3,5 0,6-3,4 0-3,1 N 19 In19 19 18 Control Mean 2,0 2,0 2,0 2,0 ni SD 0,5 0,5 0,5 0,4 SE 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 Range 1,1-2,7 1,2-2,6 1,2-2,6 1,3-2,6 N 19 19 19 18 io Difference between treatments (*) 0,19 0,11 -0,01 -0,07 iz Paired t-test 1,44 1,04 -0,06 -0,55 p-value 0,17 0,31 0,95 0,59 Ed (*) HA-gel/control IC C Figure 2 - Mean (SD) of PAL during the study. Figure 3 - Mean (SD) of PPD values during the study © BOP (Bleeding on Probing) PPD (Probing Pocket Depth) In the treated areas the average of BOP was 39.6±29.6 At baseline the average of PPD was comparable in the two % at baseline, which decreased to 20.8±16.7 % after one zones: 3.3±0.6 and 3.3±0.6 respectively for test and con- week, then reaching the minimum value after 21 days: trol. After seven days of treatment the index decreased with 2.9±4.3 % (percent decrease = 92.7 %). In the control are- both treatments, but in the HA gel treated areas it reached as the average was 31.1±21.2 % at baseline, decreased a lower average than in the control ones: 2.8±0.6 vs. 6 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9  Evaluation of the efficacy of an hyaluronic acid-based biogel on periodontal clinical parameters. A randomized-controlled clinical pilot study Table 5 - PPD (Probing Pocket Depth) during treatment. PPD Baseline T7 T14 T21 (Probing Pocket Depth) (after 7 days) (after 14 days) (after 21 days) HA-gel li Mean 3,3 2,8 2,4 2,5 SD 0,6 0,6 0,7 0,7 na SE 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,2 Range 2,5-4,5 1,9-4,1 1,3-3,8 1,3-3,7 N 19 19 19 18 io Control Mean 3,3 3,1 2,8 3,0 SD 0,6 0,6 0,9 0,7 SE 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,2 az Range 2,35-4,3 2,3-4,4 0-4,2 2-4,4 N 19 19 19 18 Difference between rn treatments (*) 0,02 -0,29 -0,42 -0,47 Paired t-test 0,20 -3,29 -2,42 -3,36 p-value 0,85 <0,01 0,03 <0,01 te (*) HA-gel/control In 3.1±0.6 (p < 0.01). At the end of treatment the difference and control. This index decreased during treatment in both was still significantly in favour of the HA gel treated zone areas, but even if the decrease was greater in the HA gel (p<0.01) (Table 5, Figure 3). treated zone the difference between the two groups did not ni reach the statistical significance at any time. After 21 days PLI (Plaque index) the averages were respectively 4.6±4.3 % (percent de- At baseline the average of PLI was comparable in the two crease = 87.8 %) and 8.1±9.1 % (percent decrease = 78.1 zones: 37.6±20.6 % and 37.0±22.6 % respectively for test %) (Table T6, Figure 4). io iz Table 6 - PLI (Plaque Index) during treatment PLI Baseline T7 T14 T21 Ed (Plaque Index) (after 7 days) (after 14 days) (after 21 days) HA-gel Mean 37,6 12,7 4,3 4,6 SD 20,6 9,8 5,9 4,3 SE 4,7 2,2 1,4 1,0 Range 8,3-83,3 0-31 0-20,8 0-12,5 IC N 19 19 19 18 Control Mean 37,0 15,4 6,0 8,1 C SD 22,6 16,4 10,7 9,1 SE 5,2 3,8 2,5 2,2 Range 12,5-83,3 0-70,8 0-45,8 0-37,5 N 19 19 19 18 © Difference between treatments (*) 0,62 -2,72 -1,69 -3,46 Paired t-test 0,17 -1,11 -0,85 -1,66 p-value n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. (*) HA-gel/control Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9 7  A. Pilloni et al. Table 7 - GI (Gingival Index) during treatment. GI Baseline T7 T14 T21 (Gingival Index) (after 7 days) (after 14 days) (after 21 days) HA-gel li Mean 20,0 4,5 1,6 0,7 SD 18,8 6,6 3,0 2,1 na SE 4,3 1,5 0,7 0,5 Range 0-75 0-25 0-8,3 0-8,3 N 19 19 19 18 io Control Mean 21,0 10,2 3,6 4,4 SD 14,3 11,2 3,9 3,3 SE 3,3 2,6 0,9 0,8 az Range 0-62,5 0-50 0-12,5 0-10 N 19 19 19 18 Difference between rn treatments (*) -1,01 -5,68 -1,98 -3,68 Paired t-test -0,20 -1,82 -2,92 -4,17 p-value n.s. 0,09 0,01 <0,01 te (*) HA-gel/control In ni io Figure 4 - Mean (SD) of Plaque Index during the study. Figure 5 - Mean (SD) of Gingival Index during the study. iz GI (Gingival index) biomaterial. No visible alterations of oral tissues were seen Ed At baseline the Gingival Index was, on average, com- during the study in the treated areas with HA gel. parable in the two zones, with a mean value of 20.0±18.8 Both gingival reddening and pain were in favour of HA gel % in the one to be treated with HA gel and 21.0±14.3 % at all visits, although they do not reach statistical signifi- in the control. After one week the GI was reduced to cance. Subjective judgement of patient on symptomatic 4.5±6.6 in the testy and to 10.2±11.2 % in the control. evolution during the treatment period improved more in HA The very large variability in both groups did not allow this gel zones than in the control zones, reaching a positive re- difference, strongly in favour of HA gel, to be significant. sult (100.0 %) at the end of treatment compared with the IC Statistical significance was reached at 14 and 21 days results (66.7 %) of the control zones. The difference bet- of treatment with p<0.01. At 21 days the percent reduction ween treated and control zone values are significant at all from basal average level in the HA gel areas was 96.5 visits. (p<0.01). % while in the control once it was 79.0 % (Table 7, Fi- Root sensitivity showed a higher decrease in HA gel trea- C gure 5). ted zones and the taste of the product was positive at the end of the study for all patients. Furthermore, investigator’s overall judgement on tolerability Discussion of HA gel was completely positive and no adverse event © occured, confirming the safety of the product. In this study HA gel has been tested on 19 patients affected All efficacy indexes had a decrease in the HA gel treated with mild chronic periodontal disease, with shallow poc- zone, a decrease which was significant in comparison with kets in at least two different quadrants , comparing the ma- normal oral hygiene used in the control zones for BOP, PPD terial with normal oral hygiene. and GI. Based upon the obtained results it is important to notice that In fact even if the oral hygiene had a positive influence all the evaluated parameters for assessing the tolerability on the outcome of all the clinical indexes measured in the of HA gel, the principal aim of this study, are in favour of the study, the treatment with HA gel showed a greater effect 8 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 3-9  Evaluation of the efficacy of an hyaluronic acid-based biogel on periodontal clinical parameters. A randomized-controlled clinical pilot study almost always statistically significant. BOP in the HA gel and immune response in wound healing. J Periodontol 2001; treated areas had a decrease of 92.7% and the correlated 72(9):1192-200. GI of 96.5%, respectively 75.8% and 79.0% in the con- 10. Haase HR, Bartold PM. Enamel matrix derivative induces matrix synthesis by cultured human periodontal fibroblast cells. J Peri- trol areas. The difference of PPD in both areas was sta- odontol 2001; 72(3):341-8. tistically significant (p<0.01) in favour of the HA gel trea- 11. Kaneko S, Ohashi,K, Soma K, Yanagishita M. Occlusal hypofunction ted zone. li causes changes of proteoglycan content in the rat periodontal lig- Also PAL and Pl diminished more with gel than with oral ament.” J Periodontal Res 2001;36(1):9-17. hygiene, although it does not reach a statistical significant na 12. Kang MK, Sison J, Nachnani S, Pilloni A and Bernard GW. Low mo- difference. The investigator’s overall judgement on effica- lecular weight hyaluronic acid enhances osteogenesis of adult rat cy of HA gel was positive in 84.3% of the treated patients. bone marrow cells in vitro. Int. J. of Oral Biology 1998; , 23: 149- 155. 13. Kirkham J, Robinson C, Smith AJ, Spence,A. The effect of Peri- odontal disease on sulphatated glycosylaminoglycan distribution io Conclusion in the sheep periodontium, Archs Oral Biology 1992; 37, n°12: 1031- 1037. In conclusion, it appears that the treatment with HA gel has 14. Last KS, Embery G. Hyaluronic acid and hyaluronidase activity in shown an effect in reducing the gingiva inflammation and az gingival exudate from sites of acute ulcerative gingivitis in man. Archs that it could be successfully used to improve the the pe- Oral Biol 1987; 32, n°11: 811-815. riodontal clinical indexes. 15. Last KS, Stanbury JB, Embery G. Glycosaminoglycans in human Additionally, the effect of hyaluronan seems to be, from the gingival crevicular fluid as indicators of active periodontal disease. patient’s side, more beneficial by reducing, in the test si- Arch Oral Biol 1985;30(3):275-81. rn tes, both staining and change of taste or calculus forma- 16. Matsukawa,F. Biochemical analysis of extracellular matrix in bovine periodontal ligament. J Osaka Dent Univ 1994; 28(1-2):45- tion which occur with current traditional adjunctive thera- 55. py using products such as clorhexidine. This is a further 17. Pilloni A, Bernard GW(1998) “The effect of hyaluronan on mouse help for the clinician for suggesting prolonged applications intramembranous osteogenesis in vitro” Cell. Tissue Res. 294(2), te of the product without adverse reactions. Furthermore, the 323-33 improvement of the clinical inflammatory signs on the test 18. Pirnazar P, Wolinsky L, Nachnani S, Haake S, Pilloni A, Bernard sites can be also explained from recent data (18) showing GW. Bacteriostatic effects of Hyaluronic Acid. Journal of Peri- a bacteriostatic effect of hyaluronan on oral bacteria. Fu- odontology 1999; vol. 70, N°4. ture research will be necessary in order to evaluate the hi- In 19. Pistorius A, Martin M, Willershausen B, Rockmann P. The clinical stological changes where the new attachment is formed application of hyaluronic acid in gingivitis therapy. Quintessence Int. 2005 Jul-Aug; 36(7-8):531-8. to understand its quality and characteristics. 20. 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Case report Fused upper central incisors: management of two clinical cases li na Gian Luca Sfasciotti, MD, DDS, PhD a systemic disorder, and affects mainly the upper central Roberta Marini, DDS incisors if it derives from a partial defect. The prevalence Maurizio Bossù, DDS, PhD of macrodontia is calculated as 0.03% and there is no sex io Gaetano Ierardo, DDS, PhD preference (3). Susanna Annibali MD, DDS Several approaches to the treatment of this condition have been reported in the dental literature, such as restoring the az crown shape or prosthetic treatment for esthetic reasons, or extracting the tooth for orthodontic or periodontal “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy complications. Department of and Maxillofacial Sciences Fusion and germination are tooth shape abnormalities (1) that are often described using the terms “double teeth”, rn “double formations”, “joined teeth” and “dental twinning”. Corresponding author: Fusion is the union of two or more dental germs, and can Dott. Gian Luca Sfasciotti involve the permanent, primary or supernumerary denti- Via Famiano Nardini 1/e tion. Depending on the developmental stage at the time te 00162 Rome, Italy of union, fusion may be incomplete, involving only the to- Phone/Fax +39068610788 oth crowns, or complete, involving both the crowns and ro- E-mail: gianluca.sfasciotti@uniroma1.it ots. Clinically the fused tooth usually has a wide crown and In two independent root canals or, less often, a single root and one or two pulp chambers (4). The crown may exhi- bit an incised notch, a bifid aspect or an enamel groove Summary between the medial and distal parts, which can extend to the root surface. The maxillary central incisors are the te- ni This paper reports the management of two clinical eth that are most often affected. The prevalence of dou- cases, in which the upper right central incisor was fused ble teeth differs between studies, ranging from 0.05% to with a supernumerary tooth and the upper left central in- 5% in permanent dentition (2) and 0.7% in deciduous den- io cisor was macrodontic. A radiographic examination re- tition (5). The discrepancy is probably due to racial and geo- vealed that the fused teeth had two separate roots. graphical differences in the population studied, variable Hemisectioning of the fused teeth was performed, the sampling techniques and different diagnostic criteria supernumerary portion was extracted and the remain- iz (1,6,7). ing part was reshaped to remove any sharp margins and Germination is considered to be incomplete division of a to achieve a normal morphology. The macrodontic cen- single tooth germ, starting at the incisal edge and abor- tral incisors were not treated. At 12-months post-surgery ting before cleavage is complete. Clinically, a germinated Ed there were no periodontal problems and no hypersensi- tooth is characterized by a bifid crown with a single root tivity. Orthodontic treatment was performed to appro- and a single or partly divided pulp space (3). priately align the maxillary teeth and to correct the The aetiology and pathogenesis of fusion and germination malocclusion. remain unclear. It was assumed that trauma, heredity, ge- Key words: fusion, fused tooth, macrodontia, hemisec- netic predisposition and environmental factors, such as foe- tion, supernumerary tooth. tal alcohol exposure, thalidomide embryopathy and hy- IC pervitaminosis A of the pregnant mother, may play a role in the formation of double teeth (3,6). Double teeth may Introduction also be part of certain syndromes, such as chondroecto- dermal dysplasia, achondrodysplasia, otodental dyspla- C Developmental dental anomalies include abnormalities in sia, focal dermal dysplasia and osteopetrosis (3,8,9,10). tooth size (microdontia and macrodontia), shape (fusion, Double teeth usually occur in the anterior region of the jaws germination and concrescence), number (anodontia, oli- and cause aesthetic, periodontal, functional and orthodontic godontia, hypodontia and hyperdontia) and structure problems, such as diastema, crowding, protrusion, im- © (amelogenesis imperfect and dentinogenesis imperfecta), paction or ectopic eruption of the adjacent teeth (11,12). which are all the result of local and systemic factors that Several treatment methods have been described in the li- affect the initial morphological differentiation stage of den- terature according to the different types and morphologic tal germs (1,2). variations of anomalous teeth. However the treatment of Macrodontia is a rare abnormality in tooth size that ma- double teeth requires a multidisciplinary approach to achie- nifests clinically as a tooth of normal morphology but of unu- ve ideal functional and aesthetic results. sually larger size, with a single root and pulp chamber (4). Herein we describe the treatment of two patients with den- This anomaly involves the entire dentition if it derives from tal fusion and macrodontia involving the central incisors. 40 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 40-44  Fused upper central incisors: management of two clinical cases Clinical cases Case 1 An 8-year-old Italian boy was referred to the Paediatric Den- tistry Unit of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Scien- ces, “Sapienza” University of Rome, with a complaint in- li volving the right maxillary permanent central incisor. There was no history of dental anomalies, systemic di- na seases or dental trauma. A clinical examination (Fig. 1) re- vealed the following: 1. The right permanent central incisor had a bifid crown and had erupted buccal to the primary lateral incisor; io 2. The right permanent lateral incisor had erupted in the oral position due to insufficient space; 3. The crown of the left permanent central incisor had Figure 2 - Case 1. Orthopantomograph. a normal morphology but was abnormally large (ma- az crodontia); 4. A diastema of 3 mm between the central incisors; 5. The normal number of teeth. rn te In ni Figure 3 - Case 1. Computed tomography scan. Figure 1 - Case 1. Intraoral photograph. io The response to thermal pulp testing and the periodontal iz probing of the permanent central incisors were normal. The patient was in the mixed dentition stage with a class I mo- lar relationship on the basis of Angle’s classification.In- Ed creased overjet, increased overbite and anterior lower den- tal crowding were also present. A radiographic evaluation involving orthopantomography and computed tomography (Dentascan) indicated that the right central incisor had two distinct roots and two sepa- rate endodontic spaces, and that the left central incisor had a large pulp chamber and one root canal and macrodon- IC tia of the left central incisor (Figs. 2 and 3). The therapeutic options were discussed with the patient and his parents, and sectioning of the fused tooth was planned. Under local anaesthesia (mepivacaine 2% with adrenalin C 1:100,000), the right primary lateral incisor was extracted, and a mucoperiosteal flap, extended from the left per- manent central incisor to the right primary canine, was rai- sed until the whole crown of the anomalous tooth was ex- © posed. The fused tooth was separated along the enamel groove, using a high-speed dental hand-drill and a diamond bur, and the mesial portion (supernumerary) was extrac- ted (Figs. 4 and 5). The flap was sutured with 3-0 non-ab- sorbable silk sutures (Ethicon) and the crown of the right maxillary central incisor was redefined with a flame-sha- ped finishing bur. Reshaping of the crown was necessa- ry to remove the sharp margins and to establish an ana- Figure 4 - Case 1. Sectioning the tooth. Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 40-44 41  G.L. Sfasciotti et al. li na io Figure 5 - Case 1. The extracted right primary lateral incisor and Figure 7 - Case 2. Intraoral photograph. supernumerary tooth. az tomy consistent with a normal central incisor. I molar relationship and normal overjet. Upper dental crow- An orthodontic device (DAMON type MX3) was applied to ding was present and the overbite was decreased, with a rn allow realignment of the central and lateral incisors and re- tendency to an open bite. solution of the malocclusion (Fig. 6). At the 8-month post- Periapical radiographs of the upper central incisors (Fig. surgery recall, the right maxillary central incisor exhibited 8) indicated that the right one had two separate roots, two healthy gingival tissues, no increase in probing depth and pulp chambers and a single bifid crown and that the left te a positive response to pulp testing. one had a single root and one pulp chamber. The diagnosis was fusion of the right central incisor with a supernume- rary tooth and a macrodontic left central incisor. In ni io iz Figure 6 - Case 1. Intraoral view at 8-months post-surgery. Ed Figure 8 - Case 1. Periapical radiographs of the right (a) and left (b) side. Case 2 An 8-year-old Italian boy was referred to the Paediatric Den- tistry Unit of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Scien- Surgical sectioning and extraction of the distal part of the ces, “Sapienza” University of Rome, with an anomaly of fused tooth was scheduled to facilitate orthodontic repo- IC the right maxillary permanent central incisor. His medical sitioning of the lateral incisor. The left central incisor was history was negative for systemic diseases, dental trau- left untreated. The treatment plan was explained to the pa- ma and familial history of dental anomalies. An intraoral tient and his family and informed consent was obtained. examination revealed the following in the upper arch (Fig. Before surgery, a fixed orthodontic device (Mc Laughin- C 7): Bennett-Trevisi) with 013 wire and elastic low friction li- 1. A right central incisor had a bifid crown and was de- gatures (CuNiTi) was applied to facilitate repositioning of lineated by an enamel groove; the teeth. 2. A wider than normal left central incisor; Under local anaesthesia (mepivacaine 2% with adrenalin © 3. A diastema of 4 mm between the central incisors; 1:100,000), the tooth crown was sectioned was performed 4. A right lateral incisor that had erupted buccally due to following the groove in the enamel, using a diamond cy- insufficient space; lindrical bur under saline irrigation, and the distal portion, 5. The normal number of teeth. aligned with the supernumerary, was extracted using a Both of the central incisors exhibited positive responses straight elevator. The remaining tooth was reshaped to re- to thermal pulp testing, were asymptomatic to percussion move the sharp edges and to improve the coronal mor- and had no periodontal pockets on probing. phology (Fig. 9). Compression was applied for a few mi- The patient was in the mixed dentition stage with a class nutes using wet gauze to control the bleeding. 42 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 40-44  Fused upper central incisors: management of two clinical cases and supernumerary teeth. Levitas suggested that the num- ber of teeth in the arch should be counted whilst considering the anomalous crown as a single tooth: fusion decreases this number and germination does not (13). This diagno- stic criterion becomes untrustworthy either when the fu- sion involves a supernumerary tooth, because the num- li ber of teeth is not reduced, or when germination is asso- ciated with agenesis (3). na In the two cases presented here diagnosing fusion between the central incisor and a supernumerary tooth was not dif- ficult, not only because of the normal number of elements in the arch, but also because of the coronal morphology, io which was characterized by a groove separating the crown into two components, and the presence of two separate roots. The diagnosis of the macrodontic tooth which had a sin- az gle large-than-usual crown, one root and a single pulp chamber was more difficult because it was possible that this element could have represented either macrodontia or complete fusion with a supernumerary in the early sta- rn ge of the morphological differentiation of the tooth germ. The association in the same dentition between fused te- eth at one site and a macrodontic tooth at another site has been reported by several authors (3,4,6). te However the difficulty in differentiating between fusion, ger- mination and macrodontia does not affect the choice of tre- atment plan, and is rather determined by the type of den- tition, the crown morphology, the root and endodontic ana- Intomy, and the orthodontic (diastema, crowding or protru- Figure 9 - Case 2. Intraoral view of the tooth crown before (a) sion), periodontal and aesthetic requirements of the pa- and after (b) extraction of the mesial portion (supernumerary). tient. Several treatments have been proposed in the literature to solve the problems related to an abnormally large ele- ni ment. In deciduous dentition, double or macrodontic teeth After the surgical treatment, fixed orthodontic treatment was do not require therapy unless they interfere with the erup- continued in the patient to align the teeth in the arch and tion of the homologous permanent dentition, in which case io to correct the malocclusion (Fig. 10). At the follow-up exa- extraction is necessary (14). As for permanent dentition, minations performed at 3, 6 and 12-months post-surge- there are four types of approaches for fusion and germi- ry, the right central incisor had a positive response to ther- nation: iz mal pulp testing and no periodontal pockets were obser- 1. Extraction in cases where the roots are not separated ved on probing. and no endodontic treatment is possible; 2. Separation into two single units when the fusion Ed is between two permanent teeth with two separate ro- ots or if it is possible endodontic treatment if possible (9,15); 3. Hemisectioning and extraction of one tooth portion when the fusion is between a permanent and a su- pernumerary tooth with two distinct roots or endodontic treatment if possible (10,12,16); IC 4. Reshaping of the crown. In the present cases, fusion of the right central incisors with a supernumerary and the macrodontic left central incisors required two different approaches. The right central inci- C sors, with two roots and two independent endodontic spa- ces, were surgically separated without endodontic treat- ment, and the supernumerary tooth was extracted to al- low correct alignment of the dental arch. The macrodon- © Figure 10 - Case 2. Intraoral view at 12-months post-surgery. tic left central incisors, characterized by a single root and single pulp, did not require any kind of therapy. Hemisectioning of the abnormal teeth was perfor- med under visual control: in case 1 it was necessary to rai- Discussion se a flap to expose the division of the roots, while in case 2 it was sufficient to section the crown using the ena- Differentiating between fusion and germination can be dif- mel groove as a guide (14). During the hemisectioning pro- ficult, especially when fusion occurs between permanent cedure, every effort was made to remove the tooth struc- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 40-44 43  G.L. Sfasciotti et al. ture only at the expense of the supernumerary part of the case report. Pediatr Dent. 2006 ;28(4):336-40. tooth. 5. Wu CW, Lin YT, Lin YT. Double primary teeth in children un- The dislocation and extraction of the dental fragment were der 17 years old and their correlation with permanent suc- performed with delicate movements. The elevator was cessors. Chang Gung Med J. 2010;33(2):188-93. 6. Mattos-Graner RO, Rontani RM, Gavião MB, de Souza Fil- not inserted into the space between the two portions and ho FJ, Granatto AP, de Almeida OP. Anomalies of tooth form force was applied only against the portion that was being li and number in the permanent dentition: report of two cases. extracted in order to preserve the remaining part. ASDC J Dent Child. 1997;64(4):298-302. More important for treatment outcome is periodic and long- na 7. Guimarães Cabral LA, Firoozmand LM, Dias Almeida J. Dou- term follow-up to check pulp vitality and periodontal health, ble teeth in primary dentition: report of two clinical cases. Med since some authors have reported that the sectioning pro- Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2008;13(1):E77-80. cedure may cause pulp disease as a result of exposing va- 8. Karaçay S, Gurton U, Olmez H, Koymen G. Multidisciplina- scular canals in the conserved portion, that may have been ry treatment of "twinned" permanent teeth: two case reports. io shared between the two roots (10,11,17). J Dent Child (Chic). 2004;71(1):80-6. 9. Olivan-Rosas G, López-Jiménez J, Giménez-Prats MJ, Pi- queras-Hernández M. Considerations and differences in the Conclusion treatment of a fused tooth. Med Oral. 2004;9(3):224-8. az 10. Cetinbas T, Halil S, Akcam MO, Sari S, Cetiner S. Hemisec- tion of a fused tooth. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Ra- To achieve functional and aesthetic objectives double and diol Endod. 2007;104(4):e120-4. macrodontic teeth usually require a multidisciplinary ap- 11. Kim SY, Choi SC, Chung YJ. Management of the fused per- proach (endodontic, surgical, prosthetic and orthodontic). manent upper lateral incisor: a case report. Oral Surg Oral Med rn The choice of the appropriate treatment plan should be de- Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2011 May;111(5):649-52. Epub termined by the morphology and the endodontic anatomy 2011 Feb 18. of the anomalous tooth and the orthodontic, periodontal 12. Tsujino K, Shintani S. Management of a supernumerary to- and aesthetic requirements of the patient. oth fused to a permanent maxillary central incisor. Pediatr Dent. te 2010;32(3):185-8. 13. Levitas TC. Gemination, fusion, twinning and concrescence. References ASDC J Dent Child. 1965;32:93-100. 14. Annibali S, Pippi R, Sfasciotti GL. Chirurgia orale a scopo or- 1. Altug-Atac AT, Erdem D. Prevalence and distribution of den- In todontico. Ed. Elvesier, 2007. tal anomalies in orthodontic patients. Am J Orthod Dentofa- 15. Braun A, Appel T, Frentzen M. Endodontic and surgical tre- cial Orthop. 2007;131(4):510-4. atment of a geminated maxillary incisor. Int Endod J. 2. Guttal KS, Naikmasur VG, Bhargava P, Bathi RJ. Frequency 2003;36(5):380-6. of developmental dental anomalies in the Indian population. 16. Gallo C, Borella L, Velussi C. Anomalie dentarie di numero e ni Eur J Dent. 2010;4(3):263-9. di sviluppo. Analisi della letteratura. Dent Cadmos 3. Schuurs AH, van Loveren C. Double teeth: review of the li- 2008;76(8):51-68. terature. ASDC J Dent Child. 2000;67(5):313-25. 17. Ozalp SO, Tuncer BB, Tulunoglu O, Akkaya S. Endodontic and 4. Karacay S, Guven G, Koymen R. Management of a fused cen- orthodontic treatment of fused maxillary central incisors: a case io tral incisor in association with a macrodont lateral incisor: a report. Dent Traumatol. 2008;24(5):e34-7. Epub 2008 Jun 28. iz Ed IC C © 44 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 40-44 

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Commentary Inter- relationships between orthodontics and posture: basic theories li na Veleriano Luzi, MD, DDS* Annibaldi (4) makes the following point: “posture, as a com- Stefano Di Carlo, MD, DDS* plex expression of the state of nervous system, is sub- Cesare Luzi, DDS ** stantially the way in which each subject reacts and rules io its body, still or in motion”. Calandriello et al. (5) provide the following definition: “stan- “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy ding posture of every person may be represented by the az * Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, spatial inter-relationship that head, trunk, arms and legs ** Private practice, Rome, Italy assume with regard to each other”. In the Internet site held by Rinaldi and Fontani (6) we can read this simple statement: “posture is best defined as the position maintained by our body both still and in motion”. rn Corresponding author: A professional with consistent knowledge in the field of Dott. Valeriano Luzi body posture might find almost plain the sentence “Most Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences credited protocols of postural evaluation are essentially ba- Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy sed on models of structural and bio-mechanic analysis of te E-mail: valeriano.luzi@gmail.com both skeletal and myo-fascial ties among different bone seg- ments and districts (7)”. In the very same paper by Urzì can we read a definition In we find very useful for our goals, that is to say “posture is Summary every position our body is able to assume and maintain (therefore in equilibrium or weight balance) in any given The first part of the present report deals mainly with circumstance”. the concept of posture – both in static and in dynamic The author goes on by stating that “the preferential sy- ni sense – its relationships with equilibrium, weight ba- nergies of muscular chains are more important for stabi- lance and motion, its phylogenic origin, reasons why lizing than for dynamic purposes”. any orthodontic professional should be aware of it; mo- Even though we can easily identify many a functional ma- io reover, different profile types and their connections nifestation able to get – and to keep – body equilibrium (e.g. with one’s own skeletal class are briefly discussed. the rhythmic oscillations which do constitute a basic con- Two more papers are following on the subject. trol function), one should take note that a concept of sta- iz ble body posture is normally individuated in orthostatic po- Key words: posture, gravitational vertical line, skele- sition, that is to say standing attitude and free two-footed tal class, balance. weight charge. Normally this position is maintained through activity of mu- Ed scles counterbalancing gravity, the so-called tonic exten- How may posture be defined? sion muscles. A problem arises, when we realize that this position is com- There’s plenty of different definitions of the term ‘posture’, pletely different from that in which we usually see our pa- some foggy and useless like the ideas of their creators, tients… some merely tautological, many contradicting each other, In case this sentence holds true, it wouldn’t be a bad idea IC and some really hard to understand. at all if we changed our mind and, from this moment on, Ricciardi (1) employs a definition for the wide audience: we started examining our first visit patients both traditio- “the posture is nothing but the result of a complex inte- nally seated and standing, in such a way as to be able to raction among brain, sense organs, and emotional states; form a more comprehensive frame. C the positions we adopt on our own are a kind of topogra- phic map of the human being; it’s our way of getting in touch with reality, the physical and mental expression of neuro- Phylogeny and posture vegetative system, of the actual state of mind”. © Messa (2), too, addresses the large public by stating that It would seem of undeniable interest detecting how posture “the posture is also the expression of the physical state; finds a place of its own along phylogenetic evolution, and it would be better speaking of a postural system”. the way orthostatic position will be situated at the very top Here joins the club Henry Otis Kendall (3), who adds ano- of such an evolutionary asset. ther capital brick to our wall as saying that “posture can In order to demonstrate this assumption, may we consi- only be viewed like the situation characterized by the who- der the series of passages from the fish to the amphibian, le of the positions of body articulations in any given mo- to the quadruped, to ape and to the two-footed hominid. ment”: In spite of the fact that fish already owns a kind of laby- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 45-48 45  V. Luzi et al. rinth, the latter only is active to give information on body + erected station). spatial position, since body lay out in water is practically Thus, a lowering of the canine cusp may be observed, with neutral because of the existence of swim bladder, situa- occlusion change and primate diastema disappearing (at ted top of body barycentre, which makes more input for least at statistical significance level), analogous reduction reflex antigravity activity meaningless. and lowering of molar cusps (even though at a milder de- Moreover, here no lateral mobility of head with respect to gree when compared to front section) with – as a result li trunk may be detected. – a progressive functional prevalence exhibited by the back The amphibian is bound to counteract gravity force, sections. na which acts more on them than on fish, owing to the new This whole series of phenomena didn’t obviously appe- out-of-water situation, nevertheless should we consider the ar at the same time: scientists tend to exclude any rigo- broad support basis (limbs in side position) and the ex- rous synchronism of the steps and, even though a very tight tremely low height of body centre to ground (amphibians functional relationship may be individuated, at this moment io creep with belly on the ground, thus dissipating a consi- our anthropologic acquaintances suggest the following re- derable energetic amount because of attrition); as a result, construction: skull expansion (with all its connections) se- no balance problem can be observed. ems relatively late, whilst postural uprighting is for sure ear- Head rests on collarbones in order to sustain its weight but, lier, though not precisely identifiable on time scale: might az as already seen in the fish, it practically has no lateral mo- have taken place some fifteen million year ago, anyway not bility as to trunk. less than three million year ago, consequently then already The quadruped – to use a beautiful sentence by Sartori present in individuals whose brain (and related intellectual (8) –issues its challenge to gravity, which is accomplished powers) was still very little. rn by barycentre elevation from floor in the same time that head finds its freedom from trunk (which stays parallel to floor) by placing itself in antero-superior position. Why posture should be of interest And if the evolutionary step from creeping towards the to any (good) orthodontist te upright-on-paws-condition finds its justification on the ba- sis of mechanical advantage (little or no attrition at all), more Even taking for granted every single step as seen, one may bio-energetic motivation is supplied by the effort paws must wonder why an orthodontic professional should be inte- endure in thrust phase: upright below body, as a matter of rested in posture whatsoever. fact, the effort is largely reduced as to side position. In There’s many a reason why: may we start by saying that This step also makes the presence of anti-gravity reflexes in our field – nowadays especially – it only would seem cra- necessary (reflex of uprighting, of equilibrium, parachute) zy not taking aesthetic factors into account. as stability progressively grows into a major issue. As a matter of fact, an orthodontic treatment outcome is What about the biped? As trunk gets vertical backing up often (right or wrong) judged only, or at least prevailingly, ni only on lower limbs, we may see full expression of po- according to the degree of facial aesthetic harmony the or- tentiality in elevation, thus completing adaptive evolution thodontist was able to reach. Moreover, even choosing to in a context where weight force is king. only speak function, who among us would on purpose clo- io There’s plenty of advantages offered by this new situation, se any orthodontic case he treated with a canted occlu- and all of them remarkable. sal plane? First of all, hands get free and may be fully exploited; then, Accordingly, we can’t avoid observing (and taking into ac- iz a better view of the nearby environment with horizon en- count) the way our patients keep their head in relaxed spon- largement; moreover, much better breathing conditions are taneousness, whether straight, inclined or whatever; in par- offered (breathing is more economical in the higher posi- ticular, one should examine the situation as observed “three Ed tion, since savannah is usually sultry); last but not least, quarters” view, that is to say the most frequent angle (Fig. sense axes are offered a much improved locomotor sta- 1) we are usually watched from others on social occasions bility as to living on trees apes. (and consequently judged or evaluated on a ‘interesting / Head control is therefore fundamental to keep stable sen- not interesting’ scale). se axis useful to orientation (placed exactly in the head, A fortiori we are therefore stimulated to investigate whe- hence the necessity to keep bi-pupilar axis parallel to ther our patients’ cervical column shows a correct curva- ground, no matter how hard; head freedom only is allowed ture or not (by the way, this is a capital though often ne- IC by neck tonic reflexes (both symmetrical and asymmetri- glected point, as said before: usually sitting posture – the cal). one usually our patients are seen by us – is not the same At the end, top of homination process (that is to say ho- as standing: we had better keeping this into account and minid / pongid splitting) is characterized – together with fun- taking the necessary steps) both statically and in motion. C damental postural uprighting matched with the two-footed Let’s start this very short excursus from a survey on body locomotion – by a spectacular skull expansion (articula- posture as observed in its relationship to vertical axis. ted language plus ideational processes that, coupled with hand freedom, offer way to unbelievable openings, from © development of material culture to Internet) and by re- Sagittal aspect (Barré’s vertical axis as observed markable reduction of jaws protrusion combined with net in latero-lateral direction) arrangement of tooth arch, from tooth series reduction and gradual molar overpower (9). Usually in most orthodontic offices there isn’t a postural In order to explain this series of changes, the hypothesis analyser available (with revolving footboard and upper mir- has been advanced that dental arch may have not been ror, not to speak of an adjustable twin-mirror). any longer necessary to perform tasks once fulfilled but No problem: we only need a plumb line, that might be free now in charge of the “prehensile hand” (opposable thumb (in which case we use it free-hand) or hanging from a tall 46 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 45-48  Commentary inter- relationships between orthodontics and posture: Basic Theories ling almost in the centre of the body projection polygon (even if a bit forward as to coxofemoral articulations). Forward and backward inclined profile li Anyway the just outlined frame, such a ‘situation of ideal norm’, as someone (8) liked to define it, is by no means na the one and only we could come across. As a matter of fact, it’s by and large more frequent the sta- tistical observation – among the many other possible body postures – of the three situations we are to watch in some io detail. - 1st frame: the three benchmark points (gluteal / dorsal / occipital) lie on the same axis, but we face accentuated curves; usually we see this frame in patients with a valgus az foot feature; - 2nd frame: gluteal distance is considerably decreased as compared with dorsal and occipital ones, with less deep vertebral curves; this frame, featuring forward placed body rn barycentre (owing to column and head in forward position in comparison with gluteal prominence) is usually identi- fiable in association with hollow foot; this is usually refer- red to by posture professionals as ‘forward attitude’ tout te court; ‘Backward attitude’ will on the contrary be therefore the 3rd frame whose main features are occipital and dorsal arrows clearly decreased as compared with the gluteal one, ob- In vious and consequent shifting towards the back of the body Figure 1 - “Three quarters” view, most frequent ‘social angle’ one is usually watched. barycentre; we may also note accentuated vertebral cur- ves and frequently a flat foot. enough support. ni Mutual relation between profile and orthodontic If this little tool is not within reach, we can even do with a skeletal class vertical wall free from other things, having our patient po- sition her/himself in a ‘spontaneous standing’ condition, that Any professional dealing with body posture likes to refer io is to say feet on the same level but without obliging to a to himself (10/11) as a physician ‘horizontally’ working, sin- predetermined distance or angle between them just in front ce his specialty holds many a contact with other health wor- of the vertical line indicator (we don’t favour using pre-glued kers (ophthalmologists, dentists, neurologists, ENT spe- iz to the floor templates that tend to limit the physiologic po- cialists, orthodontists, orthopaedists, gastroenterologists, sitional gamma too much): let’s consequently observe rheumatologists, cardiologists, orthoepists, paediatri- which features of tonic muscular activity are shown by our cians, kinesipaths, orthoptists, psychiatrists and so on). Ed patient orthostatically upright with respect to the vertical According to their opinion on our field, a strong biunique gravity line on the sagittal plane (that is to say watching bond does exist between orthodontic skeletal class and her/his profile). postural profile (whether forward / normal / backward), bond Particularly, we are bound to examine distances from the that can easily and usually be observed. vertical line of three benchmark points: most salient Thus, subjects exhibiting an orthodontic skeletal class I tend point of gluteal prominence, most posterior point of phy- towards a neutral and steady profile position, the ones pre- siologic kyphosis of the dorsal column and most posterior senting an orthodontic skeletal class II usually show an- IC nape point (exterior occipital prominence). terior profile position – normally almost as stable as class Ideally, these three points should lie on the same line pa- I); orthodontic skeletal class III subjects, on the contrary, rallel to vertical Barré’s line. will tend to be both backward positioned and unsteady (of In the same manner we should go on evaluating distan- course always from the standpoint of postural balance); for- C ces (always from the gravity vertical line) of most anterior ward inclined position usually tends to match with the so point of neck’s posterior part (cervical arrow) and of most called ‘griffe’ of toes (Figs. 2 and 3), that is to say an atti- anterior point of lumbar column lordosis (lumbar arrow). tude, as of claws, designed to guarantee exactly some sta- As already anticipated according to posturologic criteria, bility even in the presence of such a positional frame. © in well-balanced subjects these three distances (gluteal, As an obvious implication of this observation, it follows that dorsal and occipital) should be almost equivalent. we clearly don’t need making a skeletal class diagnosis Beside this good alignment, should we observe some other by watching more forward or more backward position of features: a very, very small (not more than minimal) acti- both head and column as to gluteal plane (much more re- vity of anti-gravity muscles (tonic extensors muscles) who- liable orthodontic investigation tools are available), but we se activity is requested in order to stabilize lower limbs, pel- could easily (and usefully) take advantage of such a sta- vis and column (and exactly a pelvis in optimal balance, tistically sensitive observation in order to suspect, for in- neither forward nor backward inclined) with barycentre fal- stance, a potential in fieri class III in a boy (who maybe doe- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 45-48 47  V. Luzi et al. li na io az Figure 2 - Griffe’ of toes, lateral view. Figure 3 - Griffe’ of toes, superior view. rn sn’t offer any other alarm bell, let’s say who exhibits a full 3. Bricot B. La riprogrammazione posturale globale. Ed. Statipro – Mar- dental and skeletal class I, chewing and facial muscula- seille 1998. ture in the norm, harmonious face profile, nasal breathing, 4. Annibaldi L. Le colpe della psiche. Salute del 20/01/2001, 9. 5. Calandriello B. et al. Postura e problemi ortodontici: diagnosi sem- non-progenic parents and relatives) and put him under re- plificata delle alterazioni della colonna. Atti X° Congr. Naz. S.I.D.O., te gular control visits. Torino, S.I.D.O. 1989, 163/166. It may clearly be a false alarm, but it wouldn’t cost us no- 6. Rinaldi S, Fontani V. as qtd in 04. thing. 7. Urzì D. Principi di metodologia clinica interdisciplinare per la valu- But what if said boy would show out of the blue sky ano- ther slight, little brick of class III syndrome? That would In tazione posturale dell'atleta di alta prestazione, Ed. C.R.E.P. - Pa- dova 2000. obviously call for attention, and we could perhaps detect 8. Sartori F. L’apparato stomatognatico organo sensoriale di control- in advance an incipient mandibular growth spurt that, in lo posturale. In: Postura, occlusione, rachide : problematiche in- the absence of the postural beep, we might as well have terdisciplinari /H. M. Da Cunha ... [et al.]. - Bassano del Grappa : CPA, copyr. 1992. - 271 p. : ill. ni neglected, at least in the initial onset. 9. Ferrario V. Influenza della postura eretta sulla morfologia del cra- In our opinion, it’s surely worth losing a little time after it. nio. In: Postura, occlusione, rachide: problematiche interdisciplinari /H. M. Da Cunha ..[et al.]. - Bassano del Grappa : CPA, copyr. 1992. io - 271 p. : ill. References 10. Clauzade M. Marty J-P. Orthoposturodontie. Perpignan (France), S.E.O.O. 2000. 1. Ricciardi PM. as qtd in 02. 11. Ricciardi PM. Ora si insegna all’Università. Salute del 20/01/2001, iz 2. Messa A. State dritti! I segreti della postura. La Repubblica - Sa- 8. lute del 01 Febbraio 2001. 12. Cabitza P, Daolio PA. Ortopedia. Ed. Raffaello Cortina, Milano 1989. Ed IC C © 48 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (3-4): 45-48 

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Editorial li na Biomedicine is undergoing momentous evolution in these early years of the third millennium. Naturally, the dental sciences are not excluded, with subtle but decisive developments concerning quality in cli- nical practice, multilevel training for professionals (dentists, paramedics, residents, lecturers and stu- io dents in continuing education in medicine, etc.), applied and basic scientific research, technology re- search and materials science. Patient awareness is also of growing importance. A basic knowledge az of the signs and symptoms of both common and rare diseases is essential for the general public, ena- bling prompt action to be taken when necessary. This is an important tangential aspect of scientific re- search, which is stimulated by the social needs of populations in northern countries. Patients (fami- lies and schools, in the case of children) thus need to be involved in issues such as public health and rn the spread of monitoring and rapid response practices. The present issue represents part of the best international - predominantly European - scientific pu- blishing precisely because it highlights the scientific and technological originality of research in this sen- te sitive and continuously developing sector. Its perusal, consultation, and, it is hoped, its rapid inclusion in international databases (hopefully the ISI, being so far the most prestigious) will boost its use and In subsequent discussion among the international leaders in this scientific sector. For several years, the “Sapienza” University of Rome’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Scien- ces and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS - the Italian National Institute of Health) have collabora- ted, through a scientific publishing training program, to promote the importance of the international dif- ni fusion of original data in the areas of science, epidemiology, medical ethics and the translation from preclinical to clinical research. For example, we have constantly stressed the importance to Italy of data sharing: making our best clinical and methodological data available to the broadest international com- io munity (including more and more emerging economy-BRIC countries). This seems both necessary and, indeed, urgent, to strengthen the standing of Italian universities and research groups which in some iz regions still need to develop a more international outlook, including through the good practice of scien- tific publishing. Publishing is in fact of growing importance. Scientific books, articles and papers are made immortal by the creation of scientific libraries as cradles of knowledge and guardians of ever- Ed improving methodology. However, the advent of computers, followed by the Internet, has given rise to strong bibliometric currents in scientific publishing: evaluation of both the number and, it is hoped, the quality of citations of individual authors and research groups provides a “cold” evaluation of the importance, relative persistence and citations durability of a given paper. A “publish or perish“ attitude is in fact cur- IC rently flourishing among Italian ministerial decision-makers, albeit in a debatable and perhaps misleading form. With respect to biomedicine in general, this issue forms part of an ambitious attempt to strengthen ex- cellent clinical practice, particularly in less industrially and economically privileged European countries, C with publications meeting the highest international standards. Associationism in international science reflects and is reflected by scientific publishing, as is evident from the history of at least the last two centuries of contemporary scientific thought. As an aside, this seems a good opportunity to lament the © excessively fast globalization of scientific publishing by both professional bodies and specialist publi- shers, bypassing Europe and thus hindering the construction of preeminent European networks to at- tract funding for research and education. In Italy, joint initiatives between the ISS and the world of academic clinical research in orthodontics, whose heart is the Department of Dental and Maxillofacial Sciences in Rome, have been ongoing for the last 15 years. These have revealed an important common objective: people (both young and not- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 1-2 1  so-young) who choose a profession in healthcare for its social prestige and necessity, and because it provides great satisfaction and social respectability. This often complements students’ spontaneous altruism, as demonstrated by the growing number of aspirants to some medical professions and the direct experience of many researchers of the cultural and ethical prestige conferred on the medical li profession (not excluding the veterinary sciences, in some respects) by the most capable secondary school students. However, it is essential that the university system - seemingly even more than the ba- na sic research system - trains new “armies” of health workers whose Hippocratic mission is flanked by awareness of the need to enter a highly competitive international context. This can be done through the quality (and unfortunately also the quantity) of outstanding published papers: whose authoritati- veness, paradoxically but increasingly, reflects on the prestige of the medical institution, with respect io to both funding of its clinical research facilities and its national and international visibility, as is often demonstrated by patient demand. In short, a clinical institution which publishes regularly in leading in- az ternational journals will enter into a virtuous circle enabling its self-empowerment. Obviously, not all facilities will be able to boost their international standing quickly and easily, while others that have al- ready reached this level may find it difficult to maintain adequate bibliometric standards due to logi- stic difficulties or the inevitable generational turnover. However, such an undertaking must not be avoi- rn ded and can be achieved with the help of European and international networking, good publishing prac- tice and progress in perfecting bibliometric evaluation methods. te Just as an ability to reach a prompt diagnosis is essential for clinicians, so do leading researchers and forward-thinking lecturers need education in a complementary field. The practice of studying not only medicine but also for a degree in dentistry or a doctorate in medical research (sometimes with over- In lapping residency courses, at least in the United States with their MD PhD programmes) is ever more frequent in many foreign institutions. If we look at the etymology of the word “diagnosis“, deriving from ancient Greek, we are reminded that it means knowledge through a series of elements. Fast diagno- stics, experience and a certain intuition, probably related to natural talent combined with clinical prac- ni tice alongside experienced professionals, translate very well into “dia-gnosis“. Similarly, PhD, the stan- dard term in English for a research doctorate, stands for Doctor of Philosophy: that suffix -sophy me- io ans wisdom, common to all humans, and thus by definition common to all scientific disciplines. If phi- losophy is scentia scientiarum (the science of sciences), the doctorate has elements of wisdom, scien- tific logic, and now also publishing awareness, that crosses all scientific fields and sub-disciplines. It iz is therefore hoped that the present issue galvanizes its readers to pay attention both to diagnosis and the need to participate in the progress of biomedical knowledge that is ever more reflected in such a Ed translational activity, from the laboratory bench to the sickbed; or, vice versa, when clinicians turn to researchers, to stimulate the scientific curiosity and passion of the latter with intriguing therapeutic is- sues. It is an adventure in which many of us are now involved, each in line with the core mission of our re- spective institutions: and it is hoped that this joint effort will act to productively boost the scientific and IC clinical potential of our diverse specialties. C © Enrico Alleva* and Diego De Simone** * Director, Section of Behavioural Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanità; Editor-in-Chief, Annali ISS; President of Italian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour. **Institute of Science and Technologies of Cognition-CNR, Rome 2 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 1-2 

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Literature review Stem cells from oral niches: a review li na Guido Giordano, DDS, PhD Introduction Gerardo La Monaca, DDS, PhD Susanna Annibali, MD Stem cells are cells with the ability to divide, generating io Andrea Cicconetti, MD a cell identical to itself plus another one capable of generate Livia Ottolenghi, DDS different kind of tissues (1). Stem cells can be recognized by potency: totipotent cells can differentiate into any type az of progenitor cell; pluripotent cells can differentiate into any "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy type of progenitor cell except those totipotent; multipotent Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences cells can differentiate only into certain kinds of tissues; uni- potent cells can differentiate only in one tissue type (Fig. 1). Stem cell research in recent years have been considered rn the most advanced sort of medical-scientific research and early results have aroused great expectations. Corresponding author: In dentistry the term “bone regeneration” is often impro- Guido Giordano perly used by clinicians, since it doesn’t distinguish the dif- te Viale Colli Portuensi, 501 ference between the processes of “regeneration” and “re- 00151 Rome, Italy pair”. The first term shows the complete structural recon- E-mail: guido.giordano@uniroma1.it struction of the tissue to rebuild with the same biological In capacities and integration with surrounding tissues, whi- le the term “repair “ describes the process that is curren- tly achieved with the reconstruction with biomaterials that never reaches complete biological and functional integration with surrounding tissues. It should be instead regarded as ni Summary a “scar” to connect and fill the gap, with limited biofunctional Stem cells from oral niches: a review. capacities. Even in dentistry, authors have been carried out Aim. Stem cell research in recent years have been con- numerous studies on stem cells with the ultimate goal of io sidered the most advanced sort of medical-scientific obtaining bone regeneration (e.g. pre-implant) or new te- research and early results have aroused great expec- eth. The enormous strides made by molecular biology re- tations. Also in dentistry many studies were performed search have made possible to speculate the creation of iz with the final aim of obtaining new bone and new teeth. in vitro oral hard tissues. Currently, literature is divided bet- In this work we describe the state of the art in dental ween clinicians, which tests methods to form single tissues science stem cell research. (bone, dentin, pulp, etc.) and biochemists that investiga- te the biochemical mechanisms that leads to cell diffe- Ed Methods. We have performed a web-based research on MEDLINE within (www.pubmed.gov). We have used rentiation. Therefore, this paper describes the state of the “stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth” (24 art of stem cell research in dentistry. paper found), “periodontal ligament stem cells” (32 paper found), “stem cell apical papilla” (16 paper found), “dental pulp stem cells” (136 paper found) as Stem cells keywords for research. For each keyword we have per- IC formed a complete review focusing on knowledge up- Stem cells can be found in any region of human body, into grade. three-dimensional anatomical regions called “niches” that Results. For each topic was created a selection of pa- contain elements that are involved in the proliferative re- pers in chronological order of publication date so to gulation of stem cells, can control the destiny of the “dau- give a timetable of the development of the research for C ghter” cells and are concerned to prevent exhaustion and each niche. death of stem cells themselves (1,2). If it is easy to de- Conclusion. Research about stem cell from oral niches monstrate their presence in tissues that obviously under- began in 2000 and every year papers publicated were more than the precedent. This review analysed about go reparation and regeneration as skin, bone and muscle, © 180 articles most of which in the last 5 years. Dentla it is more difficult to think of their presence in other ana- pulp from adult as from deciduous teeth seems to be tomical regions. In fact, only in the 90s stem cells niches the most valuable font of stem cells due to the pluripo- were found in human brain (3,4,5).. Earliest studies in den- tential type of cells. tistry were concentrated about finding niches in order to draw multi or unipotent stem cells. Currently, niches have Key words: stem cells, tissue engineering, osteogene- been identified in the dental pulp of permanent teeth (Den- sis, oral niches, review. tal Pulp Stem Cells - DPSCs) (6), in naturally exfoliated de- ciduous teeth (Stem cells from Human Esfoliated Deci- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 3-8 3  G. Giordano et al. cuous teeth - SHED) (7), in the periodontal ligament (Pe- riodontal Ligament Stem Cells - PDLSC) (8), in the api- cal papilla (Stem Cells from Apical Papilla)(9), in the den- tal follicle (Dental Follicular PCs) (10), and in the periosteum of the maxillary tuberosity (Oral Periostium Stem Cells) (11). In each of these studies a multipotent mesenchymal stem li cell was isolated, capable of differentiating in vitro into at least three lines: osteo/odontogenic, adipogenic and na neurogenic. For the evaluation of the potentiality of stem cells from oral niches, Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BMMSCs) was used as a gold standard, as they are the most tested stem cells and the point of reference for io each new line of stem cells. Dental pulp stem cells az Dental Pulp Stem Cells (DPSCs) were isolated at first in 2000 by Gronthos et al (6). Cells can differentiate in pulp- like cells. Under appropriate growth factors, DPSCs also rn differentiated in adipocytes and neural-like cells. Sub- sequent studies (12,13,14) were made to understand the differentiative capacity of DPSCs, especially compared with BMMSC. Particularly, Gronthos et al in 2002 have te established the ability of self-duplication in vivo. The same group in 2003 (15) showed that BMMSC and DPSCs can be traced in perivascular tissue of their respective origin tissue assumpting that this discovery could have impli- In cations for the tissue stem cells populations identification in other districts. Even in 2005, Shi et al (16) questioned whether stem cells could be helpful in dental tissue re- Figure 1 - The figure shows how totipotent cell can divide in generation, raising doubts on the potential of stem cell totipotent cell and a pluripotent cell and following pluripotent cell research, since not much was achieved beyond the mere ni can divide in a pluripotent cell and a unipotent cell. Finally, unipo- observation of their presence at five years from first ob- tent cell can generate only one kind of tissue. servation. Moreover in 2005 Laino et al (17) showed how DPSCs are still detectable in patients over 30 and that io there were no substantial differences with younger cells. Besides, PLGA is a well known osteoconductive bioma- In 2005 and 2006 the influence of various molecules in terial, but mechanisms that underlie its operation are still DPSCs differentiation as DMP1 and MEPE was deeply unknown. Between 2008 and 2010, two main lines of research have iz discussed (18, 19). Genetic map of DPSCs and BMSC was compared in order to better understanding of been developed: (i) therapeutic applications of DPSCs and DPSCs differentiation mechanisms (20). A 2006 study (ii) bone regeneration comparing different types of scaf- fold added with growth factors (as BMP). Ed compared different types of scaffolds (three-dimensional material) which are necessary to obtain bone tissue (21). Due to their proved versatility, DPSCs were used for the The authors have tested a specially prepared collagen treatment of myocardial infarction (29), for the regenera- matrix based on bovine collagen, a matrix of hydroxya- tion of nervous tissue, particularly in the treatment of mu- patite/beta-tricalcium phosphate (HA/TCP) in 60/40 ra- scular dystrophy (31), for the cerebral ischemia (32), ex- tio and a web of titanium with different texture spaces bet- ploiting the angiogenetic capabilities, and finally in corneal ween fibers (45 or 20 microns). Results showed bone ge- regeneration (33,34). As regard to scaffold a 2009 paper IC neration though significantly inferior to the BMSC gene- (35) studied polylactic acid, bovine collagen and calcium rated tissue. Of course DPSCs, since their discovery, have phosphate bioceramics. A higher number of survived cells been studied from transcription factors, growth factors and was observed only for the first two materials, despite cal- molecular matrices that follows stem cell differentiation cium phosphate bioceramics have proved to be an excellent C points of view (20, 22, 23, 24, 25,26, 27). However, in- scaffold for BMMSC. The reason why this type of scaffold ternational literature seems to have found since 2008 gre- did not have the same results with DPSCs as with at interest in testing various types of scaffold used for new BMMSC, is unknown. Authors have made assumptions bone regeneration. about an inappropriate pH or surface characteristics and © Graziano et al (28) have compared poly-lactide-co- they suggest more specific studies. In mid-2009 (36) glycoide (PLGA) (as concave substrate), HA 150 micron DPSCs were used with a different type of scaffold, poly (ep- diameter (as convex substrate), and machined titanium silon-caprolactone) (PCL) in association with nanohydro- disks (as flat substrate) and showed the best results data xyapatite (nHA) showing that nHA can promote DPCS dif- from the PLGA sample in terms of osteodifferentiation, in- ferentiation in odontoblasts-like cells. Huang et al (37) in cluding cellular maturation and the profile of specific pro- 2010 published a study on DPSCs cultured with low dose teins, resulting in a significant thickness of newly formed glucosamine (0.005 mg/ml) to obtain confirmation of bone tissue. their assumptions of better DPSCs osteodifferentiation. 4 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 3-8  Stem cells from oral niches: a review Stem cells from human esfoliated deciduous and obtaining a good bone regeneration at 24 weeks and showing how it is possible to obtain bone regeneration in In 2003, Miura et al (7) published an article announcing an animal model of large size. It was also proposed by Aro- the detection of multipotent stem cells among physiolo- ra et al in 2009 to create a SHED bank for future use by gically exfoliated deciduous teeth pulp cells (SHED). the same donors. Comparing SHED with BMSCs, they show a higher degree In 2009, several reviews have been published (45, 46) . li of proliferation and a higher number of population doubling. Particularly, it is to quote the work of Nakamura et al who The cells ex-vivo studies have shown markers STRO-1 and have compared SHED, BMSC and DPSCs (47). He em- na CD146 that have been demonstrated even in BMSSCs and phasize SHED having a greater proliferative capacity by DPSCs. These two markers were located around blood ves- assigning this characteristics to higher expression of FGF2 sels of the pulp, suggesting that SHED may originate from and TGF-ß2 and presenting SHED as the best candida- the perivascular microenvironment. To study a cell ability te to play a leading role in tissue engineering and rege- io to differentiate into new line rather than into another one nerative medicine. author examined the expression of surface markers, and In 2010 was published the first clinical application of SHED in particular have been found bone markers CBFA1, ALP, in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, and preliminary MEPE, and bone sialoprotein. results were very encouraging (48). az It has also been demonstrated, both in vitro and ex vivo, SHED capacity to differentiate into odontoblasts-like cells, producing dentin reactive antibody DSPP after Periodontal ligament stem cell growing on a scaffold of HA / TCP. Finally, SHED also sho- rn wed markers related to neural cells such as nestin, III-tu- Seo et al. in 2004 published “Investigation of multipotent bulin, GAD, NeuN, GFAP, NFM, and the possibility of de- postnatal stem cells from human Periodontal ligament” (8) veloping fat cells full of lipids and Oil-red-O+. In this stu- announcing the isolation of stem cells from the periodontal dy, SHED have not been shown to be able to differentia- ligament, funding confirmed by Gay et al. in 2007 (49). De- te te (in vivo) in osteoblasts, but to induce the new bone esta- spite the identification of this new oral cavity niche, other blishment composing a supporting osteoinductive network authors have grappled with the isolation of stem cells from to murine osteogenic cells. In a 2005 article the same re- this niche (50, 51, 52) but until 2007 there has been no new searchers focuses on the higher growth potential of stem addition to the simple cell type isolation. cell niches of the oral cavity, compared to those derived In In the same year Leon et al. (53) and Gay et al.(54) de- from bone marrow (38). In fact, they report CFU-F refer- veloped various topics adding news to the research on red to 10-12 days are 14 for the BMSC, 400 for DPSCs, PDLSCs. The work of Leon et al. focuses on a cytokine, 200 and 170 for the SHED for PLDSC each 105 cells pla- interleukin-11 (IL-11), currently used by patients receiving ted. Even in the cloning experiments, the population dou- ni chemotherapy for its ability to stimulate the production of bling of BMSC hardly exceeds 50, while DPSCs, SHED platelets. Authors use the IL-11 following some new and PDLSC can reach a value of 100, but the mechanism scientific findings that demonstrate its osteogenic activi- of these differences is not yet known. ty and then adding the drug to the culture of PDLSC re- io A practical application of SHEDs was published on sulting in a osteoblast differentiation demonstrated through JADA in 2008 (39). Authors tested on 105 premolar with the production of collagen type 1. a single root canal the possibility of pulp tissue regene- Gay et al. instead developed an interesting study that com- iz ration by implanting SHED seeded on two different scaf- pares PDLSC and BMSC in terms of the ability of diffe- fold (open-cell polylactic acid and collagen from cow hide), rentiation in osteogenic cultures, emphasizing that the ex- added with different types of growth factors (BMP2, TGF pression of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) can be noted in Ed beta 1, beta-Glycerol-phosphate). They thus demonstra- the first case after 14 days and after 7 days in the second, ted that the scaffold is essential for the generation of pulp- while the bone sialoprotein (BSP) are visible after 7 days like tissue, while growth factors did not improve the amount in both cell types. Authors also make condrogenetic adi- of newly formed tissue. Also in 2008, Seo et al (40) stu- pogenetic crops, noting that the surface antigens can be died the use of SHED in bone regeneration associating found in both PDLSC than in BMSC after the same num- them with HA/TCP and obtaining good results in filling cri- ber of days, showing that PDLSC are cells with the same tical size defects in mice calvaria. These results are in con- differentiation potential of BMSC. IC trast with those of Miura in 2003 (7) but agree with Ko- The following year Lindroos et al (55) with a study focu- yamain 2009 (41), emphasizing that SHED are capable sed on surface antigens related to the bone - alkaline pho- of osteoblast-like cells differentiatiation, thus having an ac- sphatase, Runx2, type I collagen, osteocalcin and osteo- tive role in new bone development and not just a passi- pontin - stress that dental stem cells shows the same sur- C ve role, as stated previously. In 2008, Cordeiro et al (42) face antigens of stem cells derived from bone marrow and studied SHED in order to get more results and better un- then are as valid to continue the search for bone rege- derstanding of the mechanisms underlying the formation neration. of the pulp to obtain a tissue architecture and cellularity In 2008 an article was published that tries to take a step © similar to those of physiologic dental pulp. At well as stu- forward in PDLSC research (56) demonstrating the rege- dies on cellularity, studies on scaffolds were also carried neration of the periodontal ligament on pig model and la- out, as Galler et al in 2008 that used an hydrogel scaffold ying the foundation for stem cell therapy of periodontitis. for SHED and DPSCs proliferation, resulting in resorption Even Ma and colleagues presented a paper on regene- of the scaffold and a collagen production by SHED and ration of the periodontal ligament demonstrating formation phenotypically osteoblastic cells from DPSCs (43). Zheng of cement-like cells from PDLSC cells stimulated with Non- et al in 2009 (44) reconstructed critical-size defects (2,5 collagenous Dentin Proteins (DNCPs) (57). x1, 5x1, 5cm) in minipig mandibles using SHED / ß-TCP Thus in 2007 and in 2008 research on PDLSC has found Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 3-8 5  G. Giordano et al. a new impetus thanks to the fact that these cells were used Acknowledgement in the regeneration of the periodontal ligament, a cellular type so difficult to regain once lost. Some authors tried other This study was supported by grants from “Fondazione less traditional ways for PDLSC cultivation in order to have Roma” n. 10.2.3.1. a greater resemblance to the situation in vivo using three- dimensional methods, such as pellets on crops,or in three- li dimensional rotational systems, the results are controversial References (58, 59). na 1. Scadden DT. The stem-cell niche as an entity of action. Na- ture. 2006 Jun 29;441(7097):1075-9. Stem cells from apical papilla 2. Jones DL, Wagers AJ. No place like home: anatomy and fun- ction of the stem cell niche. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2008 Jan;9(1):11-21. io The isolation of stem cells from apical papilla (Stem Cell 3. Palmer TD, Ray J, Gage FH. FGF-2-responsive neuronal pro- from Apical Papilla - SCAP) took place in 2006 (9,60) with genitors reside in proliferative and quiescent regions of the the demonstration of many stem cells surface markers as adult rodent brain. Mol Cell Neurosci 1995; 6: 474-486. STRO-1, ALP, CD24, and CD29, and established their abi- 4. Morshead CM, Reynolds BA, Craig CG et al. Neural stem cells az lity to differentiate into adipocytes and odontoblasts-like in the adult mammalian forebrain: a relatively quiescent sub- cells. A study by the same author in 2008 (61) adds new population of subependymal cells. Neuron 1994 ; 13: 1071- details, showing SCAP good ability to differentiate in 1082. osteo/dentinogenic way (equal to that of DPSCs and con- 5. Weiss S, Dunne C, Hewson J et al. Multipotent CNS stem cells are present in the adult mammalian spinal cord and ventri- rn firmed by a similar immunophenotype) but a lower adi- cular neuroaxis., J Neurosci 1996; 16: 7599-7609. pogenic potential. Experiments showed that STRO-1 is pre- 6. Gronthos S., Mankani M., Brahim J.,Gehron Robey P., and sent together with dentinogenic markers such as osteo- Shi S. Postnatal human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) in calcin, growth factors FGFR1 and TGF RI. In addition, vitro and in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2000 Dec te SCAP have demonstrated some of neurogenic markers. 5;97(25):13625-30. 7. Miura M, Gronthos S., Zhao M, Lu B., Fisher L.W., Gehron Robey P., and Shi S. SHED: Stem cells from human exfolia- Oral periostium stem cell ted deciduous teeth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2003 May 13; In 100(10): 5807-12. Periosteal origin of stem cells to intraoral are mentioned 8. Seo B, Miura M.,Gronthos S., Bartold P. M.,Batouli S., Bra- for the first time in 2006 (62) with a work that compares him J., Young M., Gehron Robey P. ,Wang C., Shi S. Inve- stigation of multipotent postnatal stem cells from human pe- the properties of osteogenic stem cells of different origin riodontal ligament. Lancet 2004; 364: 149–55. such as bone marrow, alveolar process and, indeed, the ni 9. Sonoyama W, Liu Y, Fang D, Yamaza T, Seo BM, Zhang C, Liu periosteum, showing that best results are obtained from H, Gronthos S, Wang CY, Shi S, Wang S. Mesenchymal stem periosteum cells with a percentage of mineralization at 12 cell-mediated functional tooth regeneration in swine. PLoS One. weeks equal to 58.2 % versus 26.9% of BMSC cell and 2006 Dec 20;1:e79. io 41.1% of those in origin from the alveolar process. In 2007 10. Morsczeck C., Gotz W., Schierholz J., Zeilhofer F., Kuhn U., (63) it was confirmed the possibility of growing stem cells Mohl C., et al Isolation of precursor cells from human dental from the maxillary tuberosity and jaw periosteum. The re- follicle of wisdom teeth. Matrix Biol 2005;24:155-165. iz search about stem cell from periosteal origin, however, is 11. Cicconetti A., Sacchetti B., Bartoli A. et al Human maxillary tuberosity and jaw periosteum as sources of osteoprogeni- stopped despite the ease of finding this type of tissue, the tor cells for tissue engineering. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Par- good results in the production of new bone, and then in thol Oral Radiol Endod 2007; 104:618.e1-618.e12. Ed clinical phase of pre-implant GBR. 12. Gronthos S, Brahim J., Li W., Fisher L.W., Cerman N., Boy- de A., DenBesten P., Gerhon Robey P., Shi S. Stem cell pro- perties of human dental pulp stem cells. J Dent Res 2002; Conclusions 81;531. 13. Batouli S, Miura M, Brahim J, Tsutsui TW, Fisher LW, Gron- Ten years have passed since the early work on stem cells thos S, Robey PG, Shi S. Comparison of stem-cell- derived from the niches of the oral cavity, but authors still mediated osteogenesis and dentinogenesis. J Dent Res. 2003 IC have doubts. Dec;82(12):976-81. . 14. Liu H, Li W, Gao C, Kumagai Y, Blacher RW, DenBesten Cells with the best results in terms of potentiality and pro- PK.Dentonin, a fragment of MEPE, enhanced dental pulp stem liferative capacity differentiation seem to be the SHEDs, cell proliferation. J Dent Res. 2004 Jun;83(6):496-9. but more and more studies must be made to explain the 15. Shi S., Gronthos S. Perivascular niche of postnatal mesen- C reason of these differences. chymal stem cells in human bone marrow and dentl pulp. J As for bone regeneration, the protocols described in the bone miner res 2003;18:696-704. literature are very controversial. It ‘s still impossible to de- 16. Shi S., Bartold PM, Miura M, Seo BM, Robey PG, Gronthos fine the ideal breeding ground for cellular differentiation as S. The efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate and © well as identify the best scaffold. Many scaffolds were pro- repair dental structures. Orthod Craniofacial Res 8; 2005; 191- posed but one of the more tested material as HA / TCP 199. 17. Laino G. D'Aquino R., Graziano A., Lanza V., Carinci F., Naro is currently out of market. Also on how scaffold seeding F., Pirozzi G., Papaccio G. A new population of human adult methods there are different and dissenting views. dental pulp stem cells: a useful source of living autologous fi- Almost every author used a method of its own production, brous bone tissue. J Bone Miner Res 2005 ; 20:1394-1402. making impossible a true meta-analysis of several expe- 18. Almushayt A., Narayanan K., Zaki AE, George A. Dentin ma- rimental works, so research and methodologies have still trix protein 1 induces cytodifferentiation of dental pulp SC into many aspects to be explored in this field. odontoblasts. Gene Therapy 2006 ;13: 611-620. 6 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 3-8  Stem cells from oral niches: a review 19. Liu H., Li W., Shi S., Habelitz S., Gao Cen, DenBesten P. MEPE 36. Yang X, Yang F, Walboomers XF, Bian Z, Fan M, Jansen JA. is downregulated as dental pulp stem cells differentiate. A of The performance of dental pulp stem cells on nanofibrous Oral Biol 2005;50:923-928. PCL/gelatin/nHA scaffolds. J Biomed Mater Res A. 2010 20. Yamada Y, Fujimoto A., Ito A., Yoshimi R., Ueda M. Cluster ana- Apr;93(1):247-57. lysis and gene expression profiles: a cDNA microarray system 37. Huang C.H., Tseng W., Yao C., Jeng J., Young T., Chen Y. Glu- based comparison between hDPSCs and hMSCs for tissue cosamine promotes osteogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem li engineering cell therapy. Biomat 2006;27: 3766-3781. cells through modulating the level of the transforming growth fac- 21. Zhang W, Walboomers XF, van Kuppevelt TH, Daamen WF, tor- type I receptor. J Cell Physiol 2010 Oct; 225 (1): 140-51. na Bian Z, Jansen JA. The performance of human dental pulp 38. Shi S., Bartold PM, Miura M, Seo BM, Robey PG, Gronthos stem cells on different three-dimensional scaffold materials. S. The efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells to regenerate and Biomaterials. 2006;Nov 27(33):5658-68. repair dental structures. Orthod Craniofacial Res 8, 2005; 191- 22. Zhao Z., Wen L., Jin M., Deng Z., Jin Y. ADAM28 participa- 199. tes in the regulation of tooth development. A Oral Biol 39. Gotlieb EL, Murray PE, Namerow KN, Kuttler S, Garcia-Go- 2006;51:996-1005. doy F. An ultrastructural investigation of tissue-engineered pulp io 23. Stokowski A, Shi S, Sun T, Bartold PM, Koblar SA, Gronthos constructs implanted within endodontially treated teeth J Am S. EphB/ephrin-B interaction mediates adult stem cell atta- Dent Assoc 2008 ; 139; 457-465. chment, spreading, and migration: implications for dental tis- 40. Seo BM, Sonoyama W, Yamaza T, Coppe C, Kikuiri T, Akiya- az sue repair. Stem Cells. 2007 Jan;25(1):156-64. ma K, Lee JS, Shi S. SHED repair critical-size calvarial de- 24. Yu J, Deng Z, Shi J, Zhai H, Nie X, Zhuang H, Li Y, Jin Y. Dif- fects in mice. Oral Dis. 2008 Jul;14(5):428-34. ferentiation of dental pulp stem cells into regular-shaped den- 41. Koyama N, Okubo Y, Nakao K, Bessho K. Evaluation of plu- tin-pulp complex induced by tooth germ cell conditioned me- ripotency in human dental pulp cells. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. dium. Tissue Eng. 2006 Nov;12(11):3097-105. 2009 Mar;67(3):501-6. rn 25. Liu J, Jin T, Chang S, Ritchie HH, Smith AJ, Clarkson BH. Ma- 42. Cordeiro MM, Dong Z, Kaneko T, Zhang Z, Miyazawa M, Shi trix and TGF-beta-related gene expression during human den- S, Smith AJ, Nör JE. Dental pulp tissue engineering with stem tal pulp stem cell (DPSC) mineralization. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol cells from exfoliated deciduous teeth. J Endod. 2008 Anim. 2007 Mar-Apr;43(3-4):120-8. Epub 2007 May 22. Aug;34(8):962-9. 26. Wei X, Ling J, Wu L, Liu L, Xiao Y.. Expression of mineralization 43. 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Original article Experience of dental caries and its effects on early dental occlusion: a descriptive study li na Valeria Luzzi, DDS, PhD the association between the midline deviation and the Miriam Fabbrizi, DDS severe carious diseases, necessitating extraction. Camilla Coloni, DDS io Cristina Mastrantoni, DDS Key words: malocclusion, caries, early childhood caries. Carla Mirra, DDS Maurizio Bossù, DDS, PhD az Annarita Vestri, MD, PhD* Introduction Antonella Polimeni, MD The specific aims of the present study were to describe the occurrence of dental caries in a sample of preschool "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy children and school children, aged 3 and 12, and to study rn Department of Oral and Maxillo Facial Sciences the possible association between caries and malocclusion. Pediatric Dentistry Unit Many industrialised countries have experienced a decline * Department of Science of Public Health in dental caries prevalence among children over the past and Infectious Disease decades. This trend of caries reduction may be ascribed te to several factors of which the most important are improved oral hygiene, a more sensible approach to sugar con- sumption, effective use of fluorides, and school-based pre- Corresponding author: In ventive programmes. However, dental caries remains a ma- Valeria Luzzi jor public health problem in most industrialized countries, Mobile: +393495138825 especially for those countries where preventive pro- E-mail: v.luzzi@tiscali.it grammes have not been established (1). Dental caries is an infective transmittable bacterial disease ni characterised by a multi factorial pathology (2). The main players in the aetiology of this disease are: cariogenic bac- teria, fermentable carbohydrates, a susceptible tooth and Summary io host and time. The Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a se- Experience of dental caries and its effects on early den- vere form of caries, defined in 2004 by the American Acad- tal occlusion: a descriptive study. emy of Pediatric Dentistry, which affects children of 2-5 Aim. Describe the occurrence of dental caries in a sam- years of age and which is characterized by precise topo- iz ple of pre-school children and school children, aged 3 and 12, and study the possible association between graphical and clinical parameters. The decay pattern of caries and malocclusion. ECC is characteristic and pathognomonic of the condition. The four maxillary incisors are most often affected. The low- Ed Methods. We selected and analyzed the medical records of a sample of 588 patients who had their first dental ex- er primary incisors are intact and the primary cuspids can amination at the Pediatric Dentistry Unit, Department of be occasionally affected. In very severe cases the Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences of Policlinico Umberto I, mandibular incisors are also affected. The primary canines “Sapienza” University of Rome. most of the times remain unaffected as the disease pro- Results. In the sample, 55.4% of the children had no de- gression halts prior to the eruption of these teeth. ECC has cayed deciduous elements, while 44.6% had at least one been given a number of different names including nursing IC decayed deciduous element. The prevalence of decayed bottle syndrome, milk bottle syndrome, baby bottle caries, permanent teeth was 10.2%, while 89.8% had no de- and baby bottle tooth decay. The term “baby bottle tooth cayed permanent teeth. In the sample, 9.4% of the chil- decay” is easily understood by parents and therefore is use- dren showed advanced carious lesions, that needed ful in a programme that educates them about this condi- C tooth extraction and 6.6% needed a space maintainer tion. However, children who never use a bottle may still de- for post-extractive interceptive treatment. In the sample, velop the disease. Early childhood caries is a relatively new 26.7% of the examined patients had increased overjet, term that describes rampant caries in infants and toddlers while 3.7% had decreased overjet and 25.4% of the sam- (3,4). Johnston and Messer classifies ECC into 3 patterns: ple had an increased overbite, 11, 2% had reduced over- © bite values. A percentage over 10% of the sample had 1) developmental defects; 2) smooth surface lesions; 3) an anterior openbite in centric occlusion. The preva- rampant caries. Verkamp and Weerheijm use 4 stages to lence of posterior crossbite among entire samples was classify the ECC: initial, damaged, deep and traumatic le- 19.8%. sions. Conclusions. Although the incidence of caries disease Dental elements conservation is an important condition to was high in the selected samples, the study did not harmonic development of dental arches. Several studies show a statistically significant association between refer that caries is one of the most important cause of space caries and clinical orthodontic abnormalities, except for loss and arch change with an alteration of the normal oc- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18 13  V. Luzzi et al. clusion. There is a general agreement that premature loss side and the unaffected side (P = 0,33). Therefore, the pre- of primary teeth usually results in loss of arch space (6,8). mature loss of a first deciduous mandibular molar, in the Northway and Wainright reported that even without the pre- case of Class I molar relationship, has a limited influence mature loss of primary teeth, arch length was shown to be on the space for the eruption of permanent teeth. reduced due to the breakdown of dental structures from It is therefore essential to devise a treatment plan to ear- caries. However, only caries which become severe have ly care of decidous teeth, which represent the best space li a significant effect on dental arch circumference (9). maintainers or, if the assessment is too late, it is essen- As caries prevention programmes are effective in reduc- tial to use an orthodontic appliance for “maintenance of na ing caries risk and as caries and loss of tooth structure in space” (12). This term refers to the set of preventive treat- the primary teeth is associated with loss of tooth structure ments studied to avoid unwanted mesial movements of all in the primary teeth is associated with loss of space in the teeth, including permanent molars, due to the early loss dental arch, children who had received an effective caries of a deciduous tooth in order to maintain the space need- io prevention programme at the primary dentition should have ed for the proper eruption of unchanged permanent less crowding than children who had not experienced such teeth. a programme. Nevertheless, there is no study to test the The early extraction of deciduous elements is, however, effect of caries prevention programme started in the pri- the most common cause of malocclusion because it leads az mary dentition on crowding in the permanent dentition. to the loss of the incisal guide (if front teeth are involved), Early loss of deciduous teeth may compromise the “har- to myofunctional alterations, to underdevelopment of pre- monic state” of the dental arches which comes from the maxilla and to changes in the vertical dimension, and it is balanced evolution of maxillary growth and dentitional also a factor causing the loss of space for permanent el- rn change. ements, resulting in crowding of teeth. Crowding can be In fact the treatment of dental caries (5) is often reduced separated on the basis of aetiology into three categories: to the extraction of infected deciduous elements; this rad- primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary crowding refers ical treatment plan is partly due to the severity of the prob- to the discrepancy between jaw size and teeth dimension te lem, in part to the poor compliance of the young patients. that is mainly determined genetically. Secondary crowd- Northway (10) has carried out studies on the early ex- ing refers to the crowding that is caused mainly by envi- traction of deciduous molars. The rear arch dimensions vary ronmental factors. The premature loss of decidous teeth if the loss affects only one or both deciduous molars. The is the most common contributing factor. Other factors in- In loss, in the lower arch, ranges from 3 mm in the exfolia- clude interproximal caries and fillings with improper con- tion of the deciduous first molar to 4 mm in the absence tact points (6). Tertiary crowding refers to crowding that oc- of the second deciduous molar, or both. Clinch and curs during the adolescent and post-adolescent period (7). Healy correlate the age of the dental exfoliation with the A correct maintainance (13) of the space can be obtained ni amount of space lost. with the use of orthodontic devices. Early extractions of deciduous molars performed before the age of 6, that’s to say before the eruption of the first permanent molar, leads to the loss of up to 7 mm in 25% Materials and Methods io of cases, and with smaller losses in the remaining 75%. The loss is more marked in the upper arch. If the tooth ex- We selected and analyzed the medical records of a sam- traction is performed after the eruption of the first molar, ple of 588 patients who had their first dental examination iz the loss of the space is less, being found in 1/3 of cases at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, Pe- in the maxillary arch and in ¼ in the mandibular arch. diatric Dentistry Unit, “Sapienza” University of Rome. Park (11) conducted a study to assess the effects of the The following parameters were considered: molar class, Ed extraction of the mandibular first deciduous molar after the overjet, overbite, as well as the presence of factors such eruption of the first permanent molar and did not detect as dental crowding, crossbite, deflected midline and the any statistically significant difference between the extracted presence of decayed, deciduous or permanent teeth. The Table 1 - Frequency distribution of decayed deciduous teeth. IC Valid Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent 0 325 55,4 55,4 55,4 C 1 65 11,1 11,1 66,4 2 51 8,7 8,7 75,1 3 37 6,3 6,3 81,4 4 24 4,1 4,1 85,5 © 5 25 4,3 4,3 89,8 6 30 5,1 5,1 94,9 7 24 4,1 4,1 99,0 8 2 ,3 ,3 99,3 9 2 ,3 ,3 99,7 10 2 ,3 ,3 100,0 Total 587 100,0 100,0 14 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18  Experience of dental caries and its effects on early dental occlusion: a descriptive study average age of the sample and the prevalence of sex and nationality were also evaluated. The data were collected in a Microsoft Excel program table and prepared for statistical analysis. The latter was divid- ed into several phases. In a first descriptive phase, the prevalence of sex, the average age, the nationality, and the li percentage of decayed permanent and deciduous elements of the sample were assessed. na The prevalence of orthodontic-specific parameters, such as the molar class, the upper and lower crowding, in- creased or decreased overjets and overbites, crossbites and the midline deviation were then examined. io The following associations were then studied: - caries and occlusal changes; - caries and deviation of the midline; - ECC (Early Childhood Caries) and occlusal changes. az To assess the statistical significance of these associations we used Pearson chi-square test, also known as the good- ness of fit, a nonparametric test which is used in the pres- Figure 1 - Prevalence of advanced carious lesions that needed ence of nominal variables. The test was considered sig- tooth extraction. rn nificant when p <0.05. Results te Overall, clinical records of 588 patients, aged 3 to 12 , have been selected and assessed. Analysis of the data showed that the percentage of males (50.9%) was higher than the percentage of females In (49.1%), 93.4% coming from the European Union. The av- erage age of the samples was 8 years. In the sample, 55.4% had no decayed deciduous elements, while 44.6% ni had at least one decayed deciduous element (Table 1). In the sample the prevalence of decayed permanent teeth was 10.2%, while 89.8% had no decayed permanent teeth. In a sub-sample made of children who had at least one per- io manent tooth, the percentage of children with at least one decayed permanent teeth was 12.7% (Table 2). Figure 2 - Prevalence of need for a post-extraction space main- In the sample, 9.4% of the children showed advanced car- tainer. iz ious lesions, that needed tooth extraction (Fig. 1) and 6.6% needed a space maintainer for post-extractive interceptive treatment (Fig. 2). The prevalence of ECC was 27.4% of Specific malocclusions were analyzed: 48.9% of patients Ed the sample (Table 3). had a right first molar class, 22.8% a right second molar class, 8.7% had a third right molar class. While in 19.3% of the samples, the right molar class was not detectable because of the non-eruption of the first permanent molars Table 2 - Frequency distribution of decayed permanent teeth. (Table 4). As to the left molar class the data collected were as follows: 47.9% first class, 24.9% second class, 7.7% Valid Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative third class and 19.3% was not detectable (Table 5). IC percent percent The upper and lower dental crowding was present in 12.4% (Table 6) of the sample and, specifically, 7.0% had an up- 0 414 87,3 87,3 87,3 per crowding (Fig. 3) and 9.9% a lower crowding (Fig. 4). ≥1 60 12,7 12,7 100,0 In the examined patients, 26.7% had increased overjet, C Total 474 100,0 100,0 while 3.7% had decreased overjet (Table 7). In the sample, 25.4% had an increased overbite, 11, 2% had reduced overbite values (Fig. 5). A percentage over 10% of the samples had an anterior openbite in centric oc- Table 3 - Distribution of Early Childhood Caries (ECC). © clusion (Table 8). Valid Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative The prevalence of posterior crossbites among entire percent percent samples was 19.8% (Table 9). In addition, the 8.3% had a deviation of the median line (Table 10). Absent 82 72,6 72,6 72,6 The association between caries disease, in both decidu- ous and permanent teeth, and the onset of occlusal al- Present 31 27,4 27,4 100,0 terations, was not statistically significant in the selected Total 113 100,0 100,0 samples (p> 0.05). However, the association between the Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18 15  V. Luzzi et al. Table 4 - Right molar class. Right molar class Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent Valid First 287 48,9 49,1 49,1 li Second 134 22,8 22,9 72,0 na Third 51 8,7 8,7 80,7 Undetectable 113 19,3 19,3 100,0 Subtotal 585 99,7 100,0 Missing System 2 ,3 io Total 587 100,0 az Table 5 - Left molar class. Left molar class Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent rn Valid First 281 47,9 48,0 48,0 Second 146 24,9 25,0 73,0 Third 45 7,7 7,7 80,7 te Undetectable 113 19,3 19,3 100,0 Subtotal 585 99,7 100,0 Missing System 2 ,3 Total 587 100,0 In Table 6 - Distribution of crowding. Discussion ni Crowding Studies on the prevalence of malocclusion were carried Valid Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative out in various parts of the world. percent percent io In this study, thanks to a descriptive statistical analysis, it was possible to assess the prevalence of various forms of No 514 87,6 87,6 87,6 altered occlusion, in a group of children aged between 3 Yes 73 12,4 12,4 100,0 iz and 12. Total 587 100,0 100,0 Most of the subjects had a first molar class, while the third molar class was less frequent (less than 10%). These data Ed are similar to those reported by Savannah (14) (Tables 4 deviation of the midline and the carious disease is statis- and 5). tically significant when the latter is so severe to require Table 6 shows that just over 10% of the subjects had up- the extraction of the affected tooth (P = 0.007). per or lower dental crowding; while in literature other stud- The ECC was statistically significantly associated with a ies (20) show that in the patients that had not received a normal overjet and overbite (p = 0.001) (Table 11). caries prevention programme, the arch perimeter is small- er and subsequently more crowding than in the patients IC Furthermore, only 2.6% of patients with ECC had ante- rior crossbites while 92.3% had neither front nor rear cross- underwent to a preventive programme. This could be ex- bites. plained by loss of arch perimeter as a result of interprox- C Table 7 - Overjet distribution. Valid Overjet Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent © No 408 69,5 69,5 69,5 Increased 157 26,7 26,7 96,3 Decreased 22 3,7 3,7 100,0 Total 587 100,0 100,0 16 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18  Experience of dental caries and its effects on early dental occlusion: a descriptive study li na io az Figure 3 - Prevalence of crowding in the upper dental arch. Figure 5 - Prevalence of overbite alterations. rn Table 9 - Crossbite distribution. Crossbite Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative te percent percent Valid Absent 471 80,2 80,2 80,2 In Present 116 19,8 19,8 100,0 Total 587 100,0 100,0 ni overjet and approximately 25.4% had an increased over- bite, in agreement with the results reported by Martins and Lima (16). Besides, Table 12 shows that less than 10% of io the sample had deviations of the median line. Figure 4 - Prevalence of crowding in the lower dental arch. Prevalence of carious disease Although many authors agreed to record a decreasing of iz caries in industrialized countries, data reported in this study Table 8 - Openbite distribution. show a high prevalence of caries disease. Campus et al (17) report a caries prevalence in Italian chil- Openbite dren of approximately 22% at the age of 4 and about 44% Ed Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative at the age of 12. In our study the percentage of subjects percent percent with at least one decayed deciduous tooth is 44.6%. The prevalence of children with decayed permanent ele- Valid Absent 524 89,3 89,3 89,3 ments in the entire sample is 10.2%, however, in a sub- Present 63 10,7 10,7 100,0 sample of children who had at least a permanent element Total 587 100,0 100,0 in the arch is equal to 12.7%. IC The prevalence of children with so severely decayed teeth to require the extraction of the element was also quite high. The carious disease did not appear to be associated with imal caries and premature extraction of the deciduous teeth alterations of occlusal characteristics and with deviations C which was greater in the patients without caries preven- of the median line except where the pathology was so se- tive programme. rious to require the dental extraction. The crowding in the lower arch was slightly more frequent The prevalence of ECC is equal to 27.4% of the sample. than in the upper one (Figs. 3 and 4), while in Legovic’s This prevalence is higher than what reported in the liter- © study (21) the space loss after premature extraction of de- ature; this data is attributable to our UOC pre-selected ciduous teeth or after breakdown of dental structures from population. The prevalence of ECC occurs between 1% and caries was greater in the upper arch compared to that in 12% in industrialized countries and about 70% in devel- the lower arch. oping countries populations (16). The study also does not The prevalence of posterior crossbites among entire sam- show a statistically significant association between caries ples was 19.8%, much higher than what was reported by and clinical orthodontic abnormalities, except for the as- Brunelle et al.(15). The prevalence of front openbites was sociation between the midline deviation and the extrac- also found higher. 26.7% of the sample had an increased tion of a deciduous element (p =. 07). Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18 17  V. Luzzi et al. Table 10 - Distribution of deviation of midline. Midline Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent Valid Non phatological 538 91,7 91,7 91,7 li Phatological 49 8,3 8,3 100,0 na Total 587 100,0 100,0 Table 11 - Association between overjet/overbite and ECC (Early Childhood Caries). overjet io no increased decresed Count Column N, % Count Column N, % Count Column N, % ECC absent 371 90,9% 156 99,4% 21 95,5% az present 37 9,1% 1 ,6% 1 4,5% overbite no increased decresed rn Count Column N, % Count Column N, % Count Column N, % ECC absent 335 90,1% 148 99,3% 65 98,5% present 37 9,9% 1 ,7% 1 1,5% te Conclusion 8. Seward FS. Natural closure of the deciduous molar extraction spaces. Angle Orthodontist 1965; 35: 85-94. Considering the high incidence of caries disease in the se- In 9. Northway W, Wainright R. D-E Space - A realistic measure of lected samples, 44.6% for deciduous teeth and 12.7% for changes in arch morphology: space loss due to unattended caries. permanent teeth, we think we should boost the oral health J Dental Research 1980; 59: 1577-80. 10. Northway WM: Antero-posterior Arch Dimension Changes in campaign among children, in order to achieve the new French-Canadian Children: A Study of the Effects of Dental world trends that are recording a significant reduction in ni Caries and Premature Extractions, thesis. School of Dentistry, Uni- the incidence of caries in children. versity of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1977. Although this study has not achieved significant results from 11. Park K, Jung DW, Kim JY. Three-dimensional space changes af- a statistical point of view regarding the association between ter premature loss of a maxillary primary first molar. Int J Paedia- io caries disease and the onset of malocclusions, we agree tr Dent 2009; 19(6): 383-389. with the international literature (18)(19) on the importance 12. Laing E, Ashley P, Naini FB, Gill DS. Space Maintenance. Int J Pae- of interceptive orthodontic treatment in order to maintain diatr Dent 2009; 19(3): 155-162. iz the space for permanent teeth unchanged, both in the case 13. Ierardo G, Luzzi V, Vassallo D, Bassani AL, Polimeni A. Nuovi con- of early extractions and of significant interproximal caries. cetti di management in ortodonzia preventiva. Efficacia ed Efficienza. (17) Dental Cadmos 2000; 15: 98-103. 14. Savara BS. Incidence of dental caries, gingivitis and malocclusion Ed in Chicago children (14 to 17 years of age), J Dent Res 1955; 34(4): 546-552. References 15. Brunnel JA, Bhat M, Lipton JA. Prevalence and distribution of se- lected occlusal characteristics in the US population, 1988-1991. J 1. Harris R, Nicoll AD, Adair PM, Pine CM. Risk factors for dental caries Dent Res 1996; 75: 706-713. in young children: a systematic review of the literature. Communi- 16. Martins Mda G, Lima Kc. Prevalence of malocclusions in 10- to 12- ty Dental Health 2004; 21(suppl): 71–84. year-old schoolchildren in Ceará, Brazil. Oral Health Prev Dent 2009; IC 2. Xhemnica L, Sulo D, Rroco R, Hysi D. Fluoride varnish application: 7(3): 217-23. a new prophylactic method in Albania. Effect on enamel carious le- 17. Campus G, Solina G, Sann A, Maida C, Pastiglia P. Determinats sions in permanent dentition. Paediatric Dent 2008; 9(2): 93-96. 3. AAPD: Definition of Early Childhood Caries (ECC). Classification, fo ECC in Sardinian Preschool children. Community Dent Health consequences, and preventive strategies. Pediatr Dent 2004, 25(sup- 2007; 24(4): 253-256. C pl): 31-32. 18. Karaiskos N, Wiltshire W, Odlum O, Hassard T. Preventive and in- 4. Ripa L. Nursing caries: a comprehensive review. Pediatric Dentistry terceptive orthodontic treatment needs of an inner-city group of 6 1988; 10(4): 268-82. and 9 year old Canadian children. J Can Dent Assoc 2005; 71(9): 5. Baroni C, Rimondini L. Space maintenance and endodontic follow- 649. 19. Schopf P. Indication for and frequency of early orthodontic thera- © up: case reports. J Clin Pediatr Dent 1992; 16(2): 94-6. 6. Northway WM, Wainright RL, Demirjian A. Effects of premature loss py or interceptive measures. J Orofacial Orthop 2003; 64(3): 186- of deciduous molars. Part I. Changes in posterior arch dimensions. 200. Part II. Source of space change. Part III. Age at exfoliation and its 20. Al-Nimri K, Al-Jundi S, Kharashgah G. The effect of a four-year caries influence on rate of space change. Part V. Role of occlusion in tooth prevention programme started at six-years of age on crowding in migration. Part VI. Models of space closure. Angle Orthodontist 1984; the early permanent dentition. Peadiatr Dent 2010; 11 (1): 6-8. 54: 295-329. 21. Legovic M. Dental caries in the support area and the therapeutic 7. Richardson ME. Late lower arch crowding: facial growth or forward problem of the positioning of the canines and premolars in the den- drift? Eur J Orthodontics 1979; 1: 219-225. tal arches. Fortschr Kieferorthop 1989; 50: 577-83. 18 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 13-18 

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Original article A SEM study of canal cleanliness after a new nickel-titanium rotary instrumentation technique li na Valentina Vincenzi, DDS Introduction Gianluca Plotino, DDS, PhD Alessio Giansiracusa, DDS It is well know that the main goal of chemo-mechanical en- io Enrica Pietrangeli, DDS dodontic preparation is to completely remove the vital tis- Dina Al Sudani, DDS sues, necrotic debris and microorganisms in order to eli- Nicola Maria Grande, DDS minate any irritant or bacterial substrate. Unfortunately root az Valerio Milana, DDS, PhD canals are irregular, complicated systems that are difficult to clean and shape. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) has pro- ven to be more effective than other irrigants, even if many “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy studies (1,2) have shown that traditional chemo-mecha- School of Dentistry nical methods were not able to entirely clean the endodontic rn space. Moreover, NaOCl has not been shown to effecti- vely remove the smear layer. These problems have resulted Corresponding author: in a wide search for new materials and irrigation techni- Valerio Milana ques to obtain a clean, debris-free root canal for obtura- te Via Collatina 76 - 00177 Rome, Italy tion. To date, the most effective method to remove orga- nic debris and smear layer is to irrigate the root canals using EDTA in combination with NaOCl (3). It has been widely In shown that traditional instrumentation with stainless ste- Summary el files was likely to produce undesirable shaping and clea- A SEM study of canal cleanliness after a new nickel-tita- ning results in canals, regardless of the technique or file nium rotary instrumentation technique. type used (4, 5). Iatrogenic errors during instrumentation often lead to incomplete and poor cleanliness of the ca- ni The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the nal space, since the non-instrumented parts of the canal degree of smear layer removal after root canal prepara- are more difficult to be reached by irrigants. In the last de- tion with TF® instruments, combined with two different cade many nickel-titanium (Ni-Ti) rotary instruments have irrigating solutions. io For the present study twenty-two freshly extracted been introduced to overcome these problems, thanks to human roots were selected. All teeth had been extracted the unique superlastic properties of the alloy. Several stu- for periodontal purpose. Crown were cut off with a sep- dies (6-9) demonstrated that they can efficiently create a iz arating disk, so all roots were approximately 10-12 mm smooth funnel-form shape with minimal risk of ledging or long. transporting the canals, in less time than it takes with tra- After having chosen the two control roots, the remaining ditional techniques. Their unique design has been speci- fically developed to minimize iatrogenic errors, while en- Ed ones were randomly divided into two groups each con- taining 10 roots. The two experimental groups were pre- hancing cutting and debridement capability. More recen- pared as follows. tly, new endodontic rotary files produced by an innovati- A crown-down instrumentation technique was used, fol- ve heat-treatment and twisting process has been introduced lowing TF® manufacturer’s instructions. (TF® SybronEndo, Orange, Ca, USA), aiming at improving Irrigation of Group A consisted of 2 ml of solution: 6% flexibility and resistance to breakage of the instrument (Fig. sodium hypochlorite (Chlor-Extra®, Vistadental Racine, 1). An improved flexibility is likely to increase the ability of IC Mi, USA) after each instrument followed at the end by a the file to maintain the original path and avoid canal tran- 17% EDTA minute (Smear Clear®, SybronEndo, Orange, sportation. Moreover the sharp cutting edges should pro- Ca) irrigation for 1 min. Both irrigants contain tensioac- duce less smear-layer than radial lands, while improving tive agents. Group B specimens were irrigated with 2 ml of sterile C saline solutions after each instrument. Two control roots were not instrumented and irrigated. Teeth were then ex- amined by scanning electron microscopy. Values obtained were tabulated and statistical analyses © were carried out using a non parametric tests. Results shows significant differences in the mean score between the two groups: most experimental group A canals showed clean or minimal debris in the observed areas, especially in the coronal and middle thirds. Key words: endodontic preparation, smear layer, irrigat- Figure 1 - TF® instruments, tip size 25 and tapers 10, 8 and 6 ing solutions, anatomic complexities. (SybronEndo, Orange, Ca). Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 19-22 19  V. Vincenzi et al. cutting ability.It may be speculated that these new rotary instruments could cut dentin and remove debris more ef- ficiently, leading to a better debridement of the endodon- tic space. At time being, however, the ability of TF® rota- ry instrumentation to effectively debride the root canal sy- stem has not been evaluated thoroughly. The purpose of li this in vitro study was to evaluate the degree of smear la- yer removal after root canal preparation with TF® instru- na ments, combined with two different irrigating solutions. Materials and methods io For the present study twenty-two freshly extracted human roots were selected. All teeth had been extracted for pe- riodontal purpose and stored in refrigerated physiological az solution for a maximum of 3 days. No formalin was used at this stage, to avoid any possible “fixing” effect on pulp or dentin that might alter the result of canal preparation. None of these teeth had received endodontic therapy be- rn fore extraction. Crown were cut off with a separating disk, Figure 2 - Smear Clear® 17% EDTA (SybronEndo, Orange, Ca). so all roots were approximately 10-12 mm. long. Canals which could not be negotiated with a n.10 K-files were di- scarded. Deep longitudinal grooves, which did not pene- dized series of 6 photomicrographs for each root canal (2 te trate into the canal, were made in the mesial and distal sur- in the coronal third, 2 in the middle third and 2 in the api- faces of the roots, to facilitate their fracture. After having cal third) was taken for comparative purpose. Blind eva- chosen the two control roots, the remaining ones were ran- luation was performed by two trained observers and sco- domly divided into two groups. The working length was res were compiled separately. established by the insertion of a no.15 K-file into the ca- In Cleanliness of the canals was scored as follows, according nal until its tip was visible at the apical foramen and then to the rating system developed by Rome et al (10): by a subtraction of 0,5 mm. The two experimental groups, each containing 10 roots, were prepared as follows: 0 = no or minimal smear layer; most tubules are totally cle- ni The bulk of the pulp was extirpated using a small barbed an and open; broach. TF® instruments (tip size 25 and tapers 10, 8 and 1 = little to moderate smear layer, some tubules are not 6) were used in torque-controlled endodontic motor open or contain debris plug; (VDW Silver®, VDW, Munich, Germany), with a speed of 2 = moderate to heavy smear layer, minimal to no tubu- io 500 rpm. A crown-down instrumentation technique was le visibility or patency. used, following TF® manufacturer’s instructions. Irrigation of Group A consisted of 2 ml of solution injected Values obtained were tabulated and statistical analyses iz through a 27-gauge endodontic needle. 6% sodium hy- were carried out using a non parametric tests (Kruskal- pochlorite (Chlor-Extra®, Vistadental Racine, Mi, USA) af- Wallis) using Primer statistics (Appleton & Lange) for sta- ter each instrument followed at the end by a 17% EDTA tistical analysis software. Ed minute (Smear Clear®, SybronEndo, Orange, Ca, USA) ir- rigation for 1 min. (Fig. 2). Both irrigants contain tensioactive Results agents to improve wettability. A final flushing of 0,9% phy- siological solution was performed to terminate any chemical Results are shown in Table 1. Overall, there were signifi- activity of irrigants. Group B specimens were irrigated with cant differences in the mean score between the two groups. 2 ml of sterile saline solutions after each instrument. Two Physiological saline solution (Group B) showed minimal control roots were not instrumented and irrigated. effects on the removal of the smear layer (Figs. 5, 6). Most IC All the prepared roots were then dried with paper points, experimental group A canals showed clean or minimal de- fractured into halves and immediately immersed in neu- bris in the observed areas, especially in the coronal and tral-buffered 10% formalin solution until SEM preparation. middle thirds (Figs. 3 and 4). Mean values for group A were Teeth were then dehydrated using a graded series of al- 0.22, 0.24 and 0.49 at the coronal, middle and apical third, C cohol, coated with gold-palladium, and their surfaces exa- respectively. Mean values for group B were 0.91, 1.09 and mined by scanning electron microscopy (Stereoscan 1.45 at the coronal, middle and apical third, respectively. 240, Cambrigge Instrument, Cambridge, UK). A standar- For apical versus middle and coronal thirds the Kruskal- © Table I - Canal debridement between groups (mean values and SD). Coronal third Middle third Apical third Group A (NaOCI and TF®) 0.22 (0.2) 0.24 (0.4) 0.49 (0.6) Group B (saline solution) 0,91 (0.4) 1.09 (0.2) 1.45 (0.4) 20 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 19-22  A SEM study of canal cleanliness after a new nickel-titanium rotary instrumentation technique li na io az Figure 3 - Clean or minimal debris in the coronal and middle thirds. Figure 5 - Physiological saline solution showed minimal effects on the removal of the smear layer. rn te In ni Figure 4 - The figure showed that in most cases canal surfaces Figure 6 - Physiological saline solution showed minimal effects io are smooth, free of pulpal remnants and hard tissue Debris. on the removal of the smear layer. Wallis test showed statistically significant differences (p < as well as the inorganic/organic smear layer. The two ir- iz 0.05) in both groups. Cleanliness of apical portion was less rigants were not combined during instrumentation, because satisfactory. Figures 3 to 6 show representative micrographs they could compete between themselves, reducing their of the specimens. Mean canal preparation time was 1.55 properties. Figures 3 and 4 showed that in most cases ca- Ed min (SD 0.5). nal surfaces are smooth, free of pulpal remnants and hard tissue debris. On the contrary, a significantly heavier smear layer was Discussion observed at all levels in specimens irrigated with the sa- line group (B). These findings are consistent with the re- It is well known that no irrigant is able to efficiently remo- sults of other studies. All Ni-Ti rotary instrumentation te- ve smear layer and organic debris. Therefore, a correct choi- chniques have been shown to produce moderate to hea- IC ce of two or more irrigants is essential to enhance the de- vy smear layer that needed to be removed with the use of bridement effect. During root canal preparation the action EDTA and NaOCl solutions. The excellent debridement ca- of endodontic instruments on the canal walls produces a pabilities of these two irrigants, being used as shown in smear layer, that is compacted directly on the walls. Ac- the present study, can be easily evaluated by the com- C cording to several studies (11,12) the elimination of the parison of results of Groups A and B specimens. This po- smear layer seems to be of great importance, since it could sitive results could be also due to the incorporation of ten- allow NaOCl to penetrate more easily into the dentinal tu- sioactive agents in the irrigating solutions to improve wet- bules, thus enhancing its bactericidal action. Moreover, en- tability. © dodontic smear layer may affect the sealing efficiency of The average good cleanliness of the canal walls produced root canal obturation, acting as a physical barrier interfe- by the EDTA+NaOCl irrigation technique may be also due ring with adhesion and penetration of sealers into denti- to the TF® crown-down (coronal-apical) preparation te- nal tubules. This is a must when adhesive endodontic te- chnique, in which the coronal and middle thirds are in- chniques, i.e. Resilon®-based material (RealSeal®, Sy- strumented first, followed by the apical third. Coronal fla- bronEndo, Orange, Ca, USA) are used. 17% EDTA was ring enhances irrigant efficacy as it provides radicular ac- used as a final irrigant, following 6% NaOCl throughout in- cess necessary to position the needle tip effectively. Abou- strumentation, to effectively remove soft tissue remnants Rass and Piccinino (13) stated that in order to be effecti- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 19-22 21  V. Vincenzi et al. ve, irrigating needles needed to come in close proximity of Endodontics 1987;13,147-57 to the material to be removed. Moreover the portion of the 2. Goldman M,White RR,Moser CR,Tenca JI. A comparison of canal that has already been shaped acts as a reservoir for three methods of cleaning and shaping the root canal in vi- the irrigant, to better cleanse the root canal space (3). The tro. Journal of Endodontics 1988;14,7-12. 3. Berutti E,Marini R. A scanning electron microscopic evalua- greater coronal space for the irrigating solution and the pro- tion of the debridement capability of sodium hypochlorite at dif- longed contact with the canal walls could explain the sta- li ferent temperatures. Journal of Endodontics 1996;22,463-6. tistically significant differences between debridement of the 4. Calhoun G,Montgomery S.The effects of four instrumentation apical and coronal portions. na techniques on root canal space. Journal of Endodontics Regardless of the irrigants, wall surfaces of apical thirds 1988,14,273-7. showed a greater amount of superficial debris and sme- 5. Weine FS,Kelly RF,Lio PJ. The effect of preparation procedures ar-layer, confirming previous studies (3,14), which have ci- on original canal shape and on apical foramen shape. Jour- ted big challenges to the chemical cleaning of the apical nal of Endodontics 1975;1,255-62. 6. De-Deus G, Garcia-Filho P. Influence of the NiTi rotary system io portions of root canals. Anatomic complexities and mini- mal tissue contact, such as within narrow apical space, li- on the debridement quality of the root canal space. Oral Surg mit mechanical cleansing by instruments and debridement Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2009;108:e71-6. 7. Gambarini G,Berutti E Can nickel-titanium rotary instruments capability of irrigants (15). It have been speculated (16) that az efficiently and safely prepare the apical portions of curved ca- prolonged contact of intracanal chemicals might overco- nals? Presentation at the 8th Biennial Congress European So- me this limited action. However, NiTi rotary instrumenta- ciety of Endodontology,Goteborg,Sweden 12-14 June 1997. tion is significantly faster than hand-filing, as demonstra- 8. Rödig T, Hülsmann M, Kahlmeier C. Comparison of root ca- ted by other research works (8,9); consequently, tissue- nal preparation with two rotary NiTi instruments: ProFile .04 rn chemical contact is shorter and solvent effect could be re- and GT Rotary. Int Endod J. 2007;40,553-62. duced. 9. Cheung GS, Liu CS. A retrospective study of endodontic tre- TF® instrumentation produced good shaping results, aiming atment outcome between nickel-titanium rotary and stainless at reducing tissue-irrigant contact problems. As it has been steel hand filing techniques. J Endod. 2009;35,938-43. te previously demonstrated in other studies (17,18), a crown 10. Rome Wj,Doran JE;Walker WA III . The effectiveness of gly- down instrumentation approach together with the enhan- oxide and sodium hypochlorite in preventing smear layer for- mation. Journal of Endodontics 1985;11,281-8. ced quality of root canal preparation produces an impro- 11. Saunders WP,Saunders EM.The effect of smear layer upon ved cleanness of the root canal walls, because irrignts could have a better flow in root canal anatomy. Anyway the cri- In the coronal leakage of gutta-percha root fillings and a glass ionomer sealer. International Endodontic Journal 1992;25,245- tical area of the apical third has always demonstrated the 9. worst results if compared with medium and coronal thirds 12. Sen BH,Wesselink PR,Turkun M. The smear layer: a pheno- (17-19). It is a well-known concept that the success of en- menon in root canal therapy. International Endodontic Jour- ni dodontic treatment depends on the canal system being tho- nal 1995;28,141-8. roughly cleansed and disinfected, before three-dimensional 13. Abou-Rass M, Piccinino MV .The effectiveness of four clini- obturation of this space. Innovative approaches or mate- cal methods on the removal of root canal debris. Oral Surgery rials should be used to achieve more effective debridement. Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology 1982;54,323-8. io Ni-Ti rotary instrumentation gives practitioners a prede- 14. Panighi MM,Jacquot B. Scanning electron mocroscopic eva- luation of ultrasonic debridement comparing sodium hypo- termined root canal funnel shape, eliminating all the tedious chlorite and Bardac-22. Journal of Endodontics 1995;21,272- step-back previously required to create a tapered root ca- 6. iz nal shape, and saving much time over conventional me- 15. Yang SF,Rivera EM,Walton Re,Baumgardner KR. Canal de- thods, as well. The saved time should be spent to increase bridement: effectiveness of sodium hypochlorite and calcium debridement during and after instrumentation (7). hydroxide as medicaments. Journal of Endodontics Ed 1996;22,521-5. 16. Andersen M,Andreasen JO,Andreasen FM . In vitro solubili- Conclusion ty of human pulp tissue in calcium hydroxide and sodium hy- pochlorite. Endodontics and Dental Traumatology 1992;8,104- Following these concepts root canal cleaning and shaping 8. procedures described by Schilder should be modified into 17. Liu SB, Fan B, Cheung GS, Peng B, Fan MW, Gutmann JL, Song YL, Fu Q, Bian Z. Cleaning effectiveness and shaping shaping and cleaning the root canal system. This was done IC ability of rotary ProTaper compared with rotary GT and ma- in the present study by using EDTA only at the end, after nual K-Flexofile. Am J Dent. 2006;19,353-8. all shaping procedure were completed. 18. Foschi F, Nucci C, Montebugnoli L, Marchionni S, Breschi L, Malagnino VA, Prati C. SEM evaluation of canal wall dentine following use of Mtwo and ProTaper NiTi rotary instruments. C References Int Endod J. 2004;37,832-9. 19. Young GR, Parashos P, Messer HH. The principles of te- 1. Baumgartner JC,Mader CL . A scanning electron microsco- chniques for cleaning root canals. Aust Dent J 2007;52,S52- pic evaluation of four root canal irrigation regimens. Journal 63. © 22 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 19-22 

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Original article Self-ligating versus Invisalign: analysis of dento-alveolar effects li na Chiara Pavoni, DDS Introduction Roberta Lione, DDS Giuseppina Laganà, DDS, MS The Invisalign system (Align Technology, Santa Clara, Ca, io Paola Cozza, MD, DDS, MS USA) an estethic orthodontic treatment with removable, clear semielastic polyurethane aligners has become more often a common treatment choice since its first appearance in 1997. az This computer-aided modeling technique can fabricate nu- University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy merous aligners to move teeth with relative precision to ob- Department of Orthodontics tain a good occlusion. These aligners are made from a thin, transparent plastic that fits over the buccal, lingual/palatal and occlusal surfaces of the teeth. They conventionally are worn rn for a minimum of 20 hours per day and are changed se- quentially every two weeks. Invisalign has been indicated by Corresponding author: its manufacturer to be used in adults and adolescents who Giuseppina Laganà have fully erupted permanent dentitions (1,2). te Via G. Baglivi, 5-E Align Technology provides guidelines for the types of mal- 00161 Rome, Italy occlusion that can be successfully treated with Invisalign. Mobile +39 335 5310894, fax +39 06 44232321 Cases for which Invisalign is indicated include mild to mod- E-mail: giuseppinalagana@libero.it In erate crowding (1-6 mm), mild to moderate spacing (1-6 mm), nonskeletal constricted arches, and relapse after fixed appliance therapy (3). The manufacturer claims that In- visalign can effectively perform the following orthodontic Summary movements: space closure, alignment after interproximal ni Self-ligating versus Invisalign: analysis of dento-alveolar reduction, dental expansion, flaring, and distalization (4). effects. The Invisalign system has become a popular treatment Aim. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes choice for clinicians because of the esthetics and comfort io in the transverse dimension and the perimeter of the of the removable clear aligners compared with tradition- maxillary arch produced by low friction self-ligating al appliances. brackets TIME 3 compared to the Invisalign technique. One of the more commonly encountered types of patients iz Materials and methods. Both the self-ligating sample who request Invisalign treatment are those who have pre- and the Invisalign group were composed of 20 subjects, viously received orthodontic treatment using fixed appli- evaluated at the beginning (T0) and at the completion of ances and do not want fixed appliances for their present orthodontic treatment. Esthetic concerns during follow- Ed therapy (T1). All subjects presented a Class I malocclu- sion with mild crowding in a permanent dentition, with- up orthodontic treatment may be a significant factor, with out craniofacial anomalies, missing teeth or a history of many patients not wanting to show metal or partially clear orthodontic treatment. Dento-alveolar measurements fixed appliances with arch wires when they smile. Anoth- were made on the maxillary dental casts at T0 and T1. er group of patients who want Invisalign are teenagers who Significant differences between the treated groups were wish to improve their esthetics, but are not interested in assessed with Independent Samples t test (p<0.05). having the appearance of fixed appliances (5). IC Results. Statistically significant differences between To this date, little clinical research has been published to self-ligating sample and Invisalign group were recorded comprehensively study the effectiveness of Invisalign treat- for CWC, FPWF, FPWL, SPWF, SPWL, and AP measure- ment (1-3). The lack of such objective information on this ments. No significant changes were found for CWL, product has made it difficult for clinicians to objectively char- MWF, MWL, and AD values. There was not a statistically C acterize the efficacy of Invisalign as compared to fixed ap- significant difference between the treatment durations pliances. of the groups: 1.8 years for both patients. These data In the last 20 years self-ligating brackets have undergone suggest that Invisalign treatment cannot be somewhat faster than fixed appliances. Moreover the final occlu- a renaissance because the concept of self-ligation having © sion might not be as ideal. been pioneered in 1930s. Self-ligating brackets have a built- Conclusions. The low fiction self-ligating system pro- mechanism to close off the edgewise slot, obviating the duced statistically significant different outcomes in the need for elastomerics or steel ties to secure the archwire transverse dento-alveolar width and the perimeter of the in the bracket slot. The chief advantages of self-ligating sys- maxillary arch during treatment when compared to In- tem over conventional appliances are claimed to include visalign tecnique. reduced friction, more robust ligation, more efficient tooth movement and sliding mechanics that can reduce treat- Key words: self-ligating, crowding, Invisalign. ment time (6,7). Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 23-27 23  C. Pavoni et al. The aim of the present investigation was to compare the • first interpremolar width (lingual): distance between the dento-alveolar effects of the Invisalign system and of self- most lingual point on the lingual surface of the maxil- ligating multibrackets treatment in particular relatively to lary first premolars; transverse dimension, arch perimeter and arch depth on • first interpremolar width (fossa): distance between the maxillary jaw. central fossae on the occlusal surface of the maxillary first premolars; li • second interpremolar width (lingual): distance between Subjects and methods the most lingual point on the lingual surface of the max- na illary second premolars; A sample of 40 Caucasian subjects (19 males, 21 females) • second interpremolar width (fossa): distance between who sought for orthodontic treatment was selected con- the central fossae on the occlusal surface of the max- secutively at the Department of Orthodontics “Tor Verga- illary second premolars; io ta”, Dental school, University of Rome. The inclusion cri- • intermolar width (lingual): distance between the lingual teria for the enrollment in the study group were Class I mal- fissure locations on the lingual surface of the maxillary occlusion, mild crowding in mandibular arch (mean crowd- first molars; ing 4.4 ± 0.8 mm), permanent dentition, vertebral matu- • intermolar width (fossa): distance between the mesial az ration as assessed on lateral cephalograms more advanced fossae on the occlusal surface of the maxillary first mo- than CS4 (postpubertal) (8) and no previous orthodontic lars; treatment. All subjects were divided into two groups ac- • arch depth: distance from a point midway between the cording to the following treatment protocols: facial surfaces of the central incisors to a line tangent rn 1. the self-ligating group comprised 20 subjects (9 female, to the mesial surfaces of the first permanent molars; 11 males) who were treated consecutively with self- • arch perimeter: sum of the segments between contact ligating brackets Time 3 at the Department of Ortho- points from the mesial surface of the first permanent dontics of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”; molar to the mesial surface of the opposite first per- te 2. the invisalign group included 20 subjects (12 female, manent molar. 8 males) who were treated consecutively with a series of invisible removable aligners at the Department of Or- thodontics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Statistical analysis These subjects were instructed to wear each aligner 22 In hours a day, 7 days a week for 2 to 3 weeks. All patients All measurements were made by 1 operator (C.P.) and re- were asked to complete a daily compliance log during treat- peated a month later. Casual and systematic errors were ment, recording the number of hours the aligners were worn calculated comparing the first and the second measure- each day (9). ments with paired t-test and Dahlberg’s formula. Descriptive ni Success of the therapy at the end of the observation pe- statistics were calculated for all maxillary dental cast meas- riod was not a determinant factor for selection of patients. urements at T1 and T2, and for the T2-T1 changes. The Pretreatment records consisted of initial dental casts, or- Independent Sample T tests were used to analyze statistical io thopantomography, and lateral cephalograms (T1); for each differences between T1 and T2 values. The level of sig- patients the same records were taken immediately after nificance was set at P<0.05 treatment to avoid any relapse (T2). A control group is not required when investigating den- iz The average age of the self-ligating group was 15 years toalveolar changes during a short observation period as 6 months at T1. The mean age of the invisalign group was described in the present study (18 months). Transverse and 18 years 4 months at T1. Mean duration of treatment was sagittal arch changes in untreated subjects in the per- Ed 18 months ± 3 months in the self-ligating group and 18 manent dentition at an average age of 15 years 6 months months ± 2 months in the invisalign group. are expected to be minimal. The treatments protocols comprised: 1. preadjusted self ligating brackets Time 3 (AO Ameri- can Orthodontics Products), superelastic nickel titanium Results archwires (.014-in followed by .016-in and .016x.022- in) of Form I – Force I (AO American Orthodontics), No systematic error for any measures were found. Ran- IC and stainless steel archwire .017x.025-in (AO Amer- dom error ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 mm. Descriptive statis- ican Orthodontics), tics are reported in Tables. 2. a series of nearly invisible appliances, Invisalign In the self-ligating group intercanine width (cusp) showed (Align Technology, Santa Clara, Calif.), to incremen- significant increase from T1 to T2: 3.15 mm. The first in- C tally move the teeth from their crowded initial position terpremolar widths (lingual and cusp) had significant in- to their final straightened position. The anterior teeth creases of 3.40 mm and 2.45 mm, respectively, similar to were reduced at each interproximal location by means the second interpremolar widths (lingual and cusp), with of diamond-coated finishing strips used for interprox- significant increases of 2.50 mm and 2.15 mm, respectively © imal reduction. (Tab. 1). The following measurements were made on the maxillary The invisalign group showed statistically significant increase dental casts at T1 and T2 (10): in second interpremolar width at the fossa point (0.45 mm) • intercanine width (lingual): distance between the and in intermolar widths at the fossa (0.50 mm) (Tab. 2). most lingual points on the lingual surface of the max- Significant difference was found between the 2 groups for illary canines; the intercanine widths, the change at the cusp was sig- • intercanine width (cusp): distance between the tips of nificantly larger in the self-ligating group (2.65 mm) (Table the cusps of the maxillary canines; 3). 24 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 23-27  Self-ligating versus Invisalign: analysis of dento-alveolar effects Table 1 - Descriptive statistics and comparison of maxillary measurements at T1 and T2 in self-ligating group. li na io az rn Table 2 - Descriptive statistics and comparison of maxillary measurements at T1 and T2 in Invisalign group. te In ni io iz Ed The comparison between two groups of the first inter- thought that removable aligners cannot be this accurate. premolar measurements showed an improvement in the Fixed appliances produced better treatment outcomes than self-ligating subjects significantly bigger at the lingual point Invisalign in orthodontist’s hands, given his level of ex- (2.30 mm), and at the cusp (3.35 mm), similar to the sec- pertise. Particularly important to the outcome of In- ond interpremolar widths (lingual and cusp), with signifi- visalign is proficiency in using Align Technology’s Clincheck cant increase of 1.85 mm and 2.05 mm, respectively. program that allows the practitioner to accept or modify the IC treatment plan of tooth movements before the aligners are actually fabricated (11). Discussion Interestingly, there was not a statistically significant dif- ference between the treatment durations of the groups: 1.8 C There was not a statistically significant difference between years for both patients. These data suggest that In- the ages of the Invisalign and braces groups. The mean visalign treatment cannot be somewhat faster than fixed age in the Invisalign group was greater than that in the appliances. Moreover the final occlusion might not be as braces group by almost 3 years. This discrepancy was ex- ideal (12). © pected because young adults are more likely to be inter- Arch form development and posterior expansion of the den- ested in treatment with greater esthetics and comfort. tal arches have been indicated as effects of low-friction me- However, tooth movement should be similar regardless of chanics with self-ligating brackets during the initial phas- age with all other things being equal, such as periodon- es of treatment with superelastic nickel-titanium .014-in tal condition and patient compliance. wires (13). Our findings showed statistically more signifi- Fixed appliances should have an advantage because of cant increases in maxillary arch perimeter with low-friction the ability to make precise wire adjustments within 0.5 mm brackets than invisalign during treatment. No differ- to intrude or extrude teeth as necessary; it has been ences were found in maxillary arch depth between two Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 23-27 25  C. Pavoni et al. Table 3 - Descriptive statistics and comparison between two groups. li na io az rn te In ni groups. Statistically significant increases were found for all maxillary arch perimeter (on average 3.5 mm), a clinical- io width measurements between the lateral and posterior ly favorable result for nonextraction treatments. teeth, with the exception of the first molars measured lin- The invisalign group showed not statistically significant gually only in braces group. changes in intercanine widths (lingual and cusp), and in iz Increases in arch width that used lingual points for meas- the first interpremolar widths (lingual and cusp). The change urement were consistently smaller than the increases in the second intermolar width at the lingual point was not recorded by using points located at cusps or occlusal fos- statistically significant (0.30 mm). Ed sae. A significant change in intermolar widths at the fossa was The self-ligating system consent a significant increase in found (0.50 mm), while the measurement at lingual point Intercanine widths (cusp) during treatment (3.15 mm), was not significant (0.05 mm). The arch dept and arch whereas the measurements at the lingual point was not perimeter had not a statistically significant T2-T1 increase statistically significant. The first interpremolar widths (lin- (-0.05 mm and 0.00 mm). gual and cusp) had significant increases, while the No significant differences were found between the 2 groups changes in intermolar width at the lingual point and at the for the intercanine widths at lingual point (0.75 mm), where- IC fossa were not statistically significant (0.90 mm and 0.30 as the change at the cusp was significantly larger in the mm, respectively). The arch dept and arch perimeter had self-ligating group (2.65 mm). not a statistically significant T2-T1 increase (1.30 mm and The changes in arch dept and arch perimenter were not 1.90 mm). significantly different from T1 to T2. C This indicates that expansion of the maxillary arch in self- In invisalign subjects there was not expansion in maxillary ligating group was achieved with a component of buccal arch in all measurements considered. inclination of canines and posterior teeth (14). Interproximal reduction was performed as prescribed, but The greatest transverse increases were recorded at the no other modifications were made to augment tooth © level of the premolars and the canines, whereas smaller movement (16). Therefore, the pass rate for Invisalign cas- increases were found at the level of the molars. A possi- es might be higher if more sophisticated techniques, such ble reason for this differential effect might be the shape of as auxiliaries, interarch elastics, or combination treatment the archwires used for alignment of the maxillary teeth (Tru- with braces had been used. On the other hand, the braces Arch form); these have an accentuated width in the canine patients were treated with tip-edge fixed appliances, first premolar region (15). which can make fine adjustments with uprighting springs, The significant increases in the transverse widths of the rotation springs, interarch elastics, and other auxiliaries in maxillary arch led to a statistically significant increase in addition to the tooth movements made possible by the 26 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 23-27  Self-ligating versus Invisalign: analysis of dento-alveolar effects bracket prescription (17). 3. Djeu G, Shelton C, Maganzini AL. Outcome assessment of However, there are several reasons that Invisalign might Invisalign and traditional orthodontic treatment compared with not be as effective as fixed appliances. Primary among the American Board of Orthodontics objective grading sys- them is compliance. Because the aligners are removable, tem. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2005; 128(3):293–298. 4. McNamara JA, Brudon WL. Orthodontics and dentofacial or- the orthodontist must rely on the patient’s motivation and thopedics. Ann Arbor (Mich): Needham Press; 2001. dependability to achieve the desired results. The remov- li 5. Boyd RL. Esthetic Orthodontic Treatment Using the In- ability of Invisalign is an advantage to the patient but not visalign Appliance for Moderate to Complex Malocclusions. to the clinician. Another reason that Invisalign fails to com- na Journal of Dental Education 2008; 72(8): 948-67. pare with braces is that Invisalign minimally addresses the 6. Harradine NW. Self-ligating brackets: where are we now? J occlusion (18). Boyd et al. (16) admitted that, when eval- Orthod;30:262-273. 2003 uating the occlusal outcome of an Invisalign case, it was 7. Fleming PS, DiBiase AT, Sarri G, Lee RT. Efficiency of evident that the same or an even better result could have mandibular arch alignment with 2 preadjusted edgewise ap- pliances. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2009; 135:597-602. io been achieved with conventional braces in arguably less Baccetti T, Franchi L, MaNamara JA jr. An improved version time. of the cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) method for the as- Therefore, the major advantages of Invisalign over braces sessment of mandibular growth. Angle Orthod Aug are that the aligners are esthetic, removable, and com- az 2002;72(4):316-23. fortable, but there are no biomechanical advantages. 8. Align Technology, Inc. The Invisalign reference guide. Santa Clara, Calif; 2002 9. Franchi L, Baccetti T, Camporesi M, Lupoli M. Maxillary arch Conclusions changes during levelling and aligning with fixed appliances rn and low-friction ligatures. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop • Self-ligating multibrackets treatment resulted effective 2006; 130:88-91. 10. Boyd RL, Vlaskalic V. Three-dimensional diagnosis and or- to solve mild crowding by increasing arch width and thodontic treatment of complex malocclusions with the In- correcting buccolingual inclination, occlusal contacts visalign appliance. Semin Orthod 2001; 7:274–93. te and root angulations. 11. Harradine NWT. Self-ligating brackets and treatment efficiency. • Invisalign treatment has also had success with Clin Orthod Res 2001; 4:220-7. straightening arches by derotating teeth and by leveling 12. Damon DH. The Damon low-friction bracket: a biologically com- arches. • Invisalign can easily tip crowns but cannot tip roots be- In 13. patible straight-wire system. J Clin Orthod 1998; 32:670-80. BeGole EA, Fox DL, Sadowsky C. Analysis of change in arch cause of lack of control of tooth movement. form with premolar expansion. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Or- • No statistically significant differences between the two thop 1998; 113:307-15. 14. Thorstenson GA, Kusy RP. Effect of archwire size and material groups are evident when malocclusions start relatively on the resistance to sliding of self-ligating brackets with sec- ni well aligned roots. ondorder angulation in the dry state. Am J Orthod Dentofa- cial Orthop 2002; 122:295-305. 15. Boyd RL, Miller RJ, Vlaskalic V. The Invisalign system in adult References io orthodontics: mild crowding and space closure cases. J Clin Orthod 2000; 34:203–12. 1. Lagravere MO, Flores-Mir C. The treatment effects of Invisalign 16. Miller KB, McGorray SP, Womack R, Quintero JC, Perelmuter orthodontic appliances: a systematic review. J Am Dent As- M, Gibson J, et al. A comparison of treatment impacts between iz soc2005; 136:1724–1729. Invisalign aligner and fixed appliance therapy during the first 2. Bollen AM, Huang GJ, King G, Hujoel P, Ma T. Activation time week of treatment. Am J Orthod 2007; 131:3–302. and material stiffness of sequential removable orthodontic ap- 17. Nedwed R, Miethke RR. Motivation, acceptance, and prob- pliances. Part I: ability to complete treatment. Am J Orthod lems of Invisalign patients. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop Ed 2003;124:496–501. 2005; 66:162–73. IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 23-27 27 

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Original article Excision of an oral angiolipoma by KTP laser: a case report li na Gaspare Palaia, DDS, PhD When angiolipomas occur in the oral cavity, they re- Gianfranco Gaimari, DDS quire a surgical excision: the treatment can be per- Rossella Lo Giudice, DDS formed with surgical blade or laser, like KTP (Potassium io Alexandros Galanakis, DDS Titanium Phosphate) laser (1,2,3). Gianluca Tenore, DDS, PhD The KTP laser has a wavelength of 532 nm and emits a Umberto Romeo, DDS green visible radiation. Light is produced, as in the az Nd:YAG laser, by a solid active material (Yttrium, Aluminium Garnet crystal doped with Neodymium). The resulting ra- diation is filtered by a system of mirrors of Potassium, Ti- "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy tanium and Phosphate, that halves the initial wavelength. Department Oral and Maxillofacial Science The wavelength of the KTP laser is more strongly absorbed rn by oxyhaemoglobin than any other wavelength, so lower levels of energy and fluence can be used to cut vascu- larized tissues (4,5,6). Corresponding author: In this report, the authors present a case of non-infiltrat- te Gaspare Palaia ing angiolipoma excised from the cheek with KTP laser. Via Feronia, 148 00157 Rome, Italy Mobile +39 339 4522515, fax +39 06 7806974 E-mail: gaspare.palaia@uniroma1.it In Case report A 66 year old woman with no history of systemic dis- eases, in drug therapy for hypertension, which was referred to our observation, since the presence of swelling three ni Summary Excision of an oral angiolipoma by KTP laser: a case re- months ago, located on the right cheek mucosa, corre- port. sponding to the second premolar and the first molar. The patient reported no pain. io Materials and methods. A 66 year old woman was re- Clinical examination showed a soft, mobile and rilevate ferred to our observation, since the presence of a pain- mass, of about 2 x 1,5 cm, covered with normal mucosa less swelling located on the right cheek mucosa. A (Fig. 1). Not ulcerated and necrotic areas were found. iz surgical approach with KTP laser was performed with Surgery was performed with the mucosal preservation te- the mucosal preservation technique. chnique. After local anesthesia without adrenaline, because Results. Follow up after seven days, sixty days and four the wavelength of the KTP laser is absorbed by oxyhae- months did not showed any complication and the his- moglobin, the lesion was immobilized and highlighted by Ed tological examination reported the diagnosis of AL. Collin clamp. Then, it was performed a longitudinal incision Discussion. AL is a relatively rare tumor of the head and by laser with optical fiber of 300 micron at parameters 2 neck region, although it occurs more commonly in the watt in continuos wave and a fluence of 2830 J/cm2 (Fig. extremities and the trunk. This tumor has been rarely re- 2). In a second phase, it was possible to separate the le- ported in the oral cavity and when seen in this area, it in- volves in the lip, cheek, tongue, mandible, and palate. IC ALs are also intraosseous in the mandible and intra- muscular in the pterygoid fossa. KTP laser excision showed to be resolutive and avoid of complications. Conclusions. AL of the cheek is a very rare patology, but when it appears, it requires a surgical excision. C Key words: angiolipoma, KTP laser, oral biopsy. © Introduction Lipomas are the most common neoplasms arising from fat tissues. They are usually slow-growing, soft and asymp- tomatic masses. Angiolipomas represent 6-17% of all lipo- mas. 13% of all lipomas occur in the head and neck, in- cluding cheek, tongue, palate, parotid gland, neck and lar- ynx (1, 2). Figure 1 - Clinical featuring of the lesion. 28 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 28-31  Excision of an oral angiolipoma by KTP laser: a case report li na io Figure 2 - Incision by laser KTP, emitting a green visible light. Figure 5 - Surgical sample. az rn te In ni Figure 3 - Dissection of the lesion with Metzenbaum scissors. Figure 6 - Resorbable suture. io iz Ed IC Figure 4 - Taking the lesion with Kelly clamp, being careful to pre- Figure 7 - Follow up after 7 days, showing the absence of inflam- serve the oral mucosa was carried to enucleated of the lesion. matory process. C sion from tissue below by Metzenbaum scissors (Fig. 3). Discussion Then the lesion was excised at 2 watt in pulsed wave (T- on 100 ms, T-off 100 ms) and a fluence of 283 J/cm2 (Figs Lipomas represent about 1 to 5% of all neoplasms of the © 4,5). oral cavity (1). They are painless, soft, round and mobile. Finally, resorbable suture point were applied (Fig. Angiolipomas, histologic variants of lipoma, are benign 6).This surgical technique was permit to preserve the oral mesenchymal tumours made up of mature lipocytes and mucosa overlying the tumor providing an excellent soft tis- blood vessels. Multiple lesions are seen in approximate- sues healing. Follow up after seven days (Fig.7), sixty days ly 70-80% of cases. 5% of these cases are familial but the (Fig. 8) and four months (Fig. 9) did not showed any com- genetic pattern is unclear (2). It has been suggested that plication and the histological examination reported the di- the etiology of AL is from a hamartomatous origin. Histo- agnosis of AL (Fig.10). ry of trauma, lipomatous differentiation by hormones dur- Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 28-31 29  G. Palaia et al. Table 1 - Histologic guidelines for diagnosis of non-infiltrating angiolipoma (2). li na io Figure 8 - Follow up after 60 days, complete recovery. az tures and the difficulty in separating the cancer from sur- rounding tissues. Other investigators proposed that the dif- ferentiation between non infiltrating and infiltrating form was based on the presence of a complete capsule and rare re- rn currences in the former, and partial or no capsule with re- currences in the latter (7,11). The non-infiltrating type is the most common. It presents as painless or tender sub- te cutaneous nodules, generally in young patients and its rare before puberty (12,13,14,15). Histologically it is encap- sulated, and is a mixture of mature adipocytes and a pro- liferation of thin-walled vascular channels.[12] The diagno- In sis is based on both the clinical and histologic features (Table 1) (12). Microscopically, AL is characterized by ma- ture adipocytes, interspersed in connective tissues with vas- cular vessels containing fibrin thrombi and mast cells in- filtrations. This features distinct it from usual lipoma ni Figure 9 - Follow up after 4 months. There are no scars or signs of recurrence and the surgical site appears to be covered by nor- (2,13,14,16,17). motrofic mucosa. As differential diagnosis, lipoma, liposarcoma, heman- gioma, leiomyoma, neurilemmoma, lymphangioma and Ka- io posi’s sarcoma can be considered. Lipomas have no pre- dominant vascular component. When CT scan demonstrate the presence of soft tissue or bony infiltration, liposarco- iz ma must be included in the differential diagnosis. Surgi- cal excision is the treatment for both infiltrating and non- infiltrating angiolipomas (1,9,10). Ed Conclusions Angiolipomas are rarely seen in the head and neck region. This case report, showed the typical clinical and histological findings of a non-infiltrating angiolipoma. IC The advantages of the employment of the KTP laser in oral soft tissue surgery are its high cutting ability, the bloodless Figure 10 - Histological examination (E.E.,10x). The tumor is com- operative field, its relative ease and rapidity of use, and the posed of a diffuse proliferation of mature fat cells mixed with thick reduced use of infiltrative anaesthesia. The KTP laser is C fibrous connective tissues containing many small blood vessels. an effective instrument for performing oral soft tissue ex- cision, because of its excellent surgical properties and the almost total lack of thermal damage. However, these in- ing puberty, fatty degeneration of a central hemangioma disputable advantages cannot replace the ability and knowl- © and vascular proliferation of a congenital lipoma (congenital edge of the oral surgeon (4). origin) have been reported as possible etiologic factors (1). The KTP laser demonstrated surgical effectiveness and Hemangioma, leiomyoma, neurilemmoma, myxolipoma caused little peripheral damage to the cut edges, and and Kaposi’s sarcoma must be considered in differential therefore would always allow a safe histological diagno- diagnosis (8,9). Based on studies by Gonzales-Crussi et sis to be obtained. Complete surgical excision with a clear al. (1,10), angiolipoma has two histologic types: infiltrat- surgical margin is the treatment of choice to avoid re- ing and non-infiltrating. Infiltrating ALs have been diagnosed currence; KTP laser in this sense represents a very valu- in the head and neck by their invasion of adjacent struc- able surgical aid. 30 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 28-31  Excision of an oral angiolipoma by KTP laser: a case report References vatianos A. Infiltrating Angiolipoma of a the oral cavity: report of a case and literature review. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 1. Hasan Ayberk Altug, Sermet Sahin, Metin Sencimen, Necdet 2010;68:681-683. Dogan, Ozgur Erdogan. Non-infiltrating angiolipoma of the 8. Hamakawa H, Hino H, Sumida T, Tanioka H. Infiltration angi- cheek: a case report and review of the literature. J Oral Sci- olipoma of the cheek: a case report and a review of the lit- ence 2009;51(1), 137-139. erature. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2000;58: 674–7. li 2. J.Arenaz Bùa, R. Luaces, F.Lorenzo Franco, A. Garcia Roza- 9. Aniceto GS, Saez RS, Penin AG: Angiolipoma of the cheek: do, J.L. Crespo Escudero, E. Fonseca Capdevila, J. L. Lopez Report of a case. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 1990;48:512. na 10. Gonzales-Crussi F, Enneking WF, Arean V: Infiltrating angi- Cedrun. Angiolipoma in head and neck: report of two cases olipoma. J Bone Joint Surg 1966;48:1111-1114. and review of the literature. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 11. Ali MH, El-Zuebi F: Angiolipoma of the cheek: Report of a case. 2010;39: 610-625. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 1996;54:213-214. 3. Hiroko Ida-Yonemochi, Wael Swelam, Chikara Saito, Takashi 12. Reilly J.S., Kelly D.R., Royal S.A..Angiolipoma of the parotid: Saku. Angiolipoma of the buccal mucosa: a possible role of case report and review. Laryngoscope 1988;98: 818-821. io mast cell-derived VEGF in its enhanced vascularity. J Oral 13. Alvi A, Gardner C, Thomas W: Angiolipoma of the head and Pathology Med 2005;34:59–61. the neck. J Otolaryngol 1998;27:100-103. 4. Romeo U, Palaia G, Del Vecchio A, Tenore G, Gambarini G, 14. Lin SC, Wang TY, Hahn IJ: Angiolipoma of the tongue. Report Gutknecht N, De Luca M. Effects of KTP laser on oral soft tis- az of a case. Ann Dent 1989;48:37. sues. An in vitro study. Lasers Med Sci. 2010;25(4):539-43. 15. Flaggert JJ, Heldt LV, Keaton W. Angiolipoma of the palate: re- 5. Clark C, Cameron H, Moseley H, Ferguson J, Ibbotson SH. port of a case. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol 1986;61:333- Treatment of superficial cutaneous vascular lesions: experi- 336. ence with the KTP 532 nm laser. Lasers in Medical Science 16. Saydam L, Bozkurt MK, Ugur MB, Ozcelik T, Kutluay L: An- 2010;19:1–5. giolipoma of the neck. a case report. Ear Nose Throat J rn 6. Jones T, Fleming C, Llewelyn J. Management of vascular le- 2005;84:375-377. sions of the mouth and lips using a potassium titanyl phos- 17. Miyazaki H, Hato J, Watanabe H, Harada H, Kazizaki H, Tet- phate (KTP) laser: review of patient satisfaction. British J Oral sumura A, Sato A, Omura K: Intralesional laser treatment of Maxillofac Surg. 2010 July 29. voluminous vascular lesions in the oral cavity. Oral Surg Oral te 7. Dalambiras S, Tilaveridis I, Iordaninidis S, Zaraboukas T, Epi- Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 2009;107(2):164-172. In ni io iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 28-31 31 

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Case report Leiomyoma of oral cavity: case report and literature review li na Sfasciotti Gianluca, MD, PhD, DDS quently it is asymptomatic but there may be symptoms such Roberta Marini, DDS as pain, teeth mobility or difficulty in chewing (6,7,8). Federica Tonoli, DDS Histologically there are three types of leiomyomas: leiomy- io Maria Paola Cristalli, DDS, PhD oma (solid), angiomyoma (vascular leiomyoma), and the rare form of epitheloid leiomyoma (leioblastoma). In tumours of the solid type blood vessels are large in number but usu- az "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy ally small in size and slit-like. Tumours of the venous type Department of Odontostomatological have venous blood vessels with thick muscular walls. The and Maxillofacial Sciences outer layers of the smooth muscle in the vascular walls blend with intervascular smooth muscle bundles. Tu- mours of the cavernous type are composed of dilated vas- rn Corresponding author: cular vessels with small amounts of smooth muscle, and Gian Luca Sfasciotti the muscular walls of these vessels are difficult to distin- Via Famiano Nardini 1/e guish from smooth muscle bundles (9). 00162 Rome, Italy From the clinical presentation is very difficult to differen- te Ph/Fax +39068610788 tiate a leiomyoma from other mesenchymal tumours: the diagnosis is mainly determinate histologically At present, surgical resection is the main treatment of Summary In leiomyoma and recurrences are extremely unfrequent. Leiomyoma of oral cavity: case report and literature re- We hereby present a case of leiomyoma, its treatment and view. literature review. Leiomyoma is a benign smooth muscle tumour, that ni occurs most frequently in the uterine myometrium, Case report gastrointestinal tract, skin and lower extremities of middle-aged women. Leiomyomas are uncommon in A 49-year-old Italian man presented with a 8-year histo- io the oral cavity, but in this location are usually localized ry of a well circumscribed, asymptomatic and mobile mass on the tongue, lips and palate. Most lesions are asymp- in the lower lip. On macroscopy, the mass presented an tomatic, although occasional tumours can be painful. irregular oval shape, a brownish colour, a smooth surface The diagnosis is mainly determined by histological iz and a resilient consistency (Fig. 1). studies due to its unspecific clinical appearance. The mass was surgically excised under local anesthesia The purpose of this article is to present a case report of (mepivacaine 2% with adrenalin 1:100.000 - Carboplyina, 49-year-old male patient with a lesion of the lower lip. Dentsply) with the scalpel. An elliptic incision was made Ed After surgical resection hematoxylin-eosin staining con- to fully enucleate the lesion along with the overlying mu- firmed the diagnosis of leiomyoma. cosa (Figs. 2,3). It’s important to obtain a complete resection Key words: leiomyoma, solid leiomyoma, differential di- in order to avoid recurrences. Usually easily due to its char- agnosis, oral neoplasms. acteristics as a well-circumscribed tumour. Finally, a 5.0- reabsorbable suture (Monocryl - Ethicon) was performed (Fig. 4). IC Introduction After surgery, patient was given ibuprofen 600 mg (Brufen 600, Abbott) as analgesic and was instructed to apply Leiomyoma is a smooth muscle benign tumour that can chlorhexidine digluconate 0.1% (Corsodyl Gel Dent 30 g appear at any location, being the most frequent site the 1g/100) as a gel to the surgical zone. C female genital tract (95%), followed by skin (3%), gas- The specimens (Fig. 5) obtained were fixed in 10% formalin trointestinal and food intrake tract (1,5%). Less than 1% solution. Histological examination gave the diagnosis of sol- occur in head and neck structure (1). Only 0.065% of the id leiomyoma (Fig. 6). leiomyomas had an intraoral location, caused by the lack The postoperative course of the patient was uneventful with © of smooth muscle at this site (2,3). a 10 days follow-up. The tissue is completely healed and Smooth muscle is scarce in the oral cavity so it was as- there is no sign of scar (Fig. 7a). There was no recurrence sumed that the formation of leiomyoma resulting from me- at 24 months follow-up (Fig. 7b). dia layer of blood vessels and smooth muscle of excreto- ry ducts of salivary glands (4,5). Clinically the oral leiomyoma is characterized by a small Discussion (<2cm) and solitary nodular mass, slow growth located prin- cipally in the tongue, lips, palate and buccal mucosa: fre- Oral leiomyomas can appear at any age, but the greatest Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 9-12 9  G. Sfasciotti et al. li na io az rn te In Figure 1 - Clinical presentation of the lesion. Figure 4 - Suture of the wound. ni io iz Ed Figure 2 - Surgical excision. Figure 5 - Lesion removed. IC prevalence is in the 40-59 years age groups with gender preference for female, being the most frequent locations C the lips, tongue, hard and soft palate, and much less fre- quently in the cheeks (10,11): in this case the age is 49 years old and the site is the lower lip. The leiomyoma was included in the World Health Organ- © ization classification of tumors of soft tissue (WHO 2002) in the group of tumors arising from smooth muscle. The WHO also distinguished three types of leiomyoma: the most frequent type is angiomyoma with a 74%, followed by sol- id leiomyomas with a 25% and there is only one case of an epitheloid leiomyoma described in the literature (12). The vascular leiomyoma is the most frequent in the oral Figure 3 - Post-surgical view. cavity; smooth muscle is scarce in the oral cavity, however 10 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 9-12  Leiomyoma of oral cavity: case report and literature review as, fibroma, neurofibroma, lipoma, or the leiomyosarcoma. The differential diagnosis is also more problematic with fu- socellular tumours like solitary myofibroma and myoper- icytoma. The differential diagnosis must include salivary gland neoplasms (mucocele, pleomorphic adenoma, etc.), vascular tumors (lymphangioma, hemangioma, li pyogenic granuloma, etc.), and soft tissue cysts such as dermoid cysts. When located in the region of the hard na palate, adjacent to teeth the tumor can be confused with a periodontal lesion. Our case had prompted us to assume that the tumor was a hemangioma: macroscopically there were all the char- io acteristics of the vascular lesion such as color, tex- ture, absence of pain. Therefore the final diagnosis of oral leiomyoma is mainly determined by a histological study (6- 13). az Figure 6 - Histologic findings shows muscle cells with areas of The exclusive treatment option in benign smooth muscle sclerosis and dystrophic calcification; the cells were small and tumours appears to be a surgical excision. Surgery has fusiform, and the nucleus was uniform, monochromatic and spin- dles, with blunt ends, no mitotic figures were found (Hematoxylin- been used as the only option for treatment in all leiomy- Eosin stain, original magnification x10). omas described in literature. There are no reports of re- rn currence after total excision, and this result confirms the need for careful total excision of the lesion. In our case we did a total resection of the mass under local anaesthesia this region is rich in blood vessels. Therefore it has been and the patient did not present complication and recur- te proposed that media layer of blood vessels may be the ori- rences pathological at two years follow-up. gin of oral cavity vascular leiomyoma (6). The histological exam of the case report diagnosed that In the tumour was solid, rare type for the oral site. Solid leiomy- Conclusion omas are smaller than the vascular type and the neofor- mation of the case is 0.8 x 0.5 x 0.4 cm. Histologically the In conclusion, the oral cavity leiomyoma is a benign neo- solid leiomyoma is comprised of interlacing bundles of spin- plasm characterized by a small, solitary, asymptomatic, dle-shaped or stellate smooth muscle cells with elongat- nodular mass, located more frequently in the lower lip. The ni ed, blunt-ended, pale-staining nuclei: lesions are rather cel- highest prevalence of head and neck leiomyoma is ob- lular, but collagenic strands often separate the streaming served in the 4th and 5th decade of life with gender pref- bundles of tumor cells, and occasional leiomyomas have erence for female. Histological features include small io a prominent fibroblastic or myxoid component. All the his- cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm and basophilic nucle- tological characteristic were present in our histological us. Not mitotic figures, cellular atypia and areas of necro- analysis (13). sis were observed. From the clinical appearance is very difficult to differenti- Oral leiomyoma was frequently asymptomatic and required iz ate a leiomyoma from other mesenchymal tumours such the complete surgical excision. Ed IC C © Figure 7 - Clinical follow-up after 10 days (a) and 24 months (b) from the operation. Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 9-12 11  G. Sfasciotti et al. References ty. Review of the literature and clinicopathologic study of sev- en new cases. Oral Surg 1973;35:54. 1. Campelo VES, Neves MC, Nakanishi M, Voegels RL. Nasal 8. Kelly D, Harrigan W. Leiomyoma of the tongue: report of a case. cavity vascular leiomyoma: a case report and literature review. J Oral Surg 1977;35:316. Rev. Bras. Otorrinolaringol. 2008;74(1):147-50. 9. WHO Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of Soft Tissue and 2. Farman AG. Benign smooth muscle tumors. S Alf Med J. Bone Edited by Christopher D.M. Fletcher, K. Krishnan Unni, li 1975;49:1333. En: Farman AG, Kay S 1977;43:402. Fredrik Mertens (2002) pag. 128-34. 3. Lloria-Benet M, Bagàn JV, Lloria de Miguel E, Borja-Morant 10. Luaces Rey R, Lorenzo Franco F, Gomez Oliveira G, Patino na A, Alonso S. Oral leiomyoma: a case report. Med Oral. Seijas B, Guitiàn D, Lòpez-Cedrùn Cembranos JL. Oral leiomy- 2003;8(3):215-9. oma in retro molar trigone. A case report. Med Oral Patol Oral 4. Stout AP. Solitary cutaneous and subcutaneous leiomyoma. Cir Bucal. 2007;12(1):E53-5. Am J Cancer 1937;29:435. 11. Gonzàlez Sànchez MA, Colorado Bonnin M, Berini Aytès L, 5. Glas E. Beitrage zur pathologie der zungengrudtumoren. Wein Gay Escoda C. Leiomyoma of the hard palate: a case report. Klin Wochenshr 1905;18:747. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2007;12(3):E221-4. io 6. Guitan Cepeda LA, Quezada Rivera D, Rocha FT, Leyva Huer- 12. Leung K, Wong DY, Li W. Oral leiomyoma: report of a case. ta ER, Mendez Sànchez ER. Vascular leiomyoma of the oral Maxillofac Surg 1990;48:735-8. cavity. Clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical 13. Baden E, Doyle JL, Lederman DA. Leiomyoma of the oral cav- az characteristics. Presentation of five cases and review of the ity: a light microscopic and immunohistochemical study with literature. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2008;13(8):E483-8. review of the literature from 1984 to 1992. Eur J Cancer B Oral 7. Cherrick H, Dunlap C, King O. Leiomyomas of the oral cavi- Oncol. 1994 Jan;30B(1):1-7. rn te In ni io iz Ed IC C © 12 Annali di Stomatologia 2011; II (1-2): 9-12 

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Editorial i al on On the 3rd October 2010 Professor Maurizio Ripari, editor-in-chief of this journal, deceased by a sud- den and brief illness. As a first, being his successor in the role of editor-in-chief, I want to participate to the sadness and sorrow of all the people who knew and estimated him; and for me it is very important to spend few words zi about Professor Ripari in this first editorial after his death. Moreover, due to the great esteem and af- fection we felt for Maurizio Ripari, we would like to share these few notes with Professor Antonella Po- na limeni, the Director of the Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences of “Sapienza” University of Rome and Chief of Editorial Board. Professor Ripari was a leading and esteemed figure in Italian Academic Dentistry during the last thir- er ty years. He actively contributed to the transformation of our discipline, from a side and secondary di- scipline of the Course of Medicine to a prestigious and autonomous Degree. From 1980, together with Professor Luigi Capozzi, he was one of the historical teachers of the Degree nt course in “Odontoiatria e Protesi Dentaria” of the “Sapienza” University of Rome, until 2007 when he was elected as President of the Course; he brought the teaching to unprecedented levels of excellence. During his long career, he taught also in other Italian Universities, diffusing his expertise all around iI the country. From 2000 to 2010, he was also elected Director of Postgraduate Program in “Oral Sur- gery”. on He generously contributed to the diffusion of dental knowledge both through his numerous publica- tions and thanks to his active participation to congresses and meetings; he was always ready to par- ticipate to cultural events, especially when they were dedicated to young dentists. However in this brief note, we do not want to remember only his academic career or his professional i iz abilities, but we want primarily to remark his human values that made him a beloved and esteemed teacher and colleague. As a teacher, he was rigorous but fair with the students, since he considered his moral duty to crea- Ed te high level dentists to guarantee them the necessary skills for a successful professional life; in the meanwhile he was always ready to listen to his students in order to satisfy their right requests needs. High moral stature, equilibrium, openness and capability as a mediator were his most appreciated qua- lities, recognized to him by all his professional and academic colleagues, as demonstrated by the wide IC testimonies of esteem and condolence that were generated by his death. We want to conclude this editorial in memory of Maurizio Ripari in the sureness that he will be always remembered by all: friends, students and colleagues who had the luck to know him, and that, above C all, he will remain forever in the heart of all the people who loved him. © Susanna Annibali Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 1 1 

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0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 14 Estrogenicity of bisphenol A released from sealants and composites: a review of the literature i al on Stefano Eramo1, DDS and composites. It is important to note that we will focus Giacomo Urbani1 MD, DDS on literature exclusively written about the possible estro- Gian Luca Sfasciotti2 MD, DDS, PHD genic activity (and not about the general toxicology profile) Orlando Brugnoletti2 MD, DDS of BPA or its possible derivatives released from compos- Maurizio Bossù2 DDS, PHD ites and sealants (without mentioning, or covering just briefly, zi Antonella Polimeni2 MD, DDS similar activities performed by their components). 1University of Perugia, Italy a 2“Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy Bisphenol A Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences (A. Polimeni) Bisphenol A (BPA) is recorded in the CAS (Chemical Ab- rn Paediatric Dentistry Unit stract Service), number 00080-05-7 and its chemical name as used in Europe is 2,2-Bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) propane. Corresponding author: There are a large number of synonyms, such as the fol- te Dott. Maurizio Bossù, Department of Odontostomatolog- lowing most common: Bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)dimethyl ical and Maxillofacial Sciences methane; 4,4’-dihydroxydiphenyl propane; 4,4’-dihydroxy- Paediatric Dentistry Unit 2,2-diphenyl propane; Diphenylolpropane; 4,4’-isopropy- “Sapienza” University of Rome lidenediphenol (1). Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy Phone: + 39 06 49976649 In BPA is produced by the condensation of phenol and ace- tone in the presence of catalysts and catalyst promoters E-mail: maurizio.bossu@uniroma1.it (2); its molecular formula is C15H16O2 and its structure is shown in Figure 1; the molecular mass is 228.29 g / mol and it exists at room temperature in the form of a white sol- ni Summary Estrogenicity of bisphenol A released from sealants and id with a mild “phenolic” odour. composites: a review of the literature. The main physico-chemical properties of BPA are shown in Table 1. io This study aims to critically summarize the literature BPA is primarily used in the production of polycarbonate about bisphenol A (BPA), indicate whether and how (PC), a plastic widely used to produce infant feeding bot- those risks are real and emphasize how it is eventually tles, tableware, microwave ovenware and storage con- iz possible to prevent them. With this in mind, we should tainers. consider nature, risks and control of BPA, as well as its It is also widely used in the production of epoxy resins, used presence and its role in sealants and composites. It is as an internal, protective lining for cans and metal lids and important to note that we will focus on literature exclu- the inner layer of water tanks and wine vats (1). Small Ed sively written about the possible estrogenic activity (and not about the general toxicology profile) of BPA or its possible derivatives released from composites and sealants (without mentioning, or covering just briefly, similar activities performed by their components). IC Key words: bisphenol A, composites, sealants. Introduction Figure 1 - Low level laser irradiation of tongue. C Bisphenol A (BPA) is, by definition, a major component of Bis-GMA (bisphenol A glycidylmethacrylate or “Bowen’s Table 1 - Ideal bone substitute features. resin”), a molecule known to be at the basis of composites and sealants used in dentistry. In the international dental PROPERTIES VALUES © literature articles regularly appear arguing that BPA and/or its derivatives might be released into the oral cavity from Boiling point 220°C at 4 mmHg – 398°C at 760 mmHg composites and sealants in doses which can produce es- Melting point 150-157°C trogenic effects. This study aims to critically summarize the Specific gravity 1.060-1.195 g/mL at 20-25°C Solubility in water 120-300 mg/L at 20-25°C literature, indicate whether and how those risks are real and Vapour pressure 8.7 x 10-10 – 3.96 x 10-7 mmHg at 20-25°C emphasize how it is eventually possible to prevent them. LogKσw 2.20 – 3.82 With this in mind, we should consider nature, risks and con- Henry’s constant 1.0 x 10-10 atm-m3/mol trol of BPA, as well as its presence and its role in sealants 14 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 15 Estrogenicity of bisphenol a released from sealants and composites: a review of the literature amounts of BPA can migrate from containers into foods and Bisphenol A in composites and sealants beverages, therefore its use is regulated in the European Union under the Commission Directive 2002/72/EC of 6 Bisphenol A plays an important role in almost all com- August 2002 relating to plastic materials and articles in- posites and sealants, as it is an integral part of the mol- tended to come into contact with foodstuffs. ecule of Bis-GMA. It must, however, be specified (as was i In the United States and in Japan its use is also author- clearly emphasized by ADI, 2008) that in reality BPA can al ized in contact with food. The European Commission’s Sci- become part of these dental materials in three ways: a) as entific Committee on Food (SCF) published in 2002 an a direct ingredient, b) as a product of the degradation of opinion on BPA, defining a temporary TDI (Tolerable Dai- other ingredients, c) as trace material derived from the man- ly Intake = the amount of a substance, expressed on a body ufacture of other ingredients. on weight basis that can be ingested daily over a lifetime with- a) As a direct ingredient, surprisingly, the BPA is rarely out appreciable risk) of 0.01 mg/kg bw (therefore, equal used as a formula ingredient in composites and to 10 g/Kg pc), that derived from No-Observed- sealants. In order to explain this apparent paradox, it Adverse-Effect Level (NOAEL) of 5 mg/kg bw/day, apply- is necessary to remember, together with Sodherolm zi ing a 500-fold uncertainty factor. In 2006, in the light of the and Mariotti, that Bowen described three methods for vast number of scientific articles published in the mean- the synthesis of the monomer BIS-GMA (3,4): time, the European Commission asked EFSA (European 1. Reaction between two moles of glycidyl methacry- a Food Safety Authority) to review the safety of BPA for use late with one mole of bisphenol A. A tertiary amine in materials in contact with food. was added to catalyze the addition of the pheno- The Panel of EFSA has issued an opinion in which the re- lic hydroxyl groups to the epoxide groups. This rn evaluation of BPA focused particularly on effects of BPA method (preferred by Bowen) is the simplest one on reproduction and on the endocrine (hormonal) system and can lead to the maintenance of both gly- (1). A great scientific debate has taken place about the cidylmethacrylate and BPA as impurities in quan- aforementioned effects.Therefore, the Panel concluded that tities instrumentally identified. te the NOAEL of 5 mg/kg bw/day remains valid. The Panel 2. Condensation of sodium salt of bisphenol A with also concluded that endocrine-system related effects of low- an equivalent amount of the reaction product of gly- doses of BPA in rodents have not been demonstrated in cidyl methacrylate and anhydrous hydrochloric acid. a robust and reproducible way, as some studies indicat- In During this reaction, sodium chloride is formed as ed major species differences between rodents and humans a by-product that could be washed away. Residu- in the way that BPA is handled in the body: humans more als of the bisphenol A salt are left in the final prod- rapidly metabolise and eliminate BPA than rats do and, in uct if excess glycidylmethacrylate is used during addition, mice are particularly sensitive to estrogens. Giv- the reaction and if the reaction is not allowed to be ni en, however, that BPA is a weak oestrogen, absence of ad- completed. These residuals may be in large quan- verse effects at doses of BPA equal or below 0.5 mg/kg tities, which may reach several g/g of substance bw/day derived from an important study on mice and two (able to induce estrogenic effects in vitro). io generations of their offspring added further certainty for 3. Reaction of glacial methacrylic acid with the digly- risk assessment. According to available scientific evidence cidyl ether of a bisphenol and a tertiary amine was and because of remaining doubts, the Panel applied a 100- added to catalyze the above reaction. Therefore fold uncertainty factor to establish TDI, that is usually used, methacrylate groups were attached to hydroxy glyc- iz and established for humans a full TDI of 0.05 mg / kg body eryl groups, which, in turn, were linked to phenoxy weight equal to 50 µg/kg body weight. groups. This synthetic method excludes the use of Thus, a child of 36 kg weight can take, without risks, a dai- bisphenol A. Any molecule of bisphenol A possibly Ed ly dose of BPA of 1800 g and an adult of 70 kg a dose of present in the final product comes from unreacted 3500 g. It has been estimated that the human dietary lev- impurities from the synthesis of diglycidyl ether of el of BPA is below 50 mg/kg/day TDI, infants and children bisphenol A. Good quality control measures in this included (Table 2). reaction are sufficient to avoid the presence of these Furthermore, a recent publication of the American CERHR unreacted portions, and today the majority of (Centre for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduc- manufacturers of dental composites prefer this syn- IC tion, 2007) agrees with the reassuring general conclusions thetic method as it leaves the fewest parts per mil- of the experts of the European Community. lion of BPA free or released in the final product. C Table 2 - Ideal bone substitute features. Age of consumer Food/Beverages consumed Dietary exposure to BPA based on conservative migration value (microgram/kg bw/day) © 3 month-old infant Breast milk only 0.2 3 month-old infant Infant formula fed with glass bottle 2.3 3 month-old infant Infant formula fed with PC bottle 11 6 month-old infant Infant formula fed with PC bottle and commercial foods/beverages 13 1.5 year-old 2 kg commercial foods/beverages 5.3 Adult 3 kg commercial foods/beverages 1.5 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 15 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 16 S. Eramo et al. b) As a degradation product of other ingredients in the oral Hamid and Hume in a study in vitro by HPLC did not iden- cavity conditions, the BPA may come, particularly but tify the presence of BPA in the eluate of seven dental not exclusively, from products containing bisphenol A sealants (Concise, Ultraseal, P & FS, Prisma Shield Com- dimethacrylate (Bis-DMA), since the latter is exposed pules, Helioseal F, Dentsply Delton and Delton J & J), but in the oral cavity to the BPA degradation, especially by stressed the release of TEGDME from Concise and He- i salivary esterases. lioseal(8). al c) As trace material, BPA can be used in the manufac- Carrying out an in vitro analysis using high-performance ture of other ingredients (bedsides Bis-GMA) in com- liquid chromatography (HPLC) for seven sealants (Delton, posites and sealants, therefore its residues may be Concise, Helioseal, PrismaShield, Seal-Rite I, Rite II and present in final products in case of poorly controlled Defender Seal), Nathanson et al. found that none of them on reactions. had released BPA, even if the BPA dimethacrylate was de- Obviously it is necessary to note that the composites and tected in the eluate of two commercial products (Delton sealants produced in Europe, Japan and in the U.S. must and Defender) as well as the presence of various other mol- meet strict standards determining the maximum amount of ecules (TEGDME, Bis-GMA, UDMA) (9). zi BPA released under the conditions of the oral cavity; fur- In 1999 some important contributions worth being taken thermore these standards are based on toxicological as- more carefully into consideration appear almost simulta- pects and not on those of estrogens (which require lower neously. doses to act). According to our point of view the problem Schafer et al., in an experimental work in vitro, confirm the a has therefore to be focused on four questions, to which an- potential estrogenicity of BPA and BPA dimethacrylate in swers will be given at the end of the review of the literature: micromolar concentrations in vitro (at doses that are, how- rn - is BPA released from composites and sealants? ever, 1,000 times higher than the estrogen reference, rep- - If yes, how much of it is released? resented by 17β-estradiol), both repeating the experiences - Might the released doses have estrogenic action? of Olea et al. and with the use of flow cytometry. They very - Is there a way to prevent the possible release? clearly stress that their conclusions are valid only “in vit- te ro“ and that “in vivo“ is necessary to investigate various con- troversial aspects and, in particular: Analysis of literature - how much the xenoestrogens are accumulated and Although it was known since the ‘30s that some diphenyl In metabolized; - what is the level of exposure of people to these com- compounds containing two hydroxyl groups in para posi- pounds; tion could show estrogenicity, only since the mid-90s, the - what exactly are the levels sufficient to cause adverse research has dealt with the possible estrogenic effects of reactions; ni BPA. This was generally due to the increased number of - how much the xenoestrogens have additive effects (10). studies on this compound, which is, as already noted, wide- Soderholm and Mariotti (3), in a comprehensive and pre- ly used in the synthesis of substances forming the inner cise review of the literature (already mentioned in this in- lining of many food containers and, in particular, to the in- troduction), not only present the synthesis of experimen- io creasing use of resin-based sealants and composites (both tal work that had appeared up until then on the release and for their intrinsic improvement and for their use in adhe- possible estrogenic action of BPA from dental products, but sive systems) (3,5). also explore for explanatory purposes three main areas: iz The first one addressing this issue in dentistry was a Span- chemistry and clinical use of Bis-GMA, steroids’ action in ish group of the University of Granada along with re- the body and in the oral cavity, the various theories about searchers at Tufts University of Boston: in this widely cit- how bisphenol A–based resins may affect estrogen-sen- Ed ed article the authors, studying the behaviour of three com- sitive tissues in the body. These authors concluded that posites and a sealant, reported that the release and the “based on existing research, we must accept that certain estrogenic activity of BPA and BPA dimethacrylate was only impurities may be present in some Bis-GMA–based due to the sealant(6). In particular, the authors conclud- resins, and these impurities, when released from restora- ed in a clinical trial on 18 subjects that the polymerized tions, are potentially estrogenic” but added that “the sealant (Delton) was able to release high doses into sali- amounts of bisphenol A that may be present as an impu- va (one hour period after treatment), ranging from 90 to rity or produced as a degradation product from dental IC 930 g of BPA and BPA dimethacrylate for 50 mg of com- restorations, including sealants, are quite small and far be- pound. These doses were more than sufficient to induce low the doses needed to affect the reproductive tract. estrogenic responses in a particular cell line. Authors con- Lewis et al., in a study in vitro carried out to identify the cluded that “the use of bis-GMA-based resins in dentistry, release of BPA and BPA dimethacrylate from 28 com- C and particularly the use of sealants in children, appears mercial dental products (20 composites and 8 sealants, to contribute to human exposure to xenoestrogens”. see Table 1) using HPLC, found no measurable released By return mail, Habib and Kugel, in a letter to the editor quantities of these compounds; the only exception was rep- of the magazine which had published the article by Olea resented by a sealant (Delton II) able to release amounts © et al. , criticized it, underlining in particular the need to un- of bisphenol capable of producing estrogenic responses dertake scientific studies in order to define the presence in vitro. The authors concluded, however, that “dental resins of risks and their possible gravity as well as the need to in general do not represent a significant source of BPA or avoid “emotional aspects and hysteria”(7). BAD exposure” (11). In the following years, the problem posed by Spanish au- Schmalz et al., in a trial in vitro conducted by HPLC on the thors does not seem to have raised, in fact, the said “hys- release of BPA from sealant monomers under different hy- teria” in dentistry, and even the dental scientific analyses drolytic conditions (variable pH values, esterase action, are rather reduced in number. pooled saliva for up to 24 hours) stress the importance of 16 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 17 Estrogenicity of bisphenol a released from sealants and composites: a review of the literature the conversion under these conditions of BPA into BPA action is probably linked to BPA dimethacrylate” and that dimethacrylate as well as how the majority of commercial “the possibilities of the BPA eluted from dental resin-based products did not contain any compounds (12). Authors con- materials mimicking natural steroid hormones are negli- cluded that the results reported by Olea et al. (6) may be gible” (15). attributed to the BPA-dimethacrylate content of Delton, but, Fung et al. have carried out an in vivo test on 40 adult vol- i on the other hand, no BPA release is expected under phys- unteers collecting saliva and blood samples at various in- al iological conditions from fissure sealants based on Bis- tervals (1h, 3h, 1 day, 3 days and 5 days) after sealant (Del- GMA if pure-base monomers are used. ton) placement and using HPLC to determine BPA con- The same research group, Arenholt-Bindslev et al., then centration; 18 patients constituted the low-dose group, re- conducted an in vivo analysis, placing two different types ceiving a single 8-mg dental sealant dose on one surface, on of fissure sealants (Delton and Visioseal) in 8 volunteers. while 22 patients constituted the high-dose group, receiving 5 ml of saliva were collected immediately, 1 hour and 24 a total dosage of 32 mg of sealant on four surfaces. This hours after placement of the fissure sealant. The saliva experience frankly seemed rather questionable in some samples analysis by HPLC found that small quantities of respects, from a dental point of view, because the authors zi BPA (0.3-2.8 ppm i.e. 0.3 to 2.8 mg/L, as the sample col- did not used a dental dam (as most of the other authors lected of 5 ml, the total quantity was 1.5-14 g) were de- cited did), did not immediately make a collection of fluid, tected in saliva samples collected only immediately after touched up the areas of sealant with rotary instruments, placement of Delton sealant; furthermore, in a recombi- and collected fluids in plastic containers (which can react a nant yeast cell assay, significantly increased estrogenic ac- with BPA). However, the authors, despite detected low con- tivity was found in saliva samples collected immediately centrations of BPA in saliva specimens collected at both rn after placement of Delton. The authors concluded that “BPA one and three hours immediately after sealant placement can be found in saliva samples collected immediately af- in saliva (from 5.8 to 105.6 parts per billion, i.e. g/L), and ter placement of Delton”, however, it is “considerably low- relying on the continued absence of measurements in blood er than the amount reported by other sealants. No de- and saliva samples after 24 hours, state that “that BPA re- te tectable amounts of BPA nor estrogenic activity were de- leased orally from a dental sealant may not be absorbed tected 1 hour after Delton treatment (13). or may be present in non-detectable amounts in systemic In 2000, the Olea group revived interest in research in this circulation, therefore, “the concern about potential estro- In field, showing that, despite the reassuring findings of pre- vious literature, BPA was released not only from the “usu- genicity of a sealant may be unfounded” (16). Manabe et al., using in vitro an original method of selec- al” Delton, but also from 7 others commercial composites tive extraction in combination with gas chromatography- currently used in dentistry (Pekalux, Charisma, SILUX plus, mass spectrometry, revealed that the composites and Z100, Tetric, Brilliant, Polofil). Using HPLC and gas chro- sealants examined released up to 91.4 ng of bisphenol- ni matography/mass spectrometry, the authors studied A/g material into a buffered saline solution, when poly- biphenolic molecules eluted from in vitro polymerized com- merized, during a 24-hour incubation. The authors con- mercial composites, with particular reference to BPA, and cluded that bisphenol-A can be released from dental ma- io found values of up to 1.8 g/g of polymerized materials. terials, however the leachable amount would be less than Such concentrations, underlined the authors, may have “bi- 1/1000 of the reported dose (2 g/kg body weight/day) re- ological effects, as have been demonstrated in in vivo ex- quired for xenoestrogenisity in vivo (17). perimental models (14). Al-Hiyasat et al., in an in vivo study, investigated the effect iz Tarumi et al., by means of the Reporter Gene Assay, in- of leached substances from dental composites on the fer- vestigated the endocrine response to three sealants tility of male mice. Using Z 100, the authors prepared 50 poly- (Delton, Defender and Teethmate) and 4 adhesive resins merized discs (for a weight of 3.9 g), immersed them in Ed (Linerbond, Scotchbond, Optibond Solo and AllBond). Two ethanol for 24 hours and sonicated them for 30 minutes. The of these sealants (Delton and Defender) were confirmed eluate evaporated the at 80°C. The obtained sediment was to have estrogenic activity, although none of the tested ma- dissolved in distilled water and intragastrically administered terials contained BPA. They concluded that “endocrine-like to 20 male mice. The procedure was repeated for 28 days Table 3 - Commercial dental products (from ref. 11). IC 1. Bisfil P Bisco, A 15. Prisma APH Caulk/Dentsply A 2. Brilliant Dentin Coltene/Whaledent A 16. Prisma TPH Caulk/Dentsply A 3. Charisma Kulzer, A 17. Prodigy Kerr A C 4. Clearfil PhotoPosterior Kuraray A 18. Silux Plus 3 M Dental Prod. A 5. Heliomolar Vivadent A 19. Tetric Vivadent, A 6. Herculite XRV Kerr/Sybron A 20. Z100 3 M Dental Products A 7. Lite-Fil II Shofu Dental A 21. Delton Base Dentsply/Ash, B © 8. Occlusin GC-America A 22. Delton Catalyst Dentsply/Ash, B 9. P-50 3 M Dental Products A 23. Delton LC Ash/Dentsply, B 10. Palfique Estilite Paste Tokuyama A 24. FluoroShield Caulk/Dentsply B 11. Pekafil NF Bayer Dental, Germany A 25. PermaSeal Ultradent Products B 12. Pekalux Bayer Dental, Germany A 26. Prisma•Shield Caulk/Dentsply B 13. Pertac-Hybrid ESPE A 27. Concise Opaque 3 M Dental Prod. B 14. PhotoClearfil Kuraray A 28. UltraSeal XT Ultradent Products B Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 17 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 18 S. Eramo et al. (while keeping the same 50 discs). The study of these var- Table 4 - Ideal bone substitute features. ious fertility tests enabled the authors to conclude that the components released from the composite under the above- Composites Manufacturer Estrogenic mentioned conditions “have an adverse effect on the fertil- activity in vitro ity and reproductive system of male mice” (18). Charisma Heraeus Kulzer X i Atkinson et al. conducted an in vitro investigation into the Flowline* Heraeus Kulzer X al stability of compounds usually found in dental sealants, us- Esthet X Dentsply/Caulk X ing gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry and Surefil Dentsply/Caulk X HPLC. Subsequently, standard BPA molecules BPA Spectrum Dentsply/DeTrey X dimethacrylate and TEGDMA (triethylene-glycol on Herculite Kerr dimethacrylate) were added to saliva. The authors found Prodigy Kerr that free BPA in saliva is stable while the BPA dimethacry- Revolution* Kerr X late is rapidly converted to BPA which can slow this process. Clearfil APX Kuraray This process is significantly influenced by decreasing sali- Clearfil ST Kuraray zi vary pH and temperature (19). Palfique Estelite Tokuyama In an interesting article, Kostoryz et al. studied in vitro the Palfique Toughwell Tokuyama cytotoxic, mutagenic and estrogenic effects of hydroxylated Palfique Estelite LV* Tokuyama metabolites of BisGMA and BFDGE (bisphenol F diglycidyl Litefil IIA SHOFU a ether, a molecule found in many oxirane composites), re- Beautifil SHOFU spectively represented by Bisphenol A bis (2,3-dihydrox- Unifil F GC rn ypropyl) ether and bisphenol F bis (2,3-dihydroxypropyl) Z250 3M ether. The study showed that they neither have estrogenic Filtek Flow* 3M effects nor are mutagenic, and presented a lower cyto- Glacier SDI toxicity. They were non-mutagenic, non-estrogenic, and pre- Wave* SDI te sented minor cytotoxicity (20). Heliomolar Vivadent Tetric Ceram Vivadent Using a reporter gene assay, Nomura et al. tested in vit- Tetric Flow* Vivadent ro for estrogenic activity three monomers (Bis-GMA, Progress Kanebo UDMA and TEGDME) and five polymerization initiators (camphorquinone (CQ), benzoyl peroxide (BPO), di- In * Flowable composites. methyl-para-toluidine (DMPT), 2-dimethylamino-ethyl- methacrylate (DMAEMA), and 1-allyl-2-thiourea (ATU)). Two of the products (BPO and DMPT) even showed reduced effects of composites is necessary, although the release ni estrogenic activity in vitro (21). Al-Hiyasat et al., in a similar article to the one already men- of estrogenic compounds from composites is basically un- tioned (Al-Hiyasat et al., 2002) (18), suggested that desirable“. leached components from a resin-based dental compos- Sasaki et al., in an in vivo study using the ELISA system, io ite (Z-100) “have adverse effects on the fertility and re- investigated the changes in the BPA concentration in the productive system of female mice”(22). The same Jordanian saliva of 21 volunteers after restoration with composite group made up by Darmani et al., no longer studying the resins (of constant weight of 0.1 grams). Nine commercially iz composite eluate but directly the BPA dimethacrylate ad- available products were used in this study: (Z100, ministered intragastrically in doses ranging from 5 to 100 Progress, Palfique, Metafile Flo, UNIFIL S, Beautifil, µg /µg body weight, showed significant adverse effects on Xeno CFII, Prodigy, Clearfil ST). Thanks to this method, Ed the fertility and reproductive systems of male and female the authors found BPA concentrations ranging from 15 to mice (23). 100 ng/ml of saliva (in other words in 1 ml of saliva, a re- Takahashi et al. demonstrated that the release of BPA from leased amount equal to 0.15-1 g/g of substance was pres- polycarbonate crowns also demonstrated that the hTERT ent). It is interesting to find that sufficient gargling, if car- (human telomerase catalytic subunit mRNA) is a possible ried out immediately after polymerization, can quickly re- target test to evaluate the estrogenicity of the PBA (24). move BPA completely from the oral cavity (26). Also of great interest is the article by Wada et al., published Joskow et al. conducted a study in vivo on the release of IC in the well known Journal of Dental Research in which the BPA from two sealants (Delton and Helioseal): after Japanese authors tested the hypothesis that commercial sealant placement in 14 volunteers they measured BPA in composites, which contain various monomers and addi- saliva and urine samples collected at prescribed intervals tives, may exhibit estrogenic activity in vitro. The estrogenic immediately after, after an hour and after 24 hours. The C activity of eluates obtained from 24 resin composites placed sealants were tested using a gas chromatograph-high res- into a steel mould (5 mm diameter and 1.5 mm high), and olution mass spectrometer. The authors detected differences 18 chemicals with concentration equal to 100 nmol/L iden- between the salivary BPA concentrations of Delton (large tified from the composites tested, were examined with the amounts, also present one hour later in the urine) and He- © use of the reporter gene assay (25). lioseal-treated patients one hour after sealant placement. They revealed estrogenic activity in vitro for six of the 24 This conclusion of this article is particularly interesting as composites (Table 4, active composites are shown with X), the authors (hosted by the ADA official journal) stated that and three of the 18 constituents: a photostabilizer (HMBP), “Dental sealants may be a point source for low-level BPA a photoinitiator (DMPA) and an inhibitor (BHT) (Table 5). exposure at levels that show health effects in rodents. Fur- The authors wisely concluded that “the clinical relevance ther research is required to determine whether human ex- of the results of the present in vitro study remains unclear“ posure to BPA at these levels causes adverse effects” (27). and that “further investigation into the in vivo estrogenic Eliades et al. did not discover release of BPA by HPLC from 18 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 19 Estrogenicity of bisphenol a released from sealants and composites: a review of the literature Table 5 - Ideal bone substitute features. Formula Abbreviations Estrogenicity Monomers 2,2-bis[4-(3-methacryloxy-2-hydroxypropoxy)-phenyl]-propane Bis-GMA i Urethane dimethacrylate UDMA al Triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate TEGDMA Diethyleneglycol dimethacrylate DEGDMA Ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate EGDMA on Initiators Camphorquinone CQ 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone DMPA X zi Photostabilizers 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone HMBP X 2-(2-benzotriazolyl)-p-cresol TIN-P 2-(2'-hydroxy-5'-tert-octylphenyl) benzotriazole TIN 320 a Inhibitors rn 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol BHT X 4-methoxyphenol HQME Co-initiators te 4-dimethylaminobenzoic acid ethyl ester DMABEE 4-dimethylaminobenzoic acid 2-n-butoxyethyl ester DMABBEE 4-dimethylaminobenzoic acid 2-ethylhexyl ester DMABEHE 2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate DMAEMA N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine In DMPT N-(2-cyanoethyl)-N-methylaniline CEMA ni two types of composite (Rely-a-bond and Reliance) in- be performed in dentistry in order to avoid the absorption tended for the fitting of an orthodontic bracket. (28,29) by the patient of the monomers and, in particular, the re- In a selective review of the literature, Azarpazhooh and lease of BPA from sealants and composites. io Main, working on the assumption that the “release of den- Rueggeberg et al. conducted research to examine the ef- tal sealant components such as BPA has the potential to fectiveness of 5 treatments (carried out for 20 seconds) in bind the estrogen receptors of relevant cells at sub-toxic eliminating the residual monomer amount of the surface iz concentrations“, instead investigated whether the place- of freshly polymerized sealants. They found that the use ment of pit- and fissure-sealant materials causes toxicity, of pumice in cup eliminates on average 95%, while and thus harms patients (30). pumice on cotton ball 93%, dry cotton 89%, wet cotton Ed Having identified 377 articles in the literature related to this 86%, and an air/water spray removed 68%. The authors topic, the authors chose 11 of them, under strict exclusion concluded that it appears that the most effective method criteria, to be investigated (though 15 studies have been of removing the air-inhibited layer from sealants after their assessed). From the comparison of these studies, the au- placement is to apply a mild abrasive (pumice) in combi- thors concluded that “that patients are not at risk for ex- nation with some sort of mechanical energy (a hand scrub posure to BPA from the use of dental sealants”, however, with a cotton roll or an air-driven prophylaxis cup) (32). “to reduce the potential for BPA toxicity from sealants, den- Schafer et al. emphasize the possibility of treating the sur- IC tal providers should use simple clinical procedures. face of freshly polymerized sealants with mild abrasive and Gioka et al. examined the structure, composition and es- by means of a prophylaxis cup to remove residual free trogenic effects in vitro of particles obtained from the drilling monomer (33). of two types of orthodontic composite (System 1 + and Blu- Sasaki et al., as we mentioned before, noticed in their ex- C gloo). In particular, they investigated the estrogenicity of periments that 30 seconds’ gargling with warm water was the eluate obtained after one months’ immersion, carried sufficient to almost completely remove the BPA released out by grinding in saline solution in contact with an estro- from tested composites (26). gen-responsive cell line (MCF-7). Both the adhesives At the end of their review of the literature, Azarpazhooh © showed estrogenic effects in vitro, and proliferation rates and Main recommended that dental providers avoid the po- of MCF-7 cells increased by 160% and 128%, compared tential for BPA toxicity from the dental sealants by treat- to the control. The authors concluded that, apart from the ing their polymerized surface layer using one of the fol- potentially hazardous action of adhesive aerosol particu- lowing procedures: late produced by grinding, composite resin particulates may • using a mild abrasive, such as pumice, either on a cot- act as “endocrinological disruptors“ (31). ton applicator or with a prophylaxis cup The last bibliographic consideration is the limited number • having older children and adolescents gargle with tepid of articles that dealt with the preventive activities that can water for 30 seconds Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 19 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 20 S. Eramo et al. • washing the surface of the sealant for 30 seconds with 1996 104: 808. an air-water syringe while using suction to remove flu- 8. Hamid A, Hume WR. A study of component release from ids and debris from a child’s mouth (30). resin pit and fissure sealants in vitro. Dent Mater 1997 13(2):98–102. 9. Nathanson D, Lertpitayakun P, Lamkin MS, Edalatpour M and Chou LL In vitro elution of leachable components from i Conclusion dental sealants. J Am Dent Assoc 1997 128;1517-1523. al Regarding the four initial questions, the conclusions that 10. Schafer TE, Lapp CA, Hanes CM, Lewis JB, Wataha JC, Schuster GS. Estrogenicity of bisphenol A and bisphenol A we can draw from analysis of the literature are the following: dimethacrylate in vitro. J Biomed Mater Res 1999 45:192- - BPA can be effectively released from composites and on 197. sealants. 11. Lewis JB, Rueggeberg FA, Lapp CA, Ergle JW e Schuster - In the literature, released doses vary greatly between GS. Identification and characterization of estrogen-like com- composites (very low releases of between 0 and 1-2 ponents in commercial resin-based dental restorative ma- g) and sealants. In the first investigation on this sub- terials. Clin Oral Invest 1999 3:107–113. zi ject, the amount released reached a maximum of 930 12. Schmalz G, Preiss A, Arenholt-Bindslev D. Bisphenol-A g per dose of 50 mg sealant. This amount was nev- content of resin monomers and related degradation prod- er reached in subsequent researches which never re- ucts. Clin Oral Invest 1999 3:114–9. vealed releases or, if there were any, the doses were a 13. Arenholt-Bindslev D, Breinholt V, Preiss A, Schmalz G. from 10 to 100 times lower (1-10 g). Time-related bisphenol-A content and estrogenic activity in - The maximum doses that may be released may ac- saliva samples collected in relation to placement of fissure rn tually have estrogenic action in vitro (i.e., on “sensitized” sealants. Clin Oral Invest 1999 3:120–125. cells), but it is necessary to note that, compared to a 14. Pulgar R, Olea-Serrano MF, Novillo-Fertrell A, Rivas A, maximum release of 930 micrograms of BPA from the Pazos P, Pedraza V, Navajas J M and Olea N. Determination “worst” sealant, under the European regulations a child of Bisphenol A and Related Aromatic Compounds Re- te of 36 kg can tolerate a daily dose of over 1800 g BPA leased from Bis-GMA-Based Composites and Sealants by without any risks, while a teenager of 50 kg can tol- High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Environ Health erate a dose of 2500 g. It should be emphasized that Perspect 2000 108:21-27. 15. Tarumi H, Imazato S, Narimatsu M, Matsuo M, Ebisu S. Es- uted, up to a maximum of four times. In any acute dose of sealant is usually single or distrib- trogenicity of fissure sealants and adhesive resins deter- - It is impossible to prevent release, but it is possible to mined by reporter gene assay. J Dent Res 2000 79:1838–1843. prevent the absorption of BPA by the patient. In this re- 16. Fung EY, Ewoldsen NO, St Germain HA, Marx DB, Miaw gard, we would suggest not only employing one or CL, Siew C, Chou HN, Gruninger SE, Meyer DM Pharma- ni more of the mechanical methods proposed by differ- cokinetics of bisphenol A released from a dental sealant. ent authors, but especially (and perhaps these authors J Am Dent Assoc 2000 131(1):51-8. implied this) the use of a dental dam. 17. Manabe A, Kaneko S, Numazawa S, Itoh K, Inoue M, Finally, here below is a statement from the ADA (2008): io Hisamitsu H, Sasa R,Yoshida T. Detection of bisphenol-A in “There is also evidence that some dental sealants, and to dental materials by gas chromatography-mass spectrome- a lesser extent dental composites, may contribute to very try. Dent Mater J. 2000 19(1):75-86. low-level BPA exposure. The ADA fully supports contin- 18. Al-Hiyasat AS, Darmani H, Elbetieha AM. Effects of resin iz ued research into the safety of BPA but, based on current based dental composites on fertility of male mice. Eur J Oral evidence, the ADA does not believe there is a basis for Sci 2002 110(1):44–7. health concerns relative to BPA exposure from any den- 19. Atkinson JC, Diamond F, Eichmiller F, Selwitz R, Jones G. Ed tal material“. Stability of bisphenolA, triethylene-glycol dimethacrylate, and bisphenol A dimethacrylate in whole saliva. Dent Mater 2002 18(2):128–35. References 20. Kostoryz EL, Eick JD, Glaros AG, Judy BM, Welshons WV, Burmaster S e Yourtee DM. Biocompatibility of Hydroxylated 1. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority). Bisphenol A for use Metabolites of BISGMA and BFDGE. J Dent Res 2003 in food contact materials EFSA Journal 2006; 428: 10-75. 82(5):367-371. IC 2. Staples C.A., Dorn P.B., Klecka G.M., O’Block S.T. and Har- 21. Nomura Y, Ishibashi H, Miyahara M, Shinohara R, Shiraishi ris L.R. A review of the environmental fate, effects and ex- F, Arizono K. Effects of dental resin metabolites on estro- posures of bisfenol A Chemosphere 1998 36(10): genic activity in vitro. J Mater Sci Mater Med 2003 2149-2173. 14(4):307–10. C 3. Soderholm KJ and Mariotti A. BisGMA based resins in den- 22. Al-Hiyasat AS, Darmani H, Elbetieha AM. Leached compo- tistry: Are they safe? J Am Dent Assoc 1999 130:201-209. nents from dental composites and their effects on fertility of 4. Bowen RL, inventor. Method of preparing a monomer hav- female mice. Eur J Oral Sci 2004 112(3):267–72. ing phenoxy and methacrylate groups linked by hydroxy 23. Darmani H, AS. Al-Hiyasat. Reproductive toxic effect of glycerol groups. U.S. patent 1965 3179623. April. bisphenol A dimethacrylate in Mice. J Biomed Mater Res © 5. Dodds EC, Lawson W. Synthetic estrogenic agents without 2004 69A: 637–643. the phenanthrene nucleus. Nature 1936 137:996. 24. Takahashi A, Higashino F, Aoyagi M, Kyo S, Nakata T, Noda 6. Olea N, Pulgar R, Perez P, Olea-Serrano F, Rivas A, Novillo- M, Shindoh M, Kohgo T and Sano H. Bisphenol A from Den- Fertrell A, Padranza V, Soto AM, Sonnenschein C. Estro- tal Polycarbonate Crown Upregulates the Expression of genicity of resin-based composites and sealants used in hTERT. J Biomed Mater Res 2004 71B: 214–221. dentistry. Environ Health Perspect 1996 104:298-305. 25. Wada H, Tarumi H, Imazato S, Narimatsu M and Ebisu S. In 7. Habib CM and Kugel G. Estrogenicity of Resin-based Com- vitro Estrogenicity of Resin Composites. J Dent Res 2004 posites and Sealants in Dentistry. Environ Health Perspect 83 (3):,222-226. 20 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 0024 4 Estrogenicity_Eramo:- 10-02-2011 11:47 Pagina 21 Estrogenicity of bisphenol a released from sealants and composites: a review of the literature 26. Sasaki N, Okuda K, Kato T, Kakishima H, Okuma H, Abe K. 30. Azarpazhooh A and Main PA. Is There a Risk of Harm or Salivary bisphenol-A levels detected by ELISA after restora- Toxicity in the Placement of Pit and Fissure Sealant Mate- tion with composite resin. J Mater Sci Mater Med 2005 rials? A Systematic Review. J Can Dent Assoc 2008 74 (2): 16(4):297–300. 179- 183. 27. Joskow R, Barr DB, Barr JR, Calafat AM, Needham LL, 31. Gioka C, Eliades T, Zinelis S, Pratsinis H, Athanasiou AE, Rubin C. Exposure to bisphenol A from bis-glycidyl Eliades G, Kletsas D. Characterization and in vitro estro- i dimethacrylate-based dental sealants. J Am Dent Assoc; genicity of orthodontic adhesive particulates produced by al 2006 137(3):353–62. simulated debonding. Dent Mater 2009 25: 376–382. 28. Eliades T, Hiskia A, Eliades G, Athanasiou AE. Assessment 32. Rueggeberg FA, Dlugokinski M, Ergle JW. Minimizing pa- of bisphenol-A release from orthodontic adhesives. Am J tients’ exposure to uncured components in a dental sealant. on Orthod Dentofacial Orthop; 2007a 131:72–5. J Am Dent Assoc 1999 130(12):1751–7. 29. Eliades T, Gioni V, Kletsas D, Athanasiou AE, Eliades G. 33. Schafer TE, Lapp CA, Hanes CM, Lewis JB. What parents Oestrogenicity of orthodontic adhesive resins. Eur J Orthod; should know about estrogen-like compounds in dental ma- 2007b 29:404–7. terials. Pediatr Dent 2000 22(1):75–6. a zi rn te In ni io iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 14-21 21 

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Interceptive therapy with elastodontic appliance: case report i al on Giuseppina Laganà, DDS1 mandibular advancement in order to correct Class II sa- Paola Cozza, MD, DMD2 gittal discrepancies, concurrently with a vertical opening in the anterior region to provide a greater vertical deve- lopment of the posterior teeth. Positioners usually achie- University of “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy ve minor tooth movement after orthodontic treatment as zi 2 Professor and Head Department of Orthodontics a result of the elastomeric material (4,5). 1 Assistant Professor Department of Orthodontics Class II malocclusion correction with eruption guidance ap- pliances produces the following statistically significant chan- na ges: increase in mandibular growth and degree of man- Corresponding author: dibular protrusion, increase in lower anterior and total an- Dott.ssa Giuseppina Laganà terior face height, lingual tipping and retrusion of the ma- Via G. Baglivi, 5/E xillary incisors, protrusion of the mandibular incisors, in- 00161 Rome, Italy creased mandibular molar mesial drifting and mandibular er Phone: mob +39 335 5310894 - Fax +39 06 44232321 posterior dentoalveolar height, improvement in maxillo- E-mail: giuseppinalagana@libero.it mandibular and molar relationships, decrease in overjet and overbite and inhibition of the vertical development of the maxillary incisors (5). Summary Interceptive therapy with elastodontic appliance: case report. nt Aim of this report is to describe a case of a patient with class II skeletal and dental malocclusion, severe deep bite, increased overjet, retrognatic and gummy smile. This case iI Aim of this report is to describe a case of a patient in was solved during mixed dentition by using just Occlus- mixed dentition with dento-skeletal class II malocclu- o-guide®. sion, deep bite, increased overjet and gummy smile. In this kind of clinical case the objectives of treatment on were: to correct the dento-skeletal malocclusion, to ob- Materials and methods tain a correct overbite and overjet, to control the per- manent teeth in a good eruption, to improve aesthetical The subject, F.B., a 9 year-old Caucasian female, was se- conditions and to maintain clinical results. lected from the Department of Orthodontics, University of Treatment plan included just Occlus-o-guide ®, the type i Rome ‘Tor Vergata’. The subject satisfied the following se- that is indicated for mixed dentition (G type). The active iz lection criteria: 9-11 years of age, mixed dentition, over- phase of therapy was conducted in twelve months and jet>3 mm, overbite>3 mm, skeletal Class II malocclusion the retention time was two years. Then the patient was (ANB>4°), retrognathic mandible (SNB<78°), no history of controlled every three months and she used the appli- Ed previous orthodontic therapy. Radiographs data were ta- ance nighttime in alternance for one year more. ken before (T0), after 12 months of active therapy (T1) and Occlus-o-guide ® was the indicated appliance to obtain all the objectives requested to solve the malocclusion. after 24 months of retention (T2). Her medical history sho- The early therapy with Occlus-o-guide ® is easy, short wed nothing remarkable. The patient’s face was symme- and most of treated cases don’t need a second phase of tric with gummy smile and low retrognatic profile (Figs. 1,2). orthodontic therapy. Clinical examination showed right and left class II molar relationship, no crowding in mandibular arch, increased IC Key words: elastodontics, deep bite, interceptive ther- overjet, severe deep bite, coincident midlines. apy. Arches analysis showed a mixed dentition presenting in maxilla: right and left first molar, permanent right and left central incisor, permanent right and left lateral incisor, right C and left cuspid in eruption, right and left first bicuspid and Introduction right and left deciduous second molar. In mandibular arch right and left first molar, permanent right and left central A new approach of interceptive treatment is “elastodon- incisor, permanent right and left lateral incisor, right and © tics” that is a particular type of orthodontic treatment using left cuspid, right and left first bicuspid in eruption, right and removable appliances made with silicone elastomer. The left deciduous second molar were observed (Figs 3,4,5). appliances are simple in construction and function, easy No problems in opening and closure movements could be to use and safe; in mixed dentition the indicated applian- noticed. ce is Occlus-o-guide® G type (1,2,3). Orthopantomography analysis showed all permanent te- Eruption guidance appliances present the combined cha- eth at different formation stages and second upper and lo- racteristics of a functional appliance and a positioner. The wer right and left deciduous molars (Fig. 6). characteristics attributed to functional appliances are Cephalometric analysis (Fig. 7) revealed a skeletal Class 22 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28  Interceptive therapy with elastodontic appliance: case report i al on zi Figure 3 - Occlusion in frontal view (T0). na er nt iI Figure 4 - Occlusion in right lateral view (T0). Figure 1 - Face and smile (T0). i on iz Ed IC Figure 5 - Occlusion in left lateral view (T0). II malocclusion with mandibular retrusion (ANB=5, Nperp- C Pg=-7) in a hypodivergent subject (FH^MP=22), dental deep bite (overbite=6 mm), increased overjet (overjet=6 mm), proclination of lower incisor and reclination of upper incisor (IMPA=100, U1^FH=108), alteration of profile © (Nasolabial=112) (Table 1). The subject’s skeletal matu- rity was the prepubertal stage of CS2. In this clinical situation the treatment’s objectives were: - to treat class II malocclusion; - to control bicuspids and canines eruption; - to obtain a correct overbite and overjet; - to improve gummy smile and profile; Figure 2 - Profile (T0). - to maintain long-term clinical results. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28 23  G. Laganà et al. i al on zi na Figure 6 - Orthopantomography before treatment (T0). er nt iI i on iz Ed IC Figure 7 - Latero-lateral teleradiography before treatment (T0). C Treatment plan included just Occlus-o-guide® G type (Fig. rapy. A check on her cooperation was made by an evident 8). The active phase of therapy was totally conducted in change of the appliance material: the appliance colour is twelve months: the patient was instructed to use the ap- made to alter according to the number of hours it is used. pliance nighttime and two hours during the day. These two Initial problems with use of Occlus-o-guide® included only © hours were divided into four periods of half an hour. In each excessive salivation: this effect, however, gradually redu- period the patient had to bite into the appliance keeping ced after few days. the lips in contact. For the last twelve months the patient used Occlus-o-guide® just nighttime without exercises. Then the patient was controlled every three months and she used Results the appliance nighttime in alternance for one year more. Good collaboration was obtained by the patient observed In the examined case correction of class II malocclusion, in control visit once a month in all the time of active the- increased overjet, crowding and deep bite can be obser- 24 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28  Interceptive therapy with elastodontic appliance: case report Table 1 - Cephalometric analysis before treatment (T0), after one year of active treatment (T1) and after two years of retention (T2). Sagittal skeletal T0 T1 T2 SNA (°) 78 77 79 i SNB (°) 73 74 76 al ANB (°) 5 3 3 Nperp-A (mm) 6 6 6 Nperp-Pg (mm) -7 -6 2 on Co-A (mm) 88 90 94 Co-Gn (mm) 105 107 110 Vertical skeletal zi FH^MP (°) 22 21 24 Figure 8 - Occlus-o-guide® G type. FH^OP (°) 8 12 8 PP^MP (°) 27 30 26 N-ANS (mm) 53 55 55 na ANS-Me (mm) 58 61 61 Clinical analysis of occlusion shows the good correction N-Me (mm) 112 118 118 of dental class II malocclusion, overjet and overbite as- Co-Go (mm) 40 44 54 sociated with good eruption of posterior teeth (Figs Gonial angle (°) 123 127 128 11,12,13). Cephalometric analysis two years later the end of active er Maxillary dentoalveolar treatment revealed the solution of skeletal class II ma- locclusion (ANB=3), control of divergence (FH^MP=22), U1^FH (°) 108 112 112 good proclination of upper and lower incisor (U1^FH=112, U1^Pt A vert (mm) 1,5 4 5 U1 horizontal (mm) U1 vertical (mm) U6 horizontal (mm) 48 28 15 49 28 16 49 28 13 nt IMPA=100), normal overbite (overbite=2 mm) and overjet (overjet=3 mm) and important improvement of aesthetical values analysis (Nasolabial angle=110, UL-LE= -3, LL-LE= 0) (Table 1) (Figs 14,15). iI U6 vertical (mm) 18 18 21 At the end of therapy, after three years, the patient Mandibular dentoalveolar shows correct intercuspidation, no crowding, normal overjet and overbite, right and left class I canine and mo- on IMPA (°) 100 101 100 lar and skeletal maturity postpubertal stage of CS5. L1^Pt A-Pg (mm) 2 3 3 L1 horizontal (mm) 50 56 56 L1 vertical (mm) 25 30 32 Discussion L6 horizontal (mm) 21 25 26 i L6 vertical (mm) 20 22 22 In the case treated by using Occlus-o-guide® the overbi- iz te was simply corrected: the forces induced into the ap- Interdental pliance are orthopaedic and they generate 150 to 600 pounds per square inch in the upper jaw. These forces con- Ed Interincisal (°) 124 125 126 trol vertical and horizontal growth of the maxilla, allowing Overjet (mm) 6 3 3 posterior teeth to erupt more than anterior teeth (6,7). Overbite (mm) 6 2 2 Timing is therefore very important for successful in early Molar relationship (mm) -1 1 2 preventive treatment and it seems to be more critical in L1 vertical (mm) 25 30 32 overbite than in overjet correction. Proper retention of ear- L6 horizontal (mm) 21 ly preventive overbite correction seems to be dependent L6 vertical (mm) 20 22 22 on two different factors: collagenous fiber formation, par- IC Soft tissue ticular interseptal, and alveolar and vertical jaw growth. Cor- rect time for proper fiber formation occurs when treatment UL-EL (mm) 0 -4 -3 is initiated before or during active tooth eruption without LL-EL (mm) 2 -2 0 any occlusal contact of opposing teeth (6). C Nasolabial angle (°) 112 104 110 Conclusions © The right choose of clinical case is the most important mo- ved associated with good aesthetical results of profile and ment of therapy with Occlus-o-guide®. Different Authors correction of gummy smile. The profile analysis revealed show solved clinical cases and suggest to use Occlus- an excellent result and it is possible to observe the reso- o-guide® in non-extraction malocclusion cases with per- lution of gummy smile (Figs 9,10). The correction of ske- manent canines and bicuspids at the start of eruption, in letal class II malocclusion was obtained in twelve months order to correct overbite and overjet problems of any se- just using Occlus-o-guide® at the right time of eruption of verity (6,1,8,9). permanent teeth. Careful supervision of the developing dentition and oc- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28 25  G. Laganà et al. i al on zi Figure 11 - Occlusion in frontal view (T2). na er Figure 9 - Face and smile (T2). nt iI on Figure 12 - Occlusion in right lateral view (T2). i iz Ed IC Figure 13 - Occlusion in left lateral view (T2). C clusion, correct diagnosis, correct choose of clinical case and right time of treatment are important considerations to obtain good results and to prevent complications. The © patient’s collaboration is essential with this kind of thera- py and younger subjects are usually better patients than teenagers (10,11). Occlus-o-guide® is a safe appliance that gives clinical re- sults in few months of patient collaboration. As other type of interceptive therapies it can substantially avoid future problems that a deep bite can create and reduce the real Figure 10 - Profile (T2). “risk” of orthodontic fixed appliances. 26 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28  Interceptive therapy with elastodontic appliance: case report i al on zi na Figure 14 - Orthopantomography after two years of retention (T2). er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C Figure 15 - Latero-lateral teleradiography after two years of retention (T2). References 3. Skomro P. Orthodontic appliance made from silicone ela- © stomer, evaluated clinically and from patients opinions after 1. Corbett MC. Class II treatment with elastodontics. J Clin Or- treatment for malocclusion. Ann Acad Med Stetin thod 1992;26(7):419-424. 2000;46:293-304. 2. Methenitou S, Shein B, Ramanathan G, Bergersen EO. The 4. Janson G, Alves da Silva CC, Bergersen EO, Castanha prevention of overbite and overjet development in the 3 to 8 Henriques JF, Pinzan A. Eruption guidance appliance ef- year old by controlled nighttime guidance of incisal erup- fects in the treatment of Class II, Division 1 malocclu- tion: a study of 43 individuals. The Journal of Pedodontics sions. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2000;117(2): 1990;4(14):219-230. 119-129. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28 27  G. Laganà et al. 5. Janson G, Nakamura A, Chiqueto K, Castro R, de Freitas 1985;2 (1):17-33. MR, Castanha Henriques JF. Treatment stability with the 8. Cunat JJ, Strychalski ID, Warunek SP. The use of silicone eruption guidance appliance. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Or- elastomeric positioner-type appliances in space closure: thop 2007;131(6): 717-728. three case reports. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthopedic 6. Bergersen EO. Preventive and interceptive orthodontics in 1991;100(4):306-11. the mixed dentition with the myofunctional eruption gui- 9. Rollet D, Graindorge JC, Guenzennec P. A new concept: ela- i dance appliance: correction of overbite and overjet. Journal stodontics. Rev Orthop Dento Faciale 1991; 25(2):149-167. al of Pedodontics 1988;12(2):292-324. 10. Viazis AD: Efficient orthodontic treatment timing. Am J Or- 7. Bergersen EO. The eruption guidance myofunctional ap- thod Dentofacial Orthop 1995;108(5):560-1. pliance: case selection, timing, motivation, indications and 11. Rondeau BH. Class II malocclusion in mixed dentition. J on contraindications in its use. The Functional Orthodontist Clin Pediatr Dent 1994;19(1):1-11. zi na er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © 28 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 22-28 

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Patient satisfaction with oral implant rehabilitation: evaluation of responses to a questionnaire i al on Susanna Annibali, MD, DDS1 (64.5%) and swelling, when present, was generally mod- Anna Rita Vestri, MD2 erate (48.1%) and seldom was marked (17.3%). Patients Annalisa Pilotto, DDS1 were very satisfied about the aesthetics (82.7%) and Gerardo La Monaca, DDS, PhD1 function (94.2%), and considered the implant prosthe- Stefano Di Carlo MD, DDS3 sis to be part of themselves (84.6%). Most of the patients zi Maria Paola Cristalli, DDS, PhD1 considered the implant prostheses to be easy to clean (73.1%), and would repeat the treatment if necessary (86.5%) and recommend it to other people (94.2%). Conclusions. Although the present study is limited by na “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy 1 Department of Odontostomatological the small sample, the outcomes suggest that oral im- plant rehabilitation meets patients’ needs and aesthetic and Maxillofacial Sciences, Oral Surgery Unit demands. 2 Department of Experimental Medicine 3 Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Key words: patient opinion, oral implants, patient satis- er Sciences, Prosthetic Rehabilitation Unit faction, function, aesthetics. Corresponding author: Dott. Gerardo La Monaca Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences nt Introduction Prosthetic rehabilitation of people with missing teeth is one iI “Sapienza” University of Rome of the most complex topics in dentistry due to its gnatho- Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy logical, psychosocial, aesthetic and functional implications. Phone: +39-06-49976651 The loss of teeth can represent a severe handicap that di- E-mail: gerrylamonaca@tiscali.it on rectly impacts on the quality of life. Teeth serve both as part of the masticatory system and also greatly contribute to phonetics, functions and aesthetics (1). Summary In the past, the psychological reactions of people to tooth Patient satisfaction with oral implant rehabilitation: eval- loss generated little concern, with most of them adapting i uation of responses to a questionnaire. to replacement prostheses such as crowns, bridges and iz dentures (2). Nowadays attitudes are different; for psy- Aim. This pilot study evaluated patients’ experience of chological and functional reasons, many patients prefer an oral surgical and prosthetic procedures as well as their implant restorative procedure. Implants improve retention Ed opinions regarding function, aesthetics, comfort, and and stability of the complete dentures, thereby providing satisfaction with treatment outcomes. functional, psychological and social advantages, and Materials and methods. Forty-nine subjects treated with partial fixed reconstructions avoid the need to prepare in- oral implants completed questionnaires comprising 44 tact adjacent teeth (3,4). Additional positive factors are pre- questions. Three questionnaires were used related to im- venting continuous alveolar bone resorption, preserving plant-supported single-tooth, fixed implant-supported ridge heigh and width, and improving aesthetics, especially prostheses and implant-retained overdentures. The in anterior regions (5,6). IC questions related to demographic data (age, sex, em- Most of the recent studies have focused on the clinical ployment, marital status and educational level), the aspects of osseointegration (7,9,11) without considering source of information, the reason they underwent im- patients’ attitudes toward implant treatment and their opi- plant treatment, the discomfort related to all phases of nions about aesthetics, function, comfort and satisfaction. C treatment, and their functional and aesthetic satisfaction. The present pilot study evaluated patients’ experiences of Results. Most of the patients (53.8%) were employed and surgical and prosthetic procedures as well as their opinions had received a high school certificate or a university regarding function, aesthetics, comfort, and satisfaction with diploma. Patients heard about implants from various sources, including referring dentists (55.8%), relatives treatment outcomes. © and friends (23.1%), and television, radio and the Inter- net (17.3%). The main reasons for choosing implant treatment were restoring lost teeth (35,5%), following Materials and methods dentist’s advice (33,3%), improving stability of the re- movable denture (15.4%), eating habits (13.5%) and aes- At the Oral Surgery Unit of the Odontostomatological and thetics (1.9%). Most patients considered that the Maxillofacial Department - “Sapienza” University of Rome procedure took a long time (44.2%) but was not trau- from September 2008 to September 2009, 49 patients (with matic (62.5%). Pain was almost absent in most cases 128 implants) were selected for implants procedures; they 2 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8  Patient satisfaction with oral implant rehabilitation: evaluation of responses to a questionnaire i al on zi na er Figure 1 - Distribution of patients by age. underwent first stage surgery to insert one or more im- assessed chewing function. Questions 39 to 44 of the im- plants. After about 5 months they underwent second sta- plant-supported overdenture questionnaire assessed pro- ge of surgery to insert abutments and to take impressions. Prosthesis took about one month to be completed. After about four mounths prosthetic treatment was completed, nt sthesis stability and phonetics. The relatively small sample made it impossible to valida- te the questionnaires. The standard statistical and data ma- iI they were asked to fill in a questionnaires on their opinions nagement package SPSS (version 16.0 for Windows XP) about the effectiveness of the implant restorative proce- was used for descriptive statistical analysis. Mean and stan- dure, overall satisfaction and oral function outcome. dard deviation (SD) values were calculated. The outcomes on Three questionnaires were used related to implant-sup- are represented here on pie charts and histograms pro- ported single-tooth implants, fixed implant-supported duced with Microsoft Excel. prostheses and implant-retained overdentures. Three of the 49 patients completed two questionnaires (one for each type of treatment), giving a total of 52 completed que- Results i stionnaires. The questions were formulated by the authors iz based on outcomes of related studies and on topics of re- The survival rate of 128 implants installed in 49 patients levance to clinicians. To assess parameters, questions had was 97,65%. Only three implants did not osseointegrate, multiple choice as mode of answers. The patients filled the all of which were successfully inserted again. The follow- Ed questionnaires at the recall examination under supervi- up period after the prosthetic reconstruction ranged from sion of one of the authors not involved in the treatment 6 to 24 months with a mean of 14 months. so as to avoid bias and the effects of interpersonal re- The 52 collected questionnaires were distributed as follows: actions. 24 on single-tooth implants, 21 on implant-supported fixed Each questionnaire comprised 44 questions, with questions prostheses and 7 on implant-retained overdenture. 1 to 38 being the same in each questionnaire, and que- Percentages of questions from 1 to 7 are based on the stions 39 to 44 varying with the specific treatment. The first number of patients (n.49) and from 8 to 44 on the num- IC five questions related to demographic data: age, sex, em- ber of questionnaires (n.52). ployment, marital status and educational level. In questions The 49 patients comprised 27 (55.1%) women and 22 6 and 7, patients explained where they had obtained in- (44.9%) men who ranged in age from 29 to 72 years, with formation about the implant treatment and why they de- a mean age of 51.16 years (SD=13.6 years). The deca- C cided to undergo it. Questions 8 to 23 asked patients about de between 61 and 70 years comprised the largest num- the discomfort related to implant surgery and abutment sur- ber of patients (26.9%) (Fig. 1). gery or associated with impression-taking and prosthetic Most of the patients were employed (53.8%) and retired procedures, as well as their overall experience of the tre- (28,8%); 75% of them had received a high school certifi- © atment. Questions 24 to 38 evaluated functional and ae- cate or a university diploma, 15,4% attended only medium sthetic satisfaction, oral hygiene, cost-effectiveness, ac- school and 7,7% elementary school; patients had heard ceptance of implant-supported prostheses, and willingness about implants from various sources, including referring to repeat treatment or to recommend it to other people. dentists (55.8%), relatives and friends (23.1%), television, Questions 39 to 43 were identical for the implant-supported radio and the Internet (17.3%), newspapers (1.9%), and single tooth and for the fixed prosthesis, while question 44 medical doctors (1.9%). of the single-tooth-implant questionnaire assessed ae- Patients who were partially or completely edentulous and sthetics in anterior segments and that of the fixed prosthesis who missed one anterior tooth considered it particularly Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8 3  S. Annibali et al. i al on zi na er Figure 2 - Did you experience pain and/or swelling after implant insertion procedure? necessary to restore lost teeth (34.6%). Other reasons for cases. Pain was absent in 64.5% of the subjects, and only choosing implant treatment were the advice of a dentist (32.7%), improving the stability of the denture (15.4%), ea- ting habits (13.5%) and aesthetics (1.9%). The time to complete the treatment was consider enough nt 5.8% experienced severe pain. Swelling was moderate and marked in 48.1% and 17.3% of the patients, respective- ly, with this often being correlated with the procedure com- plexity (Fig. 2). iI long and long by 44.2% and 19.2% of our respondents, Abutment surgery was assessed positively by 76.9% of the respectively. However, almost all (90,3%) of them consi- subject: swelling and pain, which were often (Fig. 3). dered that the procedures were not traumatic. The prosthetic procedure was evaluated as not unpleasant on Implant insertion surgery was assessed negatively by only by 76.9% of the respondents in the present study, while 3.8% of those who completed questionnaires. This finding 28.8% of them considered impression-taking to be the could be attributable to the protocol used, because all the worst part of the procedure. Most of the patients in the pre- patients received diazepam per os before surgery to ob- sent study (61.5%) considered the time between implant tain conscious sedation, with consequent anterior amne- insertion and prosthesis rehabilitation to be acceptable, i sia of unpleasant remembrances. even when a temporary replacement was absent (63.5%). iz The post-operative period was free of complications in most In remaining 36.5% of responders a removable provisio- Ed IC C © Figure 3 - Did you experience pain and/or swelling in post-operative period after abutment insertion procedure? 4 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8  Patient satisfaction with oral implant rehabilitation: evaluation of responses to a questionnaire i al on zi na Figure 4 - Are you satisfied of the implant-supported prosthesis functionally? er nal was used. The temporary removable replacement was tural bite and that the construction was an integral part of viewed positively by the fully edentulous subjects and un- their mouth (Fig. 5). pleasant by most of the subjects (63.5%) with implants re- storing single crowns and fixed partial prosthesis. The tem- porary removable replacement was worn by 55% of sub- jects both day and night, and by 35% of them only during nt All the seven edentulous subjects in our study considered that the implant-supported overdenture provided improved stability and phonetics. Most of our sample (82.8%) was completely satisfied with iI the day, while other subjects either did not wear it (5%) or the aesthetic outcome, 15.4% were satisfied and only one only wore it when eating (5%). Almost half of the patients person rated his implant-supported crown (upper lateral (47.4%) reported that the temporary rehabilitation fun- incisor) as not being very aesthetic. on ctioned better after implant surgery. Almost all of the pa- Most of our respondents got used to the implant-suppor- tients in the present study (94.2%) were satisfied with the ted prostheses either immediately (30.8%) or soon chewing function (definitely in 44.2% of cases and adequate (65.4%) after the placement procedure; most of our patients in 50% of cases) (Fig. 4). (82.7%) were highly satisfied of the outcome of implant tre- Chewing ability increased in 84.6% of our patients, with atment, 86.5% were willing to have the same treatment per- i 82.7% being able to chew every kind of food and 84.6% formed again and 94.2% were willing to recommend the iz considering that the prosthesis was comparable to their na- treatment to friends and relatives. Ed IC C © Figure 5 - Do you feel the implant-supported prosthesis to be strange or as part of yourself? Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8 5  S. Annibali et al. Most of our patients (69.2%) considered the cost of implant considered the prosthetic procedures unpleasant: name- therapy to be reasonable. ly, impression-taking, try-in and mounting of the crown. Most of our respondents (65.4%) experienced a major The temporary removable replacement was viewed posi- change in their oral hygiene habits after implant insertion, tively by the fully edentulous subjects and unpleasant by and 73.1% found it easy to clean the implant reconstruc- most of the subjects (63.5%) with implants restoring sin- i tions. In spite of this, only one-third of the patients increased gle crowns and fixed partial prosthesis; infact the tempo- al their frequency of visiting a dentist for hygiene reasons and rary removable replacement was worn by 55% of subjects follow-up. both day and night, and by 35% of them only during the In the comparison between conventional and implant-sup- day, while other subjects either did not wear it (5%) or only ported prostheses, 42.2% of the subjects found the two pro- wore it when eating (5%). Almost half of the patients on cedures to be similar in time and quality, 76.2% did not find (47.4%) reported that the temporary rehabilitation fun- any difference between implants and teeth, and 70% could ctioned better after implant surgery. These data did not sup- chew similarly with implants and teeth. Implants were per- port the outcome of Schropp et al. (16), who in approxi- ceived as a part of oneself, which constituted a very im- mately 60% of the cases of implant rehabilitation of inci- sors and canines decided—in concert with the patient— zi portant advantage for the respondents. to make a removable partial denture as a temporary so- lution in the edentulous period. They found that most of their Discussion patients either did not wear their denture or only used it na during the day. None of their patients considered that the Our results show that people who undergo implant tera- denture function was influenced by insertion of the implant, py can be male or female, of every age, especially after and in only a few cases was the function impaired after the 50. Most of the patients were employed (53.8%) and 75% abutment operation. er of them had received a high school certificate or a uni- Almost all of the patients in the present study (94.2%) versity diploma. In accordance with other studies (9,10,11), were satisfied with the chewing, chewing ability increa- patients had heard about implants from various sources, sed in 84.6% of our patients, with 82.7% being able to especially referring dentists (55.8%) and relatives and chew every kind of food and 84.6% considering that the friends (23.1%); television, radio and the Internet (17.3%), newspapers (1.9%) and medical doctors (1.9%) seem less important. Our outcomes were comparable with those of de Bruyn et al. (12). Those authors used a questionnai- nt prosthesis was comparable to their natural bite and that the construction was an integral part of their mouth. The- se data are in accordance with Pjetursson et al. (17) fin- ding that more than 90% of patients treated with crowns iI re to evaluate patients’ opinions on oral rehabilitation using or implant-supported fixed partial denture were com- implants, and found that only 27% of patients considered pletely satisfied. Those authors compared the chewing using additional types of information (brochures, slides or function between natural teeth and implants, and found on models) important to supporting an oral explanation. For that 72.1% of their patients perceived no difference, and 60% of those who completed questionnaires, an oral ex- 7.7% of them preferred implants due to the adaptive ca- planation had the greatest influence on the decision to un- pacity of the stomatognathic system following implant the- dergo treatment. This might be due to too much information rapy (18). being difficult to handle and even leading to confusion or This finding contrasted those of some other studies. Häm- i fear, because, as non-professionals, the patients might merle et al. (19) showed that patient tactile perception dif- iz have difficulties in extrapolating information concerning fered significantly between implant abutments and natu- their own oral condition. In contrast, a more client-centred ral abutments, and Keller et al. (20) demonstrated that the approach appears to increase confidence in the proce- threshold for tactile perception in implants was increased Ed dure. after 1 week of healing and remained unchanged there- Patients who were partially or completely edentulous and after. who missed one anterior tooth considered it particularly In accordance with other studies (21,22,23,24,25), the se- necessary to restore lost teeth (34.6%). The main reasons ven edentulous subjects in our study considered that the for choosing implant treatment were the advice of a den- implant-supported overdenture provided improved stabi- tist (32.7%), improving the stability of the denture (15.4%), lity and phonetics. In an investigation of the differences in eating habits (13.5%) and aesthetics (1.9%). Analogous patients’ psychological and psychosocial attitudes after re- IC outcomes were reported by Grogono et al. (2), who as- ceiving implant prostheses, Grogono et al. (2) found that sessed the attitudes of edentulous patients towards implant many respondents improved their speaking ability. In ad- treatment, and by de Bruyn et al. (15). dition, most of the patients smiled more often and felt more Implant and abutment surgery were assessed positively comfortable in their social contacts and in relationships with C by most of the subject: infact they were in most of the case the opposite sex. Only a few respondents reported negative painless and without swelling. Similar results were found changes in attitude, and even when the responses were in previous studies, such as by Schropp et al. (16) who used not totally positive, patients perceived that their implant pro- VAS scores to assess implant surgery. Their survey paper stheses were at least as satisfactory as their removable © reported that patients rated implant insertion significantly ones. worse than the abutment operation, and considered These outcomes were similar to those found in the survey swelling but not pain to be a problem. of Zitmann et al. (5) of patients treated with fixed implant- The prosthetic procedure was evaluated as not unpleasant supported prostheses in the maxilla. Those authors found by 76.9% of the respondents in the present study, while significant improvements in aesthetics, eating comfort, pho- 28.8% of them considered impression-taking to be the netics and overall satisfaction. Equally, subjects intervie- worst part of the procedure. In contrast, Schropp et al. (16) wed by Blomberg and Lindquist (11) perceived their pro- found that approximately one-fourth of their respondents sthesis to be part of themselves, and provided improve- 6 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8  Patient satisfaction with oral implant rehabilitation: evaluation of responses to a questionnaire ments in aesthetics, self-esteem and interpersonal rela- References tionships. Most of our sample (82.8%) was completely satisfied with 1. Albrektsson T, Blomberg S, Brånemark A, Carlsson GE. the aesthetic outcome, 15.4% were satisfied and only one Edentulousness—an oral handicap. Patient reactions to tre- person rated his implant-supported crown (upper lateral atment with jawbone-anchored prostheses. Journal of Oral i incisor) as not being very aesthetic. This is in agreement Rehabilitation 1987; 14(6): 503–511. al with high satisfaction levels found in other studies that have 2. Grogono AL, Lancaster DM, Finger IM. Dental implants: a survey of patients’ attitudes. The Journal of Prosthetic Den- investigated patients’ opinions on implant-supported sin- tistry 1989; 62(5): 573–576. gle-tooth replacements (6,16,17,26). 3. Palmer RM, Smith BJ, Palmer PJ, Floyd PD. A prospective Most of our respondents got used to the implant-suppor- on study of Astra single tooth implants. Clinical Oral Implants ted prostheses either immediately (30.8%) or soon Research 1997; 8(3): 173-9 (65.4%) after the placement procedure, as also reported 4. Lekholm U, Gröndahl K, Jemt T. Outcome of oral implant by Pjetursson et al. (17). Those authors reported that some treatment in partially edentulous jaws followed 20 years in patients needed 2–3 months to get used to an implant re- clinical function. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2006;8(4): zi construction and for the implant to feel like natural teeth. 178-86. In accordance with the studies of Grogono et al. (2) and 5. Zitmann NU, Marinello CP. Treatment outcomes of fixed or de Bruyn et al. (15), most of our patients (82.7%) were hi- removable implant-supported prostheses in the edentulous na ghly satisfied of the outcome of implant treatment, 86.5% maxilla. Part I: patients’ assessments. The Journal of Pro- were willing to have the same treatment performed again sthetic Dentistry 2000; 83(4): 424–433. and 94.2% were willing recommend the treatment to friends 6. Chang M, Odman PA, Wennström JL, Andersson B. Esthe- and relatives. tic outcome of implant-supported single-tooth replacements Most our patients (69.2%) considered the cost of implant assessed by the patient and by prosthodontists. The Inter- er therapy to be reasonable. This is probably due to our im- national Journal of Prosthodontics 1999; 12(4): 335–341. 7. Adell R, Eriksson B, Lekholm U, Branemark PI, Jemt T. plant-supported prosthesis procedures being performed Long term follow up study of osseointergrated implants in in a public hospital, with the patients paying only for the the treatment of totally edentulous jaws. International Jour- materials (prosthesis and implant). This resulted in the to- tal cost of the treatment being considerably lower than in private practices. Therefore, our outcomes cannot be com- pared with all other studies (13,14), although they are in nt nal of Oral and Maxillofacial Implants 1990; 5(4): 347-359 8. Astrand P, Ahlqvist J, Gunne J, Nilson H. Implant treatment of patients with edentulous jaws: a 20-year follow-up. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2008 Dec;10(4):207-17. Epub 2008 iI accordance with Pjetursson et al. (17) finding that 71% of Apr 1. patients considered the implant costs justified in private 9. Bergendal T, Engquist B. Implant-supported overdentures practice. a longitudinal prospective study International Journal of Most of our respondents (65.4%) experienced a major Oral and Maxillofacial Implants 1998; 13(2): 253-62 on change in their oral hygiene habits after implant insertion, 10. Gualini F, Gualini G, Cominelli R, Lekholm U. Outcome of and 73.1% found it easy to clean the implant reconstruc- Brånemark Novum implant treatment in edentulous mandi- tions. In spite of this, only one-third of the patients increased bles: a retrospective 5-year follow-up study. Clin Implant their frequency of visiting a dentist for hygiene reasons and Dent Relat Res. 2009 Dec;11(4):330-7. Epub 2008 Sep 9. 11. Blomberg S, Lindquist LW. Psychological reactions to eden- i follow-up. These data are in accordance with Pjetursson tulousness and treatment with jawbone-anchored bridges. iz et al. (17) finding that the feasibility of and the time nee- Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 1983; 68(4): 251–262. ded to clean the teeth after implant reconstruction did not 12. Berge TI. Public awareness, information sources and eva- differ for 50% and 70% of their patients, respectively. In con- luation of oral implant treatment in Norway. Clinical Oral Im- Ed trast, Yi et al. (27,28) found that patients with implant-sup- plants Research 2000; 11(5): 401–408. ported prostheses considered oral hygiene procedures to 13. Tepper G, Haas R, Mailath G, Teller C, Bernhart T, Monov be more difficult than those for natural teeth. G, Watzek G. Representative marketing-oriented study on implants in the Austrian population. II. Implant acceptance, patient-perceived cost and patient satisfaction. Clinical Oral Conclusions Implants Research 2003; 14(5): 634–642. 14. Tepper G, Haas R, Mailath G, Teller C, Zechner W, Watzak IC The outcomes of the present study should be interpreted G, Watzek G. Representative marketing-oriented study on with caution because they are based on a relatively small implants in the Austrian population. I. Level of information, sample and a relatively short observation time, although sources of information and need for patient information. Cli- previous studies have found that the adaptation to masti- nical Oral Implants Research 2003; 14(5): 621–633. C catory function with implant reconstructions tends to im- 15. de Bruyn H, Collaert B, Lindén U, Björn AL. Patient’s opi- prove with time after insertion. Furthermore, assessment nion and treatment outcome of fixed rehabilitation on Brå- nemark implants. A 3-year follow-up study in private dental of the treatment procedures and experience of the eden- practices. Clinical Oral Implants Research 1997; 8(4): 265– tulous period can be influenced by memory and by the time 271. © and money spent. 16. Schropp L, Isidor F, Kostopoulos L, Wenzel A. Patient ex- In spite of these limitations, the present study shows that perience of, and satisfaction with, delayed-immediate vs de- oral implant rehabilitation meets patients’ needs and de- layed single-tooth implant placement. Clinical Oral Implants mands. This is because oral function, aesthetics and well- Research 2004; 15(4): 498–503. being improve significantly with implant-supported pro- 17. Pjetursson BE, Karoussis I, Bürgin W, Brägger U, Lang NP. stheses, while surgical and prosthetic procedures are not Patients’ satisfaction following implant therapy. A 10-year considered traumatic, even though they are long and com- prospective cohort study. Clinical Oral Implants Research plex. 2005; 16(2): 185–193. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8 7  S. Annibali et al. 18. Jakobs R, van Steenberghe D. Comparative evaluation of overdentures. A comparison with new complete dentures the oral tactile function by means of teeth or implant-sup- not retained by implants—a multicentre randomized clinical ported prostheses. Clinical Oral Implants Research 1991; trial. British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 1995; 2(2): 75–80. 33(5): 282–288. 19. Hämmerle CH, Wagner D, Brägger U, Lussi A, Karayiannis 24. Wismeijer D, Vermeeren JI, van Waas MA. Patient satisfac- A , Joss A, Lang NP. Threshold of tactile sensitivity percei- tion with overdentures supported by one-stage TPS im- i ved with dental endosseous implants and natural teeth. Cli- plants. The International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial al nical Oral Implants Research 1995; 6(2): 83–90. Implants 1992; 7(1): 51–55. 20. Keller D, Hämmerle CH , Lang ND. Threshold for tactile sen- 25. Bakke M, Holm N, Gotfredsen K. Masticatory function and sitivity perceived with dental implants remain unchanged patient satisfaction with implant-supported mandibular over- on during a healing phase of 3 months. Clinical Oral Implants dentures: a prospective 5-year study. The International Jour- Research 1996; 7(1): 48–54. nal of Prosthodontics 2002; 15(6): 575–581. 21. Cibirka RM, Razzoog M, Lang BR. Critical evaluation of pa- 26. Vermylen K, Collaert B, Lindén U, Björn AL, De Bruyn H. tient responses to dental implant therapy. The Journal of Patient satisfaction and quality of single-tooth restorations. Prosthetic Dentistry 1997; 78(6): 574–581. Clinical Oral Implants Research 2003; 14(1): 119–124. zi 22. Boerrigter EM, Stegenga B, Raghoebar GM, Boering G. Pa- 27. Yi S-W, Carlsson GE, Ericsson I, Kim CK. Patient evaluation tient satisfaction and chewing ability with implant-retained of treatment with fixed implant-supported partial dentures. mandibular overdentures: a comparison with new complete Journal of Oral Rehabilitation 2001; 28(11): 998–1002. na dentures with or without preprosthetic surgery. Journal of 28. Yi S-W, Carlsson GE, Ericsson I, Wennström JL. Long-term Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 1995; 53(10): 1167–1173. follow up of cross-arch fixed partial dentures in patients with 23. Boerrigter EM, Geertman ME, Van Oort RP, Bouma J, Ra- advanced periodontal destruction: evaluation of occlusion ghoebar GM, van Waas MA, Van’t Hof MA, Boering G, Kalk and subjective function. Journal of Oral Rehabilitation 1996; W. Patient satisfaction with implant-retained mandibular 23(3): 186–196. er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © 8 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 2-8 

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Perceived and measurable performance of daily brushing and rinsing with an essential oil mouthrinse i al on Andrea Pilloni, MD, DDS, MS1 were judged by the dentists as improved for plaque Giuseppe Pizzo, DDS2 control and gingival health. 85% of subjects judged Alberto Barlattani, MD, DDS3 the EOM as efficacious. Roberto Di Lenarda, DDS4 Conclusion. The oral health benefits of brushing Mario Giannoni, MD, DDS5 and rinsing twice daily with an essential oil mouthrinse zi Luigi Guida, MD, DDS6 are perceived by patients and professionals alike and Luca Levrini, MD, DDS7 measurable by dentists at a 3-month recall visit. Alessandra Majorana, MD, DDS8 na Antonella Polimeni, MD, DDS1 Key words: oral hygiene, gingivitis, mouthrinses, es- sential oils. 1 “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy 2 University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy 3 “Tor Vergata” University of Rome, Rome, Italy er 4 University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy Introduction 5 University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy 6 Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy Over the last few decades it has become apparent that re- 7 University of Insubria, Varese, Italy gular toothbrushing alone is not sufficient for plaque and 8 University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy Corresponding author: nt gingivitis control and that flossing on a regular basis should be part of an optimal standard regimen for plaque control (1). However it has also been widely recognised that the iI Prof. Giuseppe Pizzo full potential of mechanical means of plaque control is sel- Section of Oral Sciences dom achieved. This is primarily through lack of sufficient University of Palermo, Palermo motivation, manual dexterity or time for the individual to Via del Vespro 129 - 90127 Palermo, Italy maintain an acceptable standard of mechanical oral hy- on Tel. 39-091-6552231 - Fax: 39-091-6552203 giene routine (2,3). E-mail: giuseppepizzo@unipa.it In the Western world the shortcomings of mechanical oral hygiene are demonstrated by a high prevalence of pe- riodontal diseases (e.g. 40–45% moderate and 5–10% se- i vere cases in UK adults) and by the presence of visible iz Summary plaque and dental calculus in the large majority of the adult Perceived and measurable performance of daily bru- population (about 70% in UK adults) (4). shing and rinsing with an essential oil mouthrinse. New evidence based approaches to improving oral hygiene Ed outcomes are therefore needed. It has been proposed that Aims. To determine whether the oral health benefits this can be achieved by encouraging all individuals to adopt of recommending twice daily brushing and rinsing with daily rinsing with an antimicrobial rinse as an adjunct to an essential oil mouthrinse (EOM) are perceived and mechanical plaque control practices (3,5). However, only measurable by dentists and also perceived by their pa- a few commercially available mouthrinses have been ex- tients at a 3-month recall visit. tensively tested and have shown convincing evidence of Methods. This is a monadic, open label, uncontrolled their efficacy. Among these, chlorhexidine- and essential IC study involving 766 generally healthy Italian subjects oil-containing mouthrinses have been clinically proven to aged 19-66 years, with mild to moderate levels of gin- provide long-term anti-plaque and anti-gingivitis efficacy givitis, no pockets of more than 4 mm, and at least 20 (6-14). scorable teeth. Eight dentists scored subjects for pla- Chlorhexidine-containing mouthrinses are known to pro- C que and gingivitis at baseline and at 90 days using sim- duce a high rate of tooth staining and taste disturbances plified 4-point plaque and gingivitis indices. All among users, hence the tendency among professionals subjects brushed twice daily, immediately followed by to recommend these for short term treatment needs only rinsing for 30 sec with 20 ml of an essential oil mouth- (10). On the other hand, a mouthrinse containing essen- © rinse (Listerine®). tial oils, such menthol, thymol, methyl salicilate, eucalyp- Results. 735 subjects completed the study (95.9%). tol has the potential to meet long-term preventive objec- Average score reductions were 51.9% and 45.7% for tives, provided the patients’ motivation is also maintained plaque and gingivitis, respectively. About 62% and 70% in the long term. Source of support: Johnson & Johnson (Santa Palomba-Pomezia, Italy) kindly provided mouthrinses and single-use equipment used to as- sess plaque and gingivitis indexes. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 29-32 29  A. Pilloni et al. Here it is proposed that the long term patient motivation Table 1 - Study population. to daily rinsing can be influenced by whether the patient can perceive the efficacy of the essential oil mouthrinse Number of subjects (EOM). Moreover, the clinician’s motivation to recommend a significant modification of the patients’ oral hygiene rou- Subjects enrolled at baseline 766 i tine may depend on not only perceived but also measu- Subjects not returned to 2nd al rable treatment performance by the dental professional. visit (after 90 days) 31 This study evaluated perceived treatment performance by Subjects examined at baseline patients and professionals, as well as measurable perfor- mance by the dentists, shortly after the recommendation and after 90 days 735 on of daily EOM use was given. - male 380 (51.7%) - female 355 (48.3%) - mean age (±SD), years 30.5 (10.3) Materials and methods - age range, years 18-66 zi The study design was approved by the “Sapienza” Uni- versity Ethic Committee and was found to conform to the requirements of the “Declaration of Helsinki” as adopted na by the 18th World Medical Assembly in 1964 and subse- quently revised (15). Subjects were recruited at 8 university- based dental clinics across Italy. In order to be accepted onto the study all volunteers had to be at least 18 years er old, give written informed consent, be generally healthy, present mild to moderate levels of gingivitis with no pe- riodontal pockets of more that 4 mm probing depth, and a minimum of 20 scorable teeth. Enrolled subjects recei- ved scaling and polishing and were asked to refrain from taking non-essential medication and to avoid using any type of oral antiseptics for at least 30 days prior to the study start. A dentist in each clinic performed plaque and gin- nt iI gival health assessments at baseline and at 90 days. Each sextant was scored using a simplified 4-point plaque and Figure 1 - Plaque index at baseline and after 90 days of a gingival health index (16,17) as follows: twice/day use of an EOM as adjunct to brushing. on - Plaque Index 0 = absence of plaque 1 = mild, separate spots or a discontinuous band of pla- que at the gingival margin 2 = moderate, homogeneous band of at the gingival i margin covering less than a third of tooth surface iz 3 = heavy, plaque covering more than a third of tooth sur- face - Gingival Index Ed 0 = absence of inflammation 1 = mild, slight change of superficial texture, slight oede- ma 2 = moderate, reddening, oedema, translucent gingiva 3 = severe, marked reddening, oedema. At baseline all subjects were shown and instructed to bru- sh twice daily using a modified Bass technique and to rin- IC se with 20 ml of an EOM (Listerine® Difesa denti e gen- give; Johnson & Johnson, Santa Palomba-Pomezia, Figure 2 - Gingival index at baseline and after 90 days of a Italy) immediately after brushing. At the final 90-day visit twice/day use of an EOM as adjunct to brushing. all subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire. A pai- C red sample t-test was used to detect significant differen- ces in plaque and gingivitis levels at baseline and at the 90-day visit. The significance level was set at P<0.05. to baseline, the 90-day average plaque scores had de- creased from 1.56 to 0.81, representing a 51.9% reduc- © tion. Gingival inflammation scores had decreased from to Results 1.95 to 1.06, representing a 45.7% reduction. Both chan- ges reached high statistical significance (P<0.001) (Figs. A total of 766 subjects were accepted onto the study and 1 and 2). The dentists judged 62.5 % of subjects as im- 735 subjects (95.9%) were exited from the study having proved for plaque control (21.1% greatly improved and completed it. The age range of participating subjects was 51.4% fairly improved). With respect to gingivitis levels, 19-66 years and each of the eight study centres enrolled 69.8% of subjects were judged as improved (12.7% grea- between 50 and 118 subjects (Table 1). When compared tly improved and 57.1% fairly improved). 84.9% of parti- 30 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 29-32  Perceived and measurable performance of daily brushing and rinsing with an essential oil mouthrinse would only have been useful to confirm the product’s ef- ficacy, which was clearly outside the scope of the study as it has already been largely demonstrated in multiple long term randomised clinical trials (6-9,11,12). Open label, uncontrolled, monadic studies offer the ad- i vantage that a large number of observations can be taken al within the context of every day general practice (18). For this purpose all assessments in this study were performed by a representative group of practicing dentists, who were also the actual caregivers to participating subjects. on There was a three-month period between baseline and fi- nal examination, rather than the more commonly adopted six-month review period. This short time interval was se- Figure 3 - Compliance of patients enrolled and which complet- lected to ensure that patients were re-examined while they ed the study in terms of respect of the protocol suggested. zi were still likely to be practicing the newly recommended (Yes: compliance present; No: compliance absent; Not record- habit of rinsing twice daily with EOM in addition to brushing. ed: data not recorded). In fact only 5.7% of participating subjects were found to be non-compliant at the end of the 3-month period. Both na the clinicians’ and the patients’ motivation will be reinfor- cipating subjects judged the product as efficacious (11.0% ced further if the final positive results can be clearly attri- very efficacious, 48.2 % efficacious and 25.7% fairly ef- buted to the recommendations given at the first visit. ficacious). One interesting data comes from the level of Highly significant and substantial reductions in plaque and er compliance all patients showed in terms of fulfilling all of gingivitis levels were measured by the dentists in this study. the requirements for proper completion of the study (Fig. Being an open label study the clinician judgement would 3). have been undoubtedly conditioned by expectations of im- proved oral conditions at recall. Further studies will need Discussion Daily rinsing with proven antibacterial agents may repre- nt to establish whether the large effect size measured by the professionals in this study was due more to the underlying product efficacy or to product performance expectations. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that shor- iI sent a universally applicable method of supplementing the tly after a professional recommendation to brush and rin- benefits of mechanical plaque control. In fact rinsing does se twice daily with an EOM, the oral health benefits will not pose any manual dexterity challenges and can deli- be perceived by patients and dentists, and will measura- on ver anti-plaque benefits to hard to reach areas of the mouth ble by the professionals themselves. more reliably than regular brushing alone or brushing and flossing (1,3,5,10). However sufficient motivation will be required for individuals Acknowledgements to modify their long established oral hygiene habits and i add rinsing with an antimicrobial rinse to their daily routi- Mouthrinses and single-use equipment used to assess pla- iz ne. It can be hypothesised that for a newly recommended que and gingivitis indexes were kindly provided by John- regimen to be accepted by patients and to be sufficiently son & Johnson S.p.A (Santa Palomba-Pomezia, Italy). motivating to the patients its benefits should be perceived Ed by them reasonably soon after receiving the professional recommendation. References It is reasonable to expect that dentists would be more in- clined to recommend to their patients that they should al- 1. Hancock EB, Newel DH. Preventive strategies and supportive ter their well-established oral hygiene routine if the pro- treatment. Periodontol 2000 2001;25:59-76. fessionals themselves could unmistakably perceive and 2. Jepsen S. The role of manual toothbrushes in effective pla- measure the clinical performance of the recommended re- que control: advantages and limitations. In: Lang NP, Attström IC gimen. R, Löe H, editors. Proceedings of the European Workshop This study aimed at determining whether the widely re- on Mechanical Plaque Control. London: Quintessence Pu- ported clinical benefits for daily use EOM in randomised blishing Co., Ltd:, 1998. p. 121-37. controlled trials can translate into perceived and measu- 3. Ciancio S. Improving oral health: current considerations. J C Clin Periodontol 2003;30(Suppl 5):4-6. rable performance in a dental practice setting. For the pur- 4. Morris AJ, Steele J, White DA. The oral cleanliness and pe- pose of the study, it was critically important for the vo- riodontal health of UK adults in 1998. Br Dent J lunteers to be recruited among patients in the care of the 2001;191:186–92. clinicians acting as their clinical examiners on the study. 5. Santos A. Evidence-based control of plaque and gingivitis. © The clinician-patient interaction is in fact the necessary con- J Clin Periodontol 2003;30(Suppl 5):13-6. text for the motivational boost to take effect on both sides 6. Overholser CD, Meiller T F, De Paola LG, Minah GE, Niehaus of the relationship and for the treatment efficacy percep- C. Comparative effects of 2 chemotherapeutic mouthrinses tion to play its proposed role. on the development of supragingival dental plaque and gin- The importance of basing the study on an authentic pa- givitis. J Clin Periodontol 1990;17:575–9. tient-clinician relationship also explains the exclusion of 7. Charles CH, Sharma NC, Galustians HJ, Qaqish JG, McGuire a placebo treatment group from the study design. An ad- JA, Vincent JW. Comparative efficacy of an antiseptic ditional consideration was the fact that a placebo group mouthrinse and an antiplaque/antigingivitis dentifrice: a six- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 29-32 31  A. Pilloni et al. month clinical trial. J Am Dent Assoc 2001;132:670–5. cal trial. J Clin Periodontol 2004;31:878-84. 8. Sharma NC, Charles CH, Qaqish JG, Galustians HJ, Zhao 13. Patel RM, Malaki Z. The effect of a mouthrinse containing Q, Kumar LD. Comparative effectiveness of an essential oil essential oils on dental plaque and gingivitis. Evid Based Dent mouthrinse and dental floss in controlling interproximal gin- 2008;9:18-9. givitis and plaque. Am J Dent 2002;15:351–5. 14. Pizzo G, La Cara M, Licata ME, Pizzo I, D’Angelo M. The 9. Bauroth K, Charles CH, Mankodi SM, Simmons K, Zhao Q, effects of an essential oil and an amine fluoride/stannous fluo- i Kumar LD. The efficacy of an essential oil antiseptic mouth- ride mouthrinse on supragingival plaque regrowth. J Perio- al rinse vs. dental floss in controlling interproximal gingivitis: a dontol 2008;79:1177-83. comparative study. J Am Dent Assoc 2003;134:359–65. 15. The World Medical Association. Policy: World Medical As- 10. Addy M, Moran J. Chemical supragingival plaque control. In: sociation Declaration of Helsinki. Available at: http://www.wma. on Lindhe J, Karring T, Lang NP, editors. Clinical Periodonto- net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html. Accessed logy and Implant Dentistry, 5th edn. Oxford: Blackwell Pu- August 31, 2010. blishing; 2008. p. 734-57. 16. Silness J, Loe H. Periodontal disease in pregnancy. II. Cor- 11. Sharma NC, Charles CH, Lynch, MC, Qaqish JG, McGuire relation between oral hygiene and periodontal condition. Acta JA, Galustians HJ et al. Adjunctive benefit of an essential oil- Odontol Scand 1964;22:121-35 zi containing mouthrinse in reducing plaque and gingivitis in pa- 17. Silness J, Loe H. Periodontal disease in pregnancy. III. Re- tients who brush and floss regularly: a six-month study. J sponse to local treatment. Acta Odontol Scand 1964;24:747- Am Dent Assoc 2004;135: 496–504. 59 12. Charles CH, Mostler K M, Bartels LL, Mankodi SM. Com- 18. Warren PR, Ray TS, Cugini M, Chater BV. A practice-based na parative antiplaque and antigingivitis effectiveness of a ch- study of a power toothbrush: assessment of effectiveness lorhexidine and an essential oil mouthrinse: 6-month clini- and acceptance. J Am Dent Assoc 2000;131:389-94. er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © 32 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 29-32 

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A comparative study of Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Computed Tomography (CT) in the pre-implant evaluation i al on Valentina Pompa, MD1 Introduction Sabrina Galasso, PhD2 Michele Cassetta, MD2 A successful implant therapy is based on an accurate Giorgio Pompa, MD2 evaluation of the patient’s anatomy of jams. Francesca De Angelis, PhD2 Proper patient selection and careful pre-surgical planning zi Stefano Di Carlo, MD2 are essential to the success of implant therapy. They are essentially based on the evaluation of the quality and quantity of the bone and on the location of anatomical na “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome (Italy) structures that might be limiting the implant such as the 1 Department of Radiology mandibular canal, mental foramen, maxillary sinus, sur- 2 Department of Odontostomatological face of nasal pit and the incisive canal. This evaluation and Maxillofacial Sciences, can only be complete if the acquired information interests Prosthetic Rehabilitation Unit all three dimensions of space and faithfully reproduces er natural dimensions. Methods used in the past for implant programs only allo- Corresponding author: wed bi-dimensional and inexact analyses. Only more re- cently, some instruments are able to provide stratigraphic Prof. Giorgio Pompa Via Caserta 6 00161 Rome (Italy) Phone: 0649976614 - 3805152572 nt images whose use is limited to individual implant sites, while the cranial radiography in lateral projection repre- sents a partial solution in the study of the anterior portion iI of the jaw. The selection, especially in the case of multiple implants, is based on computed tomography (CT) which allows us to have images in section of vital structures and three-di- on Summary mensional reconstructions. A comparative study of Magnetic Resonance (MR) and All these radiographic techniques expose the patient to Computed Tomography (CT) in the pre-implant evaluation. ionizing radiations that can be harmful to the body; in the case of CT this exposure is significant. Aim. A successful implant therapy is based on an accu- i CT analyses are also more prone to artefacts due to me- rate assessment of the anatomy of the jaws. The aim of iz tallic dental materials and to those in correspondence our study was to evaluate the reliability of magnetic res- with the dense cortical bone (1). DentaScan was intro- onance imaging (MR) compared with computed tomog- raphy (CT) for dental implant planning in respect to duced to reduce the excessive dose of radiations to the Ed bone measurements and to observe and analyze the dif- eyes and the thyroid gland. It has a special software to ferences. draw out thin layers that are orthogonal to the dental arch, Method. We have studied 30 cases in which scans were in each point, and similar layers in orthopantomography. performed with CT and MR. The images provided by the (2,3). MR and CT examinations were delivered to three spe- Magnetic Resonance images (MR), instead, use the prin- cialists in oral and maxillofacial radiology to measure ciple of nuclear magnetic resonance to give cross sec- the bone height at the specific sites.The measurements tional images with a high spatial resolution without the IC obtained by the specialists in MR and CT images were use of ionizing radiations. These evaluations led us to use compared using the ANOVA test with a 0.05 significance the MR in the quantitative and qualitative tridimensional level. evaluation of the alveolar bone crest. Result. In all 30 cases examined, MR images appeared The aim of this study has been to evaluate and compare C perfectly comparable to CT images. The differences be- the results in identifying a correct pre-implant treatment tween the measurements from the MR and CT exams using MR rather than CT DentaScan. varied from 0.04 to 1.1 mm. There were no statistically significant differences (P=0.9). Conclusion. The MR, when compared with CT, shown to © Magnetic resonance (MR) be reliable in respect to bone measurements for dental implant planning. However, further studies are neces- sary to determine the technical advantages of Reso- The acquisition of MR images is based on a set of physi- nance at lower fields, compared with those of CT and cal principles completely different from those that cha- MR with medium or high magnetic field. racterize radiographic techniques. A special feature of the MR is the use of electromagne- Key words: Magnetic Resonance Imaging, dental im- tic fields and radiofrequency waves, which, except for few plant,computed tomography, implant planning. recognized cases, are not believed to be harmful to the Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38 33  G. Pompa et al. body (4,5). This relative biological safety is the key ele- cosa, away from the interface with air. ment that leads to testing its clinical applications. It was suggested that a partial solution might be to apply All the data employed to create the final image come from a gel between the mucosa and radiological template in the study of hydrogen atoms, particularly suitable for their order to remove the air and reduce the artefact. Howe- high concentration in the human body and for the favou- ver, this does not solve the problem in the upper jaw, i rable physics of their nuclei (4). where the interface between air and Schneider mucosa al These atomic nuclei, properly stimulated, first absorb and remains unchanged. It is also important to note that the then give out energy that is detected in the form of elec- geometric distortion is greatly reduced if you employ trical signals. A computer collects and processes this si- scanners that use a magnetic field of lower intensity. Gray gnal, transforming it through a series of mathematical et al. (5) have obtained favourable results using tomo- on algorithms in an MR image graphy dedicated to the study of joints that uses fields of The different signal intensity is represented in the MR a considerably reduced intensity (0.2 Tesla) if compared image by a change in the grayscale: white corresponds to to the usual (0.5-1.5 Tesla). a high signal, grey corresponds to an intermediate signal, Further improvements can be achieved by changing, when appropriate, the protocol of image acquisition and zi and black corresponds to absence of signal. The signal of each frame depends on the sequence used. Sections using receiving coils specifically designed for the single with a detectable flow, such as blood in the lumen, are application. In implantology when you are faced with com- usually identified as sections that do not emit any signal, plex cases, where there are very few points of reference, na because their nuclei leave the studied body section be- the use of a template is recommended. Once routinely fore these can be spotted (1). radiographic examinations (Fig. 1) and diagnostic wax- Depending on the parameter which is taken into consi- up are performed, a modified template can be built, simi- deration there will be images weighted in proton density lar to the traditional radiological template, but without er (PD), T1 or T2, which are different and must be interpre- metal or gutta-percha landmarks (Fig. 2). ted differently. The template for MR (scanning template) consists of a The MR T1 images show high quality and anatomical re- mask of transparent acrylic resin, in which holes of 2 mm solution, so as to look like actual anatomical drawings: in diameter, with a proper slope, are dug through poten- the dense cortical bone looks very dark; the trabecular bone, rich in medullary adipose tissue is very clear; the mucous membrane, the periosteum and the neurova- scular structures also appear very clear; the air is black. nt tial implant sites. The holes are filled with a solution of 2 ml of Gd-DTPA (Magnevist, Schering AG, Berlin, Ger- many) (11) in 1000 ml of saline and then sealed with acrylic resin (Fig. 3). The resin appears as a dark area, iI T2 images have lower spatial resolution but sometimes, with low signal, and produces no artefacts. Magnevist II due to their high intrinsic contrast, they assume particu- contains metal ion gadolinium, a paramagnetic substance lar value in discriminating normal and pathological struc- that, by reducing the T1 of the protons of the water of the on tures (6). solution, increases the signal (12). In T1-weighted ima- The image is determined by the sequence of acquisition which is used. Choosing the type of sequencing is the main way for the operator to optimize the signal received by the system under consideration (7). MR is, like CT, a i type of tomography: it allows the formation of represen- iz tative images only of the structures formed in layers that have been pre-selected, and pre-oriented in space (2,3). It is possible directly scan each plane of interest, without Ed the need for further reconstruction of the image, contrary to what happens with CT DentaScan (8). MR in implantology Figure 1 - Panorex. Until recently, MR, mainly used in dentistry in the study of IC the temporo-mandibular joints (9,10), was believed not to be suitable for applications in the field of implantology. Faithfully reproduced data in all dimensions (necessary for implant diagnosis) seemed threatened by the fact that C any alteration of the homogeneity of the applied magne- tic field results in a geometric distortion of the image. This alteration occurs in presence of ferromagnetic elements, such as metal dental restorations or radiological markers © of the template, but also in tissue-air interface (4). It was then observed (11) that the artefact to ferroma- gnetic elements is extremely localized and does not bring a significant problem, since the edentulous implant site is still relatively distant. Furthermore, the difference in ma- gnetic behaviour between tissues and air, responsible for the distortion, affects the implant assessments, since the Figure 2 - Modified template, similar to the traditional radiologi- angle and depth measurements are taken under the mu- cal template, but without metal or gutta-percha landmarks. 34 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38  A comparative study of Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Computed Tomography (CT) in the pre-implant evaluation i al on Figure 3 - Holes filled with a solution of 2 ml of Gd-DTPA in 1000 zi ml of saline and then sealed with acrylic resin. na Figure 5 - The marker of the template scan are located through er a set of axial images. coronal and sagittal), low resolution, with a fast gradient- Figure 4 - The scanning template modified into a surgical tem- nt echo sequence test-scan is carried out: this provides the images needed to control the alignment of the patient; the scan time is 6 -14 seconds. The sagittal test scan is used iI plate. to prepare a set of axial images aligned to the mandible or maxilla as needed. The edentulous sites or the marker of the template scan are located through this set of axial on images (Fig. 5). On the basis of data from the axial refe- ges, the markers that are accordingly obtained are cle- rence image the orientation of the next set of orthoradial arly visible, and therefore offer clear reference points that pictures is determined. allow you to make the measurements necessary to turn In the event that a template scan has been used, poten- the scanning template into a surgical template (Fig. 4). tial sites are indicated by landmarks labelled with Gd- i The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare DTPA, clearly visible on T1-weighted images. The same iz the ability to conduct a proper pre-implant treatment iden- axial reference image is then used to program the oblique tified through the use of MR rather than CT DentaScan. sagittal sections, tangential to the jaw line in the posterior. The orthoradial (Figs. 6-7) images provide excellent Ed cross-sectional information of the depth and, together Materials and methods with the oblique sagittal images obtained by performing cuts parallel to the hypothetical axis of implantation, allow We selected 30 patients with monoedentulism or partial a quantitative three-dimensional assessment. edentulism requiring the insertion of osseointegrated im- However, if the oblique sagittal set of images is not pro- plants. After the usual routine radiographic examinations, perly oriented, the quantity of available bone is over-or the group underwent both CT DentaScan and MR of the underestimated because of the wrong perspective. For IC jaws. In more complex cases a diagnostic wax-up was this purpose, a cross-evaluation with the set of orthoradial carried out and a template was built: this was first used as images is useful in order to reduce the risk of error. The a template for CT DentaScan and later modified in the images provided by the MRI and CT examinations were template scan for MR, replacing the metal or gutta-percha delivered to three specialists in Oral and Maxillofacial Ra- C landmark with a solution of gadolinium or 0.2% saline. diology to measure the bone height at the specific sites. The CT DentaScan was performed for each patient ac- The measurements obtained by the specialists in MRI cording to standard procedures. The MR of the jaws, for and CT images were compared using the ANOVA test implant evaluation purposes, was performed by acquiring with a 0.05 significance level. © images PD, T2-weighted and Tl-weighted. The MR exa- The measurements on the available bone can be made mination was performed using a scanner with 1.5-magnet by using the centimeter grade scale available on the prin- and a coil head, which is dedicated to the study of the ted copy. If necessary, a reference grid can be laid over head and the neck. the image for measurement. The numbering of the single Spin-echo sequences were used: these require about cuts must be shown on the axial reference image or set- three minutes for each acquisition with a slice thickness up and on the Panorex type image, to allow a quick iden- of 3 mm and a space between each layer and the other tification of significant cuts. It is advisable that the set up of 0.3 mm. During the initial MR a (scout) triplanar (axial, image with the numbers be printed on film along with the Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38 35  G. Pompa et al. i al on zi Figure 8 - Differences between the measurements from the MR and CT exams. na Figure 6 - Orthoradial and sagittal images. er nt iI i on iz Figure 7 - Orthoradial images parallel to the hypothetical axis of implantation. Ed images of the cuts, in order to allow the surgeon to orient the images according to a correct plan, and to prevent in- voluntary reverses to the opposite side of the maxilla. IC Results Figure 9 - X-ray control of implant position. In all cases, it was possible to plan the placement of os- seointegrated implants using both CT DentaScan and C MR of the jaws (Fig. 8). In MR the production of artefacts is minimal and locali- The differences between the measurements from the MR zed. It was found exclusively around ferromagnetic struc- and CT exams varied from 0.04 to 1.1 mm. There were no tures like the old small metal dentin pins. This is a good statistically significant differences (P=0.9). result if compared to CT where there is less image de- Being able to clearly identify nerves and vessels the sa- gradation in correspondence with amalgam fillings, but © fety of those operating systems is substantial, and im- the degradation is potentially important since it occurs plants can be safely and securely placed in sites (Fig. 9) near the region of interest, and also there is a difference where it would otherwise be dangerous if using bi-di- in magnetic susceptibility between bone and soft tissues mensional radiographic techniques. In the MR images the and between tissues and air; this also sets changes in cortical and medullary bone are easily distinguished, thus the magnetic field which can cause a distortion of the MR allowing us to anchor the apical cortical bone for optimal image. implant osseointegration. The effects at the bone-tissues interface are really negli- 36 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38  A comparative study of Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Computed Tomography (CT) in the pre-implant evaluation gible, while the image distortion caused at the tissue-air much lower noise produced by these scanners at low interface may be more important, especially when the field, due to the reduced vibration forces acting on the depth of the implant placement are measured in the order coil magnetic field gradient, make this procedure accep- of 10 mm. However, current errors are substantially mini- table. mal, since the two points between which the depth of in- The possibility of using low-field MR with a 0.2 Tesla ma- i sertion is measured are not directly at the interface with gnet means costs reduced by half when compared to a al the air, but are covered by mucosa. The problem of spa- 1 Tesla machine; this equipment is widely available, since tial distortion requires further investigation: yet it is im- it is used in the diagnosis of small joints: there is great portant to note that the distortion is highly dependent on potential for MR to be accessible to implant surgeons. imaging protocols that are being used; the spin-echo pro- All relevant structures (18) are well displayed; however, on tocols, used by us in the images, minimize these arte- further studies are necessary to determine the technical facts. In all 30 cases examined, MR images appeared advantages of resonance at lower fields, compared with perfectly comparable to CT images. Moreover, the image those of CT and MR with medium or high magnetic field. of the tissues is so exact to show even the formation of It should, however, be noted that currently the high costs zi clot in the empty alveolus on the mend. of equipment and management, as well as the limited availability of facilities for the realization of this type of dia- gnostic procedures, represent a significant barrier to wi- Discussion and conclusions na despread use of MR in practice. In all cases examined, MR images appeared perfectly comparable to CT ima- Considering the increasing attention towards the absor- ges. Moreover, the image of the tissues is so exact to ption of ionizing radiation for diagnostic purposes, it be- show even the formation of clot in the empty alveolus on comes increasingly difficult to subject patient to CT if the the mend. er pathology is not very significant. (13). In the dental field In the future the use of open low-intensity magnetic field CT images are usually reconstructed using a software scanners, could be a solution to reduce costs and extend which reduces radiation exposure (14). This procedure, the application of the technique without exploiting the few however, can lead to dimensional errors (7). With the ex- scanners available for the study of serious diseases . ception of few medical counter-effects, MR is a valid al- ternative to CT: it is biologically safe (does not use ionizing radiation), provides clear images of the implant sites and also allows the use in more complex cases of nt References iI templates (15). 1. Langlais RP, Van Rensburg LJ Guidry J et al. Magnetic Re- Although the images are different from those of CT, the sonance Imaging in dentistry. Dent Clin North Am 2000; surgeon is able to familiarize with the MR images. It may 44(2): 411-26. on still be argued that similarly to the methodology of CT 2. Casselmann JW, Deryckere F, Robert Y et al. DentaScan: DentaScan, a considerable amount of information about programme of X ray computed tomographic reconstruction sites of interest could be acquired using a single three-di- used for the anatomical evaluation of the mandible and ma- mensional sequence gradient-echo with high-resolution xilla in preoperative assessment of dental implants. Ann Ra- , which would allow you to create appropriate images for diol (Paris) 1990; 33(7-8): 408-17. i the reconstruction without the need to acquire additional 3. Dandrau JP, Pharaboz G, 13ellavoir A. Dentascan in dental iz sets of images with different orientations (16). implantation. Rev Stomatol Chir Maxillofac 1992; 93(4): 263-6. We have not pursued this technique for the higher risk of 4. Gray CF, Redpath TW, Smith FW. Pre-surgical dental im- magnetic susceptibility artefacts (17) that you have with plant assessment by magnetic resonance imaging.J Oral Ed the gradient-echo images, and also for the scan time in Implant 1996; 22(2): 147-53. regard to the two-dimensional spin-echo sequences, with 5. Gray CF, Redpath TW, Smith FW. Low-field magnetic reso- the associated risk of degradation of the image due to nance imaging for implant dentistry. Dentomaxillofac Radiol movement of the patient. 1998; 27(4): 225-9. MR provides high-resolution images of the implant site, 6. Gray CF, Redpath TW, Smith FW, et al.. Advanced imaging. which give three-dimensional information on spatial rela- Magnetic resonance imaging in implant dentistry. Clin Oral tionships of vital structures, and is not subject to errors in- Implants Res. 2003;14(1):18-27. IC 7. Kohavi D, Bar-Ziv J, Marmary Y. Effect of axial plane devia- herent in the use of the technique for measuring the tion on cross-sectional height in reformatted computed to- depth and the angle of implant placement related to man- mography of the mandible. Dentomaxillofac Radiol 1997; dibular nerve. 26(3): 189-91. Additional clinical tests, aimed at the comparative eva- C 8. Gray CF, Staff RT, Redpath TW et al. Assessment of maxil- luation of MRT and CT DentaScan in pre-implant plan- lary sinus volume for the sinus lift operation by three-di- ning procedures, are reasonably required to determine mensional magnetic resonance imaging. Dentomaxillofac the individual technical advantages of one technique over Radiol 2000: 29(3): 154-8. the other. MR is a method with good definition, unlike CT: 9. Katzberg RW. Temporomandibular joint imaging. Radiology © it allows complete flexibility in the alignment of the cuts, 1989;170(2):297-307. so the operator can move the acquisition plan as appro- 10. Tasaki MM, Westesson PL. Temporomandibular joint: dia- priate. gnostic accuracy with sagittal and coronal MR imaging. Ra- Another recently acquired possibility offered by MR is to diology 1993; 186(3): 723-9. use equipment dedicated to the study of small joints with 11. Czar DH, Brown J, Bydder GM. Intravenous chelated ga- a permanent magnet of 0.2 Tesla. The low field scanner dolinium as a contrast agent in NMR imaging of cerebral tu- is an open scanner where the patient is lying under the mours. Lancet 1984; 1(8375):484-6. magnet on a table, not isolated by walls. This and the 12. Schwarz MS, Rothman SL, Chafetz N et. al. Computed to- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38 37  G. Pompa et al. mography in dental implantation surgery. Dent Clin North 16. Imamura H, Sato H, Matsuura T, et al. A comparative study Am 1989; :33(4: 555-97. of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging 13. National Radiological Protection Board. Guidelines on ra- for the detection of mandibular canals and cross-sectional diology standards for primary dental care. Documents of the areas in diagnosis prior to dental implant treatment. Clin Im- NRPB 1994; 5(3): 1-57. plant Dent Relat Res. 2004;6(2):75-81. 14. Cohnen M, Kemper J, Mobes O et al. Radiation dose in 17. Svendsen P, Quiding L, Landahl I. Blackout and other arte- i dental radiology. Eur Radiol 2002; 12(3): 634-7. facts in computed tomography caused by fillings in teeth. al 15. Aguiar MF, Marques AP, Carvalho AC, et al. Accuracy of Neuroradiol 1980; 19(5): 229-34. magnetic resonance imaging compared with tomography 18. Eggers G, Rieker M, Fiebach J, et al. Geometric accuracy for implant planning. Clin Oral Implants Res. 2008;19(4): of magnetic resonance imaging of the mandibular nerve. on 362-5. Dentomaxillofac Radiol. 2005; 34(5):285-91. zi na er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © 38 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 33-38 

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Implant adaptation of stock abutments versus CAD/CAM abutments: a radiographic and Scanning Electron Microscopy study i al on Davide Apicella, DDS, MS1 Discussion. CAD/CAM titanium, gold sputtered and zir- Mario Veltri, DDS, MS, PhD3 conia abutments and third-part CAD/CAM zirconia abut- Nicoletta Chieffi, DDS, MS, PhD1 ments show an adaptation to Astra Tech implants that is Antonella Polimeni, MD, DDS2 comparable to that of stock titanium and zirconia abut- Agostino Giovannetti, DDS2 ments. Clinicians might be able to verify such adapta- zi Marco Ferrari, MD, DDS, PhD1 tion with an x-ray. In-vivo studies would be needed to evaluate the clinical outcome of CAD/CAM abutments. Key words: titanium, zirconia, interface, abutment. na 1 University of Florence and Siena, Italy Tuscan School of Dental Medicine Department of Prosthodontics and Dental Materials of Siena, Introduction 2 University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy er Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Because of the constant increase of patient’s demands for Sciences, Paediatric Dentistry Unit dental aesthetics, and consequent attempts of prosthetic 3 Free practioner technology to catch-up with these exigencies, abutments Corresponding author: Prof. Marco Ferrari nt for implant-supported restorations are among the com- ponents that undergo frequent updates (1). In particular, because titanium abutments might display a bluish halo through thin soft tissues (2), alternative abutment mate- iI Departments of Oral Sciences rials have been sought. Due to its biocompatibility and ae- Policlinico Le Scotte sthetic properties zirconia is increasingly used for abutment Viale Bracci 1 - 53100 Siena, Italy manufacturing (3). In addition, zirconia abutments have a E-mail: ferrarimar@unisi.it on very high fracture resistance that is only little lower as com- pared to titanium (3). Besides zirconia, CAD/CAM pro- cessing is increasingly used for abutment manufacturing. Summary The customization possible with CAD/CAM abutments Implant adaptation of stock abutments versus CAD/CAM would allow for more refined prosthetic design and for en- i abutments: a radiographic and Scanning Electron Mi- hanced sustain of the soft tissue contour. Such components iz croscopy study. are available in different materials from implant companies and lately also from some third party manufacturers. Un- Introduction. The study evaluated a null-hypothesis of fortunately, no or little data assessing the fit of many of the- Ed no differences of fit between stock abutments and se new components from either proprietary or third party CAD/CAM titanium, gold sputtered and zirconia abut- companies are available. Nevertheless, the implant abut- ments when examined for radiographic adaptation and ment interface is a critical area for long-term outcome of Scanning Electron Microcopy (SEM) at their inner as- implant-supported prostheses (1). A reliable interfacial con- pect. The agreement between microscopic and radi- tact is desirable to maximize mechanical stability of abut- ographic fit was also assessed. ments and prosthesis (4) and to avoid possibly associa- Methods. Implants (Osseospeed, Astra Tech, Mölndal, ted biological complications (5). It has been demonstra- IC Sweden) were connected to titanium abutments (Ti-de- ted that gaps at the implant abutment interface might in- sign, Astra Tech, Mölndal, Sweden) (control group n=12), crease stresses at prosthetic components, implants and to stock zirconia abutments (Zir-design, Astra Tech) peri-implant bone (6). As a consequence of misfit-caused (group 1 n=12) and to third party zirconia abutments stresses, screw loosening or fracture might happen (7). The- C (Aadva Zr abutment, GC, Tokyo, Japan) as observed se events have been described as the most common me- under SEM (JEOL JSM-6060LV, Tokyo, Japan). Two inde- chanical complication during -3 to -5 years clinical trials pendent operators blindly evaluated the images, ac- cording to a three-score scale: perfect adaptation, no (5, 8). In addition, the implant abutment margin could fa- complete adaptation, and clear evidence of no adapta- vor bacterial accumulation and therefore it could be a sour- © tion. A Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to assess signif- ce of peri-implant inflammation (9). It was even hypothe- icant differences in adaptation scores between the sized that bacterial leakage at the implant abutment in- groups. terface may play an etiologic role in peri-implantitis (10-11) Results. All specimens showed precise SEM adaptation however its low prevalence in the literature seems to con- at all tested interfaces and no radiographically apparent tradict this theory (12). In any case because precision of gaps. No significant differences were found and there- the implant abutment interface might influence the rate of fore the null-hypothesis tested was accepted. Radi- biological and mechanical complications it seem highly de- ographic and SEM scores were in agreement. sirable to have a tight marginal fit at this interface. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 9-13 9  D. Apicella et al. Aim of this study is therefore to evaluate by radiographic ment margin and observed under SEM (JSM 6060 LV, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) examination at JEOL, Tokyo, Japan). To assign a score to each interface their inner aspect the fit of Astra Tech stock titanium and fit, the inner adaptation under SEM (as marginal gap bet- zirconia abutments, Aadva CAD/CAM zirconia abutments ween the fixture and the abutment) was digitally measu- and Atlantis CAD/CAM titanium, gold sputtered and zirconia red with a freeware image analysis software (15). In par- i abutments. A correlation between microscopic and ra- ticular a 0 score was assigned to gaps not exceeding 5 mi- al diographic fit will also be assessed. A null-hypothesis of crons (perfect adaptation), a score of 1 was assigned to no differences between stock and CAD/CAM abutments gaps greater than 5 microns but not exceeding 20 microns will be tested. (no complete adaptation), and finally 2 was assigned to gaps greater than 20 microns (clear evidence of no adap- on tation). Two independent operators blindly evaluated the Material and methods serial images according to the above-mentioned scale. Seventy-two implants (Osseospeed, Astra Tech, Mölndal, Statistical analysis zi Sweden) were used in this study. They were randomly di- Kappa coefficient was computed to evaluate interobser- vided into six equally sized groups. Implants in group 1 were ver agreement. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to as- connected to titanium abutments (Ti-design 5,5 h1,5, Astra sess statistical significance among the adaptation scores Tech, Mölndal, Sweden); implants in group 2 were con- between the six experimental groups. The level of signifi- na nected to zirconia abutments (Zir-design 5,5 h1,5, Astra cance was set at p<0.05. Altman-Bland’s method (16) was Tech, Mölndal, Sweden); implants in group 3 were con- employed to check the agreement between the im- nected to CAD/CAM zirconia abutments (Aadva Zr abut- plant/abutment fit measured by SEM and x-rays. ment, GC, Tokyo, Japan); implants in group 4 were con- er nected to CAD/CAM titanium abutments (Atlantis, Astra Tech); implants in group 5 were connected to CAD/CAM Results gold coated titanium abutments (Gold Hue, Atlantis, Astra Tech); implant in group 6 were connected to No disagreement between the operators resulted with a CAD/CAM zirconia abutments (Atlantis, Astra Tech). Im- plants and stock abutments were all from the same lot num- ber as provided by manufacturer. CAD/CAM abutments were provided by the manufacturers. In essence, both nt Kappa coefficient of 1. All the abutment groups showed sa- tisfactory adaptation by both X-ray and SEM evaluation. All the groups scored zero with regard to radiographic adap- tation (figure 1). SEM evaluation demonstrated mean in- iI Atlantis and Aadva systems scanned the fixture interface ternal gaps (figure 2) not higher than 5 microns in all the and afterwards the abutment was designed through a CAM groups and consequently a zero score was assigned to all process aiming at matching the design of Astra Tech Ti- the groups. No statistically significant differences were found on and Zir-Design abutments. At the end of the machining pha- (table 1). Radiographic examination scores were in perfect se the CAD/CAM abutments had a similar shape to the agreement with SEM scores with limits of agreement cal- stock abutments investigated. culated by the Altman-Bland’s method of 0. X-ray evaluation i This part of the study was intended to simulate the eva- Discussion iz luation of implant abutment adaptation that may be done in clinical practice (13, 14). Firstly specimens were sub- Aiming at improved reliability and aesthetic outcomes of jected to radiographic analysis using conventional film (Ul- implant-supported restorations, continuous strives are put Ed tra-Speed, Kodak, Rochester, NY, USA) and a dental tube (096 Belray, Takara Belmont, Osaka, Japan) placed per- pendicular to the implant abutment interface with the aid of a film holder (XCP, Dentsply Rinn, Elgin, IL, USA). Films were developed using fresh developer and fixer solutions (GBX Chemicals, Kodak Rochester, NY, USA). Proper adaptation of the abutment into the corresponding IC fixture was assessed. The evaluation aimed at determining the precision of fit between the bearing surfaces and the top of the external hexagon of the implant with the supe- rior surface of the internal hexagon of the abutment. The C adaptation of each abutment was scored from 0 (perfect adaptation), 1 (no complete adaptation) to 2 (clear evidence of no adaptation). Two operators made scores in double blind and in case of different scores the case was re-eva- © luated and an agreement was found. SEM examination All the specimens were embedded in acrylic resin (Te- chnovit 2100e, Kuler, Werheim, Germany) and cut using a low speed diamond saw (Isomet, Buehler, Lake Bluff, IL, USA) under water-cooling. All the abutments were then cut Figure 1 - From left, radiographic adaptation of Ti-design, Zir-de- parallel to the mesio-distal direction of the scalloped abut- sign and Aadva Zr abutments. 10 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 9-13  Implant adaptation of stock abutments versus CAD/CAM abutments: a radiographic and Scanning Electron Microscopy i al on zi na Figure 2 - SEM images of the adaptation at the inner aspect of the implant abutment interface after cross sectioning. er Table 1 - Scores related to abutments' adaptation to Osseospeed All the abutments, when examined from the inner aspect, fixtures. showed a gap never exceeding 5 microns. A very good 0 RX Score 1 2 0 SEM Score 1 2 nt marginal adaptation, among the best between several te- sted systems, was already documented for the Astra Tech titanium abutment (18). Nevertheless, much as precisely iI fitting, Astra Tech abutments are not able to prevent ex- Ti Design 12 - - 12 - - perimental bacterial (18) or endotoxin leakage (19) simi- Zir Design 12 - - 12 - - larly to others systems on the market (18). Nevertheless, Aadva Zr 12 - - 12 - - on Ti Atlantis 12 - - 12 - - because a tight fit between implant and abutment is de- Zir Atlantis 12 - - 12 - - sirable for optimal mechanical stability of the interface (4), Gold Hue Atlantis 12 - - 12 - - the observation that both stock zirconia abutments and CAD/CAM abutments obtained with the Atlantis and Legend: Rx Score = score performed by X-ray (0 = perfect adap- Aadva systems are able to replicate the same precise mar- i tation; 1 = no complete adaptation; 2 = clear evidence of no adap- ginal adaptation of Astra’s conical design connection se- iz tation); SEM Score = score of internal adaptation performed by ems of interest. SEM (0 = gap less than 5 microns between fixture and abutment, The marginal precision together with the mechanical re- perfect adaptation; 1 = when the gap was between 5 and 20 mi- liability of Atlantis zirconia abutments was already tested Ed crons, no complete adaptation; 2 = when it was higher than 20 in a previous study where they were found to be accep- microns, clear evidence of no adaptation). table for clinical use (20). Similarly this study, where the evaluation of Atlantis abutments was extended to all the available materials, showed that their fit to the fixture is com- parable to that of stock titanium abutments. in the advancement of prosthetic components and te- Conversely to the best of authors’ knowledge no previous chniques. At present the use of zirconia and CAD/CAM pro- studies ever evaluated the marginal fit of Aadva abutments. IC cessing is the forefront of the prosthetic technology. Zir- It is also of interest to highlight that, opposite to the uniform conia abutments could be used when bluish halo of tita- smoothness of stock abutments, SEM analysis of the Aad- nium through thin soft tissues is of concern (3). In addi- va abutment surface showed large shallow grooves ap- tion for enhanced matching to patient’s tissues (17) pre- parently as a result of the machining procedure, such groo- C made abutments can be customized in the laboratory by ves were also present on Atlantis abutments although they grinding or they can be obtained through CAD/CAM pro- appeared much smaller. In any case such grooves were ab- cessing with. Little literature at present evaluates the fit of sent in the area of the abutment that interfaces with the im- these new prosthetic components. plant and therefore, possibly, they were not jeopardizing mar- © In this study a null-hypothesis of no differences in the fit of ginal adaptation (figure 3). The influence of such grooves Atlantis and Aadva CAD/CAM abutments to Astra Tech im- on soft tissues and clinical outcomes is at present unknown. plants as compared with the fit of Astra Tech proprietary Therefore, although good results emerged from this inve- zirconia and titanium abutments is accepted. As a conse- stigation, further research is desirable on the Aadva system. quence, at least for the tested implant system, and as far The data regarding the fit of the CAD/CAM abutments here as marginal adaptation is concerned, Aadva and Atlantis investigated are analogous to the fit of CAD/CAM zirco- CAD/CAM abutments seem a suitable alternative to stock nia external connection abutments that never exceeded 5 abutments when a fully customized prosthesis is desired. microns of gap even after dynamic loading (21). Never- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 9-13 11  D. Apicella et al. i al on zi na er Figure 3 - Low magnification of all the investigated abutments. Opposite to Astra abutment, Aadva abutment surface showed large shallow grooves apparently as a result of the machining procedure. However the portion that interfaces with the implant was free from such grooves thus leaving unaffected marginal adaptation. theless, it has to be taken into consideration, that the con- figuration of the external connection systems, with the pre- nt 4. J Dent. 2007; 35: 819-26. Byrne D, Houston F, Cleary R, Claffey N. The fit of cast and iI sence of a marginal bevel, makes gap data not easily com- premachined implant abutments. J Prosthet Dent. 1998; 80: parable (21). 184-92. Additionally with regard to the clinical applicability of this 5. Jemt T, Pettersson P. A three-year follow-up study on single implant treatment. J Dent. 1993; 21: 203-8. study, radiographic evaluation of the implant abutment fit on 6. White GE. Osseointegrated Dental Technology. London: has been described as a sufficient consistent way to eva- Quintessence, 1993: 82–83. luate clinically precise abutment seating, especially in case 7. Binon PP. The effect of implant ⁄ abutment hexagonal misfit of subgingival location of the above-mentioned interface. on screw joint stability. Int J Prosthodont. 1996; 9: 149. However, it has also been pointed out that, for a reliable 8. Henry PJ, Laney WR, Jemt T, Harris D, Krogh PH, Polizzi G, i evaluation, orthogonal angulation is mandatory, as small Zarb GA, Herrmann I. Osseointegrated implants for single- iz angulations deviations hide the presence of a gap. The tooth replacement: a prospective 5-year multicenter study. agreement here found between SEM and x-ray evaluation Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 1996; 11: 450-5. of the marginal adaptation seems of relevance. Conse- 9. Broggini N, McManus LM, Hermann JS, Medina R, Schenk Ed quently, it is reasonable to say that, when precise radio- RK, Buser D, Cochran DL. Peri-implant inflammation defi- graphic orthogonal orientation is attained like in this stu- ned by the implant-abutment interface. J Dent Res. 2006; dy, clinicians can control abutment adaptation on Astra Tech 85: 473-8. implants by intraoral x-rays as radiographic adaptation cor- 10. Quirynen M, Bollen CM, Eyssen H, van Steenberghe D. Mi- responds to precise microscopic seating. crobial penetration along the implant components of the In conclusion Aadva and Atlantis CAD/CAM abutments Brånemark system. An in vitro study. Clin Oral Implants Res. 1994; 5: 239-44. showed a fit to the Astra Tech fixture that was compara- IC 11. Quirynen M, van Steenberghe D. Bacterial colonization of ble to the stock titanium and zirconia abutments. In-vivo the internal part of two-stage implants. An in vivo study. Clin studies are needed to evaluate the clinical results of the Oral Implants Res. 1993; 4: 158-61. investigated CAD/CAM abutment systems. 12. Esposito M, Hirsch JM, Lekholm U, Thomsen P. Biological fac- C tors contributing to failures of osseointegrated oral implants. (II). Etiopathogenesis. Eur J Oral Sci. 1998; 106: 721-64. References 13. Cameron SM, Joyce A, Brousseau JS, Parker MH. Radio- graphic verification of implant abutment seating. J Prosthet 1. Binon PP. Implants and components: entering the new mil- Dent. 1998; 79: 298-303. © lennium. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2000; 15: 76-94. 14. Begoña Ormaechea M, Millstein P, Hirayama H. Tube an- 2. Glauser R, Sailer I, Wohlwend A, Studer S, Schibli M, Scha- gulation effect on radiographic analysis of the implant-abut- rer P. Experimental zirconia abutments for implant-suppor- ment interface. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 1999; 14: ted single-tooth restorations in esthetically demanding 77-85. regions: 4-year results of a prospective clinical study. Int J 15. Rasband, W.S., ImageJ, U. S. National Institutes of Health, Prosthodont. 2004; 17: 285-90. Bethesda, Maryland, USA, http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/, 1997- 3. Manicone PF, Rossi-Iommetti P, Raffaelli L. An overview of 2008. zirconia ceramics: basic properties and clinical applications. 16. Bland JM, Altman DG. Statistical methods for assessing 12 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 9-13  Implant adaptation of stock abutments versus CAD/CAM abutments: a radiographic and Scanning Electron Microscopy agreement between two methods of clinical measurement. in vitro investigation of tightness of internal conical implant- Lancet. 1986; 1: 307-10. abutment connections against endotoxin penetration. Clin 17. Conrad HJ, Seong WJ, Pesun IJ. Current ceramic materials Oral Investig. 2009 DOI 10.1007/s00784-009-0317-x (epub and systems with clinical recommendations: A systematic ahead of print) review. J Prosthet Dent. 2007; 98: 389-404. 20. Kerstein RB, Radke J. A comparison of fabrication precision 18. Jansen VK, Conrads G, Richter EJ. Microbial leakage and and mechanical reliability of 2 zirconia implant abutments. i al marginal fit of the implant-abutment interface. Int J Oral Ma- Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2008; 23: 1029-36. xillofac Implants. 1997; 12: 527-40 21. Yuzugullu B, Avci M. The implant-abutment interface of alu- 19. Harder S, Dimaczek B, Açil Y, Terheyden H, Freitag-Wolf S, mina and zirconia abutments. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. Kern M. Molecular leakage at implant-abutment connection- 2008; 10: 113-21. on zi na er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (3-4): 9-13 13 

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0373 1 Editoriale:- 30-11-2010 18:54 Pagina 1 Editorial i al on The beginning of the next academic year coincides with the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Degree course in Dentistry in Italy. In 1980, a decree signed by the President of the Italian Republic, on. Sandro Pertini, founded this de- gree course in the Faculty of Medicine, thereby respecting a European Community directive that re- zi quired the first graduates in Dentistry by 1984. For this reason, the first two years of this new course were activated simultaneously, reserving the 80% of the second year places to the students of Medi- a cine who had already completed the exams of their first academic year and the 20% to the gradua- tes in Medicine . rn A very long way has gone through since those days, when dental students were called “odonto-schrumpf”. Moreover to establish a European level core curriculum, both in the scientific and professional disci- te plines, programmes enhanced along the years giving higher and higher attention to practice and te- chnical knowledge, that are necessary to a high quality Dentistry. The experience of these 30 years, produced an enhancement of the course from the original five-ye- In ars course to the current six-years course, allowing now to the graduates in Dentistry to acquire the knowledge and experience needed for their profession. The cornerstone of this enhancement is founded especially upon a very intense research, in particu- ni lar about materials and techniques. This transformation encountered and satisfied the increasing re- quests of the Italian population of high quality dental treatments. Our discipline during these last 30 years had a great development, preparing the graduates to satisfy io the requests of the patients of high quality Dentistry and producing researchers and experts interna- tionally renowned, who spread Italian dental knowledge throughout the world. iz Prof. Maurizio Ripari Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 1 1 

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0373 3 Ultrasonic_DePaolis:- 30-11-2010 18:56 Pagina 6 Ultrasonics in endodontic surgery: a review of the literature i al on Gianfranco De Paolis, DDS, PhD tion, which converts electromagnetic energy into me- Valentina Vincenti, DDS chanical energy. A stack of magnetostrictive metal strips Matteo Prencipe, DDS in a handpiece is subjected to a standing and alternating Valerio Milana, DDS magnetic field, as a result of which vibrations are produced. Gianluca Plotino, DDS, PhD The second method is based on the piezoelectric princi- zi ple, in which a crystal is used that changes dimension when Dentists, private practice in Rome, Italy an electrical charge is applied. Deformation of this crys- tal is converted into mechanical oscillation without pro- a Corresponding author: ducing heat (1). Dott. Gianluca Plotino In the last decade piezoelectric units have become the Via Eleonora, Duse 22 rn most common ultrasonic devices in dentistry. They have 00197 Rome, Italy some advantages compared with earlier magnetostrictive Tel.: 3396910098 units because they offer more cycles per second, 40 ver- E-mail: endo@gianlucaplotino.com sus 24 kHz. The tips of these units work in a linear, back- te and-forth, “piston-like” motion, which is ideal for en- dodontics. Lea et al. (9) demonstrated that the position of nodes and antinodes of an unconstrained and unloaded endosonic file activated by a 30-kHz piezon generator was Summary In along the file length. As a result the file vibration dis- Ultrasonics in endodontic surgery: a review of the liter- placement amplitude does not increase linearly with in- ature. creasing generator power. This applies in particular when Currently, although ultrasonics (US) is used in dentistry “troughing” for hidden canals or when removing posts and separated instruments. In addition, this motion is ideal in ni for therapeutic and diagnostic applications as well as for cleaning of instruments before sterilization, its main use surgical endodontics when creating a preparation for a ret- is for scaling and root planing of teeth and in root canal rograde filling. A magnetostrictive unit, on the other hand, therapy, both for orthograde and retrograde therapy. creates more of a figure eight (elliptical) motion, which is io Both in conventional and surgical treatments, US in en- not ideal for either surgical or nonsurgical endodontic use. dodontics has enhanced quality of clinical procedures In endodontic surgery, for example, this characteristic does and represents an important adjunct in the treatment of not allow a precise cut of a cavity. The magnetostrictive units iz difficult cases. More precisely it has become increas- also have the disadvantage that the stack generates heat, ingly more useful in applications such as gaining access thus requiring adequate cooling (1). Once again, this over- to canal openings, cleaning and shaping, obturation of heating is not desiderable in surgical endodontics. root canals, removal of intracanal materials and ob- Ed In dentistry ultrasonics (US) or ultrasonic instrumentation structions, and endodontic surgery. This review of the was first introduced to for cavity preparations (10,11), us- literature aims at presenting the numerous advantages ing an abrasive slurry. Although the technique received fa- of US in surgical endodontics and emphasizes its appli- vorable comments (12,13), it never became popular, be- cation in a modern-day endodontic practice. cause it had to compete with the much more effective and Key words: endodontics, surgery, ultrasonics. convenient instruments, i.e. the burs mounted on high- speed handpieces (14). However, a different application IC was introduced in 1955, when Zinner (15) reported on the use of an ultrasonic instrument to remove deposits from the tooth surface. This was improved upon by Johnson and Introduction Wilson (16), and the ultrasonic scaler became an estab- C lished tool in the removal of dental calculus and plaque. In order to understand the basic concepts of the use of ul- Currently, although US is used in dentistry for therapeu- trasonics (US) in dentistry, it must be underlined that ul- tic and diagnostic applications as well as for cleaning of trasound is sound energy with a frequency above the range instruments before sterilization, its main use is for scal- © of human hearing, which is 20 kHz. In dentistry the range ing and root planing of teeth and in root canal therapy, both of frequencies employed in the first ultrasonic units was for surgical and non-surgical approach. (1,17,18). More re- between 25 and 40 kHz (1). Later, low-frequency ultrasonic cently, the concept of minimally invasive dentistry (19,20) handpieces operating from 1 to 8 kHz were developed (2,3). and the desire for preparations with small dimensions has This low-frequence devices were found to produce low- stimulated new approaches in cavity design and tooth-cut- er shear stresses (4), thus causing less alteration to the ting concepts, including ultrasound for cavity preparation tooth surface (5). Currently, there are two basic methods (21). of producing ultrasound (6,7,8). The first is magnetostric- The concept of using US in endodontics was first introduced 6 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 6-10 0373 3 Ultrasonic_DePaolis:- 30-11-2010 18:56 Pagina 7 Ultrasonics in endodontic surgery: a review of the literature by Richman (22) in 1957. However, it was not until Mar- ing parallel to the canal, difficult access to the root end, tin et al. (23,24,25) demonstrated the ability of ultrasoni- and risk of lingual perforation of the root. Furthermore, the cally activated K-type files to cut dentin that this applica- inability to prepare to a sufficient depth, thus compromising tion found common use in the preparation of root canals retention of the root-end filling material, means that the root- before filling andalso obturation. The term endosonics was end resection procedure requires a longer cutting bevel, i coined by Martin and Cunningham (26,27) and was de- thus exposing more dentinal tubules and isthmus tissue, al fined as the ultrasonic and synergistic system of root canal of which the latter is difficult to remove. The development instrumentation and disinfection. The most frequent ap- of ultrasonic and sonic retrotips has revolutionized root- plications of US in endodontics are the following. (i) Ac- end therapy, improving the surgical procedure with better cess refinement, finding orifices and calcified canals, and access to the root end, resulting in better canal prepara- on removal of attached pulp stones. (ii) Removal of intracanal tion (44,45). Ultrasonic retrotips come in a variety of shapes obstructions (separated instruments, root canal posts, sil- and angles, thus improving some steps during the surgi- ver points, and fractured metallic posts). (iii) Root canal cal procedures (46,47). preparation using ultrasonically activated k-files. (iv) Root Probably, the most relevant clinical advantages are the en- hanced access to root-ends in a limited working space. This zi canal irrigation with an increased action of irrigating so- lutions, due to cavitation and microstreaming action. (v) Ul- leads to a smaller osteotomy for surgical access because trasonic condensation of gutta-percha. (vi) Placement of of the advantage of using various angulations and the small calcium hydroxide and mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA). size of the retrotips (48). However, a number of studies com- a (vii) Surgical endodontics: root-end cavity preparation and pared root-end preparations made with microsurgical tips refinement and placement of root-end obturation materi- to those made with burs. They demonstrated additional ad- rn al vantages of this technique, such as deeper and more con- The aim of the present literature review is to analyze and servative cavities that follow the original path of the root discuss the use of US in surgical endodontics, focusing at- canal more closely (49,50,51,52,53,54). A better-centered tention mainly of the advantages of US-activated instru- root-end preparation also lessens the risk of lateral per- te ments for cavity preparation and refinement. Moreover the foration. Furthermore, the geometry of the retrotip design use of US for the placement of root-end filling materials- does not require a beveled root-end resection for surgical will also be addressed. access, thus decreasing the number of exposed dentinal In tubules (55,56,57) and minimizing apical leakage (58,59,60,61). They also enable the removal of isthmus tis- The use of ultrasonics in Surgical Endodontics sue present between two canals within the same root (62,63,64). It is considered a time-saving technique that In the past decades root-end cavities have traditionally been seems to have a lower failure rate. ni prepared by means of small round or inverted cone burs More recently, the cleaning effect and the cutting ability of in a micro-handpiece. In the mid-1980s, standardized in- ultrasonic retrotips have been described as satisfactory by struments and aluminum oxide ceramic pins were intro- many authors (65,66). Furthermore, US produced less duced for retrograde filling (28), but that system could not smear layer in a retro-end cavity compared to a slow-speed io be used in cases with limited working space or in teeth with handpiece (67). Moreover, the refinement of cavity mar- large oval canals. Soon after sonically or ultrasonically driv- gins that were obtained with the ultrasonic tips may pos- en microsurgical retrotips became commercially available itively affect the delivery of materials into the cavities and iz in the early 1990s (29,30,31,32), this new technique of ret- enhance their seal (68,69,70), even if cavities prepared with rograde root canal instrumentation has become rapidly pop- erbium:YAG lasers have been shown to produce signifi- ular and been established as an essential adjunct in peri- cantly lower microleakage than ultrasonic preparations (71). Ed radicular surgery (33,34). However, the cutting properties Amongst the possibile iatrogenic errors, in a study by Walm- of the retrotips at that time were limited and seemed to be sley et al. (72) the breakage of ultrasonic root-end prepa- dependent on loading, power setting, and orientation of the ration tips was investigated and attributed to the design of tip to the long axis of the handpiece (35,36). Moreover in the tip. Increased angulation of retrotips increases the trans- some retrotips, cooling of the working tip was insufficient, verse oscillation and decreases the longitudinal oscillation, and dentin and bone were at risk of being overheated. putting the greatest strain at the bend of the instrument. However, the technique was promising and led to signif- The authors suggested reducing the angulation and in- IC icant improvement in the instruments, which have signif- creasing the dimensions of the tip to resist breakage. This icantly enhanced the treatment outcome in apicoectomy may be true, but a straighter design will restrict access and with retrofilling (37). As the prognosis of endodontic sur- a thicker instrument prevents instrumentation of isthmus- gery is highly dependent on good obturation and sealing es. A controversial issue with sonic or ultrasonic root-end C of the root canal, an optimal cavity preparation is an es- preparation is the formation of cracks or microfractures and sential prerequisite for an adequate root-end filling after its implications for healing success (73,74). Some studies apicoectomy (38,39). The first root-end preparation using indicated that this was a possible drawback modified ultrasonic inserts following an apicoectomy is at- (75,76,77,78,79). Other studies, however, disputed these © tributed to Bertrand et al. (40). Others followed, but it was findings and did not report a higher prevalence of mi- not until 1987 that Flath and Hicks (41) further reported crofractures (80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,). Khabbaz et al. on the use of ultrasonics and sonics for root-end cavity (53) found that cracks did not correlate directly with the sur- preparation. face area of the root-end surfaces but rather with the type One of the reason for the success of US retrotips is due of retrotip used. Preparation with smooth stainless steel to the fact that conventional root-end cavity preparation us- ultrasonic tips produced fewer intradentin cracks than di- ing rotary burs in a micro-handpiece is faced with sever- amond-coated stainless steel ultrasonic tips and sonic di- al problems (42,43), such as a cavity preparation not be- amond-coated tips. It is recommended that the ultrason- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 6-10 7 0373 3 Ultrasonic_DePaolis:- 30-11-2010 18:56 Pagina 8 G. De Paolis et al. ic unit be set at medium power and the cavities be prepared in open and diverging apices, but it can also be used to to a depth of 2.5-3 mm (89). This depth allows for a min- put the material in root-end cavities, in perforations, and imum thickness of material that can still provide an effective especially in perforations of the floor of the pulp chamber. apical seal (90). The cavity walls should be parallel and fol- low the anatomic outline of the pulpal space (91). It has i also been suggested that root-end cavities should be ini- References al tiated with a diamond-coated retrotip, using its better cut- ting ability to provide the main cavity. This aids in the re- 1. Stock CJR. Current status of the use of ultrasound in en- moval of root canal obturation materials and should be fol- dodontics. Int Dent J. 1991;41:175-182. lowed by a smooth retrotip to smooth and clean cavity walls. 2. Ahmad M, Roy RA, Kamarudin AG, Safar M. The vibratory on It must be underlined the fact that the influence of root-end pattern of ultrasonic files driven piezoelectrically. Int Endod microfractures on the periradicular healing process and api- J. 1993;26:120-124. cal leakage should be clarified. Apical resorption after heal- 3. Lumley PJ, Walmsley AD, Marquis PM. Effect of air inlet ring ing (92) may eliminate the surface defects and contribute opening on sonic handpiece performance. J Dent. 1994;22:376-379. zi to the overall success of treatment. Also, such defects can 4. Ahmad M, Pitt Ford TR, Crum LA. Ultrasonic debridement be removed by finishing resected and retrofilled root-end of root canals: an insight into the mechanisms involved. J En- surfaces (93). Several in vivo studies reported excellent suc- dod. 1987;13:93-101. cess rates when the root-end preparation was performed a 5. Layton CA, Marshall JG, Morgan LA, Baumgartner JC. Eval- using ultrasonic retrotips (94,95), thus demonstrating uation of cracks associated with ultrasonic root-end prepa- that modern surgical endodontic treatment using an op- ration. J Endod. 1996;22:157-160. rn erating microscope and ultrasonic tips significantly improves 6. Walmsley AD. Ultrasound and root canal treatment: the need the outcome compared to the traditional techniques (96). for scientific evaluation. Int Endod J. 1987;20:105-111. In order to improve retrograde filling techniques, it has been 7. Lumley PJ, Walmsley AD, Laird WRE. An investigation into suggested the use of condenser tip ultrasonically activated the occurrence of cavitational activity during endosonic in- te for placement of retrograde filling materials, as the ultra- strumentation. J Dent. 1988;16:120-122. sonic vibration is meant to improve the flow, settling and 8. Laird WRE, Walmsley AD. Ultrasound in dentistry: Part 1 (Bio- compaction of these materials to root-end dentinal walls. physical interactions). J Dent. 1991;19:14-17. In This should improve the delivery of materials into the cav- ity thus enhancing their seal. Ultrasonic tips can also be 9. Lea SC, Walmsley AD, Lumley PJ, Landini G. A new insight into the oscillation characteristics of endosonic files used in used to polish root end material and apical surfaces. Uti- dentistry. Phys Med Biol. 2004;49:2095-2102. lizing specific ultrasonic tips for refinement of the external 10. Catuna MC. Ultrasonic energy: a possible dental application radicular surface may be beneficial in the elimination of ex- (Preliminary report of an ultrasonic cutting method). Ann Dent. 1953;12:256-260. ni traradicular bacteria, which may be responsible for infec- tion (97). 11. Postle HH. Ultrasonic cavity preparation. J Prosthet Dent. 1958;8:153-160. More recently, Witherspoon and Ham (98) described the 12. Oman CR, Applebaum E. Ultrasonic cavity preparation II use of US to aid in the placement of MTA. The inherent ir- io (Progress report). J Am Dent Assoc. 1954;50:414-417. regularities and divergent nature of some open apices may 13. Nielsen AG, Richards JR, Wolcott RB. Ultrasonic dental cut- predispose the material to marginal gaps at the dentin in- ting instrument: I. J Am Dent Assoc. 1955;50:392-399. terface. It was demonstrated that, with the adjunct of US, 14. Street EV. Critical evaluation of ultrasonics in dentistry. J Prost- iz a significantly better seal with MTA was achieved. Place- het Dent. 1959;9:32-41. ment of MTA with ultrasonic vibration and an endodontic 15. Zinner DD. Recent ultrasonic dental studies including peri- condenser improved the flow, settling, and compaction of odontia, without the use of an abrasive. J Dent Res. Ed MTA. Furthermore, the ultrasonically condensed MTA ap- 1955;34:748-749. peared denser radiographically, with fewer voids. These re- 16. Johnson WN, Wilson JR. Application of the ultrasonic den- sults contradicted those of Aminoshariae et al. (99), who tal unit to scaling procedures. J Periodontol. 1957;28:264-271. concluded from an in vitro study that hand condensation 17. Walmsley AD. Applications of ultrasound in dentistry. Ultra- was superior. The recommended placement method con- sound Med Biol. 1988;14:7-14. sists of selecting a condenser tip, then picking up and plac- 18. Walmsley AD, Laird WRE, Lumley PJ. Ultrasound in dentistry: ing the MTA with the ultrasonic tip, followed by activating Part 2 (Periodontology and endodontics). J Dent. 1992;20:11- IC the tip and slowly moving the MTA material down using a 17. 1- to 2-mm vertical packing motion. Direct ultrasonic en- 19. Peters MC, McLean ME. Minimally invasive operative care ergy will vibrate and generate a wavelike motion, which fa- (I. Minimal intervention and concepts for minimally invasive cilitates moving and adapting the cement to the canal walls. cavity preparations). J Adhes Dent. 2001;3:7-16. C 20. Peters MC, McLean ME. Minimally invasive operative care In a case of repairing a defect apical to the canal curva- (II. Contemporary techniques and materials: an overview). ture, Ruddle (100) recommends incrementally placing MTA J Adhes Dent. 2001;3:17-31. deep into a canal, then shepherding it around the curva- 21. Sheets CG, Paquette JM. Ultrasonic tips for conservative ture with a flexible trimmed gutta-percha cone utilized as restorative dentistry. Dent Today. 2002;21:102-104. © a plugger. A precurved 15 or 20 stainless steel file is then 22. Richman RJ. The use of ultrasonics in root canal therapy and inserted into the material and placed to within 1 or 2 mm root resection. Med Dent J. 1957;12:12-18. of the working length. This is followed by indirect ultrasound, 23. Martin H. Ultrasonic disinfection of the root canal. Oral Surg which involves placing the working end of an ultrasonic in- Oral Med Oral Pathol. 1976;42:92-99. strument on the shaft of the file. This vibratory energy en- 24. Martin H, Cunningham WT, Norris JP, Cotton WR. Ultrasonic courages MTA to move and conform to the configurations versus hand filing of dentin: a quantitative study. Oral Surg of the canal laterally as well as controlling its movement. Oral Med Oral Pathol. 1980;49:79-81. This technique was recommended initially for placing MTA 25. Martin H, Cunningham WT, Norris JP. A quantitative com- 8 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 6-10 0373 3 Ultrasonic_DePaolis:- 30-11-2010 18:56 Pagina 9 Ultrasonics in endodontic surgery: a review of the literature parison of the ability of diamond and K-type files to remove 52. Lin CP, Chou HG, Kuo JC, Lan WH. The quality of ultrason- dentin. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol. 1980;50:566-568. ic root-end preparation: a quantitative study. J Endod. 26. Martin H, Cunningham W. Endosonic endodontics: the ul- 1998;24:666-670. trasonic synergistic system. Int Dent J. 1984;34:198-203. 53. Khabbaz MG, Kerezoudis NP, Aroni E, Tsatsas V. Evaluation 27. Martin H, Cunningham W. Endosonics: the ultrasonic syn- of different methods for the root-end cavity preparation. Oral ergistic system of endodontics. Endod Dent Traumatol. Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2004;98:237- i 1985;1:201-206. 242. al 28. Keller U. Aluminium oxide ceramic pins for retrograde root 54. Abedi HR, Van Mierlo BL, Wilder-Smith P, Torabinejad M. Ef- filling: experiences with a new system. Oral Surg Oral Med fects of ultrasonic root-end cavity preparation on the root apex. Oral Pathol. 1990;69:737-742. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. on 29. Pannkuk TF. Endodontic surgery: principles, objectives and 1995;80:207-213. treatment of posterior teeth: Part I. Endod Rep. 1991;6:8-14. 55. Rud J, Andreasen JO, Moller-Jensen JE. A follow-up study 30. Carr G. Advanced techniques and visual enhancement for of 1000 cases treated by endodontic surgery. Int J Oral Surg. endodontic surgery. Endod Rep. 1992;7:6-9. 1972;1:15-28. 31. Pannkuk TF. Endodontic surgery: the treatment phase and 56. Amagasa T, Nagase M, Sato T, Shioda S. Apicoectomy with zi wound healing: Part II. Endod Rep. 1992;7:14-19. retrograde gutta-percha root filling. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral 32. Fong CD. A sonic instrument for retrograde preparation. J En- Pathol. 1989;68:339-342. dod. 1993;19:374-375. 57. Tidmarsh BG, Arrowsmith MG. Dentinal tubules at the root a 33. Gutmann JL, Pitt Ford TR. Management of the resected root- ends of apicected teeth: a scanning electron microscopic end: a clinical review. Int Endod J. 1993;26:273-283. study. Int Endod J. 1989;22:184-189. 34. Wuchenich G, Meadows D, Torabinejad M. A comparison be- 58. Shani J, Friedman S, Stabholtz A, Abed JA. Radionuclide rn tween two root end preparation techniques in human ca- model for evaluating sealability of retrograde filling materi- davers. J Endod. 1994;20:279-282. als. Int J Nucl Med Biol. 1984;11:46-51. 35. Waplington M, Lumley PJ, Walmsley AD, Blunt L. Cutting abil- 59. Vertucci F, Beatty RG. Apical leakage associated with retro- ity of an ultrasonic retrograde cavity preparation instrument. filling techniques: a dye study. J Endod. 1986;12:331-336. te Endod Dent Traumatol. 1995;11:177-180. 60. Gilheany PA, Figdor D, Tyas MJ. Apical dentin permeability 36. Devall R, Lumley P, Wamplington M, Blunt L. Cutting char- and microleakage associated with root end resection and ret- acteristics of a sonic root-end preparation instrument. Endod rograde filling. J Endod. 1994;20:22-26. Dent Traumatol. 1996;12:96-99. 61. Gagliani M, Taschieri S, Molinari R. Ultrasonic root-end prepa- 37. In Sumi Y, Hattori H, Hayashi K, Ueda M. Ultrasonic root-end ration: influence of cutting angle on the apical seal. J Endod. preparation: clinical and radiographic evaluation of results. 1998;24:726-730. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 1996;54:590-593. 62. Weller RN, Niemczyk SP, Kim S. Incidence and position of 38. Carr G. Surgical endodontics. In: Cohen S, Burns R editor. the canal isthmus. J Endod. 1995;21:380-383. Pathways of the pulp. 4th ed.. St. Louis: Mosby; 1994;p. 546- 63. Hsu Y-Y, Kim S. The resected root surface: the issue of canal ni 552. isthmuses. Dent Clin North Am. 1997;41:529-540. 39. Sutimuntanakul S, Worayoskowit W, Mangkornkarn C. Ret- 64. Zuolo ML, Perin FR, Ferreira MOF, Faria FP. Ultrasonic root- rograde seal in ultrasonically prepared canals. J Endod. end preparation with smooth and diamond-coated tips. En- io 2000;26:444-446. dod Dent Traumatol. 1999;15:265-268. 40. Bertrand G, Festal F, Barailly R. Use of ultrasound in api- 65. O’Connor RP, Hutter JW, Roahen JO. Leakage of amalgam coectomy. Quintessence Int. 1976;7:9-12. and Super-EBA root-end fillings using two preparation 41. Flath RK, Hicks ML. Retrograde instrumentation and obtu- techniques and surgical microscopy. J Endod. 1995;21:74- iz ration with new devices. J Endod. 1987;13:546-549. 78. 42. von Arx T, Walker WA. Microsurgical instruments for root-end 66. Sultan M, Pitt-Ford TR. Ultrasonic preparation and obtura- cavity preparation following apicoectomy: a literature review. tion of root-end cavities. Int Endod J. 1995;28:231-238. Ed Endod Dent Traumatol. 2000;16:47-62. 67. Pashley DH. Smear layer: physiological considerations. 43. Kim S, Kratchman S. Modern endodontic surgery concepts Oper Dent. 1984;3(Suppl):13-29. and practice: a review. J Endod. 2006;32:601-623. 68. Saunders WP, Saunders EM, Gutman JL. Ultrasonic root-end 44. Gutmann JL, Harrison JW. Posterior endodontic surgery: preparation: Part 2 (Microleakage of EBA root-end fillings). anatomical considerations and clinical techniques. Int Endod Int Endod J. 1994;27:325-329. J. 1985;18:8-34. 69. Lloyd A, Gutmann J, Dummer P, Newcombe R. Microleak- 45. Kim S. Principles of endodontic microsurgery. Dent Clin North age of Diaket and amalgam in root-end cavities prepared us- IC Am. 1997;41:481-497. ing MicroMega sonic retro-prep tips. Int Endod J. 1997;30:196- 46. Kellert M, Solomon C, Chalfin H. A modern approach to sur- 204. gical endodontics: ultrasonic apical preparation. N Y State 70. Chailertvanitkul P, Saunders WP, Saunders EM, MacKenzie D. Dent J. 1994;60:25-28. Polymicrobial coronal leakage of super EBA root-end fillings C 47. Rubinstein R, Torabinejad M. Contemporary endodontic sur- following two methods of root-end preparation. Int Endod J. gery. J Calif Dent Assoc. 2004;32:485-492. 1998;31:348-353. 48. Mehlhaff DS, Marshall JG, Baumgartner JC. Comparison of 71. Karlovic Z, Pezelj-Ribaric S, Miletic I, Jukic S, Grgurevic J, ultrasonic and high-speed-bur root-end preparations using Anic I. Erbium:YAG laser versus ultrasonic in preparation of bilaterally matched teeth. J Endod. 1997;23:448-452. root-end cavities. J Endod. 2005;31:821-823. © 49. Gutmann JL, Saunders WP, Nguyen L, Guo IY, Saun- 72. Walmsley AD, Lumley PJ, Johnson WT, Walton RE. Break- ders EM. Ultrasonic root-end preparation: Part 1 (SEM analy- age of ultrasonic root-end preparation tips. J Endod. sis). Int Endod J. 1994;27:318-324. 1996;22:287-289. 50. Engel TK, Steiman HR. Preliminary investigation of ultrasonic 73. Taschieri S, Testori T, Francetti L, Del Fabbro M. Effects of root end preparation. J Endod. 1995;21:443-445. ultrasonic root end preparation on resected root surfaces: 51. Gorman MC, Steiman HR, Gartner AH. Scanning electron SEM evaluation. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Ra- microscopic evaluation of root-end preparations. J Endod. diol Endod. 2004;98:611-618. 1995;21:113-117. 74. Gondim E, Figueiredo Almeida de Gomes BP, Ferraz CC, Tei- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 6-10 9 0373 3 Ultrasonic_DePaolis:- 30-11-2010 18:56 Pagina 10 G. De Paolis et al. xeira FB, de Souza-Filho FJ. Effect of sonic and ultrasonic root-end cavity preparation using ultrasonic retrotips. Int En- retrograde cavity preparation on the integrity of root apices dod J. 2003;36:586-590. of freshly extracted human teeth: scanning electron mi- 89. Tanzilli JP, Donald R, Moodnik RM. A comparison of the mar- croscopy analysis. J Endod. 2002;28:646-650. 75. Onnick PA, Davis RD, Wayman BE. An in vitro comparison ginal adaptation of retrograde techniques: a scanning elec- of incomplete root fractures associated with three obturation tron microscopic study. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol. i techniques. J Endod. 1994;20:32-37. 1980;50:74-80. al 76. Waplington M, Lumley PJ, Walmsley AD. Incidence of root 90. Mattison GD, Von Fraunhofer A, Delivanis PD, Ander- face alteration after ultrasonic retrograde cavity preparation. son AN. Microleakage of retrograde amalgams. J Endod. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. on 1997;83:387-392. 1985;11:340-345. 77. Brent PD, Morgan LA, Marshall JG, Baumgartner JC. Eval- 91. Carr G. Ultrasonic root-end preparation. Dent Clin North Am. uation of diamond-coated ultrasonic instruments for root-end 1997;41:541–554. preparation. J Endod. 1999;25:672-675. 92. Holland R, Otoboni Filho JA, Bernabè PF, de Souza V, 78. Lin CP, Chou HG, Chen RS, Lan WH, Hsieh CC. Root de- Nery MJ, Dezan Junior E. Effect of root canal filling materi- zi formation during root-end preparation. J Endod. 1999;25:668- 671. al and level of surgical injury on periodontal healing in dogs. 79. Frank RJ, Antrim DD, Bakland LK. Effect of retrograde cav- Endod Dent Traumatol. 1998;14:199–205. a ity preparations on root apexes. Endod Dent Traumatol. 93. Gondim E, Zaia AA, Figueiredo Almeida de Gomes BP, Fer- 1996;12:100-103. raz CC, Teixeira FB, de Souza-Filho FJ. Investigation of the 80. Beling KL, Marshall JG, Morgan LA, Baumgartner JC. rn marginal adaptation of root-end filling materials in root-end Evaluation for cracks associated with ultrasonic root-end preparation of gutta-percha filled canals. J Endod. cavities prepared with ultrasonic tips. Int Endod J. 1997;23:323-326. 2003;36:491-499. 81. Min MM, Brown CE, Legan JJ, Kafrawy AH. In vitro evalua- 94. Maddalone M, Gagliani M. Periapical endodontic surgery: a te tion of effects of ultrasonic root-end preparation on resect- 3-year follow-up study. Int Endod J. 2003;36:193-198. ed root surfaces. J Endod. 1997;23:624-628. 95. Taschieri S, Del Fabbro M, Testori T, Francetti L, Weinstein R. 82. Calzonetti KJ, Iwanowski T, Komorowski R, Friedman S. Ul- trasonic root-end cavity preparation assessed by an in situ Endodontic surgery with ultrasonic retrotips: one-year follow- In impression technique. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral up. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. Radiol Endod. 1998;85:210–215. 2005;100:380-387. 83. Morgan LA, Marshall JG. A scanning electron microscopic 96. Tsesis I, Rosen E, Schwartz-Arad D, Fuss Z. Retrospective study of in vivo ultrasonic root-end preparations. J Endod. evaluation of surgical endodontic treatment: traditional ver- 1999;25:567-570. ni 84. Gray GJ, Hatton JF, Holtzmann DJ, Jenkins DB, Nielsen CJ. sus modern technique. J Endod. 2006;32:412-416. Quality of root-end preparations using ultrasonic and rotary 97. Siqueira JF. Endodontic infections: concepts, paradigms, and instrumentation in cadavers. J Endod. 2000;26:281-283. perspectives. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol En- io 85. Rainwater A, Jeansonne BG, Sarkar N. Effects of ultrason- dod. 2002;94:281-293. ic root-end preparation on microcrack formation and leakage. 98. Witherspoon D, Ham K. One-visit apexification: technique for J Endod. 2000;26:72-75. 86. Peters CI, Peters OA, Barbakow F. An in vitro study comparing inducing root-end barrier formation in apical closures. Pract iz root-end cavities prepared by diamond-coated and stainless Proced Aesthet Dent. 2001;13:455-460. steel ultrasonic retrotips. Int Endod J. 2001;34:142-148. 99. Aminoshariae A, Hartwell GR, Moon PC. Placement of min- 87. Navarre SW, Steiman HR. Root-end fracture during retro- eral trioxide aggregate using two different techniques. J En- Ed preparation: a comparison between zirconium nitride-coat- dod. 2003;29:679-682. ed and stainless steel microsurgical ultrasonic instruments. J Endod. 2002;28:330-332. 100. Ruddle CJ. Nonsurgical endodontic retreatment. J Calif Dent 88. Ishikawa H, Sawada N, Kobayashi C, Suda H. Evaluation of Assoc. 2004;32:474-484. IC C © 10 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 6-10 

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0373 4 Ameloblastic_Mummolo:- 30-11-2010 18:57 Pagina 11 Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma: a case report i al on Stefano Mummolo, DDS the AFO one or more cellular foci continue differentiation Enrico Marchetti, DDS process and produce enamel and dentin. Salvatore Di Martino, MD, DDS This lesion is often an incidental radiographic finding. Ra- Luisa Scorzetti, DDS diographically, the tumor appear well circumscribed, Giuseppe Marzo, MD, DDS round-to-ovoid radiolucency, surrounded by a thin sclerotic zi margin (1). According to the recent WHO classification of University of L’Aquila, Italy Odontogenic Tumors published in 2005, AFO is a beni- Department of Health Sciences (A. Sotgiu) gn tumor without invasive growth that belongs to the group a of lesions with odontogenic epithelium with odontogenic Corresponding author: ectomesenchyme, with or without hard tissue formation (2). There is considerable debate in literature regarding the re- rn Dott. Stefano Mummolo Ospedale S. Salvatore lationship between AFO and other mixed odontogenic tu- Clinica Odontoiatrica mors. Some authors assert that AFO is a mature amelo- Edificio delta 6 blastic fibroma whereas other ones think it could be a pre- te 67100 L’Aquila, Italy cursor of odontoma (3). E-mail:stefano.mummolo@cc.univaq.it It is rare in the jaw, where only about 2% of all cases have been reported. Focused literature revealed that neopla- sm occur predominantly in children and young adults. An In equivalent incidence in both upper and lower jaws and no gender predilection were reported (4). Clinically, the size of the tumor shows marked variations, Summary ranging from lesions detectable only microscopically, to Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma: a case report. giant tumors consisting of extensive calcified masses. Ra- ni diographs usually show a well-defined radiolucent area con- The clinical case of an unusual ameloblastic fibro- taining various amounts of radiopaque material of irregular odontoma (AFO) was reported. The patient’s clinical size and form (2,5). io chart as well as preoperative and postoperative radi- The aim of the current study was to report a clinical case ographs and histological findings of a 20-year old man of AFO and the long-term results after surgical treatment. that addressed Dental Clinic at University of L’Aquila were thoroughly reviewed. The patient showed a iz swelling in the oral cavity and radiographic feature of a radiolucent lesion at left second premolar maxillary Case report site. Histologic examination made diagnosis of AFO. Ed AFO is a rare mixed odontogenic tumor with similari- A 20-year-old Caucasian male was referred to the Den- ties to the ameloblastic fibroma (AF) and ameloblastic tal Clinic at University of L’Aquila with an asymptomatic dentinoma. The nature and the relationships between intra-oral swelling. Neither dental history reported local trau- mixed odontogenic tumours and related lesions are ma or infection at lesion site, nor medical history revea- still controversial. Moreover is not clear if these le- led remarkable systemic diseases. sions are separate pathologies or if they are different Panoramic radiography showed a rounded, well-defined, development stages of the same pathology. radiolucent lesion at upper left second bicuspid and first IC molar edentulous sites. It contained a radiopaque mass Key words: ameloblastic fibro-odontoma (AFO), odonto- of apparently calcified material in proximity of the root of genic tumor. adjacent first bicuspid (Fig. 1). CT scan showed a 23x17mm osteolytic lesion in the left body of maxilla with C lobulated and well-demarcated margins (Fig. 2). The bor- ders of the lesion were in part radiopaque, similar to cor- Introduction tical bone (Fig. 3). Radiological findings were consistent with a benign bone tumour. Clinical examination revealed © The ameloblastic fibro-odontoma (AFO) is a rare , slow- a circumscribed swelling in the vestibule on the left side growing, odontogenic tumour. This benign neoplasm of the maxilla, with an unaffected mucosa. has been defined by the World Health Organization Under general anaesthesia, the tumour was removed th- (WHO) as “a neoplasm composed of proliferating odon- rough intra-oral approach. The first premolar was found togenic epithelium in a cellular ectomesenchymal tissue to be involved by the mineralized mass. with varying degrees of inductive changes and dental hard Microscopically examination of sections stained with he- tissue formation” .The lesion has histologic feature and bio- matoxylin and eosin showed scattered cords of odonto- logic behavior similar to the ameloblastic fibroma, but in genic epithelium surrounded by a large amount of cellu- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 11-13 11 0373 4 Ameloblastic_Mummolo:- 30-11-2010 18:57 Pagina 12 S. Mummolo et al. i al on Figure 1 - Panoramic radiography. zi Figure 3 - CT – parasagittal image. a rn te In Figure 2 - CT – axial image. ni lar connective tissue. In the mass of fibrous tissue, calci- fied areas were seen that were consistent with mature den- tin formation and enamel matrix (3). Post-operative clinical course was uncomplicated (Fig. 4). io Finally, at 8 years-follow-up after implant-supported reha- bilitation, no signs of recurrence were reported (Fig. 5). iz Figure 4 - CT – axial image after surgical treatment. Discussion Ed Histologic examination showed a benign ectomesenchy- mal neoplasia of odontogenic origin characterized by the proliferation of islands, nests and cords of epithelial cel- ls the exhibited a palisaded arrangement at the periphery and centrally a loose arrangement resembling the stella- te reticulum of the enamel organ. The mesenchyme of the lesion was characterized by stellate or spidle-shaped cel- IC ls, eosinophilic substance compatible with dentinoid ma- terial and basophilic material compatible with elementary enamel was observed (5). The differential diagnosis of ameloblastic fibro-odontoma C and ameloblastic fibroma is based on the presence or ab- sence of elements indicative of differentiation of the tooth germ. The presence of both dentin and enamel is es- sential to call the tumor “ Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma” (6). © The distinction between developing complex odontoma and AFO is impossible sometimes. However the presence of great amounts of enamel, dentin, and cementum-like tis- sue arranged in a haphazard pattern suggests a diagno- sis of odontoma (7). Ameloblastic fibrodentinoma is considered by some authors as a stage between the ameloblastic fibroma (AF) Figure 5 - Periapical radiography – 8 years-follow-up after im- and AFO based on extent of histodifferentiation (8,9). Many plant-supported rehabilitation. 12 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 11-13 0373 4 Ameloblastic_Mummolo:- 30-11-2010 18:57 Pagina 13 Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma: a case report authors have reported that AFO is not aggressive and can lofac Surg 1999;57:620-623. be treated adequately with surgical curettage of the le- 4. Hammad H.M., Hammond H.L., Kurago Z.B., Frank J.A. sion without removing the adjacent teeth (10). The dif- Chondromyxoid fibroma of the jaws. Case report and review ferential diagnosis for ameloblastic fibro-odontoma should of the literature. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol include ameloblastic fibrosarcoma, a rare malignant Endod. 1998; 85 (3):293-300. 5. Soares R.C., Godoy G.P., Neto J.C., de Souza L. B., Pinto i counterpart to these odontogenic benign tumour, that ari- L. P. Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma: report of a case presenting al ses in the jaws either de novo or from preexisting or re- an unusual clinical course. International journal of Pediatric current ameloblastic fibroma. Finally, as AFO sometimes Otorhinolaryngology Extra 2006;1, 200-203. inhibits tooth eruption, the lesion can be microscopical- 6. Friedrich R. E., Siegert J., Donath k., Thorsten Jakel K. Re- ly differentiated from the follicular lesions around an im- on current Ameloblastic Fibro-odontoma in a 10-year-Old Boy. pacted teeth in which a proliferation of odontogenic re- J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2001;59:1362-1366. sts can occur. (11) 7. Martin-Granio-Lopez R, Lopez-Garcia-Asenjo J, De-Pedro- Marina M, Dominguez-Cuadrado L. Odontoameloblatoma: a case report and a review of the literature. Med Oral. zi Conclusions 2004;9:340-4. 8. Chen Y, Li TJ, Gao Y, Yu SF. Ameloblastic fibroma and rela- Treatment of AFO is generally enucleation. The associa- ted lesions: a clinicopathologic study with reference to their na- ted tooh is normally removed, yet there are case reports ture and interrelationship. J Oral Pathol Med. 2005;34:588-95. a of preservation of the involved teeth. Recurrence or local 9. Nascimento JE, Araujo LJ, Almeida LY, De-Paula AM, Bo- invasion is normally not observed if removed along with nan PR. Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma: a conservative sur- rn any involved teeth. Malignant transformation of ameloblastic gical approach. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal 2009 Dec 1;14 fibromas has been rarely reported (12,13). The malignant (12):e654-7. transformation of an ameloblastic fibro-odontoma is even 10. Choukas NC, Toto PD, Ameloblastic odontoma. Oral Surg more rare (1,14-17). Potential transformation alone does Oral Med Oral Pathol 17:10-15,1964. te not justify a radical treatment of all these benign lesions. 11. De Riu G, Meloni SM, Contini M, Tullio A. Ameloblastic fi- As noted in the literature review, not all lesions previou- bro-odontoma. Case report and review of the literature. J Cra- nio-Maxillo-Facial-Surgery (2010) 38, 141-144. sly classified as AFO are aggressive lesions, nor should 12. Navonne R, Mela F., Romagnoli R.,et al. studio clinico pa- they be expected to recur following conservative surgical intervention. When there is recurrence accompanied by In tologico di un caso di evoluzione sarcomatosa di fibroma ame- loblastico. Minerva Stomatologica 1982;31:673, 1982. changes in the histological pattern towards a more unor- 13. Villa VG. Ameloblastic sarcoma in the mandible. Report of ganized fibrous stroma with displacement of the ephite- a case. Oral. Surg 1955; 8:123. lial component, more extensive treatment procedures are 14. Herzog U., Putzke H.P., Bienengraber V., Radke C. Das ame- ni indicated (11). loblastiche Fibroodontom-ein odontogener Mischtumor mit Ubergang in ein odontogenes Sarkom. Dtsch Z Mund Kie- fer Gesichts-Chir 1991;15:90. References 15. Howell RM, Burkes EJ. Malignant transformation of amelo- io blatic fibro-odontoma to ameloblastic fibrosarcoma. Oral Surg 1. Generali L., Giannetti L., Bellini P., Consolo U. Enucleazio- 1977;43: 391. ne conservativa di un fibro-odontoma ameloblastico. Italian 16. Okura M., Nakahara H., Matsuya T. Treatment of ameloblastic iz Oral Surgery 2007;4: 45-50. fibro-odontoma without removal of the associated impacted 2. Costa Carvalho Silva G., Correia Jham B., Carvalho Silva permanent tooth: report of cases. J Oral Maxillofac Surg E., Rebello Horta C., Pereira Godinho SH, Santiago Gomez 1992;50: 1094-7. Ed R. Ameloblastic fibro-odontoma, case report. Oral Oncology 17. Philipsen H.P., Reichart P.A., Praetorius F. Mixed odonto- extra 2006; 42, 217-220. genic tumours and odontomas. Considerations on interre- 3. Furst I., Pharoah M., Phillips J. “Recurrence of an Amelo- lationship. Review of the literature and presentation of 134 blastic Fibro-Odontoma in a 9-Year-Old Boy”. J Oral Maxil- new cases of odontomas. Oral Oncol 1997; 33: 86-99. IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 11-13 13 

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0373 2 Clinical_Baldini:- 30-11-2010 18:55 Pagina 2 Clinical and instrumental treatment of a patient with dysfunction of the stomatognathic system: a case report i al on Alberto Baldini, DDS analysis (3), this may improve the clinical symptomatology of some patients. University of Milan-Bicocca Following the most modern gnathologic approaches, the Dental Clinic (M. Baldoni) stomatognathic system, which forms part of the postural Posturology and Gnathology Section (A. Baldini) system, is treated holistically (4, 5, 6, 7). zi Occlusion, however, is considered the pivot of both diag- Corresponding author: nostic and therapeutic dentistry and the most recent sci- Dott. Alberto Baldini entific research, which connects the craniocervical system a “Centro Medico Polispecialistico Baldini” with the rest of the organism, requires a much more de- Via S. Orsola, 5 tailed analysis of cranio-mandibular occlusal relationships rn 24100 Bergamo (Italy) (8, 9, 10). Tel +39 035/691247 This case report shows the clinical-instrumental ap- Fax: +39 035/694280 proach carried out at the Posturology and Gnathology Sec- E-mail: alberto.baldini@unimib.it tion of the Dental Clinic of the University Milan-Bicocca, te following the clinical and instrumental protocols which have also been suggested by other authors (11, 12). In this case, in particular, the T-Scan and the force plat- form were used to treat a dysfunctional patient, who need- Summary In ed to stabilize or balance occlusion using a splint. The ef- Clinical and instrumental treatment of a patient with fectiveness of the treatment was verified using clinical and dysfunction of the stomatognathic system: a case re- instrumental methods to document and confirm the im- port. provement of the clinical case following the protocols for the instruments used which were suggested by interna- ni This article details a case report of a subject chosen tional literature (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). from among patients treated in the author's clinic in the The instrumental analyses do however have limits (19, 20, Posturology and Gnathology Section of the University 21, 22, 23) and cannot replace, but merely be integrated io Milano-Bicocca. with the fundamental clinical analysis which must be car- It shows how the indispensable clinical analysis of the ried out according to the standards dictated in international stomatognathic system and the connections between posture can be supported by instrumental analysis, literature (24). iz such as the computerized occlusal analysis system and the force platform, to diagnose and treat dysfunctional patients. Clinical case Ed Key words: computerized occlusal analysis, posture, A 55 years old female patient suffering from a regular force platform, occlusion, occlusal splint. (every day), spontaneous pain due to mastication in the right region of the masseter, with muscular tension inducing cephalea in the right frontal region 2 or 3 times a week, was referred to our department. This pain started 4 years Introduction ago, when a prosthetic rehabilitation on implants was in- IC serted in the right upper arch (Fig.1). The patient also suf- During the “Consensus Conference ”, held in Milan in 1997 fered from frequent cervicalgia. (1), it was reported that there was no scientific evidence We started with the gnathological postural check-up, which to support a connection between occlusion and posture. includes: static postural analysis via scoliometer (Fig.2) and C Thus, using occlusal treatment to prevent postural prob- podoscope, evaluation of the skeletal and dental relations lems would not be justifiable . Other scientific articles have (Fig. 3), showing the occlusal parameters with the pres- also reached this conclusion (2). During another “Con- ence of crosses and dental inversion. We then made 3D sensus Conference” in 2008, was stated that the most re- and 2D (Fig. 4) occlusion images with the T-Scan (T-Scan © cent scientific literature provided weak evidence supporting III,Tec-Scan, Boston Usa, Dl Medica, Milan, Italy). These the connection between posture, occlusion and the neu- showed the occlusal loads to be distributed somewhat rophysiological integration of the body’s mechanism (3). asymmetrically (60% on the right and 40% on the left) with Both orthodontists and physiatrists participated in the Con- particular overloading at the right posterior section, as sensus which advised treating dysfunctional patients shown also on the force/time diagram (Fig. 5). The dy- with a reversible (and, thus, not irreversible) gnathologi- namical evaluation of the occlusal load distribution demon- cal postural treatment. After a correct, specific diagnosis strated significant premature occlusal contact at the lev- has been made, which is supported by careful clinical el of 14 in a temporal sequence, with an occlusal time of 2 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 2-5 0373 2 Clinical_Baldini:- 30-11-2010 18:55 Pagina 3 Clinical and instrumental treatment of a patient with dysfunction of the stomatognathic system: a case report i al on Figure 1 - Orthopantomography with the implant for prosthetic rehabilitation at the level of 15 and 16 visualized. a zi Figure 4 - 2D display of the asymmetry of the occlusal loads on T-Scan III, right section with 60% of the load on the right and 40% rn on the left. te In Figure 5 - Asymmetry of occlusal loads. ni io iz Ed Figure 2 - Static, postural evaluations on scoliometer, with slight IC postural asymmetry. Figure 6 - Posturometry on force platform with accentuation of the projection of the loads towards the back and torsion in cen- tric occlusion. C 0.876 seconds more than the physiological average. The computerized occlusal analysis was carried out detecting the centric contact points and the contact between the pa- © tient’s dental arches was checked 3 or 4 times in order to check the repeatability of the test (16, 17, 29). Using the Force Platform Correkta (Dl Medica, Milan Italy) in the physiologic rest position, we observed that the loads projected slightly towards the back with torsion. This was emphasized in centric position (Fig. 6) as if occlusion wors- ened postural balance. Inserting cotton rolls in the oral cav- Figure 3 - Intra-oral picture, right section with cross of 23/33. ity seemed to improve the postural position (Fig. 7). Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 2-5 3 0373 2 Clinical_Baldini:- 30-11-2010 18:55 Pagina 4 A. Baldini i al Figure 9 - On the force-time diagram the red and green lines co- incide, as a result of arranging the loads symmetrically between the two hemiarches after the insertion of the splint. on zi Figure 7 - Posturometry on force platform with improvement of the postural position inserting cotton rolls in the oral cavity. a rn te Figure 10 - Improving the postural balance measured on force In platform Correction with the splint inserted in the oral cavity. After 4 months of wearing the splint, the masseter pain had ni significantly lessened , the cervical pain had stopped and the frequency of the bouts of cephalea had reduced. The same clinical and instrumental improvements were ob- served stable at 6, 9, and 12 months. io Figure 8 - Best positioning of the occlusal centre of force (COF, Discussion and conclusions iz little red and white dot) with the splint inserted in the oral cavity and a better distribution of the occlusal loads between the right and left hemiarches. Our experience in treating dysfunctional patients shows that a clinical and instrumental approach is best suited to Ed diagnose and treat patients who often present postural and occlusal problems. These instruments are able to quan- As according to force platform protocol, the postural sta- tify and measure the obtained gnathological postural bal- bilometric analysis was carried out with eyes opened and ance. However the instrumental analysis cannot replace, closed, in rest position, in centric occlusion and with cot- but merely supports the essential clinical analysis carried ton rolls ensuring subjects are in orthostatic state, with the out according to international standards (RDC/TMD) in di- patient’s arms by her sides in a relaxed fashion, with feet IC agnostic literature (18, 24, 28, 29). slightly apart forming a 30° angle and heels 2 cm apart. (18) The patient was advised to have a Michigan stabilization References splint inserted in the upper arch, to be worn for 6 months, C 16 hours a day, and to do some postural and physiother- 1. Ciancaglini R. Posture, occlusion and general health. Pro- apeutic exercises to improve cervical mobility and postural ceedings of the Research Forum. Milan, International Meet- balance. ing in Clinical gnathology, 1997. The stabilization splint was balanced using the T-Scan III, 2. Michelotti A, Manzo P, Farella M, Martina R.Occlusione e pos- © the insertion of the splint resulted in a better occlusal load tura :quali le evidenze di correlazione ? Minerva Stomato- distribution, with occlusal balance between the two arch- logica 1999;48:525-34. es and a better COF (centre of force) position (Fig. 8). 3. Ciancaglini R, Cerri C, Saggini R, Bellomo RG, Ridi R, Pis- These results can also be observed from the force/time di- cella V, Di Pancrazio L, Di Paolo C, Leonardi R, Greco M, Heir agram (Fig. 9). Force platform checks showed better pos- G. Posture and occlusion :hypothesis of correlation.J Stom- tural balance after the insertion of the splint in the oral cav- at Occ Med 2009;1:87-96. ity, with the load brought forward and better torsion 4. Sakaguchi K., Metha N., Abdallah E., Forgione A. Examination (Fig.10). of relationship between mandibular position and body pos- 4 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 2-5 0373 2 Clinical_Baldini:- 30-11-2010 18:55 Pagina 5 Clinical and instrumental treatment of a patient with dysfunction of the stomatognathic system: a case report ture.Cranio 2007; Oct;25(4):237-49. clusal analysis system synchronized with a computerized 5. Bergamini M, Pierleoni F, Gizdulich A, Bergamini C.Dental electromyography system. Cranio 2004 Apr;22(2):96-109. occlusion and body posture : a surface EMG study. Cranio 17. Stevens CJ. Computerized occlusal implant management with 2008 Jan;26(1):25-32. the T-Scan II System :a case report. Dent Today 2006 6. Tecco S, Salini V, Calvisi V, Colucci C, Orso CA, Festa F, D’At- Feb;25(2):88-91. tilio M. Effects of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)injury on 18. Baldini A, Cioffi D, Rinaldi A. Gnatho-postural approach in i postural control and muscle activity of head ,neck and trunk Italian air force pilots: stabilometric evaluations. Annali di Stom- al muscles.J Oral Rehabilit 2006Aug;33(8):576-87. atologia 2009; LVIII (4): 102-106. 7. Sforza C, Tartaglia GM, Solimene U, Morgun V, Kaspransky 19. Gomes de Oliveira S, Seraidarian PI, Landre J Jr, Oliveira RR, Ferrario VF. Occlusion, sternocleidomastoid muscle ac- DD ,Cavalcanti BN. Tooth displacement due to occlusal : a on tivity and body sway:a pilot study in male astronauts. Cranio three-dimensional finite element study. J Oral Rehabililit 2006 2006 Jan;24(1):43-9. Dec.;33(12) :874-880. 8. Chapman RJ. Principles of occlusion for implant prosthesis: 20. Garg AK. Analyzing dental occlusion for implants : Tekscan’s, guidelines for position ,timing, Force of occlusal contacts. T-Scan III.Dent Implantol Update 2007 Sep;18(9):65-70. Quintessence International, 1989,March,Vol 20,n 7, 473-480. 21. Saracoglu A, Ozpinar B. In vivo and in vitro evaluation of oc- zi 9. Bernasconi G, De Rysky C, Forniciti T. Computerized occlusal clusal indicator sensitivity. J Prosthet Dent 2002 verification in venture frames. Dent Cadmos 1990 Mar 15; Nov;88(5):522-6. 58 (4): 72-4. 22. Patyk A, Lotzmann U, Scherer C, Kobes LW. Comparative a 10. Makofosky HW, Sexton TR, Diamond DZ, Sexton MT. The ef- analytic occlusal study of clinical use of TScan systems.ZWR fect of head posture on muscle contact position using the 1989 Sep;98(9):752-5.German. TScan system of occlusal analysis. Cranio 1991 Oct 23. Kalachev YS, Michailov TA, Iordanov PI. Study of occlusal ar- rn ;9(4):316-321. ticulation relationship with the help of T-Scan apparatus. Fo- 11. Lazic V, Todoritivic A, Zivkovic S, Marinovic Z. Computerized lia Med (Plovdiv)2001;43(1-2):88-91. occlusal analysis in bruxism. Srp Arth Celok 2006 Jan- 24. Dworkin SF, LeResche L. Researarch diagnostic criteria for Feb;134 (1-2):22-9,Serbian. temporomandibular disorders :review, criteria, examina- te 12. Karey J, Craig M, Kerstein R, Radke J. Determining a rela- tions and specifications, critique. J. Craniomandib Dis- tionship between applied occlusal load and articulating pa- ord1992;6:301-355. per mark area. The Open Dent J. 2007 1,1-7. 2007. 25. Baldini A, Beraldi A, Longoni S. La valutazione computeriz- 13. Kerstein RB., Wright NR. Electromyographic and computer zata dell’occlusione nelle riabilitazioni implanto-protesiche. In analyses of patiens suffering from chronic myofascial pain- Implantologia. Quintessenza Edizioni 2008, 3, 71-77. dysfunction syndrome : before and after treatment with im- 26. Baldini A. Importanza del T-Scan III nella valutazione del- mediate complete anterior guidance development. J Pros- l’occlusione.Doctor Os 2008.Febbraio . XIX. n. 4 ,2008 ,124. thet Dent 1991 Nov ; 66(5);677-86.Review. 27. Baldini A. L’analisi computerizzata dell’occlusione in 14. Tokumura K, Yamashita A. Study on occlusion analysis by ortodonzia.2008. Atti del XIX Congresso Internazionale ni means of T-Scan System.Its accuracy for measurement.Ni- Sido . Firenze 20-22 Novembre .134 hon Hotetsu Shika Gakkai Zasshi1989 Oct;33 (5);1037- 28. Baldini A, Beraldi A, Nanussi A. Importanza clinica della va- 43.Japanese. lutazione computerizzata dell’occlusione. Dental Cadmos io 15. Mizui M, Nabeshima F, Tosa J, Tanaka M, Kawazoe T. Quan- 2009 Aprile,77(4).47-54. titative analysis of occlusal balance in intercuspal position us- 29. Baldini A, Beraldi A, Longoni S. The importance of comput- ing the T-Scan system. Int J Prosthodont1994 Jan-Feb;62- erized occlusal analysis in the diagnosis and treatment of dys- 71. functional patients. Annales of Stomatology 2009, LVI- iz 16. Kerstein RB. Combining technologies: a computerized oc- II(4):117-124. Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 2-5 5 

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0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 14 Control factors in removable complete dentures: from the articulation quintet to kinetic contact i al on Giorgio Pompa, MD, DDS initial neural response to a stimulus is the sensory func- Agostino Giovannetti, DDS, PhD tion (3). Tina Gentile, DDS The body responds to various peripheral sensory inputs Stefano Di Carlo, MD, DDS by inhibiting certain signs and amplifying others. During chewing cycles, an enormous amount of stimuli inform the zi “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy various neural systems about the control and coordination Department of Ondonostomatological and Maxillofacial of movement. The control system associated with the tex- Sciences, Prosthatic Rehabilitation Unit ture of the food adjusts the force developed by the eleva- a tor muscles of the mandible, and control system associ- Corresponding author: ated with the location of food and language avoids trau- rn Prof. Giorgio Pompa matic contact, regardless of the amount of olfactory and Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy gustatory stimuli, the reflex control of saliva, and even the Tel: +390649976614 - Fax: +390644230811 emotional component that creates the need for adaptation. E-mail: giorgio.pompa@uniroma1.it The movement of chewing requires a learning period dur- te ing the various stages of eruption of the deciduous teeth and changes therein, after which the subject begins to make the first masticatory movements. The masticatory function contributes to the proper devel- Summary In opment of the jaw and significantly affects the positions of Control factors in removable complete dentures: the structures in the arch. The coordination of motor ac- from the articulation quintet to kinetic contact. tivity occurs at different times during masticatory move- ments, and in particular during the final stage of such move- Hanau’s laws and the so-called articulation quintet ments when the arches come into contact during the an- ni have contributed greatly to the evolution of the pros- tagonistic phase, maintaining contact until its return to nor- thetic dentistry and have been further elaborated by mal occlusion; this process is called “contact kinetics” (4- various authors. The main aim of this study was to 9). io establish the stability of prosthetic plates by attaining The learning of the motor pattern that characterizes balanced occlusion. Several authors have addressed chewing is structured based on the morphology of the oc- the problem of removable and fixed prostheses by clusal plane (5, 10) - every change brings a new motor pat- iz classifying mandibular movements into functional tern to a new phase of adaptation and learning. An opti- and parafunctional movements which extends the mal prosthesis will ensure that the patient applies the low- classical occlusal mechanics for the modern occlusal est adaptation effort. The occlusal morphology of the pros- Ed feedback model. Moreover, they suggest the use of thesis should be integrated as far as possible with the con- the angle of convergence as a reference plane when tact kinetics of the existing occlusion, with studies of the manufacturing prosthetic. neuromuscular factors needing to assess the occlusal mor- phology (4, 5, 10). Key words: bruxism, occlusal guidance, occlusal One of the greatest contributions to understanding the plane, cuspal guidances. anatomical factors that determine the characteristics of the behavior of the occlusal surfaces during contact was from IC the kinetics analysis of Hanau (1). Hanau’s laws concerning articulation and Hanau’s quintet have contributed greatly to dental prosthetics (2, 11), clarifying this heretofore con- Introduction fused area of dentistry by simplifying the construction of C dentures (Fig. 1). Although Hanau was interested in The adaptive capabilities of the patient are critical to the gnathologic mechanics related to dentures, he considered success of prosthetic therapy. Anochin and Agafonow in- that the articulator of artificial teeth was related to nine fac- terpreted the process of adaptation as a series of psy- tors: (1) horizontal condylar inclination, (2) sagittal condy- © chophysical events triggered by a stimulus that induces a lar path, (3) plane of orientation, (4) compensating curve, behavioral response that serves the dual purpose of restor- (5) buccolingual inclination of the tooth axis, (6) protrusive ing the homeostatic conditions before the stimulus and incisal guidance, (7) sagittal incisal guidance, (8) alignment maintaining them thereafter (8). of the teeth, and (9) cusp height. For the adaptive learning process, without which no be- Hanau mathematically traced the above 9 factors and list- havior can be structured, it is essential to establish - through ed the “laws of balanced articulation” as a series of 44 state- the maintenance of a neural engram - a “Gestalt” coordi- ments. He then reduced the original nine factors to five, nation of the various factors underlying the behavior. The showing how they affect one another using a clearer dia- 14 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 15 Control factors in removable complete dentures: from the articulation quintet to kinetic contact i al on a zi rn te In Fig. 1 - The Hanau quintet. ni gram called the articulation quintet: (1) condylar guidance, be used to restore the occlusal kinetics relationship; that (2) plane of orientation, (3) compensating curve, (4) incisal is, the way in which the mechanical occlusion acts in move- guidance, and (5) cusp height. ments where there is contact between opposing arches (11). The articulator registrations serve to reproduce the io protrusion and lateral movements such that the dental tech- Hanau’s laws of articulation and the quintet nician would only fit teeth and compensate for spaces re- sulting from malocclusion (as in the phenomenon of Chris- iz The articulation quintet diagram illustrates the relationship tensen) and organize the elements of the quintet (plane between the above five factors, and it constituted the first of orientation, anterior guidance, cusp heights, and com- step toward organizing occlusal factors when producing pensating curve) by Hanau’s scheme. Ed dentures. The purpose of the present study was to achieve a bal- anced occlusion in which the occlusal relationships be- Boucher concept tween antagonist arches are characterized by “balanced” contacts, which might contribute to the stability of inferi- Boucher developed his own concepts and ideas following or dentures during chewing. an analysis of the work of Trapozzano and Winter (15, 16, The design and realization of a prosthesis with such char- 17). Boucher disagreed with the concept introduced by IC acteristics required a tool that could restore the lost mo- those authors that the occlusal plane could be located at tion of chewing by ensuring contact between the antago- various heights to facilitate a weaker ridge, instead rec- nistic factors in the centric occlusion (a critical time for the ommending that the occlusal plane could “be oriented ex- stability of the prosthesis) due to the registration of some actly as it was when there were natural teeth”. He con- C anatomical values (Eminence and Bennett-angle inclina- sidered this approach to be essential to complying with the tion) (12). anatomical and functional requirements. To this end, Hanau designed and constructed three ar- Boucher, unlike Trapozzano and Winter, was convinced of ticulators: “Hanau H2-’R”, “Hanau 130-7” no-arcon type, the need for a compensation curve and declared: “The val- © and “Hanau XP-51” arcon type (Fig. 2). Contact balancing ue of the compensation curve is that it allows an alteration (B) on the nonworking side was needed to improve the sta- of cusp height without changing the shape of the manu- bility of the lower dentures by mounting the teeth according factured teeth…If the teeth themselves do not have to the Monson curve perpendicular to the crestal axe (A). cusps, the equivalence of cusps can be produced using It is possible for cusp inclination to affect the mastication, a compensation curve”. The concept of Boucher was based with the highest inclination inducing lower prosthesis mal- on the following fixed factors: the orientation of the occlusal occlusion on the nonworking side (13-14). plane, anterior guidance, condylar guidance, the angula- Hanau and De Pietro showed that these articulators could tion of the cusps, and the compensation curve; which can Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 15 0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 16 G. Pompa et al. i al on a zi rn te In Fig. 2 - Geometric equivalence of the intercondylar distance on the XP-51 articulator for the registration of the Bennett corner. ni allow the effective heights of the cusps to increase with- Occlusal mechanics and parafunctional movements out changing the shape of the teeth (15). Federici and collagues (4, 5, 6) interpreted the quintet and laws of Hanau based on both the construction and usage io Further evaluations of Hanau’s work of removable prostheses, particular in parafunctional pa- tients. Classifying mandibular movements into functional The theory postulated by Hanau has been revised by many and parafunctional movements, these authors criticized iz authors, each of whom has interpreted the five elements those who applied only the laws of occlusal mechanics to and their relationship with the aim of achieving a balanced functional movements, pointing out that kinetic contacts occlusion in order to stabilize dentures during mastication. need to be included in a new occlusal feedback model. Ed During the 1960s some authors attempted to simplify the Only in parafunctional movements does kinetic contact oc- theory by reducing the number of the occlusal elements. cur between antagonist arches. The contact is traumatic The “triad of occlusion” proposed by Trapozzano and Laz- because the elevator muscles are activated and exerting zari considering only three elements: protrusive incisal guid- forces. Federici argued that eliminating the reflex inhibi- ance, cusp height, and condylar guidance (18, 19, 20, 21) tion is the first feature of parafunctional movements, and (Fig. 3). Levin proposed a diagram similar to that of Hanau the muscular activity can generate forces greater than those that described relations between four of the five original produced when functioning. In contrast, any barrier (an- IC elements that dominate the plane of orientation (7). Both terior guidance, cusp heights, compensation curve or Spee Trapozzano and Levin realized the importance of a bal- curve, or the Monson or Wilson curve) is capped by the anced occlusion, and their proposal was similar to that of action of the horizontal component of parafunctional Hanau (Tab. 4). loads. C Lott (22) retained all the elements in the laws of Hanau but Weinberg suggested using removable and fixed prosthe- clarified the posterior separation and unbalanced occlu- ses that distribute parafunctional loads between the in- sion, stating that increased inclination of the condylar guid- volved elements (23, 24). During lateral movements they ance is associated with increased posterior malocclusion suggested using the group function instead of canine guid- © (Fig 5). ance in order to avoid contact on the nonworking side, and Lauritzen used mounted the artificial teeth using a tech- placing cusps of the lateroposterior areas in an “anti-Mon- nique that differed from that used by Hanau (1). Dorier de- son” configuration to increase the relation between the oc- bated the registration technique of the individual values in clusal plane and the condylar path (which they referred to an edentulous patient through the vallum of wax on the as the “angle of convergence”) in order to increase the mal- “Hanau H2-XPR” articulator, such as the phases of the occlusion in posterior areas and thereby avoid interference. mounting teeth according to the quintet of Hanau to achieve Tsao solved the problem of balanced occlusion by sug- balance according to Lauritzen (10). gesting the use of a plane rather than a spherical surface 16 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 17 Control factors in removable complete dentures: from the articulation quintet to kinetic contact i al on a zi rn te In Fig. 3 - Trapozzano’s triad of occlusion. IG: incisal guidance; CH: cusp height; CP: condylar path. ni io iz Ed IC C © Fig. 4 - Balanced occlusion laws in the protrusive and lateral positions according to Levin. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 17 0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 18 G. Pompa et al. i al on a zi rn te Table 5 - Lott’s intuition about the importance of the malocclusion in posterior sectors. In for mounting the teeth in the lower denture (25). The frontal that the space formed in the posterior areas depends on orientation plane of tooth cusps mounted by this method this angle during protrusive and sagittal movements, when is perpendicular to the chewing forces rather than to the the antagonist arches are in contact. ni crestal axis according to the theory of classical balancing. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: Chewing then exerts forces predominantly on the lower 1. During the individual value registration on the articu- denture, promoting stability, and away from the top den- lator, the Frankfort plane is replaced by the occlusal ture whose stability is guaranteed by a thin layer of sali- plane. io va. 2. The condylar inclination is recorded on the occlusal Federici considered that balancing the contact on the non- plane rather than on the Frankfurt plane, via the an- working side would improve the stability of the lower den- gle of convergence of the patient. iz ture, since the presence of food during chewing prevents 3. In a total or partial denture, the occlusal plane must contact during the nonworking phase. be inclined so as to increase the malocclusion in pos- terior areas, without considering the occlusal plane ori- Ed ented parallel to the Camper plane. The convergence angle 4. Since parafunctional movements can involve totally or partially edentulous subjects, ensuring the correct con- The existence of a kinetic contact between opposing arch- nection between the occlusal plane and the condyle es necessitates a study of the mechanical occlusion in or- is also important in orthodontic treatment (Fig. 6). der to produce a model that would allow the operation of the neuromuscular system to be predicted in particular sit- IC uations (26). Without parafunctional movements, this Conclusion study would be superfluous and the use of articulator would be unnecessary. Separating mandibular movements into functional and para- The actions of the top and inferior planes during protru- functional movements represented a turning point in C sive sliding is determined by the total denture, primarily in gnathologic studies from both theoretical and practical view- the sagittal plane (without considering anterior guidance, points. Considering only kinetic contacts during para- the heights of the cusps, or the curve of compensation), functional movements is justified by the removal of the in- according to Christensen’s phenomenon (27, 28). Dorier hibitory reflex. © described it as follows: “When the mandible is in protru- Practically all dental prostheses must be functionally and sive position, while maintaining contact between the parafunctionally corrected on the articulator (the elimina- bases of the joint, forming a space between occlusal wax- tion of occlusal interferences). Therefore, the concept of es in the posterior area while anterior area is continuous applying gnathologic mechanics to the function (research in contact. This space and the distance of protrusion are of balanced occlusion and the terminal condylar axis) is necessary to measure the angle formed by the condylar obsolete. With their theory of occlusal feedback, Federi- path inclination with respect to the occlusal plane” (10). ci and colleagues have aligned dentistry with the under- Federici mentioned the “convergence angle”, and argued lying neurophysiology. 18 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 0373 5 Control_Pompa:- 30-11-2010 18:58 Pagina 19 Control factors in removable complete dentures: from the articulation quintet to kinetic contact i al on a zi Fig. 6 - The use of Federici’s articulator demonstrate the value of convergence angle necessary for Cristensen phenomenon. rn 14. Xiaojun C, Rubo L, Eryi L, Chengtao W. A mathematical mod- el of mandibular movement on the Hanau articulator and com- References puterized simulation system of dynamic occlusion for com- te plete denture. J Med Eng Technol. 2006;30(3):151–7. 1. Hanau RL. Articulation defined, analyzed, and formulated. 15. Boucher CO. Discussion of “laws of articulation”. J Prosthet J Am Dent Assoc. 1926;13:1964. Dent. 1963;13(1):45–8. 2. Hanau RL. Hanau intraoral method vs Gysi extraoral method. 16. Trapozzano VR. A comparison of the equalization of pres- Private printing by author, Buffalo, 1927:51. In sure by means of the central bearing point and wax check 3. Anochin PK. Basic principles of formation of defense mech- bites. J Am Dent Assoc. 1949;38(5):586–91. 17. Trapozzano VR, Winter GR. Periodontal aspects of partial den- anisms in the body. Lek Veda Zahr. 1963;18(10):187–93. ture design. N Y State Dent J. 1949;15(5):267–73. 4. Federici E, Centofanti S. Occlusion according neuromuscular 18. Trapozzano VR. Laws of articulation. J Prosthet Dent. ni function. Mondo Odontostomatol 1977;19(4):8–29. 1963;13(1):34–44. 5. Federici E, Geiger A. Therapeutic prosthesis. Riv Ital Stomatol 19. Trapozzano VR. Designing the removable partial denture: the 1982;51(3):229–44. dentist’s obligation to the patient and the laboratory. Ariz Dent 6. Federici E, De Nuccio C. Mandibular dysfunction syndrome: io J. 1965;20;11(5):266–72. relation to orthodontics. Mondo Ortod. 1989;14(2):145–56. 20. Trapozzano VR, Lazzari JB. An experimental study of the test- 7. Levin B. A reevaluation of Hanau’s Laws of Articulation and ing of occlusal patterns on the same denture bases. 1952. the Hanau Quint. J Prosthet Dent. 1978;39(3):254–8. J Prosthet Dent. 2005;94(6):489–98. iz 8. Anochin PK, Agafonow WG. Current problems in the phys- 21. Trapozzano VR, Lazzari JB. The physiology of the terminal iology, morphology, pharmacology and clinical aspects of the rotational position of the condyles in the temporomandibu- reticular formation of the brain. (A survey of the problem based lar joint. J Prosthet Dent. 1967;17(2):122–33. on the contributions of the 1st scientific conference on the Ed 22. Lott FM. Personal communication. September, 1962. reticular formation of the brain.) Sowjetwiss Naturwiss Beitr. 23. Weinberg LA. Temporomandibular joint function and its ef- 1961;8:787–805. fect on concepts of occlusion. J Prosthet Dent. 9. Dickerson WG, Chan CA, Carlson J. The human stomatog- 1976;35(5):553–66. nathic system: a scientific approach to occlusion. Dent To- 24. Weinberg LA. The role of stress, occlusion, and condyle po- day. 2001;20(2):100-7. sition in TMJ dysfunction-pain. J Prosthet Dent. 10. Dorier M. Modified Hanau technic; setting up of teeth; mo- 1983;49(4):532–45. IC dified occlusal adjustment (Lauritzen’s technic)]. Zahntech- 25. Tsao DH. Variation of hinge interocclusal clearance and mod- nik (Zur). 1970;28(6):579–85. ifying mechanisms. J Prosthet Dent. 1986;56(5):606–16. 11. Hanau RL, De Pietro. Study of classification and evaluation 26. Mack PJ. A computer analysis of condylar movement as de- of concepts and technics serving as the basis for the diffe- termined by cuspal guidances. J Prosthet Dent. rent systems of articulators. Tech Belge Prothese Dent. 1989;61(5):628–33. C 1966;(49):13–21. 27. Csoma M. Significance of the Christensen phenomenon in 12. Bennett NG. A contribution to the study of the movements complete denture construction. Quintessence Int Dent Dig. of the mandible. Proc R Soc Med. 1908;1:79–98. 1973;4(5):33–8. 13. Xiaojun C, Rubo L, Eryi L, Chengtao W. A computerized sim- 28. Pompa G., Di Carlo S., Quaranta A., Marini M., Federici E. © ulation system of mandibular movement on Hanau articulator. Crristensen’s phenomenon: a geometric-mathematical Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2005;5:5136–9. demonstration. Annali di Stomatologia 2005;LIV(1):12-16. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (2): 14-19 19 

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Editorial i al on With this first 2010 issue of “Annali di Stomatologia”, which is fully accessible on-line, begins my man- date as Scientific Director of the Journal. This new way of data and information diffusion helps the free access and the downloading of publi- shed articles, promoting the possibility to share scientific contributions by Italian researchers. zi The purpose of my editorial project is to make “Annali di Stomatologia” a modern journal, which aims in a very short time to be indexed on PubMed and subsequently to receive an Impact Factor by the na Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). To reach the above I decided to structure the editorial guide- lines on the basis of international standards. The submission of contributions will be possible only on-line. Original and review articles, case reports er and case series, therapeutical notes, special articles, short communications, letters to the Editor and scientific guidelines will be accepted by our Scientific Committee. I hope that this journal will become a milestone for Italian Dentistry, to assure a valuable updating to tional borders. nt satisfy the need of continuing education, and the diffusion of excellent Italian research over the na- So I would like to invite all my colleagues - both academic and private practitioners - to cooperate to- iI wards keeping a high scientific level of published articles in “Annali di Stomatologia”, since only qua- lity will allow them to be studied and mentioned, increasing the prestige of the Journal and its diffu- on sion in Italy and abroad. Prof. Maurizio Ripari i iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 1 1 

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The low level laser therapy in the management of neurological burning mouth syndrome. A pilot study i al on Umberto Romeo, DDS1 partment of Stomatological Sciences of Sapienza Alessandro Del Vecchio, DDS1 University of Rome, 77 resulted affected by nBMS. Mauro Capocci, DDS1 Twenty-five of these patients, 16 females and 9 Claudia Maggiore, MD, DDS2 males, were randomly selected for low level laser ap- Maurizio Ripari, MD, DDS1 plications. All the patients were irradiated with a dou- zi ble diode laser (Lumix 2 Prodent, Italy) emitting “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy contemporarily at 650 nm and 910 nm, with a fluence 1 Department of Oral Sciences, (A. Polimeni) of 0.53 J/cm² for 15 minutes twice a week for 4 weeks. na University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy The areas of irradiation were the sides of the tongue 2 School of Dentistry, Oral Surgery Unit (C. Maggiore) on the path of taste fibers. A NRS (numerical rating scale) evaluation of maximum and minimum pain Corresponding author: was registered before and after the treatment. In each Prof. Umberto Romeo case to the total value of NRS rates registered before er Department of Oral Science the treatment was deducted the total NRS rate regis- Via Caserta, 6 - 00161 Rome, Italy tered after the treatment. The difference was esti- Ph. +39-06-4997 mated effective if over two points. The Kruskall-Wallis test revealed the significance of the E-mail: umberto.romeo@uniroma1.it ntstudy (p<0.0001) and the Dunn’s Multiple Compari- son test, applied to compare NRS rates before and after the treatment, showed that there is not a statis- iI Summary tically relevant difference between min NRS ratings The low level laser therapy in the management of before and after treatment, while there are statisti- neurological burning mouth syndrome. A pilot study. cally significant differences between max NRS rat- ings (p<0.05). on Background and objective. Burning Mouth Syn- Results. All the patients agreed the treatment con- drome (BMS) is a common disease but still a diag- firming the general good compliance related to laser nostic and therapeutic challenge for clinicians. treatments. No side effects were registered and all Despite many studies its nature remains obscure and the patients completed the therapy without interrup- i controversial; nowadays there is no consensus tion. Seventeen patients (68%) had relevant benefits iz about definition, diagnosis and classification. BMS from the treatment with valid reduction of NRS rat- is characterized clinically by burning sensations in ings. In 8 cases the differences of NRS rates were not the tongue or other oral sites, often without clinical relevant being under the limit of reliability estab- Ed and laboratory findings. According to the etiology, lished in study design. In no case there was a wors- BMS cases should be subdivided into three sub- ening of the symptoms. types: BMS by local factors (lfBMS), BMS by sys- Conclusions: According to the results of this pilot temic factors (sfBMS) and neurological BMS (nBMS), study it is reasonable to suppose that LLLT may play the most frequent, in which the symptom is caused an important role in the management of nBMS cases, by central or peripheral neurological malfunctions af- more investigations are needed to clarify, by a fecting in particular the taste pathway. To establish greater number of cases and a placebo control IC the type of BMS, both anamnesis and clinical exam- group, the real effectiveness of this innovative LLLT ination, including laboratory tests, are necessary; application. nBMS cases will be recognized by exclusion of any other type. In case of lfBMS or sfBMS, the treatment C of the main pathology will be resolutive; in nBMS Key words: oral pain, BMS, LLLT, laser dentistry. cases many Authors proposed different pharmaco- logical trials without satisfactory results and the cur- rent opinion is that a multidisciplinary approach is Objectives and background © required to keep the condition under control. This pilot study aimed to investigate whether the Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) is a common disease that biostimulative effect of Low Level Laser Therapy represents a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for cli- (LLLT) could enhance the symptoms of nBMS cases, nicians. Despite many studies tried to investigate this par- improving patients’ quality of life. ticular disorder, its real nature remains still obscure and Study design/materials and methods. Among 160 pa- controversial, and at this moment there is no consensus tients affected by oral burning sensation attending to about even the diagnosis and the classification of BMS. the Oral Pathology Complex Operative Unit of the De- A lot of terms are used to describe similar situations, such 14 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 14-18  The low level laser therapy in the management of neurological burning mouth syndrome. A pilot study as glossodynia, glossopyrosis, stomatodynia, and oral dy- dosages, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressant or an- sestesia. ticonvulsants may be effective; in patients with nBMS, ho- Affected patients often present with multiple oral complaints, wever it must be considered that a long period treatment including burning, xerostomia and taste alterations. The with these drugs may induce a xerostomia worsening the prevalence of BMS is 1.8-19% in the general population oral distress. i (1-4) and it is higher in middle-aged post-menopausal wo- Topical capsaicin has been used in some trials (22); Fe- al men (Male:Female ratio = 1:7), while children are never miano and coll. (23) registered an enhancement of oral pain affected. The anterior two third of the tongue is the most in nBMS with α-lipoic acid, confirming the neurological in- frequently affected site, followed by hard palate, lips and volvement of this kind of BMS. gums (5-9). The aim of this study is to verify whether the biostimula- on Many causes, local or systemic, can raise these particu- tive effect of low level laser therapy (LLLT) may enhance lar oral sensations creating great problems in diagnosis the symptoms of nBMS cases improving patients quality and treatment. of life. Many patients affected by this pathology present eviden- zi ce of anxiety, depression and personality disorders, but it is unresolved if the pain led to the psychological disorder Materials and methods or vice versa (10-14). As a first, BMS patients should be sub-divided into two ca- The study was realized at the Department of Stomatolo- na tegories, the first including all the cases presenting clini- gical Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome in the pe- cal mucosal signs; the second one including all those pa- riod between January 2004 and April 2009. tients without mucosal affections. Seventy-five per cent of In this period 160 patients affected by oral burnings at- BMS cases belong to this second category (15). tended to the Oral Pathology Complex Operative Unit. In er The symptoms vary from different entity of burning sen- order to identify the exact kind of the oral burning, in each sation, to pain, dry mouth (xerostomia), unpleasant and case a clinical examination was performed and a series altered taste sensation and itching (16). Symptoms involve of laboratory tests was requested. The complete series of tongue, palate, lips, and gums often in relation with re- laboratory tests requested is reported in Table 1. After this movable dentures. Patients awaken without pain and re- fer increasing symptoms through the day and into the eve- ning. Symptoms often decrease during meals and working activity. The onset is sudden and sometimes related to den- nt first screening, only 77 patients could be recognized as af- fected by nBMS (Tab. 2). Amongst these cases, 25 patients, 16 females and 9 ma- les, were randomly selected for low level laser applications. iI tal procedures. Most patients suffer from the pathology for In every case a written informed consent to LLLT was re- long time, ranging from months up to years. According to quested and obtained. its etiology, BMS should be differenced into three subtypes: All the patients were irradiated with a double Gallium Ar- on BMS by local factors (lfBMS), BMS by systemic factors senide (GaAs) laser (Lumix 2 by Prodent, Italy). This de- (sfBMS) and idiopathic BMS (iBMS) (17); lfBMS is caused vice emits contemporarily at two wavelengths, 650 nm and by various pathologies affecting oral mucosa, such as ero- 910nm, in the red and near infrared respectively. The bio- sive lichen planus, acute or chronic candidiasis, allergies, stimulative trial was performed by a cycle of 15 minutes trauma, geographic tongue, trigeminal neuralgia and pa- of irradiating time, repeated twice a week for 4 weeks. The i rafunctions. The sfBMS occurs as oral sign of systemic con- fluence (F) irradiated was 0.53 J/cm². According to the hy- iz ditions such as Sjögren syndrome nutritional deficiencies pothesis of peripheral nerve damage in nBMS cases, the (e.g.: iron and B complex), type II diabetes (formerly known irradiation areas were the sides of the tongue on the ana- as no-insulin dependent), hormonal changes, as during me- tomical path of taste fibers. A NRS evaluation of maximum Ed nopause (18), hypothyroidism (19), and drug induced xe- and minimum pain was registered before the first appli- rostomia. cation and after the whole treatment. The iBMS differs from the two previous conditions by lack In each case to the total value of NRS rates registered be- of local signs and being often associated with neurologi- fore the treatment was deducted the total NRS rate regi- cal disturbances like anxiety, hypochondriasis and espe- stered after the treatment. The difference was estimated cially depression, so many Authors consider the main psy- effective if over two points. chological factors responsible for this situation. In iBMS sa- IC livary flow rates seems to keep into normal values as de- monstrated by Zhao et al (20). Recent studies about iBMS Results have pointed to dysfunction of several cranial nerves as- sociated with taste sensation (16) or reduction of density All the patients completed the treatment confirming the ge- C of epithelial nerve fibers (21), as possible causes of the pa- neral excellent compliance of laser treatments. The results thology, for this reason it should be reasonable to call this obtained are reported in Table 3; in 17 cases (68%, 10 fe- particular form neurological BMS (nBMS) (Fig. 1). males and 7 males) a clear reduction of total NRS rates Nowadays the diagnostic approach to BMS patients is still was registered (total difference over 2 points). In remai- © very difficult and needs a wide knowledge of the various ning 8 cases (32%, 6 females and 2 males) the results were aspects of this pathology. In order to establish what kind under the limit of efficacy established in study design (to- of BMS is affecting the patient, both anamnesis and cli- tal difference between 0 and 2 points) and were considered nical examination, including laboratory tests are necessary. ineffective. In no case a worsening of symptoms was re- In case of lfBMS or sfBMS the treatment of local or sy- gistered. The Kruskall-Wallis test revealed the significance stemic pathology will be resolutive. of the study (p<0.0001) and the Dunn’s Multiple Compa- In nBMS patients a multidisciplinary approach has been rison test, applied to compare NRS rates before and af- proposed to keep the condition under better control. In low ter the treatment, showed that there is not a statistically Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 14-18 15  U. Romeo et al. a c i al on zi Figure 1a, b, c - Clinical normal appearance of a nBMS patient. b na Rochkind and coll. (25) that tested in rats the efficacy of 780 nm laser phototherapy versus non irradiated controls on the acceleration of axonal growth and the nerve re- er generation after peripheral nerve reconstruction by poly- glicolic acid neurotube. The study demonstrated that the nerves were morphologically reconstructed in both groups, but the Sciatic Functional Index and the total number of nt myelinated axons were higher in laser treated group. Ih- san and co. (26) in 2007 in rabbits, showed the efficacy of 901 nm low level irradiation versus control, in regene- rative processes after surgical induced peroneal nerve sec- iI tions. The evaluation was registered in the short and mid- dle period after surgery. Compared to the control groups, thicker nerve fibers, more regular myelin layers and on relevant difference between min NRS ratings before and clearer Ranvier nodes were observed in treated group. after treatment, while there are statistically significant dif- The differences between two groups were yet relevant in ferences between max NRS ratings (p<0.05) a short period, 2 weeks after surgery, and highly signifi- cant in mid period, 6 and 8 weeks, after surgery. Oron and coll. (27) investigated in vitro whether low level diode la- i Discussion ser irradiation could enhance the ATP production in cul- iz tured normal human neural progenitor (NHNP). The results The effectiveness of low level laser irradiation in peripheral showed an almost double ATP production in irradiated cells nerve regeneration was demonstrated in several studies versus non lased controls (7513 ± 970 units vs. 3808 ± 539 Ed (24) both in vitro and in animal trials. One of the most in- units), supporting the hypothesis of a good effectiveness teresting results in this research pathway was obtained by of low level laser irradiation in human neuronal cells too. A peripheral nerve dysfunction, especially of taste pathway, Table 1 - Laboratory tests for clinical screening. IC C © 16 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 14-18  The low level laser therapy in the management of neurological burning mouth syndrome. A pilot study Table 2 - Diagnosis after clinical and laboratory screening. i al on zi Figure 2 - Low level laser irradiation of tongue. na in the aetiology of nBMS is long lasting, since Fox first ob- servations in 1931 (28). Many studies related the lack of According with these observations we designed this pilot function of taste in predisposed subjects, the so-called su- study to investigate whether neurological biostimulative ef- pertasters, with the burnings typical of the syndrome (29, fects of LLLT could enhance oral nBMS patients’ complaints er 30). The reliability of this hypothesis was showed as a first by a reduction of symptoms. For this first observation the by histological study by Suarez and coll. (21) that showed site of irradiation was arbitrarily established in the tongue in tongue biopsies a relevant lower density of epithelial ner- sides, according to the anatomic distribution of taste fibers ve fibres in BMS patients versus controls. Similarly Lau- (Fig. 2), independently from the referred sites of symptoms. ria and coll. (31) demonstrated that BMS patients tongue, compared to normal ones, shows a reduction of trigemi- nal small fibres. nt The obtained results of 68% effectiveness are encoura- ging together with no worsening cases and good patients’ compliance. The study was also statistically significant by iI Table 3 - Minimum and maximum NRS rates registered before and after LLLT. i on iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 14-18 17  U. Romeo et al. Kruskall-Wallis test (p<0,0001); the comparative Dunn’s 12. Grushka M, Epstein JB Gorski M. Burning mouth syndrome test showed significant results for Max NRS rates diffe- and other oral sensory disorders: a unifying hypothesis. Pain rences (p<0,005) between pre and post treatment eva- Res Manag. 2003; 8(3): 133-5. 13. Maina G, Albert U, Gandolfo S, Vitalucci A, Bogetto F. Per- luation, while min NRS rates differences were not signi- sonality disorders in patients with Burning mouth syndrome. ficant. This difference could be explained with the difficulty J Pers Disord. 2005; 19(1): 84-93. i to establish clearly an exact value of minimum pain level, 14. Popper F. Psychogenic aspects of the Burning mouth. J Dent al while it is easier for a patient to be accurate in establishing Assoc S Afr. 1968; 23(10): 357-8. the maximum pain evaluation rate. 15. Pindborg JJ. Atlas of diseases of the oral mucosa. Mun- ksgaard ed (COPENHAGEN) 1992; 238. 16. Eliav E, Kamran B, Schaham R, Czerninski R, Gracely R, on Conclusion Benoliel R. Evidence of chorda tympani disfunction in patients with Burning mouth syndrome JADA; 2007; 138(5): 628-33. 17. Balasubramaniam R, Klasser GD, Delcanho R. Separating This is only the first step of a research pathway that pre- oral burning from burning mouth syndrome: unravelling a dia- views further investigations, in order to clarify the other que- gnostic enigma. Aust Dent J 2009; 54; 293-99. zi stions still unresolved at the moment. As a first a higher 18. Del Vecchio A, Podda G, Rossi L, Francalanci P. Burning number of cases are mandatory to obtain statistically si- Mouth Syndrome: indagine immunoistochimica sulla presenza gnificant results and versus control study is necessary to nelle mucose orali di recettori specifici per gli estrogeni. In na avoid placebo effects. At last, it could be necessary to ap- Atti II Simposio SIOG Padova 1992; 255. ply multiple system of pain evaluation to prevent subjec- 19. Femiano F, Lanza A, Bonaiuto C, Gombos F, Nunziata M, Cuccurullo L, Cirillo N. Burning mouth syndrome and Bur- tive bias in records. ning mouth in hypothyroidism: proposal for a diagnostic and According to this pilot experience it is reasonable to pre- therapeutic protocol. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral sume that LLLT biostimulative effects may play an effec- Radiol Endod. 2008; Jan 105(1): e22-7. er tive role in the management of nBMS cases, however fur- 20. Zhao M, Chen Q, Lin M. Relationship between the symptom ther studies are needed to establish whether it can be cle- of xerostomia and non-stimulated salivary flow rates in pa- arly considered the resolution of this long lasting clinical tients with burning mouth syndrome. Hua Xi Kou Qiang Yi dilemma. Xue Za Zhi. 2001; 19(3); 169 References nt 21. Suarez P, Clark GT. Burning mouth syndrome an update on diagnosis and treatment methods. J Calif Dent Assoc. 2006; Aug; 34(8): 611-22. 22. Grushka M, Epstein JB, Gorsky M. Burning Mouth Syndro- iI me. Am Fam Phys 2002; 65(4); 615-20. 1. Elad S. Czerninski R. Eliay E: Burning Mouth Syndrome. Ha- 23. Femiano F, Scully C. Burning mouth syndrome (BMS): dou- refuah 2002; 141(4); 407. ble blind controlled study of alpha-lipoic acid (thioctic acid) 2. Forman R, Settle RG. Burning mouth symptoms, part II: a therapy. J Oral Pathol Med 2002; 31(5); 267. on clinical review. Compendium 1990; 11(3); 140-144. 24. Tuner J, Hode L: The laser therapy Handbook Prima Books 3. Forman R, Settle RG. Burning mouth symptoms: a clinical AB Ed (Grängesberg – SWEDEN); 2007; 161-2. review part I. Compendium 1990; 11(2); 74-78. 25. Rochkind S, Leider-Trejo L, Nissan M, Shamir RH, Kharenko 4. Zakrzewska JM, Forssell H, Glenny AM. Interventions for the O, Alon M: Efficacy of 780-nm Laser Phototherapy on Peri- treatment of Burning mouth syndrome. Cochrane database pheral Nerve Regeneration after Neurotube Reconstruction i Syst Review 2005(1); CD002779. Procedure (Double-Blind Randomized Study). Photomed Las iz 5. Ship JA, Grushka M, Lipton JA, Mott AE, Sessle BJ, Dion- Surg. 2007;25(3);137-43. ne RA. Burning mouth syndrome: an update. JADA; 1995; 26. Ihsan FR, Al-Mustawfi N, Kaka LN: Promotion of Regenera- 126(7); 842-53 tive Processes in Injured Peripheral Nerve Induced by Low 6. Rhodus NL, Carlson CR, Miller CS. Burning mouth (syn- Level Laser Therapy. Photomed Las Surg. 2007; 25(2); 107- Ed drome) disorder. Quintessence Int. 2003; 34(8); 587-93. 111. 7. Mignogna MD, Fedele S, Lo Russo L, Leuci S, Lo Muzio L. 27. Oron U, Ilic S, De Taboada L, Streeter J: Ga-As (808 nm) la- The diagnosis of Burning mouth syndrome represents a chal- ser Irradiation enhances ATP Production in Human Neuro- lenge for clinicians. J Orofac Pain; 2005; 19(2); 168-73. nal Cells in Culture. Photomed Las Surg. 2007;25(3);180-2. 8. Lamey PJ. Burning mouth syndrome. Dermatol Clin. 1996; 28. Fox AL: The relation between chemical constitution and ta- 14(2); 339-54. ste. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 1931; 18:115-20 9. Lamey PJ, Lamb AB. Lip component of burning mouth syn- 29. Lamey, P.J., R.S. Hobson, and R. Orchardon, Perception of IC drome. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol; 1994; 78(5); 590- stimulus size in subjects with burning mouth syndrome. Jour- 3. nal of Oral Pathology and Medicine, 1996: 25: 420-423. 10. Al Quaran FA. Psychological profile in Burning mouth syn- 30. Grushka M, Sessle BJ. Burning mouth syndrome. Dent Clin drome. Oral Surg Orla Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. North Am.1999; 35(1):171-84. 2004; 97(3): 339-44. 31. Lauria G, Maiorana A, Borgna M, Lombardi M, Penza P, Pa- C 11. Brody HA, Nesbitt WR. Psychosomatic oral problems. J Oral dovani A, Sapelli P.: Trigeminal small-fiber sensory neuropathy Med. 1967; 22(2); 43-6. causes burning mouth syndrome Pain 2005; 115; 332-7. © 18 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 14-18 

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The arginine-deiminase enzymatic system on gingivitis: preliminary pediatric study i al on Gaetano Ierardo, DDS, PhD1 Introduction Maurizio Bossù, DDS, PhD1 Desirée Tarantino, DDS1 The lactic bacteria are Gram-positive microorganisms with coc- cus or stick shape, which share a number of physiological and Vincenzo Trinchieri, MD2 biochemical properties. They include some species of lacto- Gian Luca Sfasciotti, MD, DDS, PhD1 zi bacilli, lattococchi, streptococci, pediococchi. Several exper- Antonella Polimeni, MD, DDS1 imental evidences suggest the possibility of using lactic acid bacteria as a potential preventive or therapeutic approaches, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome, Italy alternative or complementary protocols prevention or treatment na 1 Department of Oral Sciences, Paediatric Dentistry Unit, currently followed in several pathological conditions (Offen- (A. Polimeni) bacher, 1993; Mombelli, 1998) Specific components of Lac- 2 Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases tobacilli seem to have an intense effect on the modulation of (V. Vullo) immune response, on the activation of the reticuloendothe- lial system and on the regulating production of cytokines and er inflammatory response (Malin, 1996; Naidu, 1999). In this way Corresponding author: it is very important to the study conducted by Ulisse (Ulisse, Prof. Antonella Polimeni 2001) in which was found an inhibitory action of Lactobacil- lus brevis against iNOS, in rat’s peritoneal macrophages stim- Via A. Serranti, 49 - 00136 Rome, Italy Tel. +39 06 35453539 E-mail: antonella.polimeni@uniroma1.it nt ulated in vitro with IFN-γ and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In the light of these results, in this work, we have proposed to as- sess the anti inflammatory effects of Lactobacillus brevis in iI case of marginal gingivitis. The initial pathogenic event de- termines in guest’s organism tissues the production and syn- thesis of cytokines (Bucci, 2006). The excessive production of cytokines driving in a non-specific way the production of ni- on Summary The arginine-deiminase enzymatic system on gingivitis: tric oxide (NO). preliminary pediatric study. NO2, gaseous free radical, is fleeting and in the presence of oxygen is rapidly metabolized by nitrate to nitrite (NO). The Aim. The lactic bacteria are Gram-positive microorgan- increase of NO can not be seen as specific for a clinical con- isms with coccus or stick shape, which share a number dition, but rather as a reflection of an immuno-inflammatory i of physiological and biochemical properties. Several ex- activated state, in which cytokines, together with other me- iz perimental evidences suggest the possibility of using diators, led to a stimulation of NO-synthase in tissues and flu- lactic acid bacterial as a preventive or therapeutic po- ids (Ramberg, 1994; Persson, 1990). tential approaches, alternative or complementary to pre- It is clear that excessive levels of NO are harmful and dan- Ed vention or treatment protocols currently followed in gerous for the tissues and promote the progression of the in- several pathological conditions. flammatory phenomena (De Luca, 1999). The plaque bacte- Lactobacillus brevis is able, through the arginine-deim- ria that have arginina-deiminase enzyme are: Streptococcus inase activity, to subtract the substrate (arginine) to ni- sanguinis, Streptococcus milleri, Streptococcus rattus, Lac- tric oxide synthase, and to inhibit in vitro generation of tobacillus fermentum, Streptococcus faecalis, Streptococcus nitric oxide from rat’s peritoneal macrophages. These faecium, Eubacterium nodatum species. Some strains of Lac- data led us to study the in vivo L. brevis anti-inflamma- tobacillus brevis species (CD2) are surprisingly rich in “argin- IC tory effect choosing as experimental model the gingivi- ina-deiminasi” enzymatic system. It is believed that the enzyme tis. may play an important role in the ecology of the mouth prob- Materials and methods. In our study were examined 21 ably protecting oral bacteria that are less tolerant against acid subjects, 16 males and 5 females, aged between 5 and environment, by the pH decrease (4.0) caused by aci- C 12 years, with marginal gingivitis problems who have dophilous bacteria glycolysis (Lindhe, 1998; Page, 1996; Poli- been given chewing gum containing the principle to test meni, 1995). This defense is expressed through an increase in measure of three per day. in pH associated with the production of ammonia. The action Results. At the time T1, after treatment, 18 patients no pad done by ammonia can be positive not only for the same longer showed inflammation; 2 of them had a slight in- plaque bacteria, but also for tooth and tissues of the guest. © flammation and only 1 patient still showed a moderate This enzyme uses the same iNOS substrate, inhibiting its ac- inflammation. tion, and pursuing anti-inflammatory effects (Chambers, Conclusions. From our research, as confirmed by clini- 1991; Lamster, 1987; Wong, 1999; Mizuho, 1996). cal and laboratory investigation, results an effective anti- The goal of the study has been to identify the possible med- inflammatory action of arginine-deiminase system that ical applications, both preventively and therapeutically, of the some bacteria possessing. lactic acid bacteria strains selected on the basis of specific Key words: gingivitis, lactobacillus brevis, arginine-deimi- chemical, physical and/or biological characteristics. nase. In particular, objectives of this work were: 8 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13  The arginine-deiminase enzymatic system on gingivitis: preliminary pediatric study • To analyze the in vivo effects of the tablets containing L. bre- vis on clinical signs in patients with primitive and applicant marginal gingivitis. • To analyze the in vivo effects of the tablets containing L. bre- vis on the salivary IgA levels and on the nitric oxide syn- thase (NOS) activity (Fig. 1). i al Materials and Methods on In our study were examined 21 subjects, 16 males (76%) and 5 females (24%), aged between 5 and 12 years, with marginal gingivitis problems, 16 volunteers as controls, 10 males (62.5%) and 6 females (37.5%), examined at the U.O.C. of Paediatric Dentistry of “ Sapienza”, University of Rome. The zi controls were used only for the evaluation of laboratory data, Figure 3 - Marginal gingivitis. and not in clinical investigations. To patients were administered gums containing the active ingredient (Fig. 2) for a period of subjects with systemic diseases or subjects under drug pro- na 60 days.The procedures were carried out in accordance with longed treatments. the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the 1983 revision of the • Personal behavior including the possible presence of or- same. For the study a medical bill in different sections was thodontic appliances. drawn up. They were selected subjects suffering from marginal gingivi- tis (Fig. 3) (T0) who have been given chewing gums containing er the principle to test in three per day. The gums, taken at reg- Section 1 ular intervals, were chewed by patient for a period longer than 20 minutes. The checks were made at the time T1 (30 days) • Personal data. and T2 (60 days). During each control has been made a levy • Accurate family history, physiological and pathological re- mote and next. • Possible presence of underlying conditions; excluding nt saliva. The saliva samples of patients and controls, collect- ed in tubes before and after treatment and immediately frozen at -20°C until use, were analyzed for the activity of NOS (this was determined as levels of nitrites/nitrates in the hamlet of iI salivary fluid), and the levels of IgA (Giuca, 2007; Grbic, 1995; Haffajee, 1983; Heskens, 1996; Riccia, 2007). on Section 2 The clinical evaluation was performed referring on 6 dental elements (upper arch: earlier sector 1.1 or 1.2, medium-rear sector 1.6 and 2.6; lower arch: earlier sector 3.1 or 4.1, medi- i um-rear sector 3.6 and 4.6), with symptoms (thermal sensi- iz tivity and bleeding) and objectivity (plaque, scale, gingival in- flammation) recorded at the time T0, T1 and T2 above reported with a gradual scale (Tables 1 and 2). Ed Section 3 Registration at T1 and T2 of possible side effects resulting from Figure 1 - Inhibition of NO-synthase by arginine-deiminase en- the administration of the principle tested. zyme. IC Section 4 Final evaluation including clinical and laboratory data. With re- C gard to clinical aspects on the basis of results obtained has given judgment: • healing; • improvement; • failure; © • relapse; • do not assessable. Results The clinical signs and symptoms (gingival inflammation, Figure 2 - Gums containing the active ingredients. plaque, scale, sensitivity to temperature and bleeding after Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13 9  G. Ierardo et al. pressure), given before and after treatment with the gums of mation and only 1 patient still showed a moderate inflam- L. brevis, are shown in Table 3 and Table 4. At the time T0, mation. The tolerance to the treatment was considered very before treatment, gingival inflammation was evaluated mod- good in all patients. Overall dentist and patients opinion co- erate/diffused in 20 patients and slight in 1 patient (Table 3 incided and the results confirmed regression in 18 patients and Figure 4). At the time T1, after treatment, 18 patients no and improved in the remaining 3 of them. The effects of treat- i longer showed inflammation; 2 of them had a slight inflam- ment on the levels of plaque and scale are shown in Table al Table 1 - Symptoms with gradual scale shown in Section 2. on zi na er Table 2 - Signs objectives shown in Section 2. nt iI i on iz Ed Table 3 - Effect of gums with L. brevis on gingival inflammation, plaque and scale. IC C © 10 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13  The arginine-deiminase enzymatic system on gingivitis: preliminary pediatric study tients compared to the control samples, while treatment with tablets not producing a significant change. Evaluation of nitrite/nitrate levels i Levels of nitrites/nitrates are often indicative of NOS activity. al In our study we proposed to detect the activity of this enzyme. The results of determining the levels of nitrites and nitrates in the saliva of healthy subjects and subjects with gingivitis on before (T0) and after (T1) treatment with the gums are reported in Tables 5 and 6 and in Figure 5. As it is possible to see lev- els of nitrites/nitrates in patients with gum disease were sig- nificantly higher (P<0.01) compared to those of controls. It seems clear that in all patients, treatment with the gums with zi L. brevis was associated with a significant reduction in the lev- els of nitrites and nitrates (P <0.01). na Conclusions Lactobacillus brevis is able, through the arginine-deiminase activity, subtract the substrate (arginine) to nitric oxide syn- er thase and to inhibit in vitro the generation of nitric oxide from rat’s peritoneal macrophages stimulated with LPS and IFN- γ. These data led us to study in vivo the L. brevis anti-in- Figure 4 - Effect of gums with L. brevis on gingival inflammation, flammatory effect choosing as experimental model the gin- plaque and scale. 3, which notes the improvement in the levels of plaque in al- nt givitis. The choice was dictated by some observations and needs: L. brevis, like other lactic bacteria, is part of the nor- mal flora of the oral cavity, is present in dental plaque and in literature is not reported as pathogen for periodontium; the iI most all patients. In Table 4 (Figure 5) are shown the bene- method of collection of samples was not painful for patients and the inflammatory state and evolution of the disease were ficial effects of treatment on sensitivity to temperature and on evaluated using an objective examination and with the use of bleeding after pressure. on a simple equipment. Overall, our results allow us to hypoth- esize that L. brevis has anti-inflammatory activity due to its abil- ity to inhibit, in particular on macrophagic cells, the activity of Evaluation of secretory IgA iNOS, indirectly causing a reduction in levels of inflammato- ry cytokines. They were analyzed levels of secretory IgA in saliva fluid frac- i It was described the ability of some so-called protective mi- tion of control subjects and in patients with gingivitis before iz croorganisms present in dental plaque, (for example Strep- (T0) and after (T1) treatment with the gums. In Tables 5 and tococcus sanguinis, Gram-positive, Veillonella parvula, Gram- 6 and in Figure 6 are showed the data about antibody. A sig- negative, and Eubacteria), to suppress the growth of patho- nificant reduction in IgA levels was founded in saliva of the pa- genic bacteria. Therefore it would be advantageous to elim- Ed Table 4 - Effect of gums with L. brevis on sensitivity to temperature and bleeding. IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13 11  G. Ierardo et al. Table 6 - Levels of nitrites/ nitrates and IgA s in patients with gingivitis before (T0) and after (T1) treatment with L. brevis gums. i al on Data displayed as ± STD. *P < 0.05 mean. abling an efficient competition with the same bacteria zi pathogens for periodontium for membership of adhesion sites on dental and epithelial surfaces. From our research, as confirmed by clinical and laboratory in- na vestigation, results an effective anti-inflammatory action of arginina-deiminasi system, that some bacteria possessing. It is conceivable that the anti-inflammatory action of arginina- deiminasi system can also act in other inflammatory conditions, Figure 5 - Effect of gums with L. brevis on sensitivity to temper- not necessarily where there is a bacterial component at the er ature and bleeding. base, acting mainly through iNOS inhibition. This is the case for example of recurring aphthosus stomatitis, multifactorial etiology disease, for which there isn’t still a valid treatment with- Table 5 - Levels of nitrites/ nitrates, PGE2, cytokine and IgAs out side effects. in controls and patients with periodontitis before (T0) treat- ment with L. brevis gums. nt Precisely for this inflammatory condition, we are implement- ing a therapeutic and research protocol, which aims to assess the efficacy of “arginine-deiminase” enzymatic system. iI References 1. Bucci P, Bucci M, Scutellà M, Giannone N, Santarelli A. Mi- on crobiological agents associated with IL-1 polymorphisms in periodontal disease. A pilot study Annali di Stomatologia 2006;LV(1):23-29. 2. Chambers DA, Imrey PB, Cohen RL. A cross-selectional Data displayed as ± STD. *P < 0.05 mean. analysis of aspartate aminotransferase in gingival crevicu- lar fluid. J Periodontal Res. 1991; 26: 75-84. i 3. Chambers DA, Imrey PB, Cohen RL. A longitudinal study of iz aspartate aminotransferase in human gingival crevicular flu- id. J Periodontal Res. 1991; 26:65-74. 4. De Luca M, Dolci G, Passariello C. Gli anaerobi e la malat- Ed tia parodontale. Bologna: Martina Ed; 1999. 5. Giuca MR, Saracino S, Giannotti E, Ceccarini A. Oral clearance of NaF from chewing gum and tablets in children and adults. Eur J Paediatr Dent. 2007; Mar;8(1):19-24. 6. Grbic JT, Singer RE, Jans HH, Celenti RS, Lamster BI. Im- munoglobulin Isotypes in gingival crevicular fluid: possible protective role of IgA. J Periodontol. 1995; 66:55-61. 7. Haffajee AD, Socransky SS, Goodson JM. Clinical param- IC eters as predictors of destructive periodontal disease activ- ity. J Clin Periodontol. 1983; 10: 257-265. 8. Henskens YMC, Van den Keijbus PAM, Veerman ECI, Van der Weijden GA, Timmermann MF, Snoek CM, Van der Velden U. Nieuw Amerongen A.V.: Protein composition of C whole and parotid saliva in healthy and periodontitis subjects. J Periodontal Res. 1996; 31:57-65. 9. Lamster JB, Harper DS, Fiorello LA. Lisosomial and cyto- plasmic enzime activity, crevicular fluid volume, and clinical parameters characterizing gingival sites with shallow to in- © Figure 6 - Salivary IgA level of controls and patients with gingivi- termediate probing depths. J Periodontol. 1987; 58: 614-62. tis marginalis, before (T0) and after (T1) treatment with L. brevis 10. Lindhe J, Karring T, Lang NP. Parodontologia e Implantolo- gums. gia Dentale. Milano: Ermes Ed; 1998. 11. Malin M, Souomalainen H, Saxelin M, Isolauri E. Promotion of IgA immune. Response in patients with Crohn’s disease by oral bacteriotherapy with Lactobacillus GG. Ann Nutr inate harmful bacteria, encouraging the growth of beneficial Metab. 1996; 40:137-45. microorganisms. We can not exclude that the administration 12. Mizuho F, Mori H, Deguchi S. Aspartate aminotransferase of L. brevis, normally present in the oral flora and plaque, en- levels in human periodontum derived cells. J Periodontol. 12 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13  The arginine-deiminase enzymatic system on gingivitis: preliminary pediatric study 1996; 67: 733-736. sue alterazioni. Roma: Universitaria Ed; 1995. 13. Mombelli AW, Lang PN, Attström R, Löe H. The role of den- 19. Ramberg PW, Lindhe J, Gaffar A. Plaque and gingivitis in the tal plaque in the initiation and progression of periodontal dis- deciduos and permanent dentition. J Clin Periodontol. eases. Proceedings of the European Workshop on Me- 1994; 21:490-496. chanical Plaque Control. Berlin: Quintessence Publishing Co. 20. Riccia DN, Bizzini F, Perilli MG, Polimeni A, Trinchieri V, Ami- 1998; 85-97. cosante G, Cifone MG. Anti-inflammatory effects of Lacto- i 14. Naidu AS, Bidlack WR, Clemens RA. Probiotic spectra of lac- bacillus brevis (CD2) on periodontal disease. Oral Dis. 2007 al tic acid bacteria (LAB). Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 1999 Jul;13(4):376-85. Jan;39(1):13-126. 21. Ulisse S, Giochetti P, D’Alò S, Russo FP, Pesce I, Ricci G, 15. Offenbacher S, Collins JG, Heasman PA. Diagnostic potential Rizzello F, Helwig U, Cifone MG, Campirei M, De Simone C. of host response mediators. Adv Dent Res. 1993; 7: 175-181. Expression of cytokines,inducible nitric oxide synthase and on 16. Page RC . Gingivitis. J Clin Periodontol 1986; 13: 345-355. matrix metalloproteinases in pouchitis: effects of probiotic tre- 17. Persson RG, DeRouen TA, Page RC. Relationship betwe- atment. Am J Gastroenterol. 2001 Sep; 96(9):2691-9. en levels of aspartate aminotransferase in gingival crevicu- 22. Wong MY, Lu CL, Liu CM, Hou LT, Chang WK. Relationship lar fluid and gingival inflammation. J Periodontal Res. 1990; of the subgingival microbiota to a chairside test for aspartate 25: 17-24. aminotransferase in gingival crevicular fluid. J Periodontol. 18. Polimeni A, Gallottini L, Dolci M. La secrezione salivare e le 1999; 70: 57-62. zi na er nt iI i on iz Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 8-13 13 

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Bone-defects healing by high-molecular hyaluronic acid: preliminary results i al on Alberto Baldini, DDS1 clinical point of view, improves the handling and appli- Davide Zaffe, MD2 cation of the bone matrix inside the defects and, from a Gabriella Nicolini, PhD1 hystologic point of view makes it possible to obtain bone regeneration in less time when it is used with au- 1University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy tologous bone. zi Department of Neurosciences and Biomedical Technologies Key words: autologous bone, hyaluronic acid, bone, bone defect healing, bone graft. (M. Baldoni) na 2University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy Department of Anatomy and Hystology, Introduction Human Anatomy Section (D. Zaffe) er Numerous biologic processes could take place following a tooth Corresponding author: extraction, with important changes of the anatomy of the post- Dott. Alberto Baldini extractive site (Trombelli, 2008). Centro Medico Polispecialistico Baldini Srl Processes involved in the healing of the extraction socket have Via S.Orsola, 5 24100 Bergamo, Italy Tel.: 035/271935 - Fax: 035/694280 nt been evaluated in animal experimental situations (Lekic, 2001; Sato, 2007) and in human models (Boyne,1966). The anatomo-morphologic situation of the empty socket in- iI E-mail: alberto.baldini@unimib.it volves a vertical and horizontal bone reabsorption which mod- ifies the morphologic aspect with a decrease in height, in the thickness of the alveolar bone and gingival collapse (Schropp, 2003; Trombelli, 2008). on At the end of the involutional processes the socket could re- sult unsuitable for the implant diameter. At this point the cli- Summary nician has to deal with surgical problems difficult to solve and, Bone-defects healing by high-molecular hyaluronic the insertion of the implant could be unsatisfying from an aes- acid: preliminary results. thetic point of view (Carlino, 2008). i For instance the positioning of graft material or the use of mem- iz Aim. The aim of this study is to evaluate the capability of branes to cover and prevent outer communication (Adriaens, Hyaloss™ matrix (Fab – Fidia Advanced Biopolymers – 1999). Some authors do not agree with the insertion of graft Pd – Italy), a biomaterial based on hyaluronic acid, used material in post-extractive sites because it seems to interfere Ed as organic scaffold in bone repair in post-extractive de- with the normal healing process of the bone in the areas where fects. the implant is to be inserted (Becker, 1996; Buser,1998; Artzi, Materials and methods: 20 post-extractive sockets were 2000). selected, with similar size defects in the same patient Much research, performed on human models using dem- and in the same hemiarch. Hyaluronic acid with high mo- ineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (DFDBA) (Becker, lecular weight (Hyaloss™ matrix, Fab – Pd – Italy) was 1996) and deproteinized natural bovine bone mineral (Bio-Oss) mixed with autologous bone obtained using Safe- (Carmagnola, 2001), have demonstrated the presence of par- IC scraper® curve (Meta – Re – Italy) to repair post-extrac- ticles of grafted material in the alveolar sockets even 6-9 tive sites. Safescraper® is a cutting edge system that months after their insertion. Other authors (Lekovic, 1997) have allows to the collection of autologous bone without demonstrated that using reabsorbable membranes made of using traditional, incision-based collection techniques, polylactic and polyglicolic acid material can lower the reab- C which could cause discomfort to the patient. sorption of the bone. Results: Clinical and hystological evaluations were per- Bone grafting is a common option in treating bone defects and formed, four months after grafting, in the maxilla and in reconstructing alveolar bone before an implant insertion. Every the mandible. From a clinical point of view Hyaloss™ grafting material, homologous, xenologous, heterologous or matrix mixed with autologous bone and patient’s blood synthetic, has some drawbacks, even if they have a distinc- © becomes a substance similar to gel, which is easy to in- tive feature: availability on demand. Autologous bone is “gold sert in to the defect. From a hystological point of view, in standard” for bone grafting (Jakse, 2001) since it does not pro- the treated site there is the presence of an erosive ac- duce adverse reactions and has optimal biocompatible re- tivity, with accelerated angiogenetic and bone remodel- modelling patterns and osteoinductive capabilities (Bunger, ling activities. 2003; Hu, 2004). Bone has been used in blocks (Misch, 1992) Conclusions: The preliminary results show an accelera- or in particulates (Missori, 2002), alone (Dahlin, 1988 ) or un- tion of the bone deposit process and of its remodelling der a membrane protected space in guided bone regenera- due to the presence of Hyaloss™ matrix, which, from a tion (GBR) procedure (Simion, 1998) or mixed with other graft 2 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 2-7  Bone-defects healing by high-molecular hyaluronic acid: preliminary results materials (Hallman, 2002). Controversy remains as to whether simple, linear structure, due to the repetition of the dimer glu- cortical or spongy bone is the material of choice for autolo- curonic acid/N-acetylglucosamin. Numerous studies (Toole, gous bone graft. 2001; Huang, 2003; Chen, 1999; Weigel, 1988; Peattle, Particulated bone can be harvested in many ways. The most 2004; Peattle, 2002) highlighted the roles of hyaluronic acid common method is to mill large bone portions ( Springer, 2004). in the inflammatory response, in antimicrobic and osteoinductive Treatment of transplants with the bone mill or lifting transplants activities. These activities are particularly important in bone re- i by rotating electrical instruments seem to reduce the amount generation, especially in repairing bone defects (Slevin, al of viable bone cells supplied. Some authors collect bone dur- 2002; Pilloni, 2003; Graber,1999; Sasaki, 1995; Savani 2001). ing implant surgery (Zaffe, 2007), however they need an im- Hyaluronic acid, once it is inserted, is quickly metabolized and plant site. The use of a bone collector represents an un- therefore its effect lasts only a short time. on common technique. Bone collectors were proposed many HYAFF®-11 (Fidia- Abano Terme- Pd) has been created to sta- years ago (Widmark, 2000), but they have been continuous- bilize this polymer, which derives from bacterial hyaluronic acid. ly redesigned, renewed, studied and proposed to achieve the From HYAFF®-11 it is possible to obtain Hyaloss™matrix, which most effective and practical use (Zaffe, 2007). is the subject of our study and which, once it has been de- The aim of this study has been to evaluate, from a clinical per- hydrated, becomes similar to a fibrous felt (Fig. 2). zi spective, if the hyaluronic acid mixed with cortical autologous Surgery: following a local anaesthesia and elevation of a bone particles harvested from intraoral sites can prevent or vestibular and palatal or lingual flap, the teeth are delicately reduce the bone reabsorption after tooth avulsion, compared extracted. The sockets, after the extraction of radicular rests, na with control cases when only autologous bone is inserted, and have been carefully cleaned using alveolar spoons to remove make a hystological evaluation of the quantity and the qual- the granulation tissue (Fig. 3). In this research we decided to ity of the bone tissue developed in the post-extractive sock- perform a surgical extraction and to insert Hyaloss™matrix and et 4 months after the graft insertion with microradiography and autologous bone and suture in the test site and simple suture Sem analysis. and the application of autologous bone, collected using safe- er scraper, in the control site. In this study Hyaloss™matrix was mixed with autologous bone Materials and methods to fill post-extractive cavities. The autologous bone was col- lected using Safescraper® (Meta – RE), a new device which Selection of the patients: we selected 10 patients (6 females and 4 males), aged between 25 and 55, who needed tooth ex- tractions due to periodontal or endodontic problems. It was necessary to insert in their sockets osteointegrated implants nt allows the possibility to obtain large quantities of bone par- ticulate with a slightly invasive surgical operation. The Safe- scraper®curve (Meta – RE – Italy) is used to repair post-ex- tractive sites. Safescraper® is a cutting edge system to col- iI to substitute at least two teeth. In particular we decided to con- lect autologous cortical bone with a slightly invasive method, sider sockets in the same hemiarch which could allow the in- without using techniques which can cause great discomforts sertion of 10 mm long implants. So there was no need to re- to the patient. With this method allows to the collection of great sort to GBR (Guided Bone Regeneration) to correct bone de- quantities of cortical and autologous bone (from 2 to 5 cc) (Fig. on fects following tooth extractions, to favour a correct insertion 4). Using Hyaloss™matrix as adjuvant of the autologous bone of the implant in the socket after the avulsion of the compro- in the regeneration process improves the graft handling and mised teeth. the application of bone matrix obtained inside the defects. Dur- Patients should not have systemic disorders. We also excluded ing the collection process the intertwined lamellae of bone, mix from this study patients who showed, through anamnesis or directly with blood, allowing Hyaloss™matrix to hydrate and i radiography, symptoms or pathologies of nasal and paranasal to form a high density bone concentrate which can be used iz sinuses, in case of implant insertion near the maxillary sinus. as a very good filler in regeneration therapy (Fig. 5). Patients Before being inserted in to the protocol, we informed the pa- were treated with chlorhexidine-dicluconate 0,2% twice a day tients about the kind of research they were going to be sub- for two weeks. They were also asked to undergo antibiotic ther- Ed dued to and they signed the informed consent. Every patient apy for 6 days, while an analgesic was suggested only in case received basic information for adeguate control of bacterial of post-operative pain. Stitches were removed a week after plaque and oral hygiene. We evaluated the general state of the excision. Four months after bone and Hyaloss™matrix health through anamnesis: an eventual hypothesis regarding graft, after local anaesthesia and elevation of a buccal and lin- implant rehabilitating treatment was considered through a clin- ical evaluation of the stomatognathic apparatus. The subjects representing potential candidates for this study were subjected IC to the following controls: standard haematochemical evaluation, to rule out every systhemic pathology which was unknown at the moment of the anamnesis; C radiographic evaluation through orthopantomography (OPT), teleradiography of the skull in latero-lateral projection (Tele L- L) and computerized axial tomography plus dentalscan (TAC – Dentalscan), to identify the atrophy class, the possible pathologies of the maxillary sinus and to plan a detailed sur- © gical excision. The aim of this research has been to study the activity of a biopolymer, based on hyaluronic acid, used as scaffold to re- pair bone defects. Hyaluronic acid is a natural polysaccharide with high molec- ular weight (>5MDa), which is normally present in great quan- tities in amorphous, extracellular matrixes such as basal lam- inae, connective matrixes and synovial fluid (Fig. 1). It has a Figure 1 - Hyaluronic acid. AAnnali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 2-7 3  A. Baldini et al. gual flap, fixtures were inserted in post-extractive sites and in control sites treated only with autologous bone (Fig. 6). Biopsies: during the preparation of the implant site a surgical trephine of 3 mm diameter and 6 mm long was used to collect bone cores. Following the surgical protocol to prepare the im- plant site for the insertion of fixtures, the site was widened to i receive implants of 3,7 mm diameter and 10 mm or more long. al Biopsies were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in 0.1 M phos- phate buffer pH 7.2 for 1 h at room temperature and then de- hydrated and embedded in methyl methacrylate (PMMA) at on 4°C, as reported elsewhere. Longitudinal thin (5-µm-thick) and thick (200-µm-thick) sections were obtained from biopsies us- ing an Autocut 1150 bone microtome (Reichert-Jung-D) and Figure 4 - Safescraper device for bone harvesting near the bone a diamond saw microtome (1600, Leica, D), respectively. Thick defect. sections were reduced to 100 µm and X-rayed (microradi- zi ographed). Thin sections have been stained with toluidine blue, trypanblue, solochrome cyanin/nuclear fast red as reported collection procedure allows the harvesting of great quantities elsewhere. Microradiographs and thin sections were analyzed of cortical autologous bone (2 to 5 cc). Therefore the use of na and photographed using an Axiophot Zeiss microscope un- Hyaloss™matrix in autologous bone grafting improves han- der ordinary or polarized light. dling and application inside the defect. During the collection process the intertwined lamellae of bone, mixed with blood and Hyaloss™matrix, form a high density bone concentrate Results which can be used as a very good filler in regeneration ther- apy. Hyaluronic acid, thanks to its own features, helps to im- er From a clinical point of view Hyaloss™matrix mixed with au- prove the tissue repairing processes, creating an ideal envi- tologous bone and patient’s blood becomes a substance sim- ronment for the recovery and restoration of connective and ilar to gel, which is easy to insert in to the defect. The bone bony tissues. nt iI i on iz Ed Figure 2 - Hyaff’s molecule. IC C © Figure 3 - Radiographic control of two post extractive sites be- Figure 5 - Autologous cortical bone mixed with hyaluronic acid fore the grafting. ready to be inserted in to the bone socket. 4 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 2-7  Bone-defects healing by high-molecular hyaluronic acid: preliminary results gy, using both its physiochemical and biological properties. It interacts with other macromolecules and plays a predom- inant role in tissue morphogenesis, cell migration, differenti- ation and adhesion (Toole, 1991; Turley, 1989; Toole, 2001). Up to today hyaluronic acid has been used prevalently in pe- i riodontology and oral pathology (Ballini, 2009; Vandebogaerde, al 2009). In his protocol of research Ballini (Ballini, 2009) analyzed the osteoinductive effect of hyaluronic acid as an adjuvant in the grafting processes to produce bone-like tissue, employing au- on tologous bone obtained from intraoral sites, to treat intrabony defects without covering membrane, in 9 patients. The clini- cal results showed an average increase in clinical attachment and suggest that autologous bone combined with hyaluron- ic acid seems to have good capabilities in accelerating new zi bone formation in the intrabony defects. In the Vandebogaerde work (Vandebogaerde, 2009) 19 Figure 6 - The implants (Swiss Plus 3,75x12 mm) at 3 months deep periodontal defects were analyzed. One year after the na grafting. The mesial implant is the control case (only cortical au- treatment, the average PPD has been reduced to 5,8 mm, gin- tologous bone), the distal implant is the treated case (autologous gival recession increased to 2.0 mm and the attachment in- cortical bone and hyaluronic acid). crease was to 3.8 mm, using esterified hyaluronic acid (Hyaloss™ matrix). During sutures removal, no important tissue inflammation was In our protocol we wanted to evaluate the clinical effectiveness er observed. A 10 day follow-up post-operative clinical assess- of the use of Hyaloss™matrix with autologous bone in filling ment demonstrated a gingivitis grade of 0 or 1. Thanks to the post-extractive defects and the following insertion of implants. bacteriostatic properties of the tested polymer, a more effective The clinical criteria of reference to evaluate the success of the control of the surgical wound and non bacterial contamination osteointegration are those suggested by Albrektsson (Al- of the surgical site were observed in all instances (Pilloni, 2003). Post operative radiographs showed absence of bone re- modelling and satisfactory filling of the defects with Hyaloss™ nt brektsson, 1986 ) and modified by Buser (Buser, 1997). In par- ticular: lack of inflammatory signs or infection during clinical examination, lack of mobility, lack of peri-implantar radio- transparency. In all the evaluated sites we successfully inserted iI and autologous bone in all the post-extractive sites. From a implants following the above-mentioned criteria. hystological point of view the first results showed the presence As a matter of fact the clinical and biological characteristics of a rich network of bone trabeculae, having a very high TBV. of these defects favour the bone filling of the post-extractive on The newly formed bone was made mainly of woven structures sites, while good regenerative activity was obtained in all sit- and showed few erosive activities. Comparison with control uations. Our results confirm that bone harvesting with a man- sites indicated a preliminary prevail of bone amount produced ual collector achieves good clinical success in extraction sock- by Hyaloss™matrix (Figs 7-8). et healing (Zaffe, 2007). Also very interesting is the use of A total amount of 20 fixtures were placed with a 100% suc- hyaluronic acid (Hyaloss™ matrix) which, as confirmed by hys- i cess rate at the moment of prosthetic delivery. tologic evaluations, allows a better and faster healing process. iz The preliminary results of our study seem to confirm the ones obtained through an experimental protocol performed on an- Discussion imals, which has a similar approach (Muzaffer, 2006). Ed In this study, two cavities of 3 mm diameter and depth were Thanks to its complex interactions with matrix components and created in the right tibia of 30 adult rabbits. Following the pro- cells, hyaluronic acid has played multifaceted roles in biolo- tocol, one of the cavities of the tibia is filled with hyaluronic IC C © Figures 7 and 8 - (Hyaloss) Microradiographies of biopsies from maxillary post-extractive sites of the same patient, 4 months after grafting. The control shows an amount of bone higher than the Hyaloss treated site. Microradiography of the biopsy of the Hyaloss treated site: we can observe that the bone trabeculae seem to be particularly thick but show a large amount of vascu- lar neo-cavities. Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 2-7 5  A. Baldini et al. Conclusions The properties of hyaluronic acid are very useful in the re- generation therapy as adjuvant of autologous bone grafting. When it comes into contact with the patient’s blood or a saline solution, Hyaloss™matrix becomes a substance similar to gel, i which is easy to insert in to bone defects al Hyaloss™ matrix is easy to use because the clinician can ad- just it to suit every bone defect and every size to fill. The bio- chemical properties of this material allows a better healing and on post-operative follow-up. This preliminary study, with clinical and histological evalua- tions, shows an acceleration of bone deposition activities and of bone remodelling due to the presence of hyaluronic acid ,which can reduce the time required for bone regeneration zi when associated with autologous cortical bone. Figure 9 - Toluidine blue staining highlights living osteocytes (black arrow) both in newly formed bone and in grafted autolo- na References gous bone. 1. Adriaens PA. Preservations of bony sites .in Lang NP, Kar- ring T, Lindhe J. Proccedings of the Third European workshop on Periodontology .Implant Dentistry , 266-280.Chica- go.Quintessence Pubblishing Co.Inc, 1999. er 2. Albrektsson R. et al. The long term efficacy of currently used dental implants: a review and proposed criteria of success. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants 1986; 34-42. 3. Baldini A, Zaffe D et al. Bone defects healing by high –mo- nt 4. lecular hyaluronic acid:preliminary results.Acts of the 4 th World Congress of Osteointegration Venezia.Italy Ottobre 2004. Italian Journal of Osseointegration 2004; vol 4 2004 p.95. Baldini A, Zaffe D et al. Evaluation of bone defects healing iI by high molecular hyaluronic acid.Abstract del LVIII Meeting of the Italian Society of Anatomy, Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embriology, vol 109, Supplemento n.1 al Fasc. 3, July- September 2004, Mozzon Giuntina S.P..A., Il Sedicesimo, on Firenze, p.222, 2004. 5. Ballini A.,Cantore S.,Capodiferro S.,Grassi FR.Esterified hya- luronic acid and autologous bone in the surgical correction of the infrabone defects .Int J Med Sci.2009 ;6(2);65-71. 6. Becker W,Urist M,. Vincenzi G, De Georges D, Niederwan- Figure 10 - Microradiography of the biopsy of the Hyaloss treated i ger M.Clinical and Histological observations of sites implanted site. Note the several bone layers formed on the grafted autolo- iz with intraoral autologous bone graft and allograft.15 human gous cortical bone. Osteoclasts resorb the new, old or recently case reports.Journal of Periodontology 1996;67:1025-1033. formed bone and the grafted autologous bone. 7. Becker W, Clokie C, Sennerby L,Urist MR, Becker BE. Hi- Microradiographies of the external part of bone trabecula in a stological findings after implantation and evaluation of different Ed biopsy of the Hyaloss treated site. The solochrome cyanine/nu- grafting materials and titanium microscrews into extraction clear fast red staining highlights living osteocytes both in the sockets :case reports.Journal of Periodontology 1998;69:414- grafted autologous bone (arrows – bottom) and in the newly 421. formed bone. In the control sites, on the contrary, the new bone, 8. Boyne PJ. Osseous repair of the postextraction alveolus in formed in apposition to the grafted autologous bone, shows man.Oral Medicine Oral Pathology 1966;17,785-796. many parts with lamellar structures. 9. Bunger MH, Langdahl BL, Andersen T, Husted L. Semi- quantitative mRNA measurements of osteoinductive growth factors in human iliac crest bone: expression of LMP splice IC acid and bone graft and the other is filled only with spongiosal variants in human bone.Calcified –Tissue –International bone graft. At different times, after 20, 30 and 40 days, rab- 2003;73:446-454. bits were sacrificed in equal numbers and defective regions 10. Buser D, Hoffmann B, Bernard JP, Lussi A, Mettler. Evaluation were extracted. The cavities that were filled with hyaluronic of filling materials in membrane-protected defect.Clinical Oral Implants Research 1998;3:137-150. C acid and bone graft showed higher scores than the control 11. Buser et al.. Long term evaluation of non-submerged ITI im- group during every period of the study. plants; Part 1: 8-year life table analysis of a prospective mul- The preliminary results of our protocol seems to point out an ticenter study with 2359 implants. Clin Oral Implants Res acceleration of the bone deposition activity and of its re- 1997; 4 54-63. modelling thanks to the presence of Hyaloss™matrix which, 12. Cafiero C, Annibali S, Gherlone E, Grassi FR, Guadini F, Ma- © from a clinical point of view, improves the handling and ap- gliano A, Romeo E,Tonelli P, Lang NP, Salvi GE, ITI Study plication of the bony matrix inside the defects; there was no Group Italia.Immediate transmucosal implant placement in intolerance of the biomaterial (Baldini, 2004). molar extraction sites: a 12 month prospective multicenter cohort study.Clin.Oral Implants Res 2008 ; May;19(5):476- From a hystological point of view Hyaloss™ matrix (Baldini, 82. 2004) allows the reaching of bone regeneration in shorter time 13. Carlino P, Pepe V, Pollice G, Grassi FR. Immediate tran- when it is used only with autologous bone, with important ben- smucosal implant placement in fresh maxillary and mandi- efits for the clinical situation because it allows the reduction bular molar extraction sockets:description of tecnique and of the period of time maintained after bone grafts (Figs 9-10). preliminary results.Minerva Stomatol 2008;Oct;57(10):471- 6 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 2-7  Bone-defects healing by high-molecular hyaluronic acid: preliminary results 83. riodontal ligament cell culture.Journal of Applied Biomaterials 14. Cardaropoli G, Araujo M, Hayacibara R, Sukekava F, Lindhe and biomechanics, 2003. J. Healing of extraction sockets and surgically produced aug- 31. Quirynem M,Van Assche N, Botticelli D, Berglundh T . How mented and non augmented defects in the alveolar ridge.An does the timing of implant placement to excraction affect out- experimental study in the dog. Journal of Clinical Perio- come? Int J Oral.Maxillofac Implants 2007;22 Suppl :203- dontology 2005;32,435-440. 23.Review. i 15. Carmagnola D, Adriaens P, Berglungh. Healing of human ex- 32. Savani RC, Cao G, Pooler PM, Zaman A, Zhou Z, Delisser al traction sockets filled with Bio-Oss.In :Bone Tissue Reaction HM. Differential involvement of the hyaluronan (HA) recep- at Sites Grafted with Bio-Oss,Thesis,Goteborg , Sweden :Go- tors CD44 and receptor for Ha- mediated motility in endho- teborg University, 2001. telial cell function and angiogenesis.J Biol 2001; Sep 28;276 16. Casap N, Zeltser C, Wexler A, Tarazi E, Zeltser R. Immediate (39):36770-8.Epub Jul 11. on placement of dental intodebrided infected dentoalveolar soc- 33. Sato H., Takeda Y. Proliferative activity ,apoptosis,and hi- kets.J Oral Maxillofac Surg May 2008;66(5):1081. stogenesis in the early stages of rat tooth extraction wound 17. Christopher ER. Histological study of bone healing in rela- healing.Cells,Tissues,Organs 2007;186,104-111. tion to the extraction of teeth. Northwestern University Bul- 34. Schropp L, Wenzel A, Kostopoulos L, Karring T. Bone hea- letin 45, 5, 1942. ling and soft tissue contour study .International Journal of Pe- 18. Dahlin C, Lindhe A, Gottlow J, Nyman S. Healing of bone de- riodontics and Restorative Dentistry 2003;23,313-323. zi fects by guided tissue regeneration.Plastic and Reconstructive 35. Simion M, Jovanovic S, Trisi P, Scarano A, Piattelli A.Verti- Surgery 1988;81:672-676. cal ridge augmentation around dental implants using a mem- 19. De Leonardis D.Impianti post-estrattivi :descrizione tecnica brane tecnique and autogenous bone or allografts in humans. e revisione critica.Quintessence Int 1992;10:615-622. International Journal of Periodontics and restorative Denti- na 20. Hallman M, Sennerby L. A clinical and histologic evaluation stry 1998;18:8-23. of implant integration in the posterior maxilla after sinus flo- 36. Slevin M, Kumar S, Gaffney J. Angiogenic oligosaccharides or augmentation with autogenous bone,bovine hydroxyapatite of hyaluronan induce multiple signaling pathways affecting ,or a 20:80 mixture.International Journal of Oral Maxillofa- vascular endhotelial cell mitogenic and wound healing re- cial Implants 2002;17:635-643. sponses. J Biol Chem Oct 2002;25;277(43):41046-59.Epub er 21. Hu ZM, Peel SA, Sandor GK. The osteoinductive activity of Aug 22. bone morphogenetic protein(BMP) purified by repeated ex- 37. Smith JD, Abramson M. Membranous vs.endochondral tracts of bovine bone.Growth Factors 2004;22:29-33. bone autografts .Archives of Otolaringology 1974;99:203-205. 22. Huang L, Cheng YY, Koo PL, Lee KM, Qin L, Cheng JC, Kum- 38. Springer IN,Terheyden H, Geiss S, Harle F, Hedderich J. Par- pta SM.The effect of hyaluronan on osteoblast proliferation ticulated bone grafts –effectiveness of bone cell supply.cli- med Mater Res Sep 2003;15 ;66A(4):880-4. 23. Jakse N, Seibert FJ, Lorenzoni M, Eskici A. A modified te- chnique of harversting tibial cancellous bone and its use for nt and differentiation in rat calvarial –derived cell cultures.J Bio- 39. nical Oral Implant Research 2004;15:205-212. Toole BP. Proteoglycans and hyaluronan in morphogenesis and differentiation.In (ed.)Hay ED.Cell Biology of Extracel- lular Matrix .New York : Plenum Press.1991:305-41. iI sinus grafting.Clinical Oral Implants Research 2001;12:488- 40. Toole BP. Hyaluronan in morphogenesis. Semin Cell Dev Biol 494. 2001;Apr;12(2):79-87. Turley EA.The role of cell-associated 24. Krump JL, Barnett BG. The immediate implant :a treatment hyaluronan binding protein in fibroblast behaviour.In: (ed) Eve- alternative. Int. J. Oral. Maxillofac. Implants 1991;6:19-23. red D,Whelan J. The Biology of Hyaluronan.Chichester: J Wi- on 25. Lekic P, Rojas J, Birek C, Tenenbaum H, McCulloch CA. Phe- ley.1989:121-137. notype comparison of periodontal ligament cells in vivo and 41. Trombelli L,Farina R, Marzola A, Bozzi L, Lilljenberg B, Lin- in vitro. Journal of Periodontal Research 2001;36,71-79. de J. Modeling and remodeling of human extraction soc- 26. Lekovic V, Kenney E BWeinlaender M, HanTKlakkevold P, kets.JClin Periodontol 2008;Jul(35):630-9.Epub 2008 May Nedic M. A bone regenerative approach to alveolar ridge 21. maintenance following tooth extraction.Report of 10 ye- 42. Krump JL, Barnett BG.The immediate implant :a treatment i ars.Journal of Periodontology 1997;68:563-570. alternative.Int JOral Maxillofac Implants 1991;6:19-23. iz 27. Misch CM, Misch CE, Reisnik, RR, Ismail YH. Reconstruc- 43. Kuboki Y, Hashimoto F, Ishibashi K.Time –dependent chan- tion of maxillary alveolar defects with mandibular synphisis ges of collagen crosslinks in the socket after tooth extrac- grafts for dental ipmplants.A preliminary procedural report. tion in rabbits. Journal of Dental Research 1998; 67,944-94 Ed International Journal of Oral and maxillofacial Implants 44. Wanden Bogaerde L.Treatment of infrabony periodontal de- 1992;7:360-366. fects with esterified hyaluronic acid:clinical report of 19 con- 28. Missori P, Rastelli E, Polli FM, Tarantino R. Reconstruction secutive lesions. Int J Periodontics Restorative Dent. of suboccipital cranietomy with autologous bone chips.Acta 2009Jun;29(3):315-23. Neurochirurgica 2002;144:917-920. 45. Widmark G,Ivanoff CJ. Augmentation of exposed implant thre- 29. Peattle RA, Nayate AP, Firpo MA, Shelby J, Fisher RJ, Pres ads with autogenous bone chips: prospective clinical stu- twich GD. 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Prosthetic rehabilitation in post-oncological patients: Report of two cases i al on Edoardo Brauner, DDS red mandibular movements and deviation of the residual Andrea Cassoni, MD fragment medially towards the resected side. Andrea Battisti, MD In these cases, significant facial deformity and loss of oral Davina Bartoli, MD function such as speech, oral competence, swallowing and Valentino Valentini, MD saliva retention, have a detrimental psychological impact zi on patients. When the resection only involves the alveo- “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy lar portion of the bone or is confined to the associated soft Department of Oral Sciences (A. Polimeni) tissues, it ensures maxillary continuity. Nevertheless, na Maxillofacial Surgery Unit (G. Iannetti) there are obvious facial disfigurements which may lead pa- tients to struggle with conventional dentures because of Corresponding author: altered oral anatomy, obliteration of sulci and loss of sen- Dott. Edoardo Brauner sorial and motor innervation. Viale Regina Margherita, 169 The more extended the ablative surgery, the stronger the er 00161 Rome, Italy complications. Tel.:068541754 E-mail: edoardobrauner@tin.it Case reports nt More than 360 patients affected by oral cancer underwent surgery between 2000 and 2008 at the maxillo-facial unit of the Policlinico “Umberto I” in Rome. About 40% of them iI Summary had been rehabilitated either with fixed or removable con- ventional prosthesis; 70% of the rehabilitated patients re- Prosthetic rehabilitation in post-oncologic patients after ceived a conventional removable or fixed prosthesis ac- bone reconstruction are not substantially different than cording to the residual teeth and bone, the remaining 30% on those of patients affected by severe atrophia of upper or received a fix or removable implant-supported prosthesis lower jaw after bone reconstruction. .The report analyses two cases of patients who underwent Aim of this paper is to evaluate the possibilities of pros- thetic rehabilitation on these patients and to present our ablative oral surgery. Both received a fibula free vascu- method. Prosthesis-based oral rehabilitation of such larised flap and were rehabilitated: first with a removable i tumor cases rapresents a challenge. prosthesis fixed on the residual teeth and oral mucosa; se- iz The report analyses two cases of patients who under- cond one with a removable prosthodontic suprastructure went ablative oral surgery. Both have received a fibula implant-supportated (overdenture). free vascularised flap. The first was rehabilitated with a removable prosthesis fixed on the residual teeth, while Ed Case 1 the second with an implant supported prosthesis. In case of carcinoma resection of the oral mucosa, the removable prosthesis guarantees a simplification in The patient – a 41 years old woman – at the clinical exa- dental care operations. On the other hand, irradiated mu- mination reffered a generalized pain on the right side of cosa is frequentely unable to tolerate the friction created the face and showed a omolatheral tonsillar pillar intu- by the acrylic base. However, the fixed prosthesis can mescence (Fig. 1). limit the view during follow-up controls. Histological analysis revealed an epidermoidal carcinoma IC In our school, according to all exposed reasons, we con- of the right tonsil. The patient was subjected to three che- sider the implant supported overdenture prosthesis to miotherapy cycles reducing the mass by 80%. Furthermore, be the best choice for those patients. the patient received immediate surgery consisting in he- mimandibulectomy with the excision of the tonsillar lodge, C Key words: oral cancer, fibula free flaps, oral rehabilita- lateral pharynx wall, lateral and posterior right hemitongue, tion, function. maxillar tuberosity and soft palate. A temporal flap was used to cover the surgery site. A reconstructive plate was used to rebuild the right hemimandibula. © Introduction After thirteen years of follow up, we decided to reconstruct the hemimandibula using a fibular free flap (Figs. 2, 3). Prosthetic rehabilitations in post-oncological patients af- The overage time from start of surgery until bridge con- ter bone reconstruction are not substantially different than nection was 24 months. In this period periodic follow-up those of patients affected by severe atrophy of upper or was carry out regarding to the need of giving the chance lower jaw after bone reconstruction. to make periodic follow up, to rebuild the lost soft tissues Obviously, in those patients the balance and symmetry of and to give good occlusion and function even if the ma- the mandibular function is compromised leading to alte- sticatory muscles were excised, to restore the residual te- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25 19  E. Brauner et al. i al on zi na er nt iI i on iz Ed Figure 1 - The patient before surgery Figure 3 - The patient after reconstructive surgery • a Extraoral view • a Extraoral view • b Intraoral view • b Intraoral view IC eth and – finally – for the economic possibilities of the pa- tient. Given that the patient had not been chewing for fifteen ye- C ars, she had lost her oral function and, for this reason, we decided to begin rehabilitation with a combined provisio- nal prosthesis. Fixed crowns were used on the teeth and removable prosthesis for the edentoulous portions for the © rest (Fig. 4). Six months later, the prosthetic rehabilitation was finalized positioning definitive crowns on the natural teeth connected with telescopic crowns fixed to the removable proshesis, in order to give the patient a normal profile adding and whe- re necessary, acrylic gingiva (Fig. 5). The result was a very confortable prosthesis ensuring both Figure 2 - CT reconstruction of lower jaw after surgery aesthetics and functionality (Fig. 6). 20 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25  Prosthetic rehabilitation in post-oncological patients: report of two cases i al on zi Figure 4 - The provisional prosthetic rehabilitation na er nt iI i on iz Ed Figure 6 - The patient after oral rehabilitation IC Figure 5 - The final prosthetic rehabilitation • a Extraoral view • b Intraoral view Case 2 stual implant insertion (Fig. 11). C After Six months an implant supported prosthesis was The patient, a 38 year old female, reported an intume- made (Fig. 12). scence on the body and ramus lower right jaw (Fig. 7). The preoperative radiograph examination showed an extended Discussions © lesion on the mandibular angle. The histological exam re- vealed an ameloblastoma (Fig. 8). In the last years, immediate surgical reconstructions of the The patient then received surgery consisting in hemi- complex soft-tissue and bone defect caused by the tumor mandibulectomy and contestual reconstruction with a dou- surgery using vascularized free flaps has revolutionized ble barrel free fibula flap (Figs. 9, 10). post-surgical oral reconstruction and dental prosthetic re- A year later the patient received surgery based on the fi- habilitation. bula flap remodeling, an eterologus bone graft, positioning The use of osseointegrated dental implants obtain a right of a resorbable Bio Gide collagen membrane and conte- prosthetic treatment following ablative surgery has been Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25 21  E. Brauner et al. i al on zi na er nt iI Figure 8 - X-Ray Before surgery • a Panoramic radiograph • b CT image i on iz Ed Figure 7 - The patient before surgery • a Extraoral view • b Intraoral view IC found to be beneficial in some cases (Chan 1997, Goia- to 2009). C Concerning the reconstruction choice between fixed or re- movable prosthesis, technical considerations are impor- tant: implant position, aesthetic result etc.; psychological considerations: acceptability of a removable prosthesis; © and last but not least, the economic possibilities. Conventional removable prosthesis after oral mucosa can- cer guarantees good control of the mucosa by the operator and at the same time, good hygiene control by the patient, These factors that can simply cause periimplatitis and even oncologic relapses. Figure 9 - X-Ray after reconstructive surgery On the other hand, the contact with soft tissues which cau- • a Panoramic radiograph ses mechanical courting, can bring about local irritation and • b CT-3D after surgery 22 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25  Prosthetic rehabilitation in post-oncological patients: report of two cases i al on zi na er nt iI Figure 11 - Implant placement Figure 10 - Extraoral view on • a Intraoperative view • b Panoramic radiograph after implant placement decubiti. Therefore, it is very difficult to apply the same the- i rapy for each patient. Moreover, the reconstruction, even iz if it is the best choice, cannot always guarantee morpho- logy similar to the patient’s natural pre-operative condition, particularly after large reconstructions. In these cases, a Ed removable solution can be the best choice both for ae- sthetic and functional results because of the use of acry- lic resin in removable prosthesis. Prosthetic rehabilitation in patient after ablative oral sur- gery is finalizzated to restore both oral function and facial contour form, in order to enable the patient to recover phy- sically and psychologically to the fullest and hence regain IC a normal life and employment. It would seem logical to use endosseous implants in conjunction with free flap recon- structive techniques, to achieve the goal of complete oral rehabilitation (Chan 1997, Goiato 2009).In bone recon- C structed patients either with free vascularized or non va- Figure 12 - Intraoral view after rehabilitation scularized grafts, implants can be inserted at the moment of the first surgery (1-stage surgery) or after 6-8 months (2-stage surgery). Therefore, we call the first technique a not allow to establish a correct inclination of the implants, © primary insertion and the second a postponed insertion with high failure risks. The primary insertion was associated (Chang 1998) (Chiapasco 2000; Zlotolow 1992; Antony with a major loss of marginal bone, due to an early pre- 1996; Cuesta-Gil 2009). mature load force (Chiapasco 2006). The biomechanics Especially for free revascularised flaps, the primary in- of the implant load, the mechanical stress moved to the sertion allows better access to the bone structure, redu- bone interface and the subsequent reaction of the bone cing the time of prosthetic rehabilitation and eliminating a to the stress, may increase if the implants are placed in second time surgery and accidental lesions of the vascular the wrong way. Excessive non-axial implant loads may da- peduncle. On the other hand, the primary insertion does mage the bone interface surface, causing loss of margi- Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25 23  E. Brauner et al. nal bone and implant failure. The secondary insertion, also After one year, the implant rates failures due to resorption used by our school, may take place 4-6 months later, af- of the marginal bone of the implants, as far as fixed pro- ter bone callus formation if the patient does not need to stheses are concerned, are around 2.5% for the upper jaw- undergo a post-surgical radio therapy treatment. Such a bone and 1% for the mandible. On the other hand, failu- period allows bone integration of the flap and of the bone re rate, for overdenture (removable prostheses fixed to the i callus in the osteotomy areas. Thus, better osteointegra- implants), attained 4.5% for the jawbone and 2% for the al tion and reduction of the flap stress are possible. mandible (Snauwaert 2000). However, the patient needs to undergo one more surge- It would also be interesting to evaluate the overdentures ry. This may turn out to be a benefit for the cosmetic and anchored to the implants using a solidifying bar between functional result of the reconstruction, since it would allow the implants, the “dolder bar” and those anchored to sin- on to reshape the flap if necessary. It is possible to study the gle implants. The bar would reduce micromotions and models, to build diagnostics wax-ups for the production of would facilitate the success of the implants. According to surgical stent. The use of a surgical stent directing implant some authors, just 24.4% of the ball-retained prostheses position as dictated by the diagnostic wax-up aided in the have not met any accident versus 57.1% of those fixed to zi correct three-dimensional positional for the prosthetic plat- the bar; the difference is significant (Nedir 2006). As far form. Such waxing would guide the surgeon, according to as the ball retained is concerned, 72.5% of the prosthe- the prosthetic requirements of each case. This is not the ses have not met any accident one year after the location case of primary insertions. of the implants; 2 or 3 years later, the percentages were na According to some authors, the long-term rates implant pro- around 52.5% and 37.5%. Three years later, the percen- gnosis, both for the autologous grafts and the revascula- tages of prostheses supported by the bar one year after rised flaps, are similar to the long-term rates of native bone the location that have not met accidents varied from 92.9% implants (Albrektsson 1986; Arvidson 1998; Buser 1997; to 71.4% (Nedir, 2006; Chan 1997). er Garrett 2006). Despite the different quantity of bone, no It is not always possible to choose a fixed rehabilitation sin- significant differences for the implants survive expectan- ce the bone quantity, as well as its quality and the finan- cy have been reported between the fibula (D1 bone for- cial aspects are essential. med by the cortical and a tiny part of the medulla) and the iliac crest (D2 bone formed by the bone cortical with a mi- nor thickness and a considerable spongious component), according to Misch classification. Such results confirm the prosthetic rehabilization with en- nt Conclusions In the case of carcinoma resection of the oral mucosa, the removable prosthesis guarantees a simplification in den- iI dosseous implants on those patients and the positive role tal care operations. On the other hand, it may cause me- of the prosthetic load on the metabolism of bone transplant. chanical stimulus due to contact with soft tissues, with sub- (Hotz 1996; Chiapasco 2001; Garrett 2006). sequent local irritation and ulcer. on A different consideration must be made for those patients As for prosthetic rehabilitations of the irradiated patients, who have undergone radiotherapy or must undergo it; in the removable prostheses implant-retained (overdenture) these patients, in fact, to minimize the failure possibilities, seem to expose those patients to a higher risk of muco- it is suggested to wait almost 12 months from the end of sa ulceration caused by the continous inflammatory con- radiotherapy (Chiapasco 1999). dition of the tissues. A fixed prosthesis operation that would i According to letterature, in the case of reconstruction using fix on to the implants would be better than a removable op- iz implants in non-revascularised bone, it is better to place tion, considering the ankylosis relation established between the implants with an interval of time of 3-6 months from the the implant and the bone (Rohner 2002; Snauwaert, 2000; reconstruction phase, in order to allow an adequate re- Garrett 2006). Ed vascularization of the graft and to reduce the bone re- After one year, the implant failures rates due to a resor- sorption which, in bone grafts, is higher during this first pe- ption of the marginal bone of the implants, as far as fixed riod (Goga 1999; Kovacs 2000; Chiapsco 2000; Cuesta- prostheses are concerned, are around 2.5% for the upper Gil 2009). In those cases, the percentages of implants fai- jawbone and 1% for the mandible. On the other hand, the lure are similar to those of implants placed in the native percentages of failure, in case of overdenture (mobile pro- bone (<10%) (Chiapasco 1999; Hotz 1996; Garrett 2006). stheses anchored to the implants), attained 4.5% for the The percentages of failure were significantly higher jawbone and 2% for the mandible (Snauwaert 2000; Cue- IC (about 30%) for the implants placed contestually to re- sta-Gil 2009). construction (Chiapasco 1999; Cuesta-Gil 2009). A removable prosthesis after oral mucosa cancers ensures Ideally, a strip of adherent keratinized oral mucosa thin- good control of the mucosa by the operator and, at the ner than 2 mm should be used, in order to reduce the risks same time, good hygiene control by the patient, who usual- C of periimplants socket and in order to facilitate the dental ly is a alcoholist, a smoker and does not pay great atten- care operations (Sieg 1999). tion to hygiene; factors which can simply cause periim- Some remarks are needed regarding the choice of fixed platitis and even oncological relapses. On the other or removable prosthesis. hand, the soft tissues touch, that causes mechanical cour- © The psychological reasons are very important: for exam- ting, can bring about local irritation and ulcer. ple, the patient has to agree on a removable prosthesis. Therefore, it is very difficult to apply the same thera- Technical reasons, however, are fundamental for the final py for each patient. In our school, according to all ex- choice. posed reasons, we prefer the implant supported over- A fixed implant supported prosthesis would be better, ra- denture prosthesis (Weischer, 1996). This combination ther than a removable option, considering the ankylosis suits the need of reducing unfavourable micromotions relation established between the implant and the bone with the periodical control requirements by an oncolo- (Rohner 2002; Snauwaert 2000; Garrett 2006). gical patient. 24 Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25  Prosthetic rehabilitation in post-oncological patients: report of two cases References with osseointegrated implants in oncologic patients. J Oral Ma- xillofac Surg. 2009 Nov;67(11):2485-96. PubMed PMID: 19837322. 1. Albrektsson T., Zarb G., Wuorthington P., Eriksson A.R “ The 12. Garrett N, Roumanas ED, Blackwell KE, Freymiller E, Abe- long-term efficacy of currently used dental implants: A review and mayor E, Wong WK, Gerratt B, Berke G, Beumer J 3rd, Kapur KK. proposed criteria of success” Int.J.Oral Maxillofac.Implants Efficacy of conventional and implant-supported mandibular re- i 1986 ;1 :1-25 section prostheses: study overview and treatment outcomes. J Pro- al 2. Anthony JP., Foster R.D., Sharma A.B., Kerns G.J., Hoffman sthet Dent. 2006 Jul;96(1):13-24. PubMed PMID: 16872926. W.Y., Pogrel MA. “Reconstruction of a complex midfacial defect 13. Goga D. et al. Microvascular mandibualr reconstruction and with the folded fibular free flap and osseointegrated implants” Ann implantology. A Study of the stability of long term results, apropos Plast surgery 37: 204-210, 1996 of 2 cases followed for 8 years. Rev Somatol Chir Maxillofac 1999; on 3. Arvidson K., Bystedt H., Frykholm A. “Five year prospective fol- (5-6):231-234. low up report of astra tech implants system in the treatment of 14. Goiato MC, Ribeiro AB, Dreifus Marinho ML. Surgical and pro- edentulous mandibles” Clin.Oral Implants 1998; 9: 225-234 sthetic rehabilitation of patients with hemimandibular defect. J Cra- 4. Buser D., Mericske-Stern R., Beranrd J.P. “Long term evalu- niofac Surg. 2009 Nov;20(6):2163-7. Review. PubMed PMID: zi tation of nonsumerged ITI Implants“ Clin.Oral Implants Res. 1997 ; 19884838. 8 : 161-172 15. Hotz G. “Reconstructione of mandibular discontinuity defect 5. Chan M.F., Hayter J.P., Cawood J.I., Howell R.A. “Oral reha- with delayed nonvascularized free iliac crest bone graft and en- na bilitation with implant-retained prestheses following ablative sur- dosseous implants: a clinical report” Prosthet t 1996; 76: 350-355 gery and reconstruction with free flaps” Int J. Oral Maxillofacial Im- 16. Kovacs AF. Influence of the prosthetic restoration modality on plants 1997; 12: 820-827 bone loss around dental implants placed in vascularised iliac bone 6. Chang Y.M., Santamaria E., Wei F.C., Chen H.C., Chan C.P., grafts for mandibular reconstruction. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg Shen Y.F., Hou S.P. “Primary insertion of osseointegrated dental 2000; 123(5):598-602. er implants into fibula osteoseptocutaneous free flap for mandible 17. Nedir R, Szmukler-Moncler S, Belser UC, Samson J. Prosthetic reconstruction” Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 102: 680-687, 1998 complications with dental Implants: from an Up-to-8-year Expe- 7. Chiapasco M. “Implants for patients with maxillofacial defect rience in private practice. The International Journal of Oral and and following irradiation: Proceedings III European Workshop on Maxillo-facial Implants 2006; 21:6. Periodontology” In: NL.Lang, T.Karring, J.Lindhe:“Quintessence Books”; Berlin 1999: pag.557-607 8. Chiapasco M, Abati S, Ramundo G, Rossi A, Romeo E, Vogel nt G “Behavior of implants in bone grafts or free flaps after tumor re- 18. Rohner D et al. Treatment of severe atrophy of the maxilla with the prefabricated free vascularized fibula flap. Clin Oral Implant Res 2002; 13:44-52. 19. Sieg P, Hasse A, Zimmermann CE. Versatility of vascularised iI section” Clin Oral Impl Res 2000; 11: 66-75, fibula and soft tissue graft in the reconstruction of mandibulofa- 9. Chiapasco M., Romeo E., Vogel G. “ Vertical distraction osteo- cial region. Int J Oral Maxillofacial Surgery 1999; 28:356-361. genesis of edentulous ridges for improvement of oral implant po- 20. Snauwaert K, Duyck J, Van Steenberghe D, Quirynen M, Na- on sitioning: Clinical report of preliminary results” Int.Journal of Oral ert I. Time dependent failure rate and marginal bone loss of im- and Maxillofac.Implants 2001; 16: 43-51 plant supported prostheses: a 15- year follow-up study. Clin Oral 10. Chiapasco M., Biglioli F., Autelitano L., Romeo E., Brusati R. Invest 2000;4:13-20. “Clinical outcome of dental implants placed in fibula-free flaps used 21 Watzinger F et al. Endosteal implants in the irradiated lower for the reconstruction of maxillo-mandibular defects following abla- jaw. Journal Cranio-Maxillofac Surgery 1996; 24: 237-244. i tion for tumors or osteoradionecrosis” Clin.Oral Impl. Res. 17, 22. Zlotolow IM et al. :Osseointegrated implants and functional pro- iz 2006 ; 220-228 sthetic rehabilitation in microvascular fibula free flap reconstruc- 11. Cuesta-Gil M, Ochandiano Caicoya S, Riba-García F, Duar- ted mandibles. The American Journal of Surgery 1992; 165:677- te Ruiz B, Navarro Cuéllar C, Navarro Vila C. Oral rehabilitation 681. Ed IC C © Annali di Stomatologia 2010; I (1): 19-25 25 

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Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/22449

Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19529

Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19529

Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/22449

Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/22449

Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19529

Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19529

Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/22449

Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/22449

Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II (2023)¹ ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449 Introduction Vol. 2, no. II (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Performance Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. II,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. II (2023): 4-11, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cussed the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provided a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, shifts the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those artistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non-peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and indepen- dent researchers who present their strategies to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Dives Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body, and tell stories.2 This issue focuses on performance art, as the practice that has best addressed and interrogated the re- lationship between body and space. Indeed, performance art has proven to be a privileged investigative tool for un- derstanding the ways in which this connection evolves and changes, even in the contemporary arena. One of its main characteristics is to transcend a specific material medium, in order to rather explore the complex meanings generated 2 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction (2002) (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 28 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  by the various encounters between bodies, spaces, art- ists, and audiences (think of the foundational practices by Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Wolf Vostell, FLUXUS, Viennese Actionism, or about the work of theatre groups such as Environmental Theatre and Richard Schechner’s Performance Group). The 20th-century avant-garde perfor- mance artists disrupted the notion of art as “artefact” typ- ically associated with artistic creation, and paved the way to new forms of practice that resisted aesthetic interpreta- tions based on the traditional division between subject and object.3 Furthermore, since its inception, performance art has challenged the passive nature of the fruition of the art- work, developing other immersive dynamics in the space/ scene in which the artist moves, questioning the role of the spectator and of spectatorship in general.4 For example, according to Erika Fisher-Lichte, the presence of the public has the power to actively modify the performative space,5 which every time results in a different event depending on the people who take part in it. Performance, therefore, has the capacity not only to activate and redefine a space, but above all, as stated by Richard Schechner, to create a sys- tem for the interweaving of art and everyday life that artists such as Allan Kaprow promoted.6 Ultimately, “performance exists only as actions, interactions, and relationships”7 with the complex ecosystem of objects, bodies, subjects, and technologies that inhabit the space activated by it. Recently developed media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality seem to resonate strongly with such characteristics: they function exclusively in relation to the 3 E. Fischer-Lichte, The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 4 C. Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London-New York: Verso, 2012). 5 Fischer-Lichte, E., The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics (2004) (London-New York: Routledge, 2008). 6 A. Kaprow, Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1966); A. Kaprow and J. Kelley, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 7 R. Schechner, Performance Studies: An Introduction: 30 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  user and their operative space, concealing at the same time the material nature of the medium, which becomes increasingly transparent.8 In so doing, they generate “an- icons,” namely images that present themselves either as immersive environments to be explored or as objects within the physical space.9 These so-called “new” digital technol- ogies seem to adhere to the sole dimension of action, lead- ing their users to a constant daily performance. In order to properly work, they have to include the user’s gestures and behavior, as well as the human skin and the retinal surface.10 Consider the widespread practice of experimenting with AR filters, both artistic and otherwise. In this case, playing with a virtual addition could have ambivalent consequenc- es: on the one hand, it could lead to performative forms of political resistance or identity expression;11 on the other hand, it could induce body dysmorphia and facilitate the incorporation of advertising. Being portable and wearable, they show a ten- dency towards miniaturization as well as innervation, which transform a concrete context into a responsive and intelli- gent environment,12 and the human body into a technical one. In this respect, Andy Clark famously stated we all are natural born cyborgs.13 The reference to the cyborg, however, seems to satisfy more a fascination for science fiction than the need for a deep investigation of the actual intertwining between the technical and the biological. The studies on performance art could help understand the way 8 J. D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000). 9 A. Pinotti, “Self-Negating Images: Towards An-Iconology,” Proceedings, 1, no. 9, 856 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings1090856. 10 M. Carbone, Filosofia-schermi: Dal cinema alla rivoluzione digitale (Milan: Cortina, 2016). 11 R. Malaspina, A. Pinotti, S. Pirandello, “Emerging, Filtering, Symbiosing: Experiences in Augmented Art,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies 3, no. 4 (2022): 101-126; S. Pirandello, Fantastiche presenze: Note su estetica, arte contemporanea e realtà aumentata (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2023). 12 E. Crescimanno, “Software e design: i media digitali nel quotidiano,” in G. Matteucci, ed., Estetica e pratica del quotidiano, pp. 137-148 (Milan-Udine: Mimesis, 2015). 13 A. Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  the animate engages with the inanimate, based not on the paradigm of the implant but more on the one of relation. Interaction is preferred to assimilation, as claimed by the anthropology of material culture.14 Dives addresses the contemporary discussion between these latest digital technologies and performance art practices, considering the transformative consequenc- es on both sides. If, on the one hand, these technologies have an inevitable impact on artistic actions and practices, on the other hand, it is art itself that invests the means it uses with new meaning and cultural and political aware- ness. How has a new technological paradigm dictated a reconfiguration of the concepts of body and space, their interaction, and the artistic disciplines that study them? How much and what kind of space is there for the human body in technological and immersive environments? Can we speak of an excessive delegation of the body to technol- ogy? Can the proliferation of immersive digital technologies be read in continuity with the perspectives that character- ized performance in the 20th century, or does it herald a new way of interacting with and acting upon space? Is the performative dimension of the user more or less dominant than in the past? In trying to respond to such questions, Valenti- na Bartalesi’s text opens the volume with a contribution that explores immersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s work, empha- sizing the connection between her environments and films. The paper demonstrates that immersion in her moving im- ages arises from the mixture of various strategies, including layered visuals, word-image relationships, montage, and non-human bodies as sources of sensory knowledge. The study employs a theoretical framework involving “system 14 L. Malafouris, How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  aesthetic,” Munsterberg’s psychology, and haptic vision, while also tracing Prouvost’s art-historical lineage. The text by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vail- lancourt investigates cross-media storytelling in Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs). In fact, AVGs like This House Has People in It and Ben Drowned involve a horizontal relation- ship between creators and participants, extending beyond art institutions. They offer immersive experiences uncon- strained by time or space and can be seen as liminal ex- periences, akin to anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept. These games empower 21st-century spectators to chal- lenge societal norms by gaining agency and criticising our relationship with digital devices in an information-controlled society. Anna Calise’s analysis delves into those tech- nological advancements and changing epistemological paradigms which influence museum displays and their relationship with visitors’ bodies. It highlights the role of artistic intuition, technical innovations, and philosophical ideologies in shaping museums and discusses how visitors’ bodies adapt to evolving epistemological norms, contrib- uting to shared ideas of art and knowledge in society. Margherita Fontana examines the potential of interactive online spaces in order to challenge heteronor- mative structures. She analyzes in particular g(Ender Gal- lery), an artwork created in Minecraft in 2021 by Cat Haines, showcasing how the platform can serve as a playful yet critical arena for questioning gender norms and exploring trans* experiences. In Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion Elise Jou- hannet considers the history of underwater cinema, includ- ing precinematic elements like 19th-century public aquar- iums, to reveal a shared desire to immerse audiences in aquatic experiences and image materiality. This fascination ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  with underwater themes, extending into modern media like Virtual Reality, underscores water’s central role in redefining and “archaeologizing” the concept of immersion in art. Stefano Mudu writes about Laure Prouvost’s art, as respect to how it immerses viewers in intermedial installations blending various objects from diverse origins. Her works create indeed eccentric atmospheres, erasing hierarchies between observers and observed. Using Ob- ject-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this paper analyzes Prou- vost’s project at the 58th Venice Biennale, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, as a hyper-enactment, which invites view- ers to construct non-linear narratives within interrelated objects/images. Julia Reich’s essay explores acting within im- ages in AR and VR art, emphasizing the role of the (virtual) hand in creating immersive experiences. It discusses three forms of actions involving the hand: as a stage, a symbiotic contact zone, and a designing hand. Through artworks by various artists, it illustrates how the (virtual) hand facilitates immersive interactions in the virtual realm, blending dis- tance and closeness. Referring to her own artistic practice, Sofia Bra- ga’s contribution reflects on the ambigous nature of cen- tralized social media platforms, which offer connectivity but also commodify personal data. Braga critically questions whether artistic engagement within these platforms can be considered an efficient strategy to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance culture. Alice Volpi examines urban design through the- atrical perspectives. She suggests to experiment with navi- gating and designing cities, incorporating randomness and external direction to transform urban spaces into theatres. The interview with Emilio Vavarella closes the volume. By answering questions on his work Lazy Sunday, part of THE ITALIAN JOB series, Vavarella faces themes ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON  like artistic legitimacy and virtuality. The artwork involves a 12-hours movie shot with a 360° camera, filming one ordinary summer day of the artist. Viewers could experi- ence it through a Virtual Reality headset in January 2022 in Casa degli Artisti in Milan, which turned the residency into a shared, immersive experience. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON project would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Amadasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribu- tion to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 11 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19767

I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Laure Work by Valentina Bartalesi Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I wish we could grab your image and touch you : A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work VALENTINA BARTALESI, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8596-4014 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767 Abstract This contribution investigates the notion of im- mersiveness in Laure Prouvost’s production, critically ques- tioning the relationship between the environments designed by the French artist and the short film projected in them. More specifically, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how the activation of a sense of immersion depends on the fact that Prouvost’s hypermedia installations act as both environments (ambiente) and settings (ambientazione). This study demonstrates how the immersive condition that the artist’s film performance activates, while undoubtedly relating to the environmental context in which they appear, springs from a spectrum of strategies that Prouvost’s mov- ing images orchestrate. These include the layered and plas- tic quality of the moving image; the relationships between word and image within intermediary storytelling; the mon- tage as a critical tool; and, more precisely, bodies that are not necessarily human as the locus of sensitive knowledge. VALENTINA BARTALESI 12 AN-ICON  A theoretical framework that intersects the no- tion of the “system aesthetic,” Hugo Munsterberg’s pro- dromal psychological theory and multiple forms of haptic vision-resonance will define the guidelines of the argumen- tation, in parallel with tracing an inseparable art-historical genealogy to comprehend Laure Prouvost’s research. Keywords Laure Prouvost Immersion New media Haptic perception Film studies To quote this essay: V. Bartalesi, “I wish we could grab your image and touch you: A Sensory Approach to Laure Prouvost’s Work,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 12-37, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19767. VALENTINA BARTALESI 13 AN-ICON When we move by night at the speed of desire With you at the wheel my limit goes higher Just turn me on, you turn me on You are my petrol, my drive, my dream, my exhaust.1 Introduction In November 2022, French-born artist Laure Prouvost, born in 1978, inaugurated her solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Above Front Tears Our Float at the Na- tional Museum in Oslo.2 As the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary summa of Prouvost’s practice, a brief anal- ysis of it allows one to enter the artist’s universe(s). Like many of Prouvost’s interventions, Above Front Tears Oui Float boasts a properly spatial dimension. Described as an “immersive installation containing film, sound, perfor- mance, sculptures, textile and text,”3 the exhibition takes up invading the Light Hall of the museum. Emerging from a dark corridor, the visitor enters an ethereal reinterpreta- tion of a 19th-century panorama with light-coloured floors and water vapour banks simulating the clouds’ rush. The dream of floating on the celestial vault is heightened by a herd of ornithological and marine sculptures blown in Murano glass and scattered among the clouds. A monu- mental tapestry celebrates the great theme of migrations, dear to Prouvost,4 while a painted zoomorphic cave offers 1 L. Prouvost, https://www.reiffersartinitiatives.com/en/exposition/laure-prouvost-you-are-my- petrol-my-drive-my-dream-my-exhaust/, accessed September 20, 2023. 2 Cfr. “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float, November 5, 2022-February 12, 2023,” The National Museum of Oslo, https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/exhibitions-and-events/ national-museum/exhibitions/2022/laure-prouvost/, accessed May 3, 2023. 3 “Laure Prouvost. Above Front Tears Oui Float,” NOBA! Access Art, November 2022, https://noba.ac/en/exhibition/laure-prouvost-above-front-tears-oui-float/, accessed May 3, 2023. 4 The theme of migration underlies the environmental installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre presented in 2019 at the French Pavilion during the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale. See L. Prouvost, M. Kirszenbaum, Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Surrounding You: vois ce bleu profond te fondre (Paris: Flammarion-Institut Français, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 14 AN-ICON  soft cushions for lying down sorrounded by a ceiling of soft stalactites and excrescences. Two are the generating elements of this celestial ecosystem. The first is related to the already Freudian and Surrealist theme of the dream, which is not coincidentally among the topics most extensively treated in immersive experiences in virtual reality.5 The second coincides with the founding role of the short film projected onto a screen of imposing dimensions. The short film Every Sunday, Grand- ma (2022, 7’ 17’’) immortalises the flying experience of the elderly Celine. A similar phenomenon is reflected in the second environment of the exhibition-work. In a descend- ing movement, the viewer lands in an anthropic landscape marked by the slime of the sewage pipes from which the artist’s voice resounds. An archetypal lexicon of Prouvost’s work, consisting of buckets, pipes, serpentines, tentacular elements, metal grids, debris, glassy zoomorphic sculp- tures, and iPhone-headed anthropomorphic figures punc- tuate this cataclysmic space. At the dividing line between reality and fiction, a structurally blurred boundary in the artist’s production, paper baskets raised from the ground hold Virtual Reality headsets. Wearing them, the visitor would take over a duplicate of the Norwegian environment, now colonised by a banquet of sirens that invite levitation. With Celine, who does not fortuitously tell of dreams, the user floats in the ether from afar. However, this activation does not end in creating a “cinesthetic subject,” as Vivian Sobchack aptly put it.6 Instead, and this is precisely the 5 For a recent and comprehensive essay on the subject see G. Grossi, La notte dei simulacri: Sogno, cinema, realtà virtuale (Milan: Johan & Levi, 2021). 6 As Sobchack notes “We might name this subversive body in the film experience the cinesthetic subject – a neologism that derives not only from cinema but also from two scientific terms that designate particular structures and conditions of the human sensorium: synaesthesia and coenaesthesia. Both of these structures and conditions foreground the complexity and richness of the more general bodily experience that grounds our particular experience of cinema, and both also point to ways in which the cinema uses our dominant senses of vision and hearing to speak comprehensibly to our other senses.” V. Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2004): 67. VALENTINA BARTALESI 15 AN-ICON  turning point of the discourse, the immersive dimension correctly highlighted in Prouvost’s work stems from a spe- cific mechanism. In particular, that of the spatial translation of the sense of immersion generated by the short film and materialised by a hypermedia and intermediary system of works that extends the limits of the projection screen.7 From ambiente to ambientazione: Prouvost and “system aesthetic” Numerous syntagms have been formulated to classify Prouvost’s research.8 This polysemy is undoubt- edly (and evidently) connected to the stratified nature of her praxis. From the second half of the 2010s, Prouvost’s research presents certain recurring characters, fully evident in Above Front Tears Our Float. These include: the environ- mental dimension of the work; the almost systematic use of elements that function as displays and allow the artist to organise the exhibition space in terms of visibility and invisibility; the use of short films, inserted in the form of screens or projections; the coexistence of pictorial, sculp- tural, graphic artefacts, and even architectural structures. It is possible to describe Prouvost’s works in terms of multimodal, multimedia and possibly post-media environments.9 However, it is necessary to disambiguate the meaning attributed to each category, which has been pivotal since the late 1960s and even more systematically 7 This issue, part of a very long tradition, was recently addressed by E. Modena, Nelle storie: Arte, cinema e media immersivi (Rome: Carocci, 2022): 31-32. 8 Carlos Kong speaks about “immersive installation,” C. Kong, “Laure Prouvost, We would be floating away from the dirty past (Haus der Kunst, Munich),” esse arts + opinions 89 (2017): 84-85. 9 The reference is certainly to the “postmedial condition” as theorised by R. Krauss, A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999). VALENTINA BARTALESI 16 AN-ICON  since the 1990s. Consider the “Experiential Turn” codified by Dorothea von Hantelmann.10 First, by pointing out the meaning of the term environment, here adopting two distinct, though interre- lated, definitions. In its broadest sense, the noun environ- ment generically designates “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.”11 It is no coin- cidence that Oliver Grau, author of one of the first system- atic efforts to trace a genealogy of virtual art, claiming that “the suggestive impression is one of immersing oneself in the image space,” connected it with the experience of ac- cessing a variably enclosed artificial space.12 Immersion, a phenomenon punctually cited by Grau concerning the notion of the virtual, occurs first and foremost within an environment with its spatiotemporal coordinates, whether material or electronic. Entering an environment requires an act of immersion and surfacing, as Giuliana Bruno has extensively demonstrated in her latest research.13 In the environment, as with the “an-icon” the- orised by Andrea Pinotti, one enters and comes out with the body, crossing the “threshold of the image” in invert- ed directions.14 Adopting a lectio facilior, it could be said that the immersive potential of Prouvost’s works depends on their presenting a 360° environment that surrounds the visitor. Although correct, such an interpretation risks being biased, simplifying the artist’s discourse. Therefore, within 10 According to von Hantelmann: “Every artwork produces some kind of (aesthetic) experience. But as I would like to argue, from the 1960s onward, the creation and shaping of experiences have increasingly become an integral part of the artwork’s conception.” H. von Hantelmann, “The Experiential Turn,” in On Performativity, vol. 1 (Vineland: Walker Art Center, 2014), https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/performativity/, accessed May 5, 2023. 11 “Environment,” in Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2023), https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/environment, accessed on May 3, 2023. 12 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 3. The topic has been highlighted in E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte Semiotiche (2021): 71-72. 13 G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). 14 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021): xv, passim [my translation]. VALENTINA BARTALESI 17 AN-ICON  a logic not of contradiction but of integration, the second part of the definition attempted above must be examined. Consider the heterogeneous themes Prouvost’s work has been interrogating for at least a decade. It is cer- tainly no coincidence that the artist’s concerted settings probe the realms of dreams, water, flight15 and even cat- aclysm. In the heterogeneity of the phenomena enumer- ated, a presupposition unites them, making them optimal for tracing multiple genealogies of immersiveness.16 Those conditions ideally (or even concretely) envelop the users’ body and simultaneously determine a significant variation in their perceptive and peripersonal sphere. Secondly, it is fundamental to conceive them within the semantic shift, particularly effective in the Italian language, from the notion of ambiente (environment) to that of ambientazione (setting). The term “ambientazione,” coined in the early 1960s as a derivative of the predicate “ambientare,” designates “a narration or representation.”17 Namely, it signifies the environment in which the story takes place, whether described verbally or artificially recreated. Prouvost’s environments function as enveloping devices insofar as they constitute settings or rather narratological systems.18 The sculptures, paintings, drawings, tapestries, 15 In an orientation already entirely shaped by the invention of the Internet, Pierre Lévy already recorded the dual experiential level that characterises the experiences of immersion in water or flight: “Between air and water, between earth and sky, between soil and summit, the surfer or parachutist is never entirely there. Leaving the soil and its support, he rises into the air, slides along interfaces, follows vanishing lines, is vectorized, deterritorialized.” P. Lévy, Becoming Virtual: Reality in the Digital Age (New York-London: Plenum Trade, 1998): 43. 16 For a survey of the topic in ideological terms, see: A. Giomi, “Immersion as Ideology: A Critical Genealogy of Immersivity in Digital Arts, Aesthetics and Culture,” Azimuth: Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age 20, no. 2 (2022): 197-215. 17 “Ambientazione,” in Vocabolario Treccani (2023), https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ambientazione/, accessed May 3, 2023. 18 On the relationship between narration, immersion and the hypertensive, we refer to one of the (revisited) classics of literature on the subject: M.-L. Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2: Revisiting Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2015). VALENTINA BARTALESI 18 AN-ICON  objects, and the overall display that configure them operate as props or clues projected from the filmic narrative. To understand the specificity of this aesthetic mechanism, it is not necessary to turn, at least in the very first instance, to the theorisations elaborated on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) – media with which Prouvost has systematically ex- perimented. Instead, it should be assumed that the moment when the work of art as an environmental system was not only “invented” but most properly theorised represents a crucial research ground. In this respect, the notion of “system aesthet- ics,” postulated by the art theorist Jack Burnham on Artfo- rum in September 1968, proves to be an excellent source for Prouvost’s practice.19 Although elements make Burn- ham’s proposal undoubtedly problematic – including the association initially proposed between such aesthetic and military strategies – two assumptions concerning immer- siveness must be highlighted. The first relates to the configuration of such a system. In the wake of Austrian biologist Ludwig von Ber- talanffy’s formulation that a system represents a “complex of components in interaction,” Burnham writes: the artist is a perspectivist considering goals, boundaries, structure, input, output, and related activity inside and outside the system. Where the object almost always has a fixed shape and boundaries, the consistency of a system may be altered in time and space, its behavior determined both by external conditions and its mecha- nisms of control.20 19 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics,” Artforum 7 (1 September 1968): 30-35. Caroline A. Jones has already provided a precise analysis of the text and its evolution: C. Jones, “Caroline A. Jones on Jack Burnham’s ‘Systhems Esthetics,’” Artforum 51, no. 1 (1 September 2012), https://www.artforum.com/print/201207/caroline-a-jones-on-jack-burnham-s-systems- esthetics-32014. 20 J. Burnham, “Systems Esthetics:” 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 19 AN-ICON  For Burnham, the system is environmental inso- far as it reflects the action of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural framework in which the work arises, generates, and, at least partially, undergoes. The second point pertains to the condition, which can be qualified as embodied and multimodal, of such a system experience. Analysing works by Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Les Levine, Al- lan Kaprow and especially Hans Haacke, Burnham stated: “Sight analysis diminishes in importance for some of the best new work; the other senses and especially kinesthe- sis makes ‘viewing’ a more integrated experience”21 (the reference here is to Andre’s celebrated Floor Pieces). Al- ternatively, in this case referring to Levine: “Here behaviour is controlled in an aesthetic situation with no primary ref- erence to visual circumstances.” As Levine insists, “What I am after here is physical reaction, not visual concern.”22 It should be said that the immersive vocation of Prouvost’s works resides in their dual vocation as envi- ronmental systems: an enveloping space; a system of the individual units (artefacts, objects, and architectonic dis- play) that configure the system environment (ambiente) as a setting (ambientazione), a system whose logic transcends the material boundaries of the work, seeing its narrative core in the projections of short films set up by the artist. Unlike Burnham, in Prouvost’s hypermedia installations each component, albeit integrated into the system-environ- ment, also possesses its autonomous existence. Moreover, as already mentioned, a pre-eminence on the inventive exists. Indeed, the film performances shot and edited by Prouvost structurally shape her hypermedia systems, as this contribution tries to demonstrate. 21 Ibid.: 34. 22 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 20 AN-ICON  Participation or projection? Historical- artistic sources on a subtle dilemma At this point, the theme of immersion and its phenomenology hinges. Prouvost’s production does not designate a stricto sensu interactive art since only in a few cases it involves complex interaction on the visitor’s part. Yet, and in terms that are in some ways all too general, it is also true that Prouvost’s practice shares those theoretical assumptions that Nathaniel Stern identified within inter- active installations, whereby “with enter, for example, we move-think-feel the making of bodies of meaning, togeth- er.”23 The plexus constituted by the predicates “move-think- feel” – which, however, could also easily be applied to the experience, for example, of a minimalist structure – captures the specificity of Prouvost’s discourse and, in this case, of its immersive vocation, based on a form of knowledge that is ideologically, as well as physiologically, corporeal. Inscribing Prouvost’s research within the so- called participatory art framework requires clarifications closely linked to the question of immersivity. Undoubted- ly, a collaboration between the artist and the performers systematically occurs in her short films. However, the so- cial collaboration postulated by the relational aesthetics of Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s24 and differently in the early 2000s by Claire Bishop25 seems to be trans- posed by Prouvost into the relationship between the living being (human or non-human) and image, mediated by the display device. In this sense, Bishop’s observations on par- ticipatory art pondered in the wake of Jacques Rancière, 23 N. Stern, Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance (Canterbury: Gylphi Limited Book, 2014): 4. 24 N. Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (1998), trans. S. Plaesance, F. Woods (Paris: les presses du réel, 2002). 25 C. Bishop, Participation (London-Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006). VALENTINA BARTALESI 21 AN-ICON  would seem significant: “in calling for spectators who are active as interpreters, Rancière implies that the politics of participation might best lie, not in anti-spectacular stag- ings of community or the claim that mere physical activity would correspond to emancipation, but in putting to work the idea that we are all equally capable of inventing our translations.”26 It will be necessary to deepen the function- ing of such an unavoidable linguistic process that makes an enveloping environment (the hypermedia installation conceived by Prouvost) an immersive entity, starting with some art-historical observations. The immersive vocation of Prouvost’s research must be connected to the anthropological and art-historical sources the artist refers to, directly or indirectly. Sources, moreover, which appear potentially numerous. It would not seem rash to claim that the most ancient precedent alluding to the dual “installation” and kinematic connota- tion of Prouvost’s work is the Upper Palaeolithic cave, a space extensively recurrent in her production. As a lith- ic sacellum, the prehistoric cave develops on an intricate geological plan delineated by a maze of halls, corridors, and diverticula. Of this proto-cinematographic apparatus27 and immersive space ante litteram, Prouvost experiments, even unconsciously, with the dual dimension of enveloping environments and of immersion-producing devices. In the first case, the artist creates hypermedia palimpsests, in which graphic signs intersect pictorial, drawing, collage, objects and screens of various sizes. So, it is the case of the luxuriant caveat of Farfromwords, a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Panorama resulting from the seductive short film Swallow (2013),28 or of the “rocky” wall with which the 26 Ibid.: 16. 27 Among the most pioneering readings on the subject see: M. Azéma, L’art des cavernes en action, 2 vols. (Paris: Errance, 2009-2010). 28 L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: farfromwords: car mirrors eat raspberries when swimming through the sun, to swallow sweet smells ..., (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2013). VALENTINA BARTALESI 22 AN-ICON  Venetian itinerary closed. In the second case, Prouvost exploits the agency of the moving image that is projected, or instead materialised, in a cohesive network of artefacts, entities and people (the performers and the public). From a medium-archaeological perspective, which places one of its most remote anthropological sourc- es in the sanctuary cave, Prouvost’s practice finds in the 19th-century Panorama and, above all, in the more modern halls equipped with seats and rows of screens a spectrum of different models united by a not dissimilar principle: that of defining a space of images acted out in movement and connoted on an atmospheric level. However, it would be misleading to assume that Prouvost’s primary reference lies in “installation art.”29 More precisely, Prouvost’s work places the spatialisation of filmic language (and video clips) as a systematic strategy since the early 2000s.30 In this case, the relationship between moving images and display present in numerous works by Prouvost would only be fully comprehensible with the filmic struc- tures realized by Nam June Paik, Dara Birnbaum and John Latham31 since the late 1970s. Particularly in the case of Birnbaum (a precedent not explicitly mentioned by Laure Prouvost), it is possible to find both the use of a light- ning-fast alternating montage punctuated by captioning on black backgrounds – in one of the frequent lemmas in Prouvost’s practice and style – and the construction of structures that intend the screen as a sculptural component 29 According to Bishop, “An installation of art is secondary in importance to the individual works it contains, while in a work of installation art, the space, and the ensemble of elements within it, are regarded in their entirety as a singular entity. Installation art creates a situation into which the viewer physically enters and insists that you regard this as a singular totality.” C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Tate Publishing, 2005): 6. 30 One of her first short films Abstractions Quotidiannes (2005) alternates frames of peripheral areas, monochrome backgrounds that shake the viewer’s sensorium by bursting lightning- fast and capturing objects whose surface values are exalte. See in this regard: L. Prouvost, “Abstractions Quotidiannes,” Lux, https://lux.org.uk/work/abstractions-quotidiennes/. 31 The influence exercised by the British artist John Latham, a revolutionary spokesman for English conceptual art for whom Prouvost had worked as an assistant in South London, is expressed along multiple lines: L. Prouvost et al., Laure Prouvost: Hit Flash Back (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2016): 32. VALENTINA BARTALESI 23 AN-ICON  intended to activate the surrounding space. Presumably, Laure Prouvost’s attention to the filmic representation of the body agent sees a fertile breeding ground in the American research of the second half of the 1960s (think of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Robert Morris and Lyn- da Benglis). At the same time, the artist’s familiarity with theories on expanded cinema and filmic experiments de- veloped in the feminist sphere is extensively noted on a philological viewpoint. For those reasons, it is necessary to search for the origins of Prouvost’s approach within a similar line of artists whose formal and political reflection on the space of the work stems from the moving image. A tradition already historicised through the essay Expanded Cinema published by Gene Youngblood in 1970. And which spans from the seductive short film Fuses (1967) by Carolee Schneemann32 towards the digital film Pickelporno (1992) by Pipilotti Rist,33 passing through the homoerotic filmography of the femi- nist Barbara Hammer. In the wake of Godard, these artists have been constructing their narratives by extensively using close-up body parts in a lemma that was equally experi- mented with by Prouvost. In the case of Schneemann and Rist, the layered materiality of the film finds a further coun- terpoint in the construction of environmental installations aimed at rendering the experience of the film corporeal. Such a bodily vocation happens from an evocative point of view, for instance, with Schneemann’s installation Video Rocks (1986),34 which represents one of the most signifi- cant precedents of Prouvost’s practice. This environmental installation, comprising a series of televisions, an impos- ing painted frieze and a path of fake stones modelled in 32 See in this regard: C. Schneemann, Carolee Schneemann: Unforgivable (London: Black Dog Publishing Limited, 2015). 33 Cfr. L. Castagnini, “The ‘Nature’ of Sex: Para Feminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist’s PickelPorno (1992),” Australian and New Zeland Journal of Art 15, no. 2 (2015): 164-81. 34 C. Schneemann, Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 267. VALENTINA BARTALESI 24 AN-ICON  ceramic by the artist, places its narrative fulcrum in the con- tent transmitted: the bodily crossing of the stones. Although not verifiable on a documentary level, the knowledge of the environmental experiments on cinema conducted by the Dutch artist Jeffrey Shaw must be included. Consider the monumental PVC dome of Corpo- cinema (1967), on which surface films were projected from the outside and visible from the inside. The underbelly of such an intracorporeal hall was saturated by the injection of inflatables, fumes, and smells, making the experience of watching audio-visual content altogether multimodal.35 It would appear to be a similar tradition, and not necessarily one connected to the creation of practicable spaces – from Walter De Maria’s earthy rooms to Gianni Colombo’s Spazio Elastico (1967) or Franco Mazzucchelli’s giant inflatables and Piero Manzoni Placentarium (1961) – which interests Prouvost. Although the influence exerted by one of the founding figures of digital art such as Hito Steyerl, should in no way be underestimated, it should not be overlooked that while Steyerl’s immersive installations attest to a po- litical component, Prouvost’s counterparts, where present, introject it on a sensory – and hence different – level. Therefore, Prouvost’s research can stand at a crossroads between interactive, participatory, and relational art, only partially fitting into each category. The impression of being immersed in her works is determined by the pe- culiar phenomenon whereby, at the same time, Prouvost’s interventions act as environments and as settings for a narrative that happens elsewhere. According to the logic of the aesthetic systems mentioned above, this elsewhere has a fully recognisable positioning: that of the moving image. Experimenting with that pun so recurrent in Prouvost’s work, the dissimilarity between the notions of environment and 35 Cfr. J. Shaw, et al., CORPOCINEMA: Photographic, Diagrammatic and Textual Documentation of This 1968 Artwork Presented in the International Exhibition “Discoteca Analitica” (Fribourg: Fri Art Kunsthalle, 2019). VALENTINA BARTALESI 25 AN-ICON  setting reveals itself to be substantial. If the short film were not projected and the viewer was to access the environ- ment, she or he could likewise grasp its meaning. There is thus a bodily and sensorimotor immersion. The visitor en- ters an atmospherically connoted environment, as Böhme36 and Griffero37 put it, experienced by walking, sitting, lying down, listening, smelling, eventually touching. For such an immersion to rise from being an eminently spatial affair to an aesthetic system of interacting components, the action performed by the moving image is pivotal. In this case, the storytelling provided by the short films, as will be seen below. Theoretical Framework: in the (fictitious) wake of Münsterberg Prouvost’s storytelling has codified characters closely related to the artist’s biography.38 As Fanny Fetzer has already pointed out, in the events narrated by Prouvost, the boundary between reality and fiction, document and joke, becomes dangerously (and even ironically) blurred. Nevertheless, the proprium of her narrative does not lie in its content. More precisely, what Prouvost is interested in about the process of semiosis and its transmission pertains to the filmic configuration of the sensations of such a nar- rative, materialised in hypermedia settings. In this respect, storytelling constitutes an eminently sensual and sensory 36 G. Böhme, Atmosphäre: Essays zur neuen Ästhetik (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013). 37 T. Griffero, Atmosferologia: Estetica degli spazi emozionali (Milan: Mimesis, 2017). 38 Laure Prouvost was born in 1978 in Lille, France. Winner of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018, contrary to the national approach of the prestigious award, Prouvost is first and foremost a European artist. Indeed, her French residence is limited in time, having moved to Belgium at thirteen and been academically trained in London. This apparently marginal information is helpful to highlight how, even for biographical reasons, language plays a crucial role in Prouvost’s practice. Francophone by birth and Anglophone in adulthood, Prouvost systematically exploits her status as a bilingual subject, experimenting in an irreverent and humorous manner with the rhetorical figures of homonymy, homophony, alliteration, jet de mot, false friends, and grammatical error. See in this regard: Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face,” Frieze, no. 166 (September 24, 2014): https://www.frieze.com/article/sun- your-face, accessed May 3, 2023; L. Prouvost, K. Archey, E. Coccia, Laure Prouvost: “ring, sing and drink for trespassing” (Paris: Les press du réel, 2018). VALENTINA BARTALESI 26 AN-ICON  strategy. It is certainly no coincidence that Prouvost’s writ- ings are punctuated by references to the unattainable desire to set up universes of “pure sensations.”39 In the history of Western philosophy and aes- thesiology, the subject boasts an illustrious tradition stem- ming from the 19th-century notion of empathy.40 An early attempt to systematise the imaginary sensations of con- tact arising from the experience of the representation of movement in the static, specifically pictorial image, is to be found between the second and third quarters of the 1890s with Bernard Berenson. Berenson’s theories, for which it remains complex to establish a direct derivation from the works of Wölfflin and Lipps, had however a declared refer- ence to the Psychology of William James.41 A lustre before Gertrude Stein, Bernard Berenson had been a student of James at Harvard University. Not coincidentally, it was at the Harvard Psychology Laboratory, founded by James in 1875 and rehabilitated in 1893,42 that the first systematic reflections on sensory perception, attention and emotions were developed. From 1892, while the science of haptics was being invented on a theoretical and empirical level, Hugo Münsterberg was called upon to run the laboratory, one might say, an immersive space. In the rooms subdivided ac- cording to senses, as Giuliana Bruno has already punctually 39 Among the themes extensively investigated by Prouvost, there is an attempt to “grasp” the real in interacting and configuring through a body that feels. On several occasions, the artist asserts that she is not interested in processes of representation or “re-presentation” but instead in creating a world of pure sensations for the viewer, including, for example, “that sensation of sun or sensation of swallowing or walking” (L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face”). In this sense, as the artist emphasizes in conversation with Fetzer, her environmental filmic performance invites us to critically rethink the tangible world that the individual inhabits (L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208). 40 For a recent contribution on the subject see: S. Lanzoni, Empathy: A History (New Heaven; London: Yale University Press, 2018). 41 W. James, The Principles of Psychology (1890), 2 vols. (New York: Dover Publications, 2012). 42 R.B. Evans, “Haptics in the United States before 1940,” in M. Grunwald, ed., Human Haptic Perception: Basic and Applications (Basel-Boston-Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008): 70-71. VALENTINA BARTALESI 27 AN-ICON  investigated,43 the empirical study of sensory perception was parcelled out in a registry of sensory rooms equipped with special instruments and measuring protocols.44 In 1916, twenty years later, Münsterberg published one of the cor- nerstones of psychological theory on cinema, organising it around the four categories of “depth and movement,” “attention,” “memory and imagination” and “emotion.”45 It is unlikely to assume Prouvost’s knowledge of the thought of Berenson, James, Stein or Münsterberg. Yet, it is suggestive to recognise a similar laboratory meth- od in the analysis of the modes of the subject’s perception. A century later, Prouvost seems to return to the principles of film and its experience to immerse the visitors in their own narrative. Münsterberg had already revealed himself fully aware of one of the main perceptive problems con- nected to the filmic experience. Specifically, that relates to the “difference between an object of our knowledge and an object of our impression” in an awareness consequent to the presumed evidence that “the photoplay consists of a series of flat pictures in contrast to the plastic objects of the real world which surrounds us.”46 Concerning the question raised by Münsterberg, for whom “we may stop at once: what does it mean to say that the surroundings appear to the mind plastic and the moving picture flat?,”47 Prouvost seems to render this perceptual issue “systemic,” generating a short circuit in the statute of the image. By turning on the environment, the viewer en- ters physically the setting of the short film. Here, Prou- vost’s hypermedia systems fulfil the desire, first pictorial and then cinematic, to give body to movement and depth. 43 G. Bruno, “Film, Aesthetics, Science: Hugo Münsterberg’s Laboratory of Moving Images,” Grey Room 36 (2009): 88-113. 44 See in this regard: D. Parisi, Archaeologies of Touch: Interfacing with Haptics from Electricity to Computing (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2018). 45 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay. A Psychological Study (New York-London: D. Appleton and Company, 2016). 46 H. Münsterberg, The Photoplay: 53-54. 47 Ibid.: 54. VALENTINA BARTALESI 28 AN-ICON  The characters of the film performance, whether a fish, an iPhone, or a painted frieze, being reified in a sculpture sys- tem, act as projections of the moving image. Nevertheless, they occupy physical space mainly in a semi-static manner. The dormant status of such settings composed of rotating sculptures and sculptures that act as fountains, makes them resemble huge dioramas or photograms borrowed from a dream. What instead allows for a relevant exchange between the planar image transmitted by the screen and the environmental system in which it is projected are the rhythms of the body. On this point, moreover, Munsterberg’s early 20th-century observations prove prodromal. The Hungarian psychologist had identified three levels characterising the sphere of attention and its threshold. The first is related to the nature of attention, which is always embodied and multimodal. Two further stages, however, are implicitly as- sociated with the notion of immersion. “If we are fully ab- sorbed in our book,” Münsterberg notes, “we do not hear at all what is said around us, and we do not see the room; we forget everything.”48 This phenomenon of evasion from reality and immersion in the fictitious narration for Münster- berg depends on specific psychological mechanisms. In describing them, the psychologist provides a pseudo-phys- iological (and intermedial) reflection on the experience of immersion. According to Münsterberg, as well as to Prou- vost, the core of the experience of the work, be it a book, a sculpture, or a film, lies in the phenomenon and awareness according to which “we feel that our body adjusts itself to the perception.”49 In this regard, the psychologist compiles a practical reflection that can be applied to Prouvost’s film performances and her settings: 48 Ibid.: 93. 49 Ibid. VALENTINA BARTALESI 29 AN-ICON Our head enters into the movement of listening for the sound, our eyes are fixating the point in the outer world. We hold all our muscles in tension in order to receive the fullest possible impression with our sense organs. The lens in our eye is accommodated exactly to the correct distance. In short, our bodily personality works to- ward the fullest possible impression. But this is supplemented by a fourth factor. Our ideas and feelings and impulses group them- selves around the attended object. It becomes the starting point for our actions while all the other objects in the sphere of our senses lose their grip on our ideas and feelings.50 From a psychophysiological issue, when read in Prouvost’s work, attention becomes an immersive strat- egy through which the environment is rendered a sensorial, active, and immersive setting. Activating immersion: a world of pure sensations To be surrounded by the environment and to be swallowed up by the work and its space: the objects and artefacts that generate Prouvost’s intermediate installations (ambientazioni) catalyse the attention and the sensorium of the visitor by constituting three-dimensional projections of the filmic narration.51 By inhabiting them, the viewer inhabits the meta-space of the film. More specifically, he covers it by adopting a logic of content fruition hypothetically based on Augmented Reality. In what terms does this happen? Due to a mechanism activated by the close relationship between the screen and the environment-environment (am- biente-ambientazione) derived from moving pictures. By 50 Ibid. 51 M. Roman, Habiter l’exposition. L’artiste et la scénographie (Paris: Manuella Éditions, 2019): 231; G. Youngblood, Expanded Cinema (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1970). VALENTINA BARTALESI 30 AN-ICON  experiencing Prouvost’s short films, the visitor stands on the threshold of the image.52 The audio-visual document introduces us to the artist’s universe and to storytelling that represents the substratum of her practice. The extension of the digital image distinctive of AR must be understood from this relationship. The logical principle probed by Prouvost seems to emulate the goals of the most futuristic “spatial computing technologies,” which “assist our transition from a current flat or small-scale global data network to an emerging immersive global data ecosys- tem with spatial awareness and characteristics, conferring virtual properties to physical objects and vice versa, and augmenting our sensing and execution capabilities.”53 The short film represents the inventive motor of Prouvost’s work. What conveys the transition from the mov- ing image to three-dimensional space, acting precisely as “spatial computing technology,” is the system of artefacts, objects and displays which, directly or indirectly exhibited by the filmic narration, materialise in the exhibition space. For this correlation to achieve the value of an “aesthetic system” and not of a static display, it is necessary for the setting to stage what Prouvost’s short films aim to convey. That is an embodied conception of the relationship between image, storytelling, and user. In attempting to determine how this can happen, it will emphasise how this synesthetic dimension finds its place of invention on the screen and its place of multimodal projection in the setting. Here we argue that the immersive matrix of Prouvost’s filmic performances can be understood as aris- ing from a plexus of factors, including the dual function of the screen; the editing of images; the typology of shots; 52 Cfr. A. Pinotti, Alla soglia delll’immagine (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 53 S. Mystakidis, V. Lympouridis, “Immersive Learning,” Encyclopedia of Social Science 3, no. 2 (2023): 396-405, https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3020026. VALENTINA BARTALESI 31 AN-ICON  the selection of subjects; the linguistic element; the sound component. The screen boasts in Prouvost the dual mean- ing of “interface,” according to Giuliana Bruno a “surface” that connects,54 and of an Albertian window. Not a window hinged on a mono-focal perspective, but a mobile opening that, almost like a GoPro or the eye of a bird (an archetypal figure in the artist’s practice), frames reality, producing a kaleidoscope of views. The window screen leads into Prou- vost’s sensorial universe. Shooting in the first person, first with a camera and since 2007 with an iPhone, Prouvost has made amateur films, editing her stylistic lemma.55 The fact that the footage is often shot subjectively, with medi- um or low-quality frames, and changes in manual framing orientation heightens the remote participation of the viewer. Not only (and not so much) because according to McLu- han’s meteorology and otherwise Laura U. Marks’ “haptic criticism,”56 such an image must be integrated perceptually by the viewer. More specifically, through embodied simulation mechanisms, the visitor tends to activate a form of ges- tural simulation concerning the artist’s movements. The movements of the artist and the characters immortalised in the films – human and non-human beings touching and being touched, walking, crawling, dancing, jumping, lick- ing, eating, swallowing, and swimming – are simulated on a neuronal level by the viewer.57 This procedure is crucial 54 G. Bruno, Surfaces. Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media (Chicago: The Chicago University Press: 2014): passim. 55 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. 56 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 2002): IX-XVII. 57 Cfr. V. Gallese, M. Guerra, The Empathic Screen: Cinema and Neuroscience (2015), trans. F. Anderson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020): 145-180. VALENTINA BARTALESI 32 AN-ICON  to feeling immersed, on a perceptual plan, not in the envi- ronment but in the narrative. The extensive use of close-ups of living beings and things with a specifically connoted texture favouring a “haptic” or “tactile” gaze to use two expressions of Rieglian ascendancy by Marks and Barker, respectively, respond to this objective.58 Close-ups of touching fingers, devour- ing lips and teeth, pressing feet, as well as enlargements on the fleece of large cattle, shelled eggs, oozing viscous substances, and the smooth screens of smartphones – in a series of recurring frames in Swallow (2013) and A Way to Leak, Lick, Leek (2016) – reflect similar premises. Never- theless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content (i.e., the subject) better seen but rather to make it felt by the body. In this sense, the sequences of enlargements return a motor circumnavigation around the object. In the wake of Maya Deren and Gertrude Stein’s verbal “cartographies,” Nevertheless, Prouvost’s aim is not to make the image’s content better seen but to feel it by the body.”59 The fact that the lemma of hands making things occupies a predominant role in Prouvost’s iconology rein- forces the impression that the entire narrative is built on the mechanism of embodied simulation – for which, let it be remembered, the activity of the hands is a fundamental in- dicator. In the words of the prehistoric anthropologist Hellen Dissanayake, the “hands-on” ability constitutes one of the earliest faculties developed in the Sapiens species, linked 58 L.U. Marks, Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media: passim; J. M. Barker, The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience (Berkeley, University of California Press: 2009). 59 A. Michelson, “Bodies in Space: Film as a Carnal Knowledge,” Artforum 7, no. 6 (February 1969): 55-63. VALENTINA BARTALESI 33 AN-ICON  to a dynamically embodied and even emotional knowledge of the surrounding environment.60 It should also be emphasised that, in Prouvost’s practice, such a process of body simulation is also acti- vated by the image and its rhythms. Prouvost’s montages often present a pounding rhythm. Generally, the narration alternates frames with black screens, often occupied by direct statements. Visitors must calibrate their attention to the qualities of these moving images as if they were holding an iPhone in their hands. This happens firstly by aligning oneself with their rhythm, as aforementioned above; sec- ondly, by confronting the images of agent entities that act and wish to act on their user, as Gell61 put it. In this regard, the video installation We Know We Are Just Pixels (2014)62 proves crucial in showing how this dynamic of control and immersion takes on a disturbing tone. Exploiting the well- known alternation between moving images and utterances, the artist directly addresses her viewer, assuming the binary unit’s point of view: the panoptic pixel would like to meet us, replace us, touch us, weigh us, and grasp our image. Additionally, Prouvost, who works primarily on and with digital images, frees the latter of their acting as mimetic imago. The black frames with statements – from which the artist derives paintings based on the same logic – do not display anything on a strictly iconographic level. The propositions transcribed in capital letters (the predeces- sors here are Birnbaum and On Kawara) announce actions that, being denied on an iconic level (they are substantially black monochromes), must be imagined by the viewer. At the same time, the sound component of the short films, in which the artist whispers stories of doubtful veracity, builds the discourse on consciously incorrect use of grammar and 60 E. Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Washington: University of Washington Press: 2000): 99-128. 61 A. Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 62 L. Prouvost, F. Fetzer, Laure Prouvost and the Concept of Fantasy: 208. VALENTINA BARTALESI 34 AN-ICON  syntax, elaborates periods based on the crasis between French and English words and addresses her viewer in the first person, all contribute to the creation of storytelling that fulfils the main character of immersion. In this sense, in the words of Katja Mellmann, “The fundamental characteristic of aesthetic illusion is the mental state of ‘immersion’, that is, of having one’s attention caught by a stimulus which is not co-extensive with the actual situation but, for instance, only with a single object or action, or the content of one’s own imagination.”63 Conclusion The combination of the phenomena enumerat- ed contributes to immersing the visitor in the storytelling unfolded by the short film. Prouvost composes three-di- mensional settings triggered by the audio-visual image for this immersion process. From an observer of the film, the visitor becomes the protagonist of its environment setting. The factor linking this transition is the spectator’s synes- thetic participation. How to describe it? It is no coincidence that, although Prouvost’s environmental installations are always practicable on a sen- sorimotor level (and sometimes, as we have seen, pres- ent components with which one can also interact tactilely), these settings remain essentially projections – hence the difficulty in framing their practice in the realms of partici- patory, interactive, or relational art. By materialising it, they extend the projection plane of the moving image. They represent the environment in which, for immersion to occur, 63 K. Mellmann, “On the Emergence of Aesthetic Illusion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” in W. Bernhart, A. Mahler, W. Wolf, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013): 65-88, 72. VALENTINA BARTALESI 35 AN-ICON  the viewer must make an effort to imagine being part of the narration. In an eloquent statement to this effect, Prou- vost argued to Bina von Stauffenberg: “I am not showing you something, you have to imagine it.”64 The multiple strat- egies aimed at soliciting the viewer’s embodied imagination are subject to what constitutes, to all intents and purposes, the immobile engine of Prouvost’s practice: desire, whose activation mechanisms the artist explores from a medial and multimodal point of view. In an interview with Natasha Hoare in 2017, the artist argued that “voice and seduc- tion” do not represent tools but rather a “method to let you come into the work.”65 By simultaneously listening to and reading conflicting subtitles, the visitor actively immerses himself in the performance’s storytelling: employing “their voice to articulate” and decode it, they finally “become the protagonist.”66 This linguistic dimension is exacerbated by the latent will to satisfy the visitor’s egotistical drives: “my works are seductive,” Prouvost points out, “in the way they pretend you’re the only one they want to talk to.”67 At the same time, Prouvost demonstrates her- self completely aware of how integrating the plane of art with life constitutes a strenuous, if not even impossible, purpose. As the artist confessed to Zoe Pilger in an inter- view issued in 2014: “I know that I’m never going to fully grasp life in my art.”68 Nonetheless, Prouvost identifies spe- cific aesthetics and technical strategies capable, if not of fulfilling, at least of approaching such a utopian aim. It is precisely on this point that an immersive hypothesis hinges on moving images whereby “you can hint at the smell of 64 L. Provost, B. von Stauffenberg, “Laure Prouvost. An Interview:” 41. 65 N. Hoare, “Laure Prouvost on Seduction, Language, and Bodily Provocations,” ExtraExtra Magazine (2017), https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/laure-prouvost-seduction-language- bodily-provocations/, accessed May 3, 2023. 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 36 AN-ICON  lemons in a film with the image of a lemon being cut. The brain is capable of connecting elements quite quickly, es- pecially with video.”69 This perceptual mechanism, as well as hav- ing been the subject of analysis in neuroscientific circles,70 appears consciously by Prouvost herself. The “video” rep- resents for the artist an “amazing tool” precisely because of its “amplifying human sensations” innate aptitude, ex- ploiting the “sensory memory” of the percipient subject and the reactivation of the “smells of our childhood.”71 Not only to amplify, but also to spatialise human sensations: this represents the secret factor of immersion in Prouvost’s ambienti-ambientazione. 69 Ibid. 70 A. Leaver, “Perception and Association of Visual Information in the Imagery of IT, HEAT, HIT by Laure Prouvost,” in I. Leaver-Yap, ed., 8 Metaphors (because the moving image is not a book) (London: Lux, 2011): 71-73. 71 L. Prouvost, Z. Pilger, “The Sun on Your Face.” VALENTINA BARTALESI 37 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19908

How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games by Anthony Bekirov and Thibaut Vaillancourt Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games ANTHONY BEKIROV, CHUV and IHM in Lausanne – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2754-5727 THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT, Paris Nanterre; University of Konstanz – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3558-4961 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908 Abstract In this paper, we examine a new set of hy- brid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet commonly called Alternate Reality Games. However, we propose to coin the term Alternate Virtuality Games (or AVG) as a way to distinguish these digital practices from their real-life counterpart. Viral online AVGs like This House Has People in It (Resnick, 2016) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable, 2010) are emblematic of a horizontal relationship between work and spectator, as well as performance outside of art in- stitutions. The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific happening, and is rather ex- perienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent from institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as stud- ied by anthropologist Victor Turner. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 38 AN-ICON  As such, we analyze these hybrid games as a mean for the 21st century spectator to overturn societal status quo through newfound agency. These performing agents get into a subjective state where they can expe- rience and criticize our relationship to digital devices in a society of information and control, without being sub- jected to it. Keywords Alternate reality game Liminality Digital studies Mediatic event Subjectivation To quote this essay: A. Bekirov and T. Vaillancourt, “How Digital Hybridization Creates New Performance Practices: The Case of Alternate Virtuality Games,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 38-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19908. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 39 AN-ICON  Introduction Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are a set of hybrid ludic practices utilizing cross-media narration that emerged with the rise of the Internet, and which fall under the type of performance where the spectators are the main performers. They are constructed as real-life treasure hunts, where the participants are guided by a puppet master in public spaces, through “rabbit holes,” i.e. hints distribut- ed on social networks and/or websites. Similar to the art- ist who lays down the rules of the performance between themselves and the audience, the puppet master gives the players general instructions towards completing the game. However, whereas performance art is still closely depen- dent on the subjectivity of the artist, the puppet master’s (more subdued) role is solely to accompany the players in their experience. ARGs have contributed to a less vertical rela- tionship between work and spectator, as well as to bring performance outside of art institutions. Moreover, with the growth of social platforms online and especially YouTube, the term “ARG” has been used more broadly to refer to new dispositifs, which we call Alternate Virtuality Games (AVGs), such as This House Has People in It (Resnick 2016; infra THHPII) or Ben Drowned (Jadusable 2010).1 They too are a kind of treasure hunts with well-hidden hints, but they are unique in that they are digital-native: they are strictly performed online and do not ask the players to go outside. 1 A. Resnick, “This house Has People in It,” 2016, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=x-pj8OtyO2I , accessed July 14, 2023. Other notable AVGs include: A. Resnick, “Alan Tutorials,” 2011-2014, https://www.youtube.com/@alantutorial; “Unedited Footage Of A Bear,” 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMjJNGg9Z8; “Petscop,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube.com/@Petscop; “Poppy,” 2016-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UC8JE00xTMBOqKs7o0grFTfQ; “Catghost,” 2017-2019, https://www.youtube. com/@CatGhost,; “Dad,” 2019-ongoing, https://www.youtube.com/DadFeels, which all start as YouTube videos; “TheSunVanished,” 2018-ongoing, https://twitter.com/TheSunVanished, which is played out on Twitter; “No Players Online,” 2019, https://papercookies.itch.io/no- players-online, which is primarily a videogame that can be found on indie video game sharing platform itch.io. All links accessed July 14, 2023. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 40 AN-ICON  The rabbit holes of AVGs are merged with the dispositif it- self and are given as fictional devices. There is no apparent puppet master, nor apparent goal or treasure, other than finding new leads and new connections between elements of the “game.” The player/performer can thus view every aspect of their experience as part of said game. As such, AVGs are more akin to video games, as they tend to dis- solve the object/subject dichotomy. Therefore, the persona of the artist is no more presented as a demiurge welcoming the profane audience to their performance. To access and participate in the AVG, the spectator needs not go to a specific place where their experience is being validated: the work takes place through the digital interface. In the case of AVGs, there is no clear delimitation between the space allotted to the performance and the one allotted to “real life.” The immersiveness of AVGs is unbound by the space and time of a specific hap- pening, and is rather experienced by a multitude of agents at different times and places. This characteristic of being an extra-individual experience as well as being independent of institutions also places AVGs within liminal experiences such as studied by Victor Turner. These performing agents dive into a state that mirrors our relationship to digital de- vices in a society of information – and control. In this chapter, we will analyze the AVG appa- ratus through the socioeconomic and anthropological lens, in order to understand its role within society. We will see how it is not merely a leisurely game created for the enter- tainment of a few, but is a direct reaction to social anguish and provides leeway to greater agency for individuals. This participatory art form, thanks to its hybridity and plasticity, can be considered the epitome of our society’s relation to digital images – if not images in general. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 41 AN-ICON  Erasing The Artist AVGs as we said above, are modelled after Al- ternate Reality Games, but reworked and made palatable to the average Internet user of the 21st century. They share in common the “This Is Not A Game” (infra TINAG) philosophy, that is, their decision to obfuscate their gameness to the players, and to present themselves as real events instead of fiction. But instead of asking players to go outside, out of the comfort of their own room like ARGs do, AVGs are treasure hunts that take place solely on the Internet through various platforms: forums, websites, social networks, You- Tube and the like, etc. And because ARGs take place “in real life” and because real life is governed by social standards, there is always a moment where the organizers must signify to the players that they have achieved their goal – either that, or time has run out and the ARG is over. This moment almost never happens in AVGs, because the whole ordeal takes places “inside,” on the players’ computers, where the users are their own guide. The player in this case only deals with images, and not actual, real people in a real-life setting. As such, any image is subjected to scrutiny and doubt, any image can become a world of play. And we need to look into concrete examples to better understand how this world plays out. One of the more emblematic AVGs is arguably Ben Drowned: The Haunted Cartridge, published between September 7 and 15 2010 by Alexander Hall on the para- normal board /x/ on the online discussion board 4Chan. Following the TINAG philosophy, Hall under the alias Ja- dusable introduced the first part of his narrative by stating clearly that this was a true story. The narrative being one of a sophomore college student having been gifted an old Nintendo 64. Looking for old games to play, he finds a cartridge of Zelda: Majorah’s Mask at a garage sale. When ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 42 AN-ICON  he boots it up, he discovers a save file titled “BEN.” When Jadusable tries to play, his actions are hampered by odd glitches as he is being shadowed by a corrupted version of the protagonist Link. Jadusable realizes the cartridge is haunted by the spirit of BEN, who starts haunting his computer as well. At the end of the story, BEN warns the readers that he shall haunt their computers too. Ben Drowned first started as a forum thread. Soon, however, Hall started uploading videos on YouTube documenting glitches in the game. To be sure, these glitch- es were his doing, using a gameshark (a game-altering program) on a ROM of the game. Readers became involved in trying to solve what happened to the entity named BEN by analyzing the hidden clues within Jadusable’s writing and videos. Ben Drowned was not introduced as a game – which falls in line with the TINAG philosophy – but as the genuine account of a random gamer who finds himself confronted with peculiar, paranormal events. The idea that a cartridge could be haunted by the spirit of a deceased boy is of course ludicrous and should place the narrative among the fictional immediately – just as ARGs do when they present the players with an obvious fictional contract. But here is the catch: Jadusable did not present himself as a puppet master, nor did he present his videos as an ARG. As far as online users were concerned, he was a nobody lost in a sea of other uploaders. We unfortunately don’t have the place to dissect and analyze here the original comment section on the forum thread and the YouTube videos, but there were roughly two consensuses: 1) the game’s odd behaviour, although very unsettling, is probably just a one- in-a-million occurrence of bugs and malfunctions, and Ja- dusable is a highly superstitious person for whom this was the proof of a haunting; 2) Jadusable is a prankster and tries to capitalize on users’ curiosity and own superstitions. People tried to rationalize the odd events by classifying ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 43 AN-ICON  them either under delusions or pure fiction. But there was no way to be sure. And so, there was a third category of spectators: 3) people who believed the cartridge really was haunted. As much as Ben Drowned still owes a great deal to the ARG apparatus, it kick-started a more radical, virtual set of practices: without a puppet master, without narrative closure, where events are told in a chaotic fash- ion. Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff’s THHPII Has Peo- ple In It, aired on AdultSwim and published on YouTube in March 2016, integrates these new elements fully. This short flick shows the supposed surveillance footage of a typical American suburban family, who experiences unex- plained paranormal events, such as their daughter merging into the floor. The more curious watchers can click on the URL in the video description and access the website of a fictional surveillance camera manufacturer. A login page gives access to a secret file directory where one can find many more elements of the AVG. THHPII is undeniably constructed as a me- ta-ARG. The apparatus is tentacular and offers a self-refer- ential image of the mechanisms at work in its interpretation, as well as a cryptic statement on social issues. We can say apparatus in the full sense of the word, as a vector of subjectification that gives a form to the individual subject and regulates discourses and behaviors. As a network of goal-oriented elements, the apparatus mobilizes objects and techniques that will produce different subjectivities. In the case of THHPII this conditioning is moreover made explicit as the work makes interpretative mechanisms a theme. Among the numerous theories on THHPII, many make mention of psychiatric afflictions. At some point during the short, we see a TV show called Sculptor’s Clayground – which you can watch on YouTube – where ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 44 AN-ICON  the presenter played by Resnick warns against a fictional pathology, Lynks disease. Resnick thus plays himself as the supposed puppet master by playing, ironically, the one person afflicted by Lynks disease: the disease of making connections. Besides, apophenia (a symptom of over-se- mantization of insignificant elements) or paranoia are fre- quently mentioned as typical phenomena in the resolution of ARGs. These altered states of perceptions are indirectly discussed in the work within the broader theme of public health, and are also given as the way to “play” THHPII. The Lynks disease relates as much to the narrative of the THHPI, as to the spectatorship and its ability to conjure meaning. As we see, the AVG apparatus is a complex system of disassembled images – of which the actual ex- tent is kept undisclosed – left for the spectator to make sense of. As the creators of AVGs withdraw themselves into obscurity, they give off the impression their work (their “game”) has seemingly appeared out of thin air and is thus shrouded in an apparent mystery begging to be solved. The form assumed by this type of media is already well within the realm of participatory performances, that is, the form of a quest for the player – however endless and fruitless this quest may be. What is at stake in AVGs? These sets of practices and dispositifs recently admitted into the field of academic research enable the reevaluation of different categories firmly anchored in our conceptual language. For instance, this is the case with the protean distinctions between subject and object. These distinctions establish the authority of the separate artistic subjectivity from a work of art as an external object – or at least as a shared subjective experience, and place the public as another subject. However, a dispositif such as ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 45 AN-ICON  the one formed by THHPPII makes it possible to fully real- ize the aspiration to horizontality present in contemporary art and in performance art in particular. The participatory or interactive nature of an artistic performance feeds, as a shared experience, the desire to bring together the spheres previously mentioned. Thus, the subjectivity of the artist is brought into play, in a work in where the artists themselves participate as an active element, and in front of a public who can take part in it. Nevertheless, the institutional, academic, economic and psychological arrangements that direct the performance as an event remain dependent on an authorial, distinctive and elitist logic. The person of the artist and the people who constitute the public are linked by a specta- torial, spatio-temporal, even economic and sociocultural contract. The performance takes place in a space autho- rized as an institution or place of artistic validation, and in a given time, a duration that delimits it. It is in this system that an audience is expected, often selective or even ex- clusive because it responds to identifiable socioeconomic and cultural determinations. This subject-object-subject triptych, or artist-work-public, is precisely what is shattered in AVGs. Concurrently to the abolition of these concepts comes the limitlessness of the work as a situated event, as a finished object or entity. Indeed, whether it concerns the person of the artist-creator-performer, the spatio-temporal, cultural and institutional location of an audience, and the duration of a performance, none of these limiting notions can then account for what is radically reticulated in an AVG. The generalized decentralization of what can still be attached to an artistic performance, in the case of AVGs, therefore produces a mutation and a displacement. Muta- tion, because we observe the spatio-temporal extensions of what can now differently be called a performance and a work. An AVG is neither finite nor situated. The space ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 46 AN-ICON  of performance is no longer stratified by institutional and sociocultural criteria, but strictly technical and economic: anyone who has access to a screen provided with an Inter- net connection can now experience a continuously modi- fied performance – and perform it. In these performances, the end of the production chain (“performing audience”) matters more than the beginning (“artist”). The “performing audience” being the only entity deploying the work and the apparatus, the availability of the AVG on the web can be described as virtual, no less real but less actual. Without institutional or curatorial validation, AVG apparatuses are only actual and therefore deployed when people perform them. The institutional space that hosted the performance becomes the space of the world as part of the comput- erized paradigm. The time of the performance becomes that of the duration of attention and of a “spectatorial” in- tervention which the work cannot, structurally, do without. There is, as in video games,2 a work of art only deployed, by a ludic instance which determines it in a situated way, within singular spatio-temporal dimensions. It is therefore no longer a question of interactivity or participation, be- cause these notions presuppose an irreducible distinction between autonomous subjects or entities. On the contrary, the proper names behind the said “work” as well as the people they designate matter as little as the “place” where it takes place. The performance in the AVG is that of sub- jective instances brought forth and delimited by the AVG apparatus. The fusion of the space of the world with the space of performance makes it possible to approach such practices under the horizontal and decentralized prism of new forms of subjectivation. As a paragon of a comput- erized audiovisual paradigm, the AVG highlights the pre- cariousness of categories which are ultimately maintained 2 A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Le jeu-vidéo, expérience-limite du sujet,” Marges, no. 24 (2017): 30-44, https://doi.org/10.4000/marges.1255. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 47 AN-ICON  only by cultural, moral and economic imperatives. Often unquestioned notions such as subject, object, work of art, or public are hence brought to a semantic limit when we speak about AVGs. Opening the experience of performance by transposing it into spheres which, by definition, are for- eign to the worlds of institutional art, would be the main decompartmentalization produced by AVGs as an opera- tional notion. However, this does not amount to speaking of a degradation or dissolution of the quality of experience. Taking exegesis out of authorized and limited spheres to deploy it “outside” the institution amplifies, intensifies and multiplies the experience(s). This is no longer the role of educated and privileged observers forming an authorized audience, but becomes the generalized expression of a modus operandi and of a computerized Weltanschauung associated with it. More than a supposed “democratization” of performance art, AVGs allows us to see complex relations emerging from a computerized paradigm that constitutes new forms of attention, of thought and sensibility. Within a contemporary economy and ecology of attention,3 AVGs offer new elements to understand how our receptivity and our perceptual abilities are shaped by our media-technical environments. From this perspective, such arrangements allow us to analyze new processes of large-scale simulacra and stereotypes production, that ultimately are processes of subjectivation.4 3 Y. Citton, The Ecology of Attention (2014), trans. B. Norman (Cambridge: Polity, 2017). 4 P. Klossowski, The Living Currency (1970), trans. D.W. Smith, N. Morar, V.W. Cisney (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); P. Klossowski, La Ressemblance (Marseille: Ryôan-ji, 1984). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 48 AN-ICON  Computerized subjectivations and new apparatuses To speak about Weltanschauung implies we need to consider the globalization of a computerized para- digm as a new cultural matrix and as a new communication and research model. Talking about a disarticulation of the instances at play in the institutional performance art also allows a critical return to the categories delineated by Ben- jamin.5 In the Benjaminian logic of a passage from religious and ritual art (unique original work) to art in its political func- tion (reproduced work) comes the loss of the aura. How- ever, this logic can be nuanced when we consider that the aura can, according to Latour & Lowe,6 migrate, and that a cult dimension remains present in intrinsically non-unique works, whether cinema, video game or AVGs. On the one hand, it seems to go without saying that the cult dimension of cultural productions does not disappear in a paradigm of technical reproducibility. Many fanatical behaviours, as much as fetishists ones, easily illustrate the blurring of a distinction between political and religious functions when we think about industrialized and reproduced works of art. On the other hand, in the paradigm of a political function of art, the subjectivating and ecstatic dimension of the relationship to the work only undergoes a regime change. Moreover, from the perspective of a reading of capitalism as religion, which Benjamin7 precisely affirmed, we can only speak of a transformation – of a technically assisted am- plification – of the forms and places of worship. It matters 5 W. Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, ed. M.W. Jennings, B. Doherty, T.Y. Levin, trans. E. Jephcott et al. (Cambridge MA-London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008). 6 B. Latour, A. Lowe, “La migration de l’aura ou comment explorer un original par le biais de ses fac-similés,” Intermédialités, no. 17 (2011): 173-191, https://doi.org/10.7202/1005756. 7 W. Benjamin, “Capitalism as Religion,” in Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, ed. P. Fenves, J. Ng (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2021): 90-92. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 49 AN-ICON  little whether we adopt the perspective of the spectacle where social relations are mediated by images,8 or simply that of a Weltanschauung produced by the extension of the information and societies of control. The challenge is above all to consider the permanency of logics of ritual – of initiation or worship – where the notions of unique work and institutional artist have disappeared. This vestige of ritual is important because it opens up the analysis of individual and collective subjecti- vations, beyond distinctions abolished by the generalization of computerized apparatuses on a planetary scale. In other words, by decompartmentalizing performance practices and distinctions typical of the art world, it is a question of renewing a point of view and developing its consequences. These outline an anthropology in a computerized regime, which must take into account new attentional, cultural and economic data. By redrawing the contours of performance practices, AVGs present themselves as computerized de- vices that provide subjectivations specific to our contem- porary era. Apparatus or dispositif became a central no- tion in Foucault’s work during his lessons at the Collège de France in 1977-1978. The term is used to describe a network of different elements generating subjectivities and behaviours.9 Foucault also describes apparatuses as net- works of institutions, rules and laws, scientific, moral and philosophical statements. In other words, Foucault’s atten- tion is directed to power relations within broad networks.10 Hence, from our point of view, it becomes significant to integrate technological aspects of dispositifs in our anal- ysis, as Agamben precisely does in a more recent text. In 8 G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (New York: Zone Books, 1994): 47-90. 9 M. Foucault, Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78, trans. G. Burchell (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 10 M. Foucault, Dits et écrits, 4 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), vol. 2: 299. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 50 AN-ICON  What is an Apparatus (2009), Agamben enlarges even more the already wide Foucauldian definition of dispositif by in- cluding everything that has the capacity to capture and subjectify living beings’ behaviours and discourse.11 AVGs are also an opportunity to consider subjectivities produced by contemporary apparatuses in a less technophobic and reactive way than Agamben’s analysis. More extensively, this leads to new questions that could be answered with anthropological tools. From a subjectivation perspective on AVG performance, one could ask what remains of the rituals linked to the liminal spaces that Turner described, within the contemporary practices that interest us? Reclaiming The Space Left Empty Inside Ourselves British anthropologist Victor Turner stated that the distinctions between work and play that have been prevalent during the 20th century in Western societies are dependent on the industrialization thereof, and moreover, have cemented the separation of what is deemed “objec- tive” and what is deemed “subjective.”12 Indeed, rather than abstract entities left to the scrutiny of metaphysicians, Turn- er displaces the discussion on subject and object towards sociological grounds. Building on and refining Arnold van Gennep’s influential ideas on liminality in the rites of pas- sage in tribal societies,13 he analysed the way globalized capitalist societies have given rise to novel subjectivities 11 G. Agamben, What Is an Apparatus? and Other Essays (2006), trans. D. Kishik, S. Pedatella (Redwood City CA: Stanford University Press, 2009): 14. 12 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology,” Rice University Studies 60, no. 3 (1974): 53-96, 66 https://hdl.handle. net/1911/63159.66. 13 See for example his seminal book A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage: A Classic Study of Cultural Celebrations (1909), trans. M.B. Vizedom, G.L. Caffee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960). ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 51 AN-ICON  and where liminal spaces can be found in said societies. Liminality – the characteristic of being in an in-between state, to be on the threshold between two socially recog- nized subjectivities – usually pertains to pre-industrial social practices whose goal is to strengthen the cohesion among the members of a community: carnivals, Mardi Gras, com- ing-of-age rites, etc. all help create a sense of community, while at the same time reversing values, playing with the fringes of what is socially acceptable, albeit for a moment only.14 However, with the advent of the rationalization of the workplace in the 20th century came also the dissolution of the old separation between the working class and the nobility in favor of a new hybrid class of hard-working citi- zens who also enjoy leisurely pleasures in their free time.15 In this context, the notion of social fringe and reversal of values, in other words, liminality, becomes less adequate. A new concept was required. This is what Turner proposed with the idea of liminoid phenomena. These liminoid phenomena are re- enacting the ancient rites of passage but without the pre- siding instance of community elders, without the need to be recognized by others. This is now in individual affair. Whereas the goal of liminal practices was to guide the individual through collectivity, liminoid phenomena take place within the individual’s free time, in opposition to one’s time spent at the workplace: “one works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.”16 While the liminal still applies to environments where a figure of authority must be referred to in order to act, the liminoid is willed by the individual as a way to escape from the constraints of work. This is where sport, games, art and social critique happen. And because these liminoid practices are highly individualistic, 14 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media,” Religion, no. 15 (1985): 205-217, 213-215. 15 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 66-67. 16 V. Turner, “Liminality, Khaballah, and the Media:” 216. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 52 AN-ICON  they enable what Turner calls the loss of ego.17 The “Self” which acts as the mediator or the “broker” between one’s and another’s actions becomes irrelevant. Since all par- ticipants of leisurely activities follow the same rules and embody these rules by their very actions, the Self is no longer needed to bargain about what can and cannot be done. Therefore, the liminoid encapsulates rather well the “Death of God” trope in our society: gone is the burden of a transcendent Being lurking over us, gone are the kings, and so are the authors. The creator as a demiurge is no more, but how do we fill the space left empty inside of us? The easy way out is to fill this space with an- other set of liminal practices. This is easily observed in our neoliberal society where the line between work and leisure is blurred: the gamification of the workplace – such as providing devices for leisure like baby-foots or ping-pong tables to increase productivity – and the professionalization of gaming practices like e-sports or online streaming are two sides of the same capitalist coin.18 But another answer could also be to use this empty use as a playground for liminoid activities. And indeed, AVGs are eminently liminoid in that they do away with the author, and do so radically. As long as the artist or the creator appears as a guidance for the spectator into their work, the spectatorial experi- ence is hampered by the presence of the Other. There is this element of outside-ness to performance art, where the performance can only be played out insofar as the artist is concerned. In Alternate Virtuality Games, “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of mediatic events, a collection of images assembled haphazardly by the individual player. As the player assembles images in 17 V. Turner, “Liminal to Liminoid:” 88. 18 M. Antonioli, “Le stade esthétique de la production/consommation et la révolution du temps choisi,” Multitudes 4, no. 69 (2017): 109-114, https://doi.org/10.3917/mult.069.0109 ; A. Bekirov, T. Vaillancourt, “Esquisse d’une généalogie du romanesque, du point de vue du jeu vidéo,” in I. Hautbout, S. Wit, eds., Jeu vidéo et romanesque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021): 117-130. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 53 AN-ICON  accordance with their own criteria (what makes sense to them), they become the de facto creator of one possible performance of the game. Here we see how the loss of ego is inherently part of the AVG experience: as the authoritative figure of the Author is absent, the player can now invest this role and progress towards a state of indistinctness between subject and object, between what is created and what is spectated. The rise of ARGs and more so of AVGs can thus be interpreted as the growing social need for lim- inoid phenomena, a need for agency in a world of where subjectivation is too often synonymous with subjection. Conclusion: Beyond representation Taking into account such apparatuses and prac- tices implies new configurations and new focuses. Speak- ing about Weltanschauung draws a metaphysical point of view, and hence demands an ontology. To put it short, the ontology that underpins this Weltanschauung is an ontology of simulacra. This means that we are no longer in a regime of representation submitted to Reality as the only form of the Truth. There are of course numerous ways to escape from Platonism or empirical realism. The one underlined by AVGs is situated within a paradigm initiated by Nietzsche and described by Deleuze, Foucault and Klossowski, a way of paying attention to the effects generated by simulacra in many contexts. We can obviously consider post-truth tendencies and their political consequences as the dark side of such a Weltanschauung in which truth is no longer a dichotomous question. That being said, simulacra around AVGs also lead to virtuality in a narrower sense. If “virtuality” is to be understood as reality constructed in terms of me- diatic events, then the production of reality is also a ludic ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 54 AN-ICON  process in which everyone can take part notwithstanding their expertise. Reality, understood as produced by mediatic events, opens new perspectives and new possibilities for subjectivation. Given the fact that the distinction between “the real world” and “the world of the image” is no longer valid, every aspect of life becomes a potential reality pro- duction through mediatic events as the only milieu within which we take place. From this perspective, redefining no- tions such as subject, object, artist or audience, is neces- sary in order to describe contemporary processes that no longer fit in a paradigm of representation and truth. In that sense, virtuality and the effectiveness of images are the new reality. AVGs do “environmentalise” images in the way they force us to zoom out from the con- text of institutionalized art, and understand what is going on outside of it. Looking at image environments in larger digital contexts, we realize that the theoretical and often abstract categories like subject, object, artwork and au- dience – which are still rampant today in “canonical” ar- tistic production – become less relevant to appreciate our relationship to images in the 21st century. The aesthetical, socio-political and psychological stakes in AVGs outline a new paradigm that can be applied to the sphere of institu- tional art and could hopefully render the rigid boundaries of their categories a bit more permeable. ANTHONY BEKIROV AND THIBAUT VAILLANCOURT 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19907

Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Museum Exhibition Spaces by Anna Calise Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces ANNA CALISE, Università IULM – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2966-7613 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907 Abstract From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proximities, meant to investigate the ways in which global events and de- velopments, mediated by technologies “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.” This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this exhibition experience, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which technological devel- opments, guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices and their relationship to the visitor’s body. In this interplay artistic intuition – intertwined with technical innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with phil- osophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engaging in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mir- roring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. Through an historical account of bodily practices and customs across museum spaces, this study aims to discuss the ways in which citizens’ dives through museum halls have been and are used to establish socially shared ideas of art and knowledge. Keywords Museum Visitor body Technology Exercise of power Proximities To quote this essay: A. Calise, “Inhabiting the Museum: A History of Physical Presence from Analog to Digital Exhibition Spaces,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 56-73, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19907. ANNA CALISE 56 AN-ICON  From summer 2021 to spring 2022 the Nxt Mu- seum in Amsterdam has run the exhibition Shifting Proxim- ities, meant to “explore human experience and interaction in the face of social and technological change.”1 Beginning from the premise that “global events and developments, whether socio-political, technological or environmental, have a significant impact on how we communicate, how we move and how we live in the world”2 the exhibition aimed to inves- tigate the ways in which these “are continually shifting the proximities between us, both literally and metaphorically.”3 The museum presented eight artworks by dif- ferent artists which allowed the visitor to experience the change in distance – or closeness – with others and with oneself, through the mediation of technological devices, at times transparent, others opaque.4 The key to the aesthetic experience inside the museum space, as we will see through- out this article, was the visitor’s body, and its motion. The knowledge required in order to fully dive into this exhibition had to do with one’s ability to move through space and in- teract with light, screens, cameras: media. With this exhibition, the Nxt Museum becomes part of a series of museums which have structured their cultural paradigms around the idea of a performative rather than informative museology,5 one which stands in a more reflexive position towards its own operations, and admits to problematize the epistemological premises which underlie cultural and curatorial choices. In this line of thought the visitor’s body becomes an instrumental tool that guides a different kind of museological experience, which does not rely on vision6 as the main guiding sense, and encompasses 1 “Shifting Proximities,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1998). 5 B. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “The Museum as Catalyst,” keynote address at ICOM Sweden conference “Museum 2000: Confirmation or Challenge?,” Vadstena, September 29, 2000, http://www.michaelfehr.net/Museum/Texte/vadstena.pdf, accessed May 15, 2023. 6 For a discussion on visuality cfr. N. Bryson, Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (London-Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983): 36; P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); C. Otter, The Victorian Eye (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008): 24. ANNA CALISE 57 AN-ICON  the sensorium more widely, reinstating visit practices that can be dated to early museum history.7 This study wants to offer an account which, starting from this fairly contemporary yet not isolated new mode of diving into the museum, addresses the temporal variations of the relationship between museums, visitors and their bodies, trying to investigate the extent to which techno- logical developments, associated and guided by changing epistemic paradigms, have contributed to influence display and curatorial choices. In this interplay artistic intuition – in- tertwined with technical and creative innovations – will prove essential to trigger institutional changes, together with philo- sophical undertakings of the political ideologies that inform power dynamics in the museum system. The visitor’s body, in its materiality and motion habits, will be seen as engag- ing in continuously changing ways with the museum space, mirroring the evolving epistemological paradigms of its times. The paper will begin by presenting the Shift- ing Proximities exhibition, and observing the topics it raises. Amongst these are the use of technology for artistic prac- tices inside the museum space and the use of the body for aesthetic experience during the cultural visit. Moving from this case study, a wider theoretical and historical scenario will be discussed, trying to identify some key positions which can help to contextualize today’s museum behavior within a more complex understanding of the use and discipline of the body within the museum space. Tony Bennett’s and Douglas Crimp’s use of the Foucauldian philosophical ap- paratus will prove extremely helpful to conceptualize how power systems and ideological stances can translate into behavioral etiquettes and technological artistic endeavors. Parallelly, an account of the change of the use of the senses and the body inside the museum space through time – addressing mainly shifts from the late seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century and then again in the late twentieth century – will help historicize museum 7 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012): 136-146. ANNA CALISE 58 AN-ICON  experiential habits with reference to changing epistemic par- adigms. As human beings today dive into museum halls, what kind of influence is the environment surrounding them exercising on their physical bodies? And how are these ex- periences used to establish an idea of art and knowledge? Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum Nxt Museum is a fairly recent institution, opened in early 2020 in Amsterdam North, the new upcoming neigh- borhood of the city, over the lake IJ. The area is already home to another important institution, the Eye Filmmuseum,8 and houses a number of art galleries and studios. NXT is part of those institutions which are resignifying the district, function- ing as symbolic references9 which advocate for new urban agendas, impacting the city from a socio-political perspec- tive. The area, originally “location of shipbuilding and other heavy industries […] evolved into a hotspot for the creative sector since the 1990s and has been the […] subject of ac- tive urban redevelopment since the 2000s.”10 As the website promptly declares: Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. We focus on art that uses modern tools to embody modern times. We believe that the tools used in artistic expression reflect the times we live in. That makes them the perfect means to understand contemporary compl 11 exities allowing us to recognise, relate and reflect on our realities. The museum highlights how it is devoted only to new media art, the only kind of art capable of capturing and addressing contemporary times. It does not hold a perma- nent collection, directly curating and producing exhibitions which thematically address diverse issues. The building itself 8 Eye Filmmuseum, https://www.eyefilm.nl/en, accessed May 15, 2023. 9 F. Savini, S. Dembski, “Manufacturing the Creative City: Symbols and Politics of Amsterdam North,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning 55 (2016): 139-147, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.02.013. 10 Ibid.: 140. 11 Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/about/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 59 AN-ICON  was designed and furnished in order to be able to cater for these kinds of programmes: the space is built specifically to explore new media art [.. ] that ex- pands technical possibilities and applications, is dynamic and unbound by form and that generates movement whether physical, mental or emotional. The space provides all the ingredients for these progres- sive art forms to grow, flourish and evol12ve. Nxt Museum is a place where creatives bring their visions to life. The technological capacity of the museum is fundamental to the identity of the space: it unlocks the cre- ativity of the artists invited to exhibit, and enables the mo- tion which qualifies the power of the aesthetic experience. Not unrelated, the whole museum is heavily sponsored by a giant of the tech industry, Samsung:13 “With a full technical Samsung set up including hi-tech hardware […] integrated throughout the museum, we seek to enrich the experience for our visitors and extend our educational programme.”14 As aforementioned, the case study here ana- lyzed is the exhibition Shifting Proximities,15 which directly investigated the concept of proximity and its change due to the engagement of technology. The exhibition purposely addressed the active dimension of proximity, creating expe- riential environments where visitors were called to, precisely, activate the artwork through their engagement. Overall the programme hosted eight different artworks,16 each designed by a different artist. Upon entering the museum, the visi- tor was invited to cross a door which led into a dark room, beginning a journey linearly dictated by the alternation of a series of smaller rooms, with information on the next artwork, 12 Ibid. 13 The topic of the connection between industries, infrastructures, technologies and artistic endeavors is a complicated one, which is not necessary to address in the present discussion. For an account which draws the relationship between infrastructure studies and digital media studies please cfr. J.C. Plantin, A. Punathambekar, “Digital media infrastructures, pipes, platforms and politics,” Media, Culture and Society 41, no. 2 (2018): 163-174, https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818376. 14 “Parternships,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/partnerships/, accessed May 15, 2023. 15 The exhibition was open from the August 29, 2021 to May 8, 2022. 16 The complete list of artists can be found in the exhibition page on the museum website: https://nxtmuseum.com/event/shifting-proximities/, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 60 AN-ICON  and a series of bigger rooms, where the installations were hosted. In each introductory room the visitor was advised on how long to spend in the next room and given some ge- neric information on a screen on the meaning of the follow- ing artwork. Among the various works two have been here chosen as interesting for the discussion at hand: Connected (Fig. 1) by Roelof Knol17 and Zoom Pavillion (Fig. 2) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.18 Fig. 1. R. Knol, Connected, 2022, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. Fig. 2. R. Lozano- Hemmer, Zoom Pavillion, view of the exhibition Shifting Proximities at Nxt Museum, May 2022. 17 Amsterdam born, raised and based, Robert Knol is a new media artist and developer, who works with projection mapping, augmented reality and coding to design interactive- reactive experiences. His website can be accessed at https://roelofknol.com/. 18 Born in Mexico City in 1967, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. For a more in depth biography see his website at https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/bio.php, accessed May 15, 2023. ANNA CALISE 61 AN-ICON  Connected19 was the first installation of the ex- hibition, introducing the experience. The visitor was asked to join in a ritual of connection. Each visitor is represented by an in- teractive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navi- gate through the exhibition. As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone 20 of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit. Through one’s own motion in the room, and ac- tivation of the interactive visuals that follow visitors around the space and connect them with other participants, the artwork activates. The emphasis on the role played by tech- nology in building and tracing connections between people is evident, as is the dialogue between visitors, their bodies, and the devices used. It appears as the technological layer is already there, embedded in reality in an almost undetect- able and natural21 way, yet it is through people’s presence and motion that it manifests itself. Zoom Pavillion, further into the exhibition path, is described by the artist on his website as an interactive installation that consists of immersive projection on three walls, fed by 12 computerized surveillance systems trained on the public. The piece uses face recognition algorithms to detect the presence of participants and record their spatial relationship within the exhibition space [...]. The zooming sequences are disorienting 19 While audio-visual artist Roelof Knol designed the installation, he commissioned the sound design to sound-artist Marc Mahfoud. 20 “Connected,” Nxt Museum, https://nxtmuseum.com/artist/connected-roelof-knol/, accessed May 15, 2023. 21 On the naturalization of technology in the environment cfr. R. Eugeni, La condizione postmediale: Media linguaggi e narrazioni (Milan: La Scuola, 2015): 46-47. ANNA CALISE 62 AN-ICON as they change the entire image “landscape” from easily 22 recog- nizable wide shots of the crowd to abstract close-ups. The technological layer appears, in this case, even more evidently than in the previous installation. Devices are surrounding visitors, and their activity is shown in real time on the walls of the room: they trace distance between visitors while picturing them, providing images which portray frontal representations and capturing motion from above. Realistic and more graphic and technical images are mixed in a random manner, conveying the message that our ap- pearance can be translated into different visual languages, depending on who is looking. The problematic paradigm of surveillance23 is exposed by the author in a way which uncovers the dialectic relationship between human beings and the technological ecosystem that surrounds them.24 The two artworks, and the exhibition in itself, testify for a new way of understanding museum journeys in contemporary culture. One which assumes an embod- ied, extended, embedded and enacted25 idea of cognition, granting a more participative nature to the aesthetic expe- rience. In the museum logic, the visitor needs to be guid- ed into an environment which elicits stimuli and activates a physical dynamic, one which anticipates a mediated – meaning media related – and technologized way of living art. Surely this is the case of a single museological instance, clearly not representative of a pervasive and over- riding trend in museums policies. Yet is has been argued26 22 “Zoom Pavilion,” Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, https://www.lozano-hemmer.com/zoom_pavilion. php, accessed May 15, 2023. As the website further specifies, Zoom Pavilion marks the first collaboration between artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It was originally conceived for the Architecture Biennale in Beijing. 23 For an analysis of contemporary artistic projects which problematize the relationship between surveillance and facial imaging in today’s visual culture cfr. D. Borselli, G. Ravaioli,“Facing Power: Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea,” VCS. Visual Culture Studies, no. 5 (2022): 115-132, https://hdl.handle.net/11585/922401. 24 For an overview on the topic of surveillance and aerial view in relation to visual culture studies see A. Pinotti, A. Somaini, Cultura visuale: Immagini sguardi media dispositivi (Turin: Einaudi, 2016): 251-253. 25 A. Newen., L. De Bruin, S. Gallager, The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 26 D. Howes, “Introduction to Sensory Museology,” The Senses and Society 9, no. 3 (2014): 259-267, https://doi.org/10.2752/174589314X14023847039917. ANNA CALISE 63 AN-ICON  that since the last two decades of the twentieth century, and onwards, there is a tendency that can be observed in museums towards a more body related and sensory en- gaged understanding and planning of the experience. One which encompasses different conceptions of knowledge, accepting also more horizontal and even possibly human- izing27 epistemological stances. Engaging the body, from this point of view, seems to be in line with the idea of de- mocratizing access to the museum. Instead of expecting visitors to possess the intellectual cultural capital28 neces- sary to access the aesthetic elitarian museum experience, this curatorial account somehow lowers the bar, requiring epistemic grounds which have more to do with everyday experiences than higher education. This shift, today as much as in museum histo- ry,29 is related to the use of media: new technologies which are expected to increase accessibility. Yet, as much as in the past, the introduction of technological devices in mu- seums comes with a conflicted debate which carries the weight of the discussion on the material conditions of tech- nological production30 and consumer culture31 debacles. Whilst these devices – and device hosting museums – are seen as attracting and engaging a wider public, the dan- ger that they represent has to do with parallelly building a control system that collects data and works as a feedback accumulator:32 exploiting visitors under a false inclusivity 27 The idea of organizing museum experiences on humanizing premises to knowledge belongs to the Austrian physicist and museum director Otto Neurath, who operated in Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century. For an account of his work and principles see F. Stadler, ed., Encyclopedia and Utopia: The Life and Work of Otto Neurath, (London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996); O. Neurath, Encyclopedia and Sociology, ed. M. Neurath, R.Cohen (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973). 28 P. Bourdieu “Three Forms of Capital,” in A.H. Halsey, ed., Education: Culture, Economy and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 29 Neurath’s museum is also to be understood in a line of mediatized museums, institutions which employ media and technologies to make the cultural experience more accessible. 30 A. Barry, Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (New York: Athlone Press, 2001). 31 T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (1947), trans. E. Jephcott (London: Verso, 1986). 32 A. Barry, Political Machines: 130. ANNA CALISE 64 AN-ICON  pretense. Even more so in the era of big data33 when the controlling potential of technology is ever more striking. Further, this framework becomes more complex if enriched through the perspective, in museological litera- ture, that has addressed the disciplining power of museums. Primarily since the last decade of the twentieth century, a number of authors have started applying the theoretical framework developed by Michel Foucault on apparatuses and discipline34 to museum environments, highlighting the multiple ways through which these spaces have historically exercised their power on people. These accounts can help to conceptualize the relationship between epistemic prem- ises, dominant ideologies, art, technologies and bodies. Museums inhabiting bodies While the discussion on the place and time where museums were born is still an open one, scholars seem to agree on the fact that, since the early days, mu- seums have been meant to host people. Their inhabited nature is somewhat intrinsic to their identity, as renowned museologist Krzysztof Pomian points out in the introduc- tion of his three volume publication Le musée, une histoire mondiale. When faced with the task of defining museums he qualifies them as “all the public collections of natural or artificial objects exhibited in a secular or secularized environment and destined to be preserved for an indefinite future.”35 Inherent to the public character of museums and 33 V. Mayer-Schönberger, C. Kenneth, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston-New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcour, 2013). 34 While Foucault’s corpus is extremely wide and identifying the publications which most influenced the museological discourse would be a delicate and somehow futile effort, guiding concepts to the present discourse can be found by M. Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966) (London: Vintage, 1994); M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (London: Routledge, 2002). With reference to publications which directly address the author’s discourse on museums see A. Kauffman, “Manet, museum, modernism: Michel Foucault and modernist art history,” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 22 (Jun 2020): 1-21; K. Hetherington, “Foucault, the Museum and the Diagram,” Sociological Review 53, no. 3 (2011): 457-475, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 954X.2011.02016.x; B. Lord, “Foucault’s museums: difference, representation, and genealogy,” Museum and society 4, no. 1 (March 2006): 11-14, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/ museumstudies/museumsociety/documents/volumes/1lord.pdf. 35 K. Pomian, Le musée, une histoire mondiale, 2 vols. (Paris, Gallimard, 2020), vol. 1, “Du trésor au musée:” 47 [my translation]. ANNA CALISE 65 AN-ICON  their collections, and to the exhibited status they acquire, lies the assumption that their value is to be deeply con- nected with their appreciation by people. After all it is their being experienced by citizens which seems to have been the emancipatory factor which led to the shift from cabinets of curiosities to museums.36 Inaugurating what German Bazin has famously defined the “museum age,”37 when the beauty of objects which were before the privilege of a few became available to many. While museums can be hence imagined as born to be inhabited, it is legitimate to wonder to what extent this relationship is reciprocal, and how museums themselves end up inhabiting their audience. Which envi- ronment is materialized through their existence and how this causally affects the people who enter it. Tony Bennett, in The Birth of the Museum. History, theory, politics38 draws from the Foucauldian philosophical corpus, renownedly linking museums’ political and governmental ambitions to the semiotic organization of museum environments and the behavioral influence on the visiting public. As the author argues throughout his work, ideo- logical stances and conceptions of visibility heavily un- derline museums displays through history, influencing the structural conditions of learning in the museum space. The epistemic paradigm the museum is based on becomes actively governmental insofar as visitors inhabit the muse- um and in it perform the kind of behavior which will allow them to internalize what they are seeing. This entails also designing an environment which deploys its machinery of representation within an apparatus which [...] is concerned not only with impressing the visitor with a message 36 As Pomian had already argued in a previous work, it is the phenomenological structure of collections which discloses the kind of relationship that is implied between the visible – the collected objects and how they appear – and the invisible – what these objects represent and which is meant to be conveyed to posterity. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). In the organizational dynamics which explicit the public destination of the museum can therefore be identified the change in scope and target which marks the passage from private to public collections. 37 G. Bazin, The Museum Age (New York: Universe Books, 1967). 38 T. Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London-New York: Routledge, 1995). ANNA CALISE 66 AN-ICON of power but also to induct her or him into new forms of pro- gramming the39self, aimed at producing new types of conduct and self-shaping. Shaping ones’ habits and modes of behavior, especially in terms of conduct and appearances, emerges, in this reading, as one of the programmatic objectives of nineteenth and twentieth century museum policy, encour- aging self-regulation and self-monitoring, making the mu- seum a proper reformatory of manners.40 As these words anticipate, a direct connection can be found historically between museum environments and displays, on the one hand, and the behavioral etiquette which is expected when entering the temples of knowledge, on the other. As Helen Rees Leahy writes in Museum Bodies. The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing, during the nineteenth century there were well known guidebooks and periodicals, openly advising proper museum conduct.41 In 1832 The Penny Magazine of The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,42 prescribed the three rules which would guar- antee enjoyment of the museum, whilst also ensuring not to trouble either fellow visitors or museum authorities. These included first “touch nothing,” secondly “do not talk loud” and third “be not obtrusive,”43 aiming towards a discipline of behaviors which directly addressed the use of the senses during the visit. Touching, talking, and obstructing – un- derstood as physical disturbance of others – were heavily discouraged. As the pamphlet spells out “real knowledge 39 Ibid.: 46. 40 M. Henning, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead UK: Open University Press, 2006): 13. 41 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: The Politics and Practices of Visiting and Viewing (Farnham UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012): 7-8. As the author here specifies, these publications targeted readers which were deemed most deficient in techniques of self-restraint and attentive viewing. Amongst these mainly women and working-class visitors. 42 “The British Museum,” The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1, no. 2 (April, 7 1832): 13-15. 43 Ibid.: 14. ANNA CALISE 67 AN-ICON  […] can only be obtained through self-discipline of the body as well as the mind.”44 Acceptable behavior, moreover, contributed to ensure the success of the aesthetic experience: the behavior of visitors to early museums [...] and art exhibitions [...] was scrutinized, not only for compliance with the institution’s rules of admission, but also for evidence of aesthetic receptivity and cultural competence. [...] modes of walking and looking had to be re-tuned in accordance with changing practices of display and conditions of visuality - that is, the practical 45 and discursive dimensions of seeing - within the institution. This mode of behavior, far from being required since the beginning of museum history, was actually an innovation brought by nineteenth century policy. As Con- stance Classen widely addresses in The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch,46 museum habits regarding the use of the senses have not always been as binding and restrictive as The Penny Magazine would suggest. Especial- ly touching artifacts, she argues, was a common practice during the late seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. Through the sense of touch, visitors were deemed able to enrich their experience, gain more information about the objects, and build a connection with their history. They were actively incentivized to navigate through the museum space, open glass cases and choose for themselves how to build their own cultural experience. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for a number of reasons which span from practical concerns to ideological positions47 – touch started to be identified with an unmediated and uncomplicated mode of learning48 – freer exploration became prohibited inside the museum. “Touch what you like with the eyes, but do not see with the fingers” was the inscription which headed the Picture 44 Ibid. 45 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 4. 46 C. Classen, The Deepest Sense: 136-146. 47 Ibid.: 137. 48 F. Candlin, Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2010). ANNA CALISE 68 AN-ICON  Gallery of the Bodleian Library of Oxford,49 and the new norm. On the one hand, as Bennett points out, muse- ums are and always seem to have been governing appara- tuses which start from specific epistemological conditions and build performative environments which are designed to condition the visitors. These, by abiding to a dictated eti- quette and performing in a specific way, begin to internalize and embody a wider and complex ideological paradigm. Yet, history testifies to a more varied than expected body of bodily practices in museums, one which has shifted from a full hands on approach to a purely visual one and that is today reinstating a freer and wider sensorily encompass- ing set of habits. Intuitively, being free to use one’s’ own senses, instead of being intimidated by the white cube aesthetic,50 seems to represent a less coercive undertaking. By allowing the visitor to move at his or her own pace – and taste – through the museum, cultural institutions seem to be operating in a way which is more respectful of individual freedom. Yet, the issue might be that this kind of permis- sive behavior would enable a merely positive51 and in itself still heavily predefined conception of liberty, which alludes to the space for autonomy while representing a strongly defined set of possibilities. In this sense, the concerns ex- pressed at the beginning with reference to the controlling power of new technologies, heavily employed in today’s sensory museums – become ever more relevant. Perhaps by investigating the relationship between epistemic para- digms, technological and technical possibilities and art in museums further insight can be offered. Technologies inhabiting art Douglas Crimp, in On the Museum’s Ruins, also follows in Foucault’s step and qualifies the museum as an 49 C. Jr. Dickens, Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames (1893) (New York: Taurus Press, 1972): 153. 50 B. O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976). 51 For a critique of positive conceptions of freedom cfr. I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969): 118-172. ANNA CALISE 69 AN-ICON  “institution of confinement” with its proper “discursive for- mation,”52 the discipline of art history. He operatively devel- ops the archeological53 analytical approach envisioned by the French philosopher, studying museums across time as institutions which carry, and enable, the historical marks of the “tables on which their knowledge is formulated.”54 He argues for a strong and visible connection among museo- logical logics, artworks, and the techniques that are used to produce them, emphasizing how an artwork, especially through the technology that was used to produce it, can unveil paradigmatic cultural and ideological shifts. The an- alytical framework offered by Crimp, therefore, seems to widen the discussion, yet at the same time also offer a more targeted viewpoint. On the one hand the author himself remarks the connection between different time periods and ideo- logical positions, also emphasizing how museum strate- gies and policies change decade after decade, debunking the presumed a-temporal logic which these institutions attempt to elicit.55 On the other hand, Crimp directly ad- dresses the connection between artworks and technology through time, remarking to what extent different tech- niques unveil significant aspects of the ideology of an era. It is in the technological possibilities which structurally impact the artwork that one can read the shifting historical and artistic perspectives.56 If scrutinized through Crimp’s account, mu- seums through time express their dominant positions not only by organizing their space and advising for a specific behavior, but also by exhibiting artworks which represent the ways in which technologies are changing reality and the way we perceive it. Read through this analysis, the 52 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins (Cambridge MA-London: MIT Press, 1993): 48 53 In Foucault’s account, an archeological analysis entails on the one hand being attentive to discontinuity, more than to linear developments, within the history of ideological paradigms; and on the other being focused on the materiality of the research object, which holds the parameters that should guide the research process. See M. Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge. 54 D. Crimp, On the Museum’s Ruins: 47. 55 Ibid.: 50. Differently from Bennett and Classen, Crimp offers an account which focuses more on the connection between ideology, technology and art, less with the overall museum organization and behavioral etiquette. 56 Ibid.: 58. ANNA CALISE 70 AN-ICON  apparatus nature of the museum, understood in the Fou- cauldian sense, is even more evident: it spans from the wider epistemic meaning of the system of power to the somewhat lower and more down to earth level of the func- tioning of the technology employed.57 Following this line of thought, it could be ar- gued that different technologies call for different uses of the visitor’s body throughout the museum environment. From artifacts kept in openable glass cases to aesthetic experi- ences structurally built thanks to technological devices, the role played by technology in shaping cultural experiences in museums is central. It changes, as Crimp would argue, together with the epistemic paradigms which characterize each epoch. As does the way in which these technologies impact the visitor body, and help mediate the museologi- cal experience which is taking place. As Helen Rees Leahy writes, citing de Bolla’s definition of a customized “specific activity of looking”58 within the space of the museum, “a successful performance of spectatorship therefore invoked and enacted a precise set of socio-cultural coordinates.”59 Except at this point in order to perform suc- cessfully as a spectator the visitor of the Nxt Museum has to engage with his or her own body, and not just look. What is asked in the museum space is to relate with the tech- nologies which structurally support the artwork in order to live the experience, abiding to the aesthetic, technical and informational systems which are behind them. The socio-cultural coordinates which guide the performance are still invoked with the utmost precision, yet they call for an evident degree of motion, one which requires to engage with the technology. Without moving through the space, and activating the technology behind the installa- tions, feeding it one’s own data, the performance would not exist. Retracing Marcel Mauss’s 1935 argument discussed 57 Cfr. R. Eugeni “Che cosa sarà un dispositivo: Archeologia e prospettive di uno strumento per pensare i media,” in J.L. Baudry, Il dispositivo: Cinema, Media, Soggettività, ed. R. Eugeni (Brescia: La Scuola, 2017) for a breakdown of the different levels at which an apparatus can be understood to be operating: epistemic, situational, technological. 58 P. de Bolla, The Education of the Eye: 72. 59 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. ANNA CALISE 71 AN-ICON  in Techniques of the Body60 Rees Lehay specifies how “the habitus of the practiced museum spectator is palpable in their demonstration of socially acquired and sanctioned bodily techniques within the exhibition; for example, stand- ing at the ‘correct’ distance from the artwork, walking at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, and judiciously editing the number of artworks deserving their closest scru- tiny.”61 In NXT the bodily behavior required to appreciate the artwork is not learned within the museum, but in real life. After all, the title of the exhibition, Shifting Proximities, recalls purposely how concepts of closeness and distance are actually changing in our society, due to technology. What is interesting if Mauss’s paradigm is used to interpret the experience of the visitor, is that the curators and artists engaged in the exhibition do draw on habits that visitors have developed62 in order to build the exhibition script,63 yet these are customary to our technologically mediated everyday life. Rather than as a liberating and emancipatory story, which sees the visitor’s body gradually being freed from physical inhibitions inside the museum space and incentivized to move in an experimental and autonomous manner, the history of physical presence through museum halls appears to be more linear than expected. Whilst it can be argued that different philosophical and epistemic positions have surely guided a change in experiential and bodily access to knowledge and collections – shifting from a more sensorial account in the early museum towards an exclusively sight dependent aesthetic visit throughout the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century and then towards a more active bodily undertaking in the last fifty 60 M. Mauss, “Techniques of the Body,” trans. B. Brewster, Economy and Society 2 (1973): 70-88. 61 H. Rees Leahy, Museum Bodies: 6. 62 On media related cognitive habits cfr. J. Fingerhut, “Habits and the enculturated mind: pervasive arti-facts, predictive processing, and expansive habits,” in F. Caruana, I. Testa, eds., Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neuroscience to Social Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022): 352-375, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108682312.018. 63 J. Noordegraaf, Strategies of Display, Museum Presentation in Nineteenth and Twentieth- Century Visual Culture (Rotterdam: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 2004). ANNA CALISE 72 AN-ICON  years – it is difficult to read these changes as other than changes in prescriptive accounts. Perhaps the museum has in part ceased to ac- tively discipline visitors, and operates more in an observant manner to contemporary experiential habits, mutuating from reality more than shaping it. Yet today’s motion inside museums seems still heavily guided by ideologies, con- ceptions of knowledge and the technologies which inform them and our habits, leaving open the question whether art, within museums, can still represent a transformative and free space for creativity, or if it caters more to the – bodily – reinforcement of the status quo. ANNA CALISE 73 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19764

Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines by Margherita Fontana Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines1 MARGHERITA FONTANA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3824-6909 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764 Abstract At a time when the umbrella term “metaverse” seems to have monopolised the discourse on online so- cial presence, this paper aims to explore the possibility of constructing interactive online spaces that challenge the hegemonic structures of heteronormative society. Before describing the metaverse as a futuristic scenario that catal- yses technophobic fears, perhaps we can turn our attention to existing metaverses: one example is the sandbox video game Minecraft, which is characterised by great interactiv- ity and manipulability. Therefore, by analysing the immer- sive and interactive artwork g(Ender Gallery) by artist Cat Haines, which was created entirely on Minecraft in 2021, I will explore how the platform can be used to build a play- ful ground and at the same time a critical arena of gender norms and a deep reflection on trans experience. Keywords Metaverse Minecraft Gender studies Feminist Feminist art history 1 This article was written in the framework of the research project “AN-ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images.” The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” at the University of Milan (Project “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research). To quote this essay: M. Fontana, “Digital Heterotopias in the Metaverse: The (g)Ender Gallery by Cat Haines,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 74-90, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19764. MARGHERITA FONTANA 74 AN-ICON  Introduction Appeared for the first time in 1992, “Metaverse” is now an umbrella term that encompasses dystopian pro- jections of future online social interactions and actually existing applications that allow users to communicate in real-time through avatars moving in virtual worlds. Setting aside the technophobic worries surrounding these sce- narios, current modes of online presence give us valuable hints regarding political and anthropological tensions that inhabit such social spaces. In particular, the paper aims to illustrate digital strategies of subverting gender perfor- mance adopted by contemporary artists, as is the case of the (g)Ender Gallery (2021) by artist Cat Haines,2 an instal- lation and a performance set entirely on the video game platform Minecraft. The theory of performativity, which provides gender with a new framework to interpret its cultural and social basis, paves the way for a new understanding of the “performative” possibilities disclosed by the digital manip- ulation of the virtual self. The “immersive internet”3 allows us to create a digital body in a new, seemingly borderless space accompanied by overgrown feelings that the age of fixed identities is finally over. However, this enthusiasm must be mitigated by the awareness that the digital space is inhabited by the same structures characterising our or- dinary post-industrial reality.4 The reconfiguration of one’s identity by embody- ing an avatar through technologies such as head-mounted displays and tracking devices allows users to model and animate their doubles, giving rise to the so-called “Prote- us effect.” Named after the elusive Greek deity who could 2 On her website, the young artist present herself as “a genderqueer trans girl, dyke, and academic/artist weirdo,” with a research centered on “autotheoretical investigation into [her] body and experiences as a post-surgically transitioned femme,” interrogating “concepts such as the trans body, sexual and gendered difference, and the intersection of [her] identities as a dyke and a trans woman.” See “cat haines,” https://catemoji.github.io/, accessed January 24, 2023. 3 D. Power, R. Teigland, eds., The Immersive Internet: Reflections on the Entangling of the Virtual with Society, Politics and the Economy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 4 For a recent account of feminist subversion techniques in digital environments, see J. K. Brodsky, Dismantling the Patriarchy, Bit by Bit. Art, Feminism, and Digital Technology (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 75 AN-ICON  change into many different forms, this phenomenon, for- mulated by Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson and Nicolas Ducheneaut, and fundamental to an anthropological study of online spaces, proved that avatar appearance changes online behaviour: we are not just “dressing up” as someone else, we are actually someone else, as if the characteris- tics of this constructed self could interact with our ordi- nary selves and contribute to our online persona.5 From a transfeminist perspective, online social spaces accessible through VR seem hostile to a female audience: evidence of this is the numerous cases of sexual harassment directed at “female” avatars.6 Moreover, their design is often based on a stereotypical representation of feminine and racialised bodies. Without falling into the temptation of equating virtu- al and real worlds, the same power structures are repeated, since the technology responsible for virtual worlds is the result of the same capitalist and patriarchal society that is responsible for the struggles of its members in a non-he- gemonic position.7 Just as in the “real” world, strategies of hacking, distracting and subverting these structures also emerge in the virtual world, as in the installation on Minecraft platform (g)Ender Gallery by the artist Cat Haines. Here, Haines used the user-interactivity of the creative platform to construct digital representations of her own body, dismantling the “cissexist feminist art canon” while imagining a metaverse where transgender people could feel comfortable, safe and in control: a kind of digital heterotopia. 5 N. Yee, J. Bailenson, “The Proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior,” Human communication research 33, no. 3 (2007): 271-290, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1468-2958.2007.00299.x. 6 M. Ehrenkranz, “Yes, Virtual Reality Has a Sexual Harassment Problem. What Can We Do to Stop It?,” Mic (June 5, 2016) https://www.mic.com/articles/142579/virtual-reality-has-a- sexual-harassment-problem-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it; L. Blackwell, N. Ellison, N. Elliott- Deflo, R. Schwartz, “Harassment in social virtual reality: Challenges for platform governance,” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3 (2019): 1-25, https://doi. org/10.1145/3359202. 7 For an in-depth study of the structurally gendered nature of new technologies, see C. Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019); with strict reference to virtual reality see J. Munafo, M. Diedrick, and T. A. Stoffregen, “The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,” Experimental brain research 235, no. 3 (2017): 889-901, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00221-016-4846-7. MARGHERITA FONTANA 76 AN-ICON  An already inhabited metaverse: the case of Minecraft Universe Since the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines is completely built on Minecraft, it is worth saying a few words about the technological and cultural context in which the artist’s operation is situated, namely the video game itself. The artwork has been conceived in the framework of the art residency program “Ender Gallery” sponsored by MacK- enzie Art Gallery of Regina, Saskatchewan.8 Minecraft is a “sandbox” video game, meaning that the user is not limited to a set of activities or to certain purposes, but can freely interact with the almost infinite surroundings. Players, who can access the platform via desktop and since 2016 also via virtual reality, can voluntarily build all kinds of construc- tions, using textured cubes to be extracted from the proce- durally generated 3D environments (in the technical jargon, “biomes”). The blocks, which are similar to a 3D version of the base unit of digital images, the pixel, have different physical properties: they can be used as they are found or actively transformed; construction is then achieved by placing blocks in a fixed grid pattern. Despite its “primitive” and pixelated blocky visual style, Minecraft is one of the best and longest-running games of recent times, precisely because of its interactivity.9 Another aspect worth high- lighting is the simulation nature of the game: Minecraft is presented as a “natural” world, made up of ecosystems and populated by creatures that follow precise rules of development. However, as in nature, the combinations of materials are almost infinite, to the point that many players 8 The name of the art residency program “Ender,” appears in the game in various meanings. The Endermen are a specific type of creatures – in the platform jargon the “entities” or, more specifically, “mob” i.e. “mobile entities” – that inhabit the Minecraft universe. The program is curated by Sarah Friend, Cat Bluemke, and Jonathan Carroll aims to develop Minecraft creative potentialities. For its inaugural year, it hosted, alongside with Cat Haines, the works by Simon M. Benedict, Huidi Xiang, and Travess Smalley. “Ender Gallery,” Mackenzie Art Gallery, https://mackenzie.art/experience/digital-art-projects/post/ender-gallery/, accessed January 24, 2023. 9 Windows, which acquired the developer studio Mojang and the videogame itself, has recently released also a VR version of Minecraft, accessible through Meta Gear VR and Windows Mixed Reality headset. See “EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VIRTUAL REALITY,” Minecraft official website, https://www.minecraft.net/it-it/vr, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 77 AN-ICON  do not need to concern themselves with the objectives of the video game’s “Story” or “Survival” modes, but spend a lot of time shaping the biomes in which they live according to their tastes and needs. Surfing the net, it is very easy to come across real archives of the most incredible creations of users:10 there is even a series of computers, among which the most technically advanced is the Chungus 2 (Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit), built entirely inside Minecraft, according to its rules.11 They are functioning, self-reflecting machines, reinforcing the hypothesis that the sandbox game can be considered the first already inhabited metaverse. Minecraft “doesn’t really feel like a game. It’s more like a destination, a technical tool, a cultural scene:”12 due to its manipulability, Minecraft has also been studied adopting an intersection- al approach, underlining how gender politics interfere, for example, in the modding of avatars.13 The breadth of the Minecraft universe is also evidenced by the existence of a Wikipedia-like platform, consisting of more than 8000 10 M. Peckham, “The 15 Best Minecraft Creations (and Wildest Destinations),” Time (May 22, 2013) https://techland.time.com/2013/05/23/the-15-best-minecraft-creations-and-wildest- destinations/, accessed January 24, 2023; M.Tillman, “32 incredible Minecraft creations that will blow your mind,” Pocket-lint (March 16, 2022) https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/ news/131364-incredible-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind/, accessed January 24, 202. 11 “Ohm’s 16-bit Minecraft Computer,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KzrFzkb3A4o, accessed January 24, 2023; “Ohmganesha,” Minecraft Forums, August 5, 2011, http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/526445-my-alucpucomputer-progress- thread-video-and-worldsave/, accessed January 24, 2023; K. Wickens, “Someone crafted a redstone PC in Minecraft to play Minecraft inside Minecraft,” PC Gamer (September 9, 2022) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraftception-redstone-pc-chungus/, accessed January 24, 2023; N. Armondi, “Minecraft giocato dentro Minecraft con Chungus 2, un computer di Redstone che viaggia a 1 Hz,” multiplayer.it (September 8, 2022) https://multiplayer.it/notizie/ minecraft-giocato-dentro-minecraft-chungus-2-computer-redstone-1-hz.html, accessed January 24, 2023; CodeCrafted, GIANT REDSTONE COMPUTER THAT PLAYS MINECRAFT IN MINECRAFT, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwHBaSySHmo, accessed January 24, 2023. 12 C. Thompson, “The Minecraft Generation,” The New York Times, April 14, 2016, https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html, accessed January 24, 2023. 13 Anderson, E., Walker, J., Kafai, Y. B., & Lui, D., “The Gender and Race of Pixels: An Exploration of Intersectional Identity Representation and Construction Within Minecraft and Its Community,” Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (2017, August):1-10, https://doi.org/10.1145/3102071.3102094. MARGHERITA FONTANA 78 AN-ICON  entries, compiled by users, which provides information on all aspects of the franchise.14 Having said that, it is interesting to note how the artist uses the inherent manipulability of the video game just described, on the one hand to represent the cultural- ly constructed nature of gender performance, and on the other to ironically describe myths and prejudices regarding transgender bodies and experience. Indeed, Haines evokes the ideal of femininity as the result of a process of gender transition, offering a trans* narrative of gender identity and sexuality. Furthermore, the artist has a fruitful and critical relationship with the essentialist strain of feminism asso- ciated with the cissexist canon of “pussy art,”15 which is a stated point of reference I will discuss in detail later. A digital heterotopia: the g(Ender) Gallery by Cat Haines Haines’ g(Ender) Gallery can be seen as a tra- ditional online exhibition that exploits the creative poten- tial of the Minecraft universe: the artist’s setup combines a performance, an exhibition space with both iconic and textual works, and a social space designed to host discus- sions, meetings and parties. There is even an ice skating rink, which is not melting despite the sunny climate.16 First, visitors are welcomed in an informal at- mosphere in a two-storey building where they can rest or refresh themselves (or their avatars). The facility has a large terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. One’s at- tention is immediately caught by a large blue phallus built 14 “Minecraft Wiki,” Fandom Games Community, https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/ Minecraft_Wiki, accessed January 24, 2023. 15 This irreverent phrase refers to the art historical tradition of feminist art that deals with the female anatomy, especially the representation of the female genitalia, as a way to increase the empower women and rewrite history. Furthermore, Haines theoretically explored the relationship between difference feminism and trans studies in her master’s thesis entitled Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock. See C. Haines, Transmisogyny and the Abjection of Girlcock, MA dissertation (Regina: The University of Regina, 2021). 16 In this sense, it could be argued that Haines’ work perfectly fits in the strand of “playground” works, which is often attended by contemporary artists. For example, the word “playground” is interestingly adopted by Claire Bishop in her Installation Art, with reference to contemporary artist Carsten Höller. C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (London: Routledge, 2005): 48. MARGHERITA FONTANA 79 AN-ICON  into the wall of the mountain in front of it. It is here that the inaugural performance of Haines’ work begins: the artist sets fire to it to make way for a monumental vulva, con- structed from the artist’s custom-made textures, created from photographs of her own genitalia (fig. 1). Even though the artist literally builds this biomorphic structure out of “pieces” of her body, it is not intended to mimic the artist’s sexual organs. Its paradoxical monumentality, combined with the conspicuous performance, is indeed satirical in its intentions: its aim is to address the obsession with the trans* body, fetishism and objectification. The artist’s gesture con- sists in the reappropriation of the same construction of her genitals: recalling her experience of undergoing surgery, she recalls that she had no choice as to her preferences for the external characteristics of her vulva, that there was “no lookbook” to choose from, meaning that the surgeon had to have in mind an idealisation of female genitals, which are in fact can be very different.17 Fig. 1 Minecraft customized block textures by Cat Haines. To access the actual exhibition venue, visitors pass through this genital simulacrum and then through a vagina-like tunnel. Here the creations are presented in a more traditional way using Minecraft’s design tools: in a space that at times looks like a fortress, the artist pres- ents a selection of photographs that are highly relevant to her personal experience as a genderqueer, lesbian femme. 17 Excluding mainstream pornography, which tends to emphasize only certain stereotypical configurations, the lack of media exposure to female genitalia leads many women to view their own configurations as abnormal or aesthetically unpleasing. Speaking of “lookbooks” of female genitalia, in recent years there have been artistic and photographic projects that have highlighted female diversity in order to dispel the myth of the existence of a perfect form. See for example L. Dodsworth, Womanhood: The Bare Reality (London: Pinter & Martin, 2019); H. Atalanta, J. Whitford, A Celebration of Vulva Diversity (This is us Books, 2019). MARGHERITA FONTANA 80 AN-ICON  They are drawn from the artist’s social media and person- al phone archive: their pixelated quality alludes their pri- vateness and intimacy. During an interview,18 the artist de- clared that she took inspiration from the Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House,19 an art installation by Canadian artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, displayed in October 2015 in West Hollywood. “Designed to pervert, not convert,” the installation mocks the hell houses,20 popularized in 1970s by the televangelist pastor Jerry Falwell Sr. This complex theatrical and immersive experiences were designed to shock visitors by showing after-death hellish scenarios, destined for those who had not fully embraced Christian faith in time. These kinds of disturbing experiences, thought to provide an alternative to the irreverent – and also queer – Halloween parades, of- ten include sexophobic and transhomophobic content and propaganda against reproductive rights. In response to this cultural framework, the immersive installation by Mitchell and Logue was designed to provide a creepy transformative feminist experience. Interestingly, the work was criticized for its essentialist and allegedly trans-exclusive approach: the “Ball Busting” room in particular was considered po- tentially offensive and non-respectful of trans* people,21 since “involved two butch-dyke performers in plaid shirts smashing plaster of Paris balls modelled after truck nuts.”22 18 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www. carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 19 A. Mitchell, C. McKinney, eds., Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019). 20 I. Monroe, “Remembering When Evangelicals Tried to Exorcise Gays With ‘Hell Houses,’” Advocate (October 26, 2016) https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/27/ remembering-when-evangelicals-tried-exorcise-gays-hell-houses, accessed January 24, 2023; J. Zauzmer, “What’s scarier than a haunted house? At Judgement House, it’s eternal damnation,” The Washington Post (October 30, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/30/whats-scarier-than-a-haunted-house-at-judgement-house- eternal-damnation/, accessed January 24, 2023; T. Dart, “Welcome to a Texas hell house, where wayward Christians are scared straight,” The Guardian (October 31, 2015) https://www. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/halloween-texas-hell-house-wayward-christians- scared, accessed January 24, 2023. 21 kwazana, “Ball Busters and the Recurring Trauma of Intergenerational Queer/Feminist Life,” Bully Bloggers (February 20, 2016) https://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/author/kwazana/, accessed January 24, 2023. 22 C. Hajjar, “Inside Killjoy’s Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and Other Lesbian Hauntings: Allyson Mitchell and Cait McKinney,” c mag (July 15, 2020) https://cmagazine.com/ articles/inside-killjoys-kastle-dykey-ghosts-feminist-monsters-and-other?fbclid=IwAR3pabo2g x1py4zV8gqBnn-lrj0jJPMv2d0PdI6YqsVpXllWGE21IxgSLOE, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 81 AN-ICON  In this sense, Haines’ installation can be read as a trans* response to Mitchell and Logue’s piece, imagining a dig- itally enclosed space – the gallery – this time focused on trans* narratives and counter-narratives. Cat Haines uses resignification techniques here: the case of the first photograph encountered in the virtual dungeon, entitled Lesbian Wedding, is very clear (fig. 2). The photograph is taken directly from her wedding album and portrays the artist and her then wife. This classic shot is then part of a narrative about gender and sexual orienta- tion: in the artist’s experience, also through the influence of lesbian mainstream pornography and popular culture, the idea of participating in the same narrative of lesbian rela- tionship came before the her self-identification as a trans* woman, recognising a lesbian intent in her relationship of that time.23 In the book placed in front of the work of art, it is possible to read a text by the author explaining the profound meaning of the image: The first lesbian wedding I attended was my own. I just didn’t real- ize it at the time. It wasn’t until many years later talking in bed at 2 a.m. with my wife about transition and life and living and changing and we realized we’re wives and so we kissed our first kiss as wife and wife. Fig. 2 C. Haines, Lesbian Wedding, 2012, courtesy of the artist. 23 Haines quotes also the impact of the character Lisa a lesbian-identified man, portrayed by Devon Gummersall in the popular in US series The L Word, who appears during season 1 from episode 1.07: “Losing It” to 1.10: “Luck, Next Time.” MARGHERITA FONTANA 82 AN-ICON  Moving to forward in the gallery exploration, one encounters Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016 (fig. 3): the artist is here portrayed in her bathtub, smoking mar- ijuana from a bong. The title of the image is inspired to Psychopathia Sexualis: Eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie by the German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Pub- lished in 1886, the book is recognized as one of the earliest systematic treatise of homosexuality: words that later came into use, such as “sadism,” “masochism” and the adjective “bisexual,” borrowed from botany, appeared here for the first time. In particular, Haines draws inspiration from one of the book’s several clinical studies. It is the account of a person who might today be called transgender, suffering from gout, who seeks relief from the pain by taking long hot baths while smoking hashish. During one of these baths, the person describes the sensation of finally feeling like a woman, of perceiving her body in a new configuration. This experience, more than a century old, resonates with the artist’s own: hence this kind of re-enactment, a break in the timeline, an unforeseen glitch between different epochs constructed through a bodily sensation.24 Fig. 3 C. Haines, Psycopathia Transsexualis 1892/2016, 2016, courtesy of the artist. 24 R. Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, trans. C. G. Chaddock (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 1892): 207-208. MARGHERITA FONTANA 83 AN-ICON  The exhibition ends with a hidden image that can only be accessed by crossing a threshold: this is not just a ploy to avoid breaking the nudity rules of the Twitch streaming platform, which broadcasts the social events held in the gallery, but a choice motivated by the sensitivity of the content shown. It is a classic mirror selfie of the art- ist after her operation, still with a catheter protruding from her genitals. It is certainly a powerful image: by separating it from the rest of the exhibition space, the artist invites the viewer to question his or her desire to see, whether it is generated by a simple, objectifying curiosity about the anatomical features of the trans* body, or whether such a presence can lead elsewhere, to the heart of the political questions posed by her body itself. A feminist strand of immersivity: Haines’ work and the cis-sexist feminist art canon As the artist states, “trans women’s subjectivity and bodies are abject in society and in feminist/lesbian art and literature – a big way we see that is through… ‘pussy art.’”25 This last phrase refers to the feminist artistic tradi- tion, which has at its core an aesthetic reflection on female physiology and the cultural processes associated with it. I could perhaps venture the hypothesis that there is a feminist declination of immersivity in the history of art that explicitly refers to the exploration of the interior of the female body, and in particular of her sexual organs, which are precisely internal.26 This tradition, which dates back at least to the late 1960s and 1970s, still has many representatives. 25 M. Grande-Sherbert, “Arts and (Mine)crafts,” the carillon (March 25, 2021) https://www.carillonregina.com/arts-and-minecrafts/, accessed January 24, 2023. 26 Consider some very famous precursors, such as Hon - en katedral, the monumental sculpture created by the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle in collaboration with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt for the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1966; or the insistence on sculptural variations of the vulva explored by Judy Chicago in the monumental participatory work The Dinner Party (1974-1979). More recent examples of this strand will be discussed in the following pages. MARGHERITA FONTANA 84 AN-ICON  Before the official opening, on the International Trans Day of Visibility (31 March 2021), Haines held a studio visit during which she clarified some of her artistic refer- ences, thus placing her work in dialogue with this specific artistic tradition.27 She prepared an ideal gallery for the interviewer, displaying her personal canon of “pussy art:” recent examples of art that focuses on the female genitalia and the political discourses surrounding it, which partic- ipate in the feminist investigations of the body, but are at the same time critical of it, offering suggestions on how to move beyond essentialist views. First, Haines includes the contribution of the neurodiverse Lenape and Potawatomi Two-Spirit artist Vanessa Dion Fletcher, who has often ad- dressed the cultural and biological shaping of the female body. Haines quotes her exhibition Own Your Cervix, held at the Tangled + Disability Art Gallery in Toronto, from January 13 to March 31, 2017. During opening hours, visitors could book a guided tour with the artist, which included a ses- sion of cervix self-examination.28 Dion Fletcher suggested repurposing the medical practice of exploring inside the body for people with internal genitalia, providing guidance on using a speculum to “own” their own cervix. The spec- ulum, a medical instrument that has been widely cited in feminist philosophy and thought,29 is here restored to its 27 “Ender Gallery: Virtual Open Studio with Cat Haines (Minecraft Artist Residency),” Ender Gallery, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfuRPeBMY8&t=1600s, accessed January 24, 2023. 28 See the website of the Tangled Arts, “Own Your Cervix Appointments,” https://tangledarts. org/whats-on/own-your-cervix-appointments/, accessed January 24, 2023. 29 Feminism and feminist art have a long history of dealing with the oldest instrument of gynaecology and obstetrics, a visualisation device intended for both surveillance and diagnosis, at the centre of the debate on the epistemology of looking inside women’s bodies. As is well known, in 1974 the French philosopher of difference Luce Irigaray entitled her theoretical book Speculum of the Other Woman. The instrument itself, perfected in the 1840s by J. Marion Sims, who experimented with it on African-American slaves without anaesthesia, became the focus of second-wave American feminist interest in women’s health. Among those promoting its use as a self-diagnostic device was Carol Downer, a feminist and pro-choice activist and founder of the Self Help Centre One in Los Angeles. See L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974), trans. G. C. Gill (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1985); D. Spain, Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City (Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); E. Frankfort, Vaginal Politics (New York: Bantam Books, 1973); M. Sandelowski, “This most dangerous instrument: propriety, power, and the vaginal speculum,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing 29, no. 1 (2000): 73-82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2000.tb02759.x. MARGHERITA FONTANA 85 AN-ICON  original and literal function, while encouraging women to understand the political dimension of diagnostics.30 Continuing through the gallery curated by the artist, the visitor encounters the work of Australian artist Casey Jenkins, entitled Casting Off My Womb. In this per- formance, the artist spent 28 days – the average length of a menstrual cycle – knitting a white wool thread that she had previously inserted into her vagina: the resulting strip changes colour according to the days on which it was knitted, showing signs of vaginal mucus until menstruation. The work, which is clearly inspired by famous examples, such as Carolee Schneemann’s performance Interior Scroll (1975), has been at the centre of a fierce media debate that has brought the taboo of menstruation and its margination from public discourse back to the fore.31 Continuing the visit, one comes across the re- production of one of the new “models,” so to speak, of augmented genitalia. This is an early project by the Turk- ish-American artist and architect Pinar Yoldas, entitled “Speculative Biologies.” Called NeoLabiumTM, SuperMam- malTM, and PolyPhalliiTM, these are sexual organs “designed to stimulate our biological imagination” and “to challenge the anatomical norms around sex and gender.” Immersed in a conservation fluid similar to that used in natural history museums, but revitalised by small tubes that emit bub- bles, the organs float in their glass tanks in a unique state of suspended life. In particular, Haines chooses to quote the NeoLabiumTM (Fig. 4), a “necessary update” to female 30 In 1990 at the Harmony Theatre of New York, performance artist and post-porn activist Annie Sprinkle performed the historical piece A Public Cervix Announcement, during which she invited the audience member to look at her cervix, through a speculum. This is clearly a precedent that cannot be ignored. See N. Aulombard-Arnaud “A Public Cervix Announcement. Une performance pro-sexe et postporn d’Annie Sprinkle (New York, 1990),” Clio. Femmes, Genre, Histoire 54 (2021): 185-195, https://doi.org/10.4000/clio.20733. 31 The work went viral in 2013 when the YouTube video by “The Feed,” dubbed “Vaginal Knitting” reached rapidly 3.5 million views: the comments by audience were for the most part disgusted remarks addressed to the artist herself. See C. Jenkins, “I’m the ‘vaginal knitting’ performance artist – and I want to defend my work,” The Guardian (December 2017, 13) https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2013/dec/17/vaginal-knitting-artist-defence, accessed January 24, 2023. MARGHERITA FONTANA 86 AN-ICON  anatomy, designed to amplify pleasure, in response to its pervasive limitation32. Fig. 4 P. Yoldas, NeoLabiumTM from Speculative Biologies, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Another interesting example of recent “vulva art” is the work of Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko, which means “good-for- nothing”). As the word for this, “manko,” cannot be pro- nounced in public, the artist has engaged in various forms of “manko” art (fig. 5), to the point of spending ten days in jail in 2014 on obscenity charges after sailing in a two-metre kayak designed on the 3D scan of her vulva. Interestingly, the obscenity charge was not for the kayak itself, whose shape and bright yellow colour were not so mimetic, but for the act of circulating the 3D scan itself: she was the first person to be charged with “electronic obscenity.” Haines’ ideal itinerary ends with a return to the beginnings of this kind of art historical tradition: the visi- tor is led to Georgia O’Keeffe’s early masterpiece, Black 32 In Yoldas’ words “In a world where sexual pleasure is denied to women under the name of religion, tradition or law the amplified pleasure toolkit of NeoLabiumTM is a weapon. The increased enervation of NeoLabiumTM is a form of empowerment. Compared to the average female genitalia, NeoLabiumTM offers a more accentuated look.” P. Yoldas, “SuperMammalTM Dissected: Towards a Phenomenology for a New Species,” in P. Yoldas, Speculative Biologies: New Directions in Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, dissertation (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016): 43. MARGHERITA FONTANA 87 AN-ICON  Iris (1926). In this monumental floral painting, the details of the interior of the flower are magnified in proportion on a 90-per-70-centimetre canvas, suggesting a non-literal understanding of its subject. Fig. 5 Rokudenashiko, Battleground Manko Art, 2014, courtesy of the artist. In order to gain a comprehensive understand- ing of the theoretical and critical frameworks surrounding the artworks under discussion, I draw on the concept of “poetic operation” recently elaborated by micha cárdenas.33 Exploring the realm of activist art by trans* people of colour, the artist and researcher posits that these works embody survival strategies, representing a poetic sublimation of essential needs that aligns with various characteristics in- herent in digital devices. This concept holds particular rele- vance to Haines’ work, especially considering the examples of vulva art I mentioned. The installation uniquely manifests itself as a safe space for trans* people while simultaneous- ly functioning as a digital reflection of body hacking. With 33 m. cárdenas, Poetic Operations: Trans of Color Art in Digital Media (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2022). MARGHERITA FONTANA 88 AN-ICON  this phrase, I do not refer (only) to the cybernetic move- ment devoted to body enhancing, but, more precisely, to the convergence of transfeminism and hacktivism. In this regard, “the hacker and open-source software movement has served not only as a means of technical support for transfeminist production but also as metaphors that ex- emplify the practices transfeminists attempt to carry out.”34 Conclusion I hope that the selection of examples I have presented contributes to situating Cat Haines’ artwork with- in an aesthetic and political tradition, of a feminist nature, that has placed critical reflection on corporeality at its cen- tre. The choice to adapt it according to the narrow logic of a pre-constituted platform, in this case the video game Minecraft, helps to enrich the meaning of the author’s pro- posal, which focuses precisely on the transfeminist practice of configuring, modifying and augmenting the body, in the context of a still heteronormative society. By situating itself in a virtual elsewhere, one could say a “metaverse,” where social norms can be circumvented and rewritten, Haines’ work achieves its critical potential. This brings me back to the Foucauldian concept of “heterotopia” that I men- tioned at the beginning of this paper, which I think perfectly describes the tensions that inhabit the digital space that Haines is leading: it is indeed an elsewhere where heter- onormative rules are subverted, but it is also a non-neutral terrain, ploughed by a grid that limits our possibilities. In Foucault’s words: There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places - places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society - which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously 34 L. Egana, M. Solá, trans. M. Brashe, “Hacking the Body: A Transfeminist War Machine,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1-2 (May 2016): 74-80, 78, https://doi. org/10.1215/23289252-3334223. MARGHERITA FONTANA 89 AN-ICON represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are out- side of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak 35about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias. 35 M. Foucault, “Of Other Spaces” (1984), trans. J. Miskowiec, Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22-27, 24. MARGHERITA FONTANA 90 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19529

Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology by Élise Jouhannet Water of Immersion Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion ÉLISE JOUHANNET, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1052-5164 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529 Abstract Water, whether surface or depths, recurrently appears in cinema as a motif and a material. The great sym- bolic importance this recurrence of the aquatic bears within film leads to calling its different uses into question, especially when it comes to the subaquatic. Addressing the question of the submarine allows going beyond water as a simple surface, and thus to move towards a real habitability of wa- ter. Making a history of underwater cinema that includes precinematic devices such as the public aquariums of the late 19th century enables the identification of an aesthetic community, as well as that of a common desire to stage a totalizing perceptive experience of the aquatic element and, in that way, of the image materiality. In line with the various cinematic underwater devices conceived to that end during the 20th century, virtual reality, as a total experience gener- ator, also resorts to the subaquatic as a pretext to immerse the user in the work of art. The recurring fascination for the subaquatic throughout the ages, even more so with the rise of new media, demonstrates how water is a central feature to better define and archeologize the concept of immersion. Keywords Water Underwater cinema Aquarium Virtual reality Hydrohumanities To quote this essay: E. Jouhannet, “Techniques and Poetics of the Submarine in Film: A Pretext for an Archeology of Immersion,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 91-109, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19529. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 91 AN-ICON  Taking the Plunge The true eye of the earth is water.1 In Water and Dreams, Gaston Bachelard tries to define this element that is so hard to catch due to its fluid nature. It takes so many shapes, colors and movements that describing water with human words seems pointless. Therefore, to talk about water, language and imagination must borrow its properties. To Bachelard, a true imagina- tion is always in motion; like a fluid, it is always “without images,” or, at least, “beyond images.”2 “The world is an im- mense Narcissus thinking itself”3 and to get to the essence of things, the true poet must dive through the surface of images, through the mirror, to find themselves in the deep blue and finally feel things from the inside, as they really are. Water is described by Bachelard as an optical device. The aqueous eye “looks back at us”4 but, like a screen, it is also a surface creating moving images. Accord- ing to Erkki Huhtamo, the first written mentions of the word “screen” in English can be found during the Renaissance period, describing objects supposed to protect from the heat of a fireplace. Those screens were made of translucent materials that allowed the viewer to perceive the move- ment of the flames. The flames, their physicality and their movement were as important as the screen itself because they create moving images, either abstract or figurative5. 1 G. Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, essai sur l’imagination de la matière (Paris: José Corti, 1942): 45 [my translation]. 2 G. Bachelard, L’air et les songes, essai sur l’imagination du mouvement (Paris: José Corti, 1943): 8 [my translation]. 3 J. Gasquet, Narcisse (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931): 45 quoted by G. Bachelard in L’eau et ses rêves: 36. 4 G. Didi-Huberman, Ce que nous voyons, ce qui nous regarde (Paris: Minuit, 1992) [my translation]. 5 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: Toward an Archeology of the Screen,” Navigationen- Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturwissenschaften 6, no. 2 (2006): 35, https://doi.org/10.25969/ mediarep/1958. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 92 AN-ICON  They gave depth and substance to what would otherwise be a simple surface. Moving images and the screen are co-depen- dent. Together, they act as “a threshold, barrier, reflector, membrane, interface, or vehicle for light and sound, thus joining, separating, or reconfiguring the spaces in front of and behind it.”6 This definition can be extended to natu- ral elements – like fire or water – allowing for an expand- ed reconsideration of the screen. Doing a “screenology”7 makes it possible to understand that the screen cannot be reduced to a technical apparatus but can be found every- where, including in nature. This “environmentalization”8 of the screen is in accordance with the concept of immersion in art which advocates for a genuine habitability of the im- age by constantly challenging the limits of the screen. Defining immersive art is not an easy task. It is also difficult to delineate historically. Duncan White, in his attempt to map expanded cinema (one of the various manifestations of what we consider immersive art), demon- strates the tentacular complexity of such a genealogy, the beginning of which he situates in the 19th century.9 Extend- ing the definition of the screen and immersivity to nature highlights the porosity between the history of the arts and their apparatuses with the wider history of the relations between humans and ecosystems. Natural elements must be reconsidered as the raw material of immersion and as fundamental immersive mediums, the various qualities of which inspired our mod- ern devices. Therefore, water can be considered a “natural 6 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge: The New Immersive Screens,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: from Optical Devices to Environmental Medium (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019): 135-158, 140. 7 E. Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology”: 32. 8 A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 594, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. 9 D. White, “Mapping Expanded Cinema,” Vertigo 4, no. 2 (2009), https://www. closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-4-issue-2-winter-spring-20091/expanded- cinema/, accessed February 28, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 93 AN-ICON  screen” that allows the viewer to fulfill the old fantasy of physically going through the screen. The poet described by Bachelard experiences the literal definition of “immer- sion” by crossing the surface of water. The etymology of immersion comes from Latin mergere which means “bury” or “dive in,”10 and is defined as “the act of putting some- body or something into a liquid, especially so that they, or it, are completely covered.”11 As a concept and in its artis- tic applications, immersion is deeply linked to submarine liquidity, continuously reenacting this fundamental experi- ence of being submerged in water. Let’s describe this situation: underwater, be- neath the surface, the diver is the only interface. Their body is changing environment and this change deeply affects their relationships to their surroundings. While the air on earth was an invisible substance in which they could breathe and move freely, in water the whole environment is visible, heavy, tactile, and unpredictable. At a certain depth, the submarine is a deadly environment. The amount of pressure on the body compresses the organism, giving a sensation described by divers as a sea “embrace,” “a true oceanic feeling.”12 Although this opposition between air and water is interesting phenomenologically, it is a bit binary. Indeed, even if invisible, if you concentrate enough on your breath- ing, you can feel there is no distance between your body and the air either. Also, the elements in our ecosystem are not so radically divided. To the hydrofeminist Astrida Neimanis, everything is made by and of water13 and this community of bodies questions the seemingly obvious 10 “Immerger,” Portail Lexical du Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/immerger, accessed July 25, 2023. 11 “Immerse,” Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ definition/english/immerse, accessed July 25, 2023. 12 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater (Durham-London, Duke University Press, 2020): 65. 13 “Astrida Neimanis ‘We Are All at Sea’,” RIBOCA channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Hp1wo1irkQA&ab_channel=RIBOCA, accessed July 31, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 94 AN-ICON  oppositions between natural elements. Nevertheless, by being historically situated, these binary oppositions are helpful in understanding how watery imaginary has been built in western culture and how, according to this imaginary, devices were made to confront rather than adapt to water. Water and Screen Materiality There is a great community of thoughts and images between water and immersive devices, and, more generally, between water and the visual arts. This collab- oration can even be traced back to Antiquity. The Roman era provides one of the biggest testimonies: the Mosaic of Maritime Life (c. 100 BCE) decorating the floor of the Faun’s House in Pompei, representing water as rather flat and still despite the extreme realism of some animals. All the potentialities of the surface of watery elements were explored at the Renaissance, with painting experiments on the reflective qualities of transparent me- diums such as mirror, glass and of course, water. Those experiments were theorized in the 18th century by Isaac Newton in Opticks (1704) which explores the reflection and refraction of light based on the various milieux it passes through, including water. The study of the surface of wa- ter is indeed indissociable from light. The laws edited by Newton must help to “neutraliz[e]” “the distorting power of a medium” and to avoid exploiting its joyful deformations.14 Therefore, the water typically represented in 18th century paintings appears domesticated (Fig. 1). 14 J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1990): 64. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 95 AN-ICON  Fig. 1. Jean Simeon Chardin, Water Glass and Jug, ca. 1760, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art. The mastery of light is also the prerogative of cinema. However, contrary to 18th century painting which had a tendency to freeze water and insist on its reflec- tive qualities, early cinema displays a fascination with its movements, especially if they appear to be out of control. In the Lumière’s films, water is either discreet and playful as shown in the famous Sprinkler Sprinkled (1895) or, on the contrary, taking up the entire surface of the screen, merging the film roll and the sea in a single materiality like in View no 11: The Sea (1895). Later, in filmic history, Tere- sa Weenberg and Suzanne Nessim continue to play with the graphic properties and cinematic potentialities of the surface of water. In Swimmer (1978), the rectangular frame of the screen is doubled by the artificial frame of the pool as a way of controlling the volatility of elements, whether water or electronic snow. The editing alternates between wide shots of the water in which we observe the swimmer moving, and close-ups filled with splashes and focus on aquatic material often superimposed with openings of the swimmer’s body presented in strange and affected poses. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 96 AN-ICON  The focus on the turquoise water highlights its luminous diversity and ever-changing aspect as a perfect metaphor for the materiality of the screen’s images.15 Thanks to water, the video screen as well as the swimmer’s body become less rigid, less impenetrable. By blurring oppositions and distances, water enables the transgression of boundaries, including that of the screen’s/skin’s limits. This way, the screen gets closer to a “natural medium,”16 a watery one, enhanced by the technological. Through this use of water, Wennberg and Nes- sim (as well as the Lumière brothers) implemented what Jeffrey Wall called the “liquid intelligence” of photography17 which can also be applied to moving images as “liquid cin- ema”18 or “vidé-eau.”19 It is the idea that photography and cinema take from water in their way of being and of rep- resenting reality, adopting liquid properties such as trans- parency, reflection, fluidity, expansion and permeability. To Jeff Wall, water is an “archaism,” a “prehistoric image” of photography20 and thus, of cinema. Therefore, to address water is indeed to consider this element as a historical me- dium, a naturally cinematic one that can be archaeologized, and which, through its liquidity, inspired a good number of images, whether moving or not. Liquid Cinema: Filming Through the Aquarium The history of cinema and water begins way earlier than cinema itself, in nature and other visual arts. 15 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001): 96-100. 16 H. Vaughan, “Toward a Natural Screen Philosophy,” in C. Rawls, D. Neiva, S. S. Gouveia, eds., Philosophy and Film (London-New York: Routledge, 2019). 17 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide,” in Essais et entretiens. 1984-2001 (Paris: École des Beaux-Arts, 2001): 175-178 [my translation]. 18 P.-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide,” in F. Bovier, A. Mey, eds., Cinéma exposé (Lausanne: les Auteurs, 2014): 55-65 [my translation]. 19 F. Parfait, Vidéo: un art contemporain: 118-120. 20 J. Wall, “Photographie et intelligence liquide”: 176 [my translation]. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 97 AN-ICON  Nevertheless, the aforementioned Lumière’s first movies give water a central role. The passion of the two brothers for means of transportation encouraged them to film not only trains but also boats, whether battleships like the Fürst-Bis- marck (View no 785: Kiel: The Launch of the Fürst-Bismark, 1897) or smaller boats such as in the bucolic Boat Leaving the Port (1897). It is the same fascination for marine equip- ment that led French filmmaker Jean Vigo to make a barge sailing to Paris the main character of his movie L’Atalante (1933). If the landscapes passed by on the banks and re- flected into water transform the Atalante’s journey into a real mise en abyme of the movie’s progress, the movie is interesting for its famous underwater sequences. During one of the key moments of the film, the captain of the boat throws himself overboard. This is followed by a 2-minutes underwater scene where he whirls around in front of the camera with the superimposed image of his lost wife in her wedding dress, floating in the depths of the river (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Jean Vigo, L’Atalante, 1934, still from film. Subaquatic sequences being quite rare at the time, this scene is a technical achievement. The first under- water photograph was taken in 1856 by William Thompson. It is a wet collodion photograph that managed to cap- ture the few beams of underwater light, creating a rather ÉLISE JOUHANNET 98 AN-ICON  abstract image of the ocean’s depths. Another photograph, maybe more crucial, was taken in 1893 by Louis Boutan. This time the bottom of the sea appears clearly, giving the very first vision of an underwater world.21 Before putting a movie camera underwater, ob- servations of the wonders of seascapes were made pos- sible by aquariums. An engraving published in 1890 in the journal La Nature, shows the inventor of photochronog- raphy, Étienne-Jules Marey, taking shots of an aquarium that he installed in one of the walls of his house in Posil- lipo, facing the sea.22 Five to six years later,23 one of the Lumière brothers, Louis, collaborator of the same journal, was making a film named The Aquarium, which describes a tiny aquarium filled with frogs and fishes, the iron frame of which almost perfectly matches a projection screen “like an image inside an image,” a medium inside a medium.24 This technique of first filming the submarine through aquariums of varying sizes was then taken up by the filmmakers of the 1920s. Among the most famous is French filmmaker Jean Painlevé who not only wanted to scientifically document aquatic fauna, but also to create an artistic, playful and aesthetic object.25 Painlevé was filming aquariums and his friend, Jean Vigo, borrowed his tech- niques to film underwater scenes through the portholes of a pool.26 This is how the sequences of L’Atalante were made, as well as some of the scenes of the short film Taris, 21 A. Martinez, “‘A Souvenir of Undersea Landscapes’: Underwater Photography and the Limits of Photographic Visibility, 1890-1910,” História Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos 3 (2014): 2-3, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702014000300013. 22 É.-J. Marey, “Locomotion in Water As Studied through Photochronography,” La Nature (1890) quoted in H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water: Etienne-Jules Marey’s Aquarium Laboratory and Cinema’s Assembly,” in B. Latour, P. Weibel, eds., Dingpolitik: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005): 327-331. 23 We have found two different dates in G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: histoire d´un dispositif (Paris: Mimesis, 2022): 301 and P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 59, 1895 for the first and 1896 for the second. 24 P-A. Michaud, “Aquarium ou le cinéma liquide”: 58-59. 25 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français,” in A. Martinet, ed., Le cinéma et la science (Paris: CNRS, 1994): 150. 26 L. Vigo, Jean Vigo, une vie engagée dans le cinéma (Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2002): 89. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 99 AN-ICON  roi de l’eau, which observes the underwater movements of swimming champion Jean Taris, three years earlier. The French cinema of the 1920s is closely re- lated to water. Due to economic constraint and a willing- ness to work independently from official studios, French filmmakers were drawn to film French landscapes, includ- ing coastlines. The constraint induced creativity, birthing a French fascination for water and seascapes, turning them into a frequent protagonist of the films of this period.27 The experimentations of Vigo and Painlevé are very relevant to understand the specific technicity surrounding the aquatic medium, which led to technical and aesthetic innovations inspired by the material qualities of water. The use of su- perimposition, fluid transitions, slow motion, combined with the surrealism and astonishment produced by underwater images all lead to a greater sense of immersion. Indeed, the use of water and liquid images narrows the frontier between viewer and screen. The closer the filmic apparatus gets to water, the greater the sense of immersiveness. Cinematic Immersion in the 19th Century Shared history between aquariums and cinema does not begin with Marey and Louis Lumière. By shooting a fish tank they were not only making scientific observations on the movement of undersea fauna, but also following a great tradition of displaying the submarine by means of aquariums, which began in the 19th century. With their camera, Marey and after him Louis Lumière, Painlevé and Vigo, are in line with a way of staging a “desire to see”28 27 See on this subject: E. Thouvenel, Les images de l’eau dans le cinéma français des années 20 (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010). 28 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama:15. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 100 AN-ICON  the marine depths, usually inaccessible to the human eye, and this “through”29 the aquarium glass. It was Marey’s visit to Naples’ aquarium, which remains one of Europe’s oldest aquariums today, that first gave him the idea to install one at home.30 Conceived in 1872, it was greatly inspired by the first monumental aquar- ium made for the Paris Jardin d’Acclimatation in 1861: it consists in a single room equipped with large aquariums along the walls, which are punctuated with columns dif- ferentiating the many tanks that operate like a “painting gallery”31 in motion. The Paris aquarium (Fig. 3) is consid- erably larger. The aquarium’s entire architecture can be un- derstood as a large “optical machine”32 fully engineered to bring light inside the tanks primarily via zenithal openings. Light has a crucial role to play since it can be used to cre- ate different ambiances and illuminate marine creatures in the most optimal way.33 The necessity of light in the func- tioning of aquariums also compares to cinema. The many windows created by the architecture constitute real glass “screens”34 lit from the inside, offering a frame to moving images staged to give a certain vision, a fantasy, of the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, motion within the aquariums is reinforced by the outer movements of the visitors who watch images unfold like film reels as they walk along- side the tanks. Additionally, similarly to movie theaters, the building is submerged in obscurity to emphasize the liquid images. A few years later during the 1867 Paris World’s Fair, two aquariums were built, one marine and the other for freshwater, both designed like underwater caves. The 29 Ibid.: 38. 30 H.R. Shell, “Things Under Water”: 328. 31 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques: Théophile Gauthier visite l’aquarium du jardin d’Acclimatation,” Culture & Musées 32 (2018): 85, https://doi.org/10.4000/culturemusees.2370. 32 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France (1855-1870),” Sociétés & Représentations 2, no. 28 (2009): 263, https://doi.org/10.3917/sr.028.0253. 33 G. Le Gall, Aquariorama: 68-62. 34 G. Le Gall, “Dioramas aquatiques”: 99. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 101 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Bertrand, The aquarium of the Jardin d’Acclimatation, in “Le Monde Illustré,” January 10, 1863. marine aquarium is particularly interesting because it fea- tured reservoirs not only on the sides, but also on the ceil- ing of the cave, which gave visitors the vivid impression of being both under the earth and under the sea, a sensation strengthened by the mise en scène of the space bathed in silent obscurity and covered by stalactites such as those found in coast caves. The idea was to experience new physical sensations by immersing the body in a peculiar environment, to disconnect visitors from their usual reality and have them dive in an environment they would other- wise never have access to.35 Not only was this aquarium a cinematic experience, a moving light image experiment, it was also in itself an installation in the most contemporary meaning of the word: an all-encompassing environment. Although less known, this last aquarium is the one that inspired Jules Vernes in his description of the Nau- tilus in Twenty Leagues under the Sea, which was published a few years after the World’s Fair (1869-70).36 It is also this 35 C. Lorenzi, “L’engouement pour l’aquarium en France”: 261-264. 36 M.-P. Demarck, D. Frémond, eds., Jules Vernes, le roman de la mer (Paris: Seuil, 2005): 82. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 102 AN-ICON  very book that inspired American filmmaker John Ernest Williamson to make the first underwater film in 1914. Inventing the Sea: Underwater Films Williamson’s film is interesting from many per- spectives. From a media archeology viewpoint, the appa- ratus he invented is highly symptomatic of the constraints inherent to the submarine milieu (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. How Submarine Movies are Made, in “Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers,” New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers 153 (1921), Washington DC, Library of Congress. Thirty Leagues under the Sea is a silent short film showing sights of the Bahamas and its marine fauna, at first fished and brought to the surface by force, then staged in a 5-minutes underwater scene. The Bahamas was chosen for its clear transparent waters which compensat- ed for the lack of undersea light, one of the major issues with underwater filming.37 To counter the obscurity of the depths, Williamson conceived a complementary lighting system using a large spotlight hanging from the ship that 37 B. Taves, “A Pioneer Under the Sea,” Library of Congress Information Bulletin 55, no. 15 (1996), https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9615/sea.html, accessed by 06/01/2022. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 103 AN-ICON  would illuminate the sub-seascape. Since analog cameras could not be used underwater, Williamson used a folding tube underneath the boat, leading to a “photosphere,” a spheric observational chamber equipped with a cone that resembles the objective of a camera,38 shaped like a port- hole which circles the lens. That way, Williamson would be able, from the boat, to go down the tube into the pho- tosphere, providing a dry space to film various scenes of marine life. Williamson’s apparatus shows that diving under water requires adjustments, devices and shapes that differ from preexisting ones used on land. In the context of a “sur- rounding medium”39 such as the aquatic, spheres, globes, and bubbles are better adapted to immersion than for in- stance a cube, however easier to manufacture. Indeed, just as in space, roundness is suited to withstanding underwater pressure.40 That is why underwater exploration equipment will systematically be spherical following Williamson. The story of underwater exploration is also a story of cinema, all underwater devices also being used to capture moving images. One thinks for example of the Bathysphere (Fig. 5) designed by Otis Barton and William Beebe in 1930, a sphere equipped with three portholes and connected to a ship by a cable that allows deeper and deeper descent into the depths of the ocean, sometimes with a camera. Like the aquariums, the photosphere and the Bathysphere allow the immersion of their inhabitants at the very heart of the sea and circularize the relationship to the environment. More than simple observatories, they allow the whole body to come as close as possible to the substance of water and, therefore, as close as possible to 38 J.E. Williamson, C. L. Gregory, “Submarine Photography,” Transactions of the Society of Motion Pictures Engineers (New York: Society of Motion Pictures Engineers, 1921): 153. 39 A. Somaini, “The Atmospheric Screen: Turner, Hazlitt, Ruskin,” in C. Buckley, R. Campe, F. Casetti, eds., Screen Genealogies: 169. 40 J. Brugidou, F. Clouette, “Habiter les abysses? D’une architecture du confinement à la co- création de mondes,” Techniques & Culture 75 (2021): 6, https://doi.org/10.4000/tc.15690. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 104 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Leo Wehrli, Margrit Wehrli-Frey, Beebe’s Bathysphere in “National Geographic Magazine,” 1934. © ETH Library Zürich, Image Archive. the image, thus enabling the body “to navigate in a three-di- mensional environment.”41 However, if the goal – especially when the cam- era is carried by scientific missions – is objectivity, recorded visions are often influenced by the ideologies of their time. Williamson’s movie is shaped by Western imperialism which goes along with an underwater imaginary inherited from the aquariums of the 19th century. The ocean, like other terri- tories, is considered a space to conquer, enslave, civilize, along with its inhabitants, a space without time, borders or history.42 The underwater scenes in Thirty Leagues under the Sea depict the seabed as a place of danger and fasci- nation, a danger Williamson creates himself by hanging a 41 P. Roubaix, “Le milieu subaquatique et le cinéma scientifique français”: 162-163 [my translation]. 42 N. Starosielski, “Beyond Fluidity: A Cultural History of Cinema Underwater,” in S. Rust, S. Monani, S. Cubitt, eds., Ecocinema Theory and Practice (London-New York: Routledge, 2013): 149. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 105 AN-ICON  dead horse face down in the water in the hope of attracting a shark that he will then kill with his bare hands. Williamson did not want to simply document underwater fauna and flora, he also sought to present the fight of the western man against wild nature and its inhabitants.43 This colonial and imperialist imaginary contin- ues in the second part of the 20th century, like in the famous movies of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.44 Therefore, even if shapes are changing within the submarine, few films revolu- tionize their content. The submarine apparatuses also carry technical and ideological confrontation to the environment they seek to explore, a reinvention of the submarine rather than a true understanding of its beings and functioning. Virtual Underwater Ecologies Rethinking the materiality of the screen, of im- ages and of relationships to the environment through the prism of water aims to blur the distance between the view- er’s body and what is being experienced; the further we progress in the history of the link between images and water, the more that distance shrinks to the point of (almost) dis- appearing. Immersive art in its most contemporary aspects such as virtual reality, also rhymes with the absence of dis- tance between oneself and one’s environment.45 VR makes it possible to reproduce the real experience of a body in a given environment as faithfully as possible and thus to go beyond an ordinary experience, making it feel and become something else.46 VR is one of the most accomplished ver- sions of immersion thanks to its device, often reduced to a Head Mounted Display (HMD) which makes it possible 43 Ibid.: 154-155. 44 See ibid. for a complete analysis. 45 However, the absence of distance is one of the major criticisms formulated against virtual reality by O. Grau in Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 202-203. 46 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 152-154. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 106 AN-ICON  to simultaneously contain and open perception towards another space. Water, particularly in its submarine application, is very attractive to virtual reality as an unframed, haptic manifestation of a milieu that can be experienced by the whole body, which corresponds to virtual reality’s search for total perception. The fluidity of water is commensurate with the fluidity of virtual images in being easily transgressed, crossed as well as expanded and distorted. Virtual environ- ments are in a way liquid, a liquid that cannot be touched, a missing materiality. Even if virtual perception is a totaliz- ing experience, it is also built in relation to a fundamental absence. What I aim to touch in the virtual world escapes me instantly. VR is a reality, effectively perceived, but it is also a virtual one, a program, a simulation. Incidentally, VR has no obligation to correspond to physical reality, above all when it is used for an artistic purpose. For Ariel Rogers, VR does not need to be understood through the dualism of illusion and truth. VR does not intend to “displac[e] the material world” but to “penetrate its surface.”47 VR is there- fore built on an absence, a lack of the physical world, but it is also a more-than-the-world, exceeding and renewing its perception. The subaquatic experience is similar to that of VR. Being underwater enables an increased perception of some of the senses and disrupt the functioning of others. What it gains in touch, it loses in sight, hearing and smell. The diver’s body is already an augmented body, trained to breathe, see and move underwater. Because everything that is perceived from under the sea dissolves in the liquid mass and the darkness of the depths, it constitutes a perfect space for the projections of the imagination. Symbolically, the subaquatic therefore exceeds the common terrestrial 47 Ibid.: 151. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 107 AN-ICON  world because it functions according to different laws and principles, which authorize the creation of new possibilities and fantasies.48 VR and subaquatic environments are a world in the world, a temporary accessible bubble for humans to feel their bodies and surroundings otherwise. One of the most renowned works in this regard is Osmose by Char Davies (1995). The “immersive virtual space”49 created by Char Davies is a reality in which the frontiers between various elements can be crossed smooth- ly, almost without noticing. One passes without hindrance from the clouds to the darkness of the forest, to the depth of a pond or even under the ground. All these elements are rendered in a transparent and luminous way, bypass- ing the surfaces and enabling the sight of the interior of things. Virtual reality makes it possible to “penetrate” the surface of reality, to highlight areas of the world beyond our awareness.50 Char Davies does not want to create a reality from scratch but rather to reveal, increase, sublimate and transform our sensorium by means of the virtual.51 To achieve this end, Char Davies drew on her own experience as a scuba diver, which inspired her to create Osmose.52 I have not been able to find out if the first images of the demonstration of Osmose representing the ocean floor with a diver swimming were part of the im- mersive experience, or if they were added after the video was edited.53 Nevertheless, it is clear that for Davies, the point is to dive into Osmose and let oneself be carried by its elements. This way, Davies not only uses water as a motif in VR but as a way of experiencing the artwork. The experience is even more similar to scuba diving as the 48 M. Jue, Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater: 78. 49 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemere,” in J. Mallory, ed., Women, Art, and Technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003): 327. 50 A. Rogers, “Taking the Plunge”: 151. 51 C. Davies, “Landscape, Earth, Body”: 322. 52 O. Grau, Virtual Art: 198. 53 See: http://www.immersence.com/osmose/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 108 AN-ICON  “immersant” floats through Osmose thanks to their breath- ing, which is recorded by sensors located in the vest on their torso. Breath removes any distance between the im- mersant and the surrounding reality, connecting them more deeply physically.54 The whole body of the participant is thus involved in the process as are most of their senses, as each virtual zone crossed has a soundscape which is diffused in stereo in the HMD. Immersion in Osmose lasts about fifty min- utes. It is a complete and contemplative experience that intends to redefine our relationship with natural elements and technology. Char Davies is in line with the history of underwater cinema. She inherits from its technical and aesthetic achievements, but transcends them by pushing their last limit, the screen itself. By choosing to embody the experience of water, to adapt to rather than confront the surroundings, she challenges the western submarine paradigm. It is a fundamental work for many other virtual55 (and non virtual) pieces that also investigate the relation between immersion and the aquatic element, an element that is no longer seen as a single motif, but as a genuine way of being and of experiencing an artwork. A special thanks to Marion Magrangeas for their precious help and numerous suggestions in correcting my English for this paper. 54 C. Grammatikopoulou, “Breathing Art: Art as an Encompassing and Participatory Experience,” in. C. Van den Akker, S. Legêne, eds., Museums in a Digital Culture (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 48. 55 For an interesting selection of virtual works involving water, see: https://www.radiancevr.co/ categories/water/, accessed July 25, 2023. ÉLISE JOUHANNET 109 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19512

Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment by Stefano Mudu Made Laure Prouvost of Objects Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects STEFANO MUDU, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia – https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0680-2621 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512 Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how Laure Prouvost’s artistic practice requires an immersion of the viewer in intermedial installations composed of objects from the most disparate spatial and temporal origins. Since the early 2000s, the French artist has intentionally created surreal mise-en-scenes which, by blending video, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance, can be understood as compositions or collages made of visual references tak- en from different contexts such as pop culture, the web, and private photo albums. Prouvost’s works are “unstable visual entities,” made of images that aggregate in heterogeneous configurations, generating eccentric atmospheres and can- celling every hierarchical order between the observer and the observed. Viewers are encouraged to fill the space by becoming objects among other objects. By using the Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as philosophical and methodological support, this paper will focus more closely on the analysis of Deep See Blue Sur- rounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre (2019), the project Prouvost produced for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. On this occasion, her work They Parlaient Idéale (2019) – a video documenting the Mediterranean Sea journey that brings her to the Venetian lagoon – was the cornerstone of a multifaceted environmental installation. STEFANO MUDU 110 AN-ICON  Assuming a critical and analytical approach, this contribution then discusses the role Deep See Blue Surrounding You plays as a “hyper-enactment:” it is a mise-en-scene that consists of interrelationships between “things/images” that aggregate as objects, but it is also a composition in which the viewers are “viscously” asked to generate their personal, non-linear narration. Keywords Laure Prouvost Surrealism Object-oriented ontology Hyper-enactment Venice Biennale To quote this essay: S. Mudu, “Laure Prouvost’s Deep See Blue Surrounding You: An Immersive Environment Made of Objects,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 110-126, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19512. STEFANO MUDU 111 AN-ICON A trip to our unconscious With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future towards Venice.1 It is neither trivial nor negligible that the term “surreal” recurs in the many critical essays and contributions that have attempted to provide a complete – although hard- ly exhaustive – description of Laure Prouvost’s art practice. And indeed, the appellation seems to fit perfectly if one considers that, in line with the avant-garde sensibility, the French artist’s works appear as mis-en-scène (or as we will say later, enactments) with a programmatically eccentric aesthetic as to “freely alternate the experience of daily life with imaginary, dreamlike sensation.”2 Pop culture allusions intertwine with biograph- ical narratives; historical sources and events are polluted by the exuberant use of private memories; consolidated linguistic codes and aesthetic canons are cancelled by a good dose of automatism and improvisation: in other words, thanks to the juxtaposition of heterogeneous ele- ments taken from more or less distant realities, Prouvost’s works seem to create a universe of reveries that follows the poetic and emotional ambiguities of that famous “surreality” promoted by André Breton.3 Moreover, as if to embrace the Freudian creed of the father of the French avant-garde, each installation by the artist seems to be the place of a real mediation between truth and fiction, functioning as a threshold for a reality similar to the subconscious, in which 1 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (press kit/ English) (Venice: 2019): 9. https://www.citedesartsparis.net/ media/cia/183726-press_release_en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. 2 R. Tenconi, ed., Grand Dad’s Visitor Center (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 16. 3 Famous and descriptive of the attitude in question is the first definition of “surreality” offered by Breton in the first Manifesto of the avant-garde: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” See A. Breton, “First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),” in C. Harrison, P. Wood, eds., Art in Theory 1900­-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992): 432-439, 436. STEFANO MUDU 112 AN-ICON  each subject is required to immerse themselves and create a personal narrative and/or vision.4 Beyond the conceptual purposes of such an approach – which very poetically allude to the possibili- ty of annulling any canon to celebrate the supremacy of subjectivity in every field of experience and knowledge, from religion to sexuality, from ecology to psychology – the outcome of this immersion in images is achieved by Prouvost thanks to the creation of compositions. Indeed, as will be explicitly stated below, each work is presented as a shape-shifting installation which not only integrates video, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance, but treats the materials derived from the use of these media as autonomous and ever changing “objects.” As they are “unstable visual entities,” they are not only “ready-made,” taken from the most disparate contexts – mass culture, the web or family albums; they are often objects created by Prouvost herself for other projects, which continuously migrate from one work to another, adding new levels of space-time stratification to the last one in the series. In any case – whether they are commonly used materials, created from scratch or already part of the artist’s repertoire – each of them joins the others in such elaborate configurations as to require the viewer to immerse themselves completely in the installation. Laure Prouvost’s intention, indeed, is to create “networks” of meaning and connections between the objects to make the observer feel immersed in the body of her works. As the observer enters the installations, the hierarchies among the objects are eliminated and they be- come an object among other objects; now consumed by the composition. 4 In the introduction to her Legsicon – a book published in 2019 in the occasion of AM- BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON, the solo show she presented at MhKA in Anntwerp – Prouvost argues that her editorial and exhibition project functions almost as a guide for the viewer who, together with her, “will be digging deeper and deeper into the subconscious.” See L. Prouvost, “Introduction,” in N. Haq, ed., Legsicon: Laure Prouvost (Bruges-Antwerp: Books Works with M HKA, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 7. STEFANO MUDU 113 AN-ICON  Surreal compositions, immersive installations The operations of doubling, repetition, manip- ulation or aggregation that all these materials are subject to (or simply their abundance in a single installation) make it difficult to provide a unitary, linear, complete description of the “contradictory surreality” which distinguishes the compositions they participate of or give life to. A sensation that is often intensified by the use of architectural structures capable of mediating their appearance and producing in the viewer a more vivid sensation of immersion in absurd scenarios, characterized by spatial as well as temporal and conceptual exuberance. For instance, in They Are Waiting for You (2017), an installation conceived for the Walker Art Center in Min- neapolis,5 the artist had brought together an abundance of everyday objects (plants, tables, chairs, breast-shaped sculptures, posters, etc.) which unsurprisingly became pro- tagonists of a broad reflection on language. According to Prouvost, even oral or written communication is the expres- sion of an ambiguous surreality: word by word, it helps to get the sense of the world but it also generates constant misunderstandings. As suggested by the title, the viewer found all these materials in a waiting room after walking a short cor- ridor that separated them from the rest of the museum (from full-blown reality). Here, alongside the objects, there was also the video-performance Dit Learn (2015) in which Prouvost, with a persuasive whisper, addressed the patrons involving them in learning new forms of communication by deconstructing and undermining consolidated knowledge.6 5 The work has evolved over the years, and in addition to having modified various installation variables in many exhibition venues, it has also become a samesake theater piece presented for the first time in Minneapolis when the exhibition opened. See “Laure Prouvost in collaboration with Sam Belinfante and Pierre Droulers: They Are Waiting for You,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/calendar/2018/laure-prouvost-in-collaboration-with-sam- belinfante-and-pierre-droulers-they-are-waiting-for-you, accessed December 12, 2022. 6 For any further information about the project, see V. Sung, “Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist,” Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/laure-prouvost-they-are- waiting-for-you-installation, accessed December 9, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 114 AN-ICON  Indeed, as the critic and curator Nav Haq has argued, this space was conceived as a meeting place for the viewer and many common objects which acquired new meanings in the film; despite being immobile, these were “literally talking to each other. They were animated, in a state of flux, preparing us to learn their new meanings.”7 A few years earlier, on the occasion of her first solo exhibition in Lithuania, Prouvost had combined these conceptual and linguistic oddities with a bold use of ar- chitecture which, with its physiognomy, literally allowed immersion in her imagination. In Vilnius, in fact, she had presented “Burrow Me” (2015), a hand-dug underground cave in the garden of the Rupert Art Center which housed a video and a series of objects capable of an absurd nar- ration about her artist grandfather. Just to provide another example, one of the latest and most famous monumental works – entitled Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You (2019) and presented on the oc- casion of the 58th Venice Biennale – was conceived with the specific purpose of simulating in a very surrealistic way the entry into the stomach of a marine animal, ideally an octopus. And precisely with the aim of accompanying the viewer in “a liquid and tentacular universe,”8 each visual, verbal and sound material was conceived to recall another, in a fluid game of free associations of meaning and form all aimed at erasing perceptive certainties and giving life to the abysmal metaphor to which the title alluded. This last work is an emblematic case study to understand the characteristic immersiveness of Prouvost’s installations, so it is at least necessary to retrace the visit itinerary proposed for the occasion. It should be underlined, however, that trying to order the elements that contribute to the creation of this or other projects by the artist can only give exclusively partial results. 7 N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity,” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 9-16, 15. 8 M. Kirszenbaum, ed., https://www.citedesartsparis.net/media/cia/183726-press_release_ en.pdf, accessed December 12, 2022. STEFANO MUDU 115 AN-ICON  Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You Seen from the outside, the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale bore no striking indication of the many oddities that would in fact envelop the visitor once they entered the exhibition space. Indeed, from a formal point of view, the neoclassical temple appeared immac- ulate and well structured; it certainly presented no more aesthetical connotations than other previous Biennials had. The expectation of an ordinary installation vanished since at regular intervals the architecture disappeared in a blan- ket of artificial fog and the main entrance to the Pavilion, under the colonnade, was barred. On the left side of the loggia, almost confused with the pattern of the façade, a first sculpture appeared which, like a small billboard, had specific features and signaling functions. In fact, a sen- tence engraved on the stone read “IDEALLY YOU WOULD GO DEEPER TO THE BACK OF THIS BUILDING” and in- vited you to cross the rich vegetation that surrounded the structure to reach the back of the building (Fig. 1). Here, the viewer accessed the exhibition space from the foun- dations of the Pavilion (Fig. 2): a dark and liminal space which, in its being a connoted threshold, sanctioned the transition between inside and outside, non-art and art, real and imaginary, order and disorder, and progressively ac- companied the visitor to immerse themselves in the many contradictions of meaning and form that characterize the aforementioned “surreality” of Prouvost. In this specific passage area, the first objects were delivered to the spectator: masks which, for those fa- miliar with Prouvost’s work, represented the first indication of a recycling of images, since the artist used them as props at least in her video Dit Learn, and perhaps even earlier, in some of her early experimental video-performances. As on previous occasions, the iconography of the mask certainly alluded to the need of a camouflage op- eration with the new reality created by the artist. Perhaps it was even referring to the need to cancel the identity of the wearer. But in this specific work, thanks to the phonetic STEFANO MUDU 116 AN-ICON  Fig. 1/2 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Photography by Gianni Cipriano ambiguity of the term “Sea” in the title Deep Sea Blue Sur- rounding You – a homophone to “see” – the mask seemed to become to all intents and purposes a vision device to approach and be able to interpret the abysmal world in which visitors were about to immerse themselves. The next room was then conceived as an ante- chamber that anticipated the true immersion in the narrative, of which it was already strewn with clues. It was dazzlingly lit and apparently empty, except for a light blue resin floor in which, like on a waterline, various types of objects were trapped: from biological remains (such as eggshells, feath- ers, dry branches), to artificial materials (such as telephones or plastic bottles) and finally small glass sculptures that reproduced the shape of animals, often marine (such as octopuses, fish and jellyfish) (Fig. 3). These were objects from Prouvost’s imagery, which circulate from project to project and, not surprisingly, belong to the series she called “reliques.” Indeed, as the latter title suggests, these sculp- tures worked as traces, as “archaeological” fragments of the artist’s design history, and at the same time they served as the necessary material for the construction of ever new narratives. Objects that Prouvost defines as “Being used to help [...] Used to prove something, get the imagination STEFANO MUDU 117 AN-ICON  Fig. 3 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte going. Proof of reality. A small part of a bigger thing, often used by religions.”9 After crossing a further threshold – this time a fabric membrane (Fig. 4) – the spectator finally had the sensation of immersing themselves in an abysmal world whose intermediary objects, distributed in three rooms, all referred to the video They Parlaient Idéale (2019), projected on a large screen (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 – Laure Prouvost, Deep Fig. 5 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French See Blue Surrounding You, Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, French Pavilion Biennale Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Venice 2019. Photography by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Gianni Cipriano Photography by Cristiano Corte 9 L. Prouvost, “Reliques” in N. Haq, Legsicon: 245. STEFANO MUDU 118 AN-ICON  While the filmic work documented with a bi- zarre gaze the (initiatory) journey undertaken by the art- ist to reach the Venetian lagoon and followed the story of different professionals who, in the Mediterranean, deal with magic, music or dance; the installation consisted of further traces/relics of the film image or other materials that mimicked its aesthetics. The space surrounding the projection housed the film’s props, but was also filled with sculptures in resin, clay, glass and fabric, with plants and steam that derived from other projects or recalled their aesthetics and temporality (Fig. 6). All together, these visu- al materials formed an abysmal atmosphere in which the viewer immersed themselves metaphorically and literally, conceptually and formally. Fig. 6 – Laure Prouvost, Deep See Blue Surrounding You, French Pavilion Biennale Venice 2019 (installation view) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Photography by Cristiano Corte The seats on which viewers could sit looked like coral formations, but they also perfectly mimicked the forms of the architecture of the Palais Ideal du Fac- teur Cheval from which the journey had started – some had a riding saddle resting on them to recall the scene in which ideally a group of knights starts the film. The wrought iron mannequins (Metal Men and Woman, 2015- 22) were the same as in previous projects, and here they wore the same mask used by some performers in the film and handed over to the viewer at the entrance to the Pavilion. Structures in the shape of an umbrella-fountain made of Murano glass [Cooling System (for global worm- ing), ca. 2017-2019] inhabited the space after being used STEFANO MUDU 119 AN-ICON  as props in a performance that took place in the spaces of the Pavilion and throughout Venice the days before the opening. Then a large tapestry was conceived as a col- lage of images taken from the film which, woven together, functioned as a decidedly chaotic storyboard. To put it differently, the filmic work They Par- laient Idéale, as if it were the stomach of the octopus in which Prouvost wanted to immerse the viewer, held together in a truly sprawling way a series of images and objects which, like fragments from different provenances, came in sequence simultaneously declaring their being anchored to different spatio-temporalities and their ability to build new entities. All together, so to speak, these ma- terials worked as pre-existing entities that united in a new “enactment” – an unprecedented staging – conceptually or formally multicellular. Diving viscously among objects It has already been noted how this aggregative methodology guarantees the most vivacious conceptual outcomes to Prouvost’s works – since for the French artist, following Breton, the image seems to arise from the jux- taposition of different realities and to present itself all the stronger the more distant and just the relations between them are. And it is also evident that the surreal language is used by the artist as a narrative ploy to narrate the complex identity and the ecological urgencies of the contemporary world, which perhaps needs dreamlike distance from reality in order to understand and face its critical issues. Instead, it seems necessary to point out the pro- cess with which, within her installations, the artist achieves similar outcomes in terms of content. It is necessary to describe as far as possible the order in which the various visual materials are joined, the artist’s “rules” – if any – for the juxtaposition of objects and images in the installation. In this sense, it seems to be of great help to use some partial notions formulated in the context of the STEFANO MUDU 120 AN-ICON  so-called Object-Oriented Ontology or OOO, one of the most radical philosophical currents which proposes to study reality starting from the role and status of the mate- rials that form it, all attributable to the rank of “objects.”10 According to the OOO, any experience of real- ity would in fact be composed of delimited entities which, regardless of their human, non-human, inhuman, animal or imaginary nature, join together to create reality of progres- sive complexity. Graham Harman, founder of the theory, underlines how each manifestation of reality is linked by a biographical relationship with the materials that compose it but which, at the same time, is distinguished by the emer- gence of new and peculiar qualities. Although it aspires to define itself as a “theory of everything” and, not without potential systemic problems and flaws, it intends to act on reality at all disciplinary levels – from history to art, from ethics to politics – the function- ing of such aggregation model between “objects” seems to have extremely notable repercussions especially in the context of artistic production, where the case studies are small enough to be analyzed, and where the intermedia approach has now led to the coexistence of materials so different as to require the intervention of new analytical tools to understand the equal importance they assume in the composition. In Deep See Blue Surrounding You, for instance, architecture, sculpture, video, performance and design pro- duce autonomous objects of a heterogeneous nature which, however, manage to unite in coherent formal and narra- tive agglomerations. Just as the OOO maintains, bodies, sounds, images and objects appear as portions of a lexicon and, in a more or less elementary way, carry the memory of their previous experience in other contexts while putting themselves at the service of a new and more complex in- stallation. To use a metaphor that Harman himself derives from biological studies – and in particular from those on 10 See G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (London: Penguin Random House, 2018); and L.R. Bryant, The Democracy of Objects (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, University of Michigan, 2011). STEFANO MUDU 121 AN-ICON  “symbiosis” by the scholar Lynn Margulis –11 Prouvost’s installations behave like aggregations of cells that come together to produce compound objects that always have a degree of structural complexity higher than that of the materials that compose them. Moreover, the OOO brings the concept of flat-ontology (an equal ontology); every entity of reality – regardless of its human, non-human, imaginary nature – contributes without any hierarchy to the construction of the new compound object. Therefore, as in the most abstract philosophy, “humans, animals, inanimate matter and fiction- al characters all equally exist,”12 in Prouvost’s installations sculptures, video-art, sounds, lights, and even human and animal bodies contribute to the formation of an expanded composition. Based on the democratic outcomes of this confrontation between objects, now the observers feel im- mersed in the body of this “phantastic and abstract” animal. Acting as a prey inside the stomach of an octopus, they lose their identity and become similar to the objects, or at least, coexist with them.13 It does not seem rash to argue that, in these circumstances, even the spectator appears as an object among objects. Moving in space, the viewer is led to relate to the objects of the composition, to physically embrace the surreality placed before them and, finally, in carrying out this operation, to become part of the compo- sition, or so to speak, to dive “viscously” among objects. Installations as hyper-enactments The use of the term “viscous” is not accidental. It is in fact one of the adjectives that the philosopher Tim- othy Morton – a colleague of Harman and one of the first 11 Harman explicitly refers to Lynn Margulis’ research, which describes “symbiosis” as “the system in which members of different species live in physical contact.” See L. Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (London: Phoenix, 2001): 7; and G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 111. 12 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 55. 13 t is to point out that the spectators are asked to stay and sit in specific places within the installation space. In any case, they assume a particular point of view to watch the videos, and they wear a mask to view the objects and the space. This means that they might appear as an object among others, following the artist’s intention, but in terms of reception, they might be part of a more complex interplay of movements, regards and subjectivity processes. STEFANO MUDU 122 AN-ICON  supporters of the OOO – uses to describe his “hyperob- jects:”14 those entities widely distributed in time and space which, thanks to the union of portions of smaller objects, have become so big, “hyper” indeed, that they are ev- erywhere: above and, mainly, among us. In the ecological aspects of his discussion, Morton defines as hyperobjects concepts such as “global warming,” “the biosphere,” the “sum of all nuclear material on earth” and so on: objects or phenomena that are “‘hyper’ in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not.”15 They are therefore very specific entities and ap- parently very different from art installations. And yet, his proposal has structural founda- tions close to those of the OOO and which are well suited to analyzing smaller scale objects such as art pieces; with increasing frequency they are created thanks to the use of heterogeneous physical or human materials and capable of establishing connections so wide in terms of composition as to provide the sensation of enveloping the viewer. The composition of Deep See Blue Surrounding You is an example of the dynamics just described. Prou- vost’s work is not a hyperobject in Morton’s terms (even if the environmental issues in which she believes do not differ from those addressed by the American philosopher), but it can be defined as a mis-en-scène (“enactment”) which, due to its degree of compositional complexity can derive from the theory of the American philosopher, at least as regards the prefix “hyper.” A terminological intuition, the latter, which also seems to be confirmed by the words used by Massimiliano Gioni to describe the practice of the French artist. Indeed, when Prouvost invited him to write about it in the Deep See Blue Surrounding You catalogue, the Italian curator declared: “she cultivates an excess of 14 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2013). 15 Ibid.: 1. STEFANO MUDU 123 AN-ICON  storytelling that flourishes in a constant hyper-connectivity of characters and situations.”16 The concept of hyper-enactment proposed here, in fact, would not only describe a creative stag- 17 ing which, like the OOO, plans to bring together “objects” and “references” so heterogeneous as to make a univocal orientation among them almost impossible; it would also denote a chaotic abundance of materials and narratives which, as Gioni also claims, is functional in structuring the conceptual surreality desired by the artist. Prouvost’s hy- per-enactments are, in fact, “streams of consciousness”18 where “things are broken and cut. Stories and narratives spiral out of control – digressing laterally in a constant flow of free associations.”19 In this compositional context, as already shown by the description of the Deep See Blue Surrounding You exhibition itinerary, the viewer moves between the objects and the narratives of the stream of consciousness devel- oping so-called interobjective links20 and, in a “viscous” way, becomes part of them in an attempt to understand them. To use the image that the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre introduces in Being and Nothingness (1943) – and that Morton takes up again in his work – in these cases the spectator experiences the sensation of a hand dipped in honey:21 thus merging with the surrounding objects thanks to the reciprocal relationships (aesthetic or semantic) es- tablished with that material. In fact, it is only this degree of extreme immersion that allows the visitor to understand the composition and to develop with its materials what 16 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana,” in M. Kirszenbaum, ed., Laure Prouvost: Deep See Blue Sourrounding You / Vois ce bleu profonde te fondre (Paris: Institut Français, 2019, exhibition catalogue): 252-254, 252. 17 I have extensively explored the subject in the context of my doctoral thesis. See S. Mudu, Re-/ Over- / Hyper-enactments: Strategie di riattivazione nelle produzioni artistiche contemporanee, a Thesis in Visual Culture Presented in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Università Iuav, Venice (2022). https://hdl.handle. net/11578/319396, accessed Decembrer 13, 2022. 18 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 253. 19 Ibid.: 253. 20 T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 1. 21 Morton openly quotes Sartre pointing out that “we are stuck to hyperobjects, as if they enacted Sartre’s nightmare, ‘the sugary death of the For-itself,’ evoked when I plunge my hand into a jar of honey.” See T. Morton, Hyperobjects: 180. STEFANO MUDU 124 AN-ICON  Harman calls “metaphorical relations:”22 the ability that an object possesses to identify with another without obvious similarities, to join it and, in doing so, to create a new, more complex reality. In Deep See Blue Surrounding you the human experiences a system of expanded human and more-than- human (even imaginary) relationships and renegotiates its claims to supremacy and autonomy. By crossing the “po- rous threshold”23 of the installation they immerse themselves in what Morton calls “symbiotic real:”24 a whole “in which entities [human and nonhuman] are related in a non-total, ragged way.”25 Moreover, it does not seem out of place to un- derline how it is Prouvost herself who involves the viewer in this diving game. Thanks to the structure of her particular video-performance objects, the artist communicates di- rectly with the observer using the second person: she asks them to follow clues and instructions to reconstruct the narrative in which the spectator is immersed; she constantly puts them to the test with effects of doubling, repetition and manipulation that modify the shape and meaning of the entire visual composition. Also using “words and language as found ob- jects,”26 Prouvost builds a “hyper-communication”27 that accompanies the viewer to abandon the condition of “sub- ject” and embrace that of “object”, one among many oth- ers around. To put it in the words that the artist uses in the aforementioned video-performance Dit Learn, the viewers are destined “to become the seat [they are] sat on.”28 Using an eloquent image extrapolated from the last moments of They Parlaient Idéale (Fig. 7), thus, the visitor who approaches Deep Sea Blue Surrounding You and other works by Prouvost is required to jump into an 22 G. Harman, Object-Oriented Ontology: 119. 23 R. Braidotti, The Posthuman (Cambridge: Politi Press, 2013): 131 24 T. Morton, Humankind. Solidarity with Nonhuman People (London: Verso, 2017): 13. 25 Ibid. 26 M. Gioni, “Fata Morgana:” 254. 27 Ibid. 28 Original formulation: “to become the seat you are sat on,” taken from the script of Dit Learn, published in N. Haq, “Laure Prouvost’s Lexicon of Ambiguity:” 11. STEFANO MUDU 125 AN-ICON  alternative reality. Here, among images and objects of vari- ous kinds, the spectator will abandon the surface of things – what they seem to be – to float in a sprawling world that helps illuminate what they really are. Or, perhaps, they may be in an alternate reality: a sur-reality. Fig. 7 – Laure Prouvost, They Parlaient Idéale, 2019, HD Video, 28 min 30 sec (video still) © Laure Prouvost, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Carlier | Gebauer, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia. STEFANO MUDU 126 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19765

What to do in/with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual by Julia Reich real it y Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello What to do in /with images? The (virtual) hand in augmented and virtual reality. JULIA REICH, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-3558 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765 Abstract This paper focuses on the concept of acting with and in images in the context of recent AR and VR artworks. The thesis is that the (virtual) hand plays a significant role in an immersive experience. Referring to Doris Kolesch’s relational concept of immersion as one that considers not only the status of being evolved but also the process of getting inside, three forms of actions in and with images are discussed: the hand as stage, the hand as a symbio- tic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. With artworks by Jeremy Bailey, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience by interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. Keywords Immersive experience Virtual reality Augmented reality Virtual hand Contemporary art To quote this essay: J. Reich, “What to Do in/with Images? The (Virtual) Hand in Augmented and Virtual Reality,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 127-143, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19765. JULIA REICH 127 AN-ICON  “Viewing is already an activity, and distance from the work is its necessary condition. Immersion? Not neces- sary. We are already in the picture.”1 With these words, Pe- ter Geimer ends his polemical assessment of the immersion trend in contemporary art and in exhibitions. His critique, published almost five years ago, is mainly directed at the seemingly obstructive distance between the visitor and the artwork, as well as at the artistic and curatorial unreflected affirmation of an immersion-based paradigm of experience. What was considered hype at the time, however, as Oliver Grau’s art historical genealogy of virtual art impressively unfolds,2 turns out to be neither new nor based purely on media technology. Rather, the increased emergence from a temporal distance suggests itself as the advance of a second virtuality boom in the art and cultural landscape, which has become a matter of course today, and which was additionally fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic caused the entire global society to practice social distancing, immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), that challenge the polarity of close and far, not only became increasingly pre- valent in the field of art but also obtained an impact in our everyday lives. Whether in regard to medical applications or in the context of commercial instruments, these immer- sive scenarios permeate our life worlds.3 In contrast to the first wave of virtuality in the 1990s, whose discursive tenor tended to emphasize the otherworldly and specta- cular, AR and VR technologies have recently been used by artists to highlight the fragility and permeability between 1 P. Geimer, “Kunst und Immersion: Der Trend zum Bildersturm,” FAZ (July 23, 2018), https:// www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/kunst-und-architektur/was-soll-der-trend-zur-immersion-in-der- kunst-15701142.html, accessed April 23, 2023 [my translation]. 2 The author begins his genealogical analysis of virtual reality in art with the example of the pre-Christian Pompeian Villa dei Misteri and includes analog as well as digital simulation spaces. Cfr. O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2003). 3 Cfr. S. Rieger, A. Schäfer, A. Tuschling, eds., Virtuelle Lebenswelten: Körper – Räume – Affekte (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2022). At this point, reference should also be made to the Collaborative Research Center 1567 Virtual Lifeworlds [Virtuelle Lebenswelten] at the Ruhr- University Bochum, which is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of various manifestations of virtuality. JULIA REICH 128 AN-ICON  “art, mediating technologies, and daily life”4 through im- mersive experiences. According to Doris Kolesch, immer- sion is foremost an experience of a “threshold and transi- tion,” a “dynamic of oscillating between embeddedness and distance, of submersion and surfacing,” and less a complete absorption by the artwork.5 While AR immerses virtual objects in the physical environment, to which users can relate in the hybrid zone of the display, VR offers the possibility of entering a completely designed visual world, that is accessible via head-mounted displays (HMD). VR and AR, with their environmental images6 or hybrid image spaces, tend to locate themselves in zones of permeability and transience between the virtual and physical sphere. Particularly in the context of virtual art forms, an artistic interest emerges in testing those threshold experien- ces and making them reflectible via a technically achieved nearness. And here the (virtual) hand, through its activity in immersive art forms, reduces the distance that makes a reflexive reception possible in the first place. Not only immersive-virtual works create a perceived loss of distan- ce, but also their viewers, who enter a relationship with and into images. Immersion is thus not only defined as a media-technical being enveloped but is also understood as a “relational concept”7 and, therefore, equally bound to oneself actively getting inside.8 As multifaceted as the concept of immersion is, it derives from the physical process, 4 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship at the Interface of Theatre, Media Tech and Daily Life: An Introduction,” in D. Kolesch, T. Schütz, S. Nikoleit eds., Staging Spectators in Immersive Performances: Commit Yourself! (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2019): 1-17, 9, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198274. 5 The author distinguishes between two variants of immersive experience, mental- psychological and perceptual-psychic situatedness. While the former primarily addresses the cognitive level, where the recipient’s attention is directed, such as when reading a book, the latter promises a whole-body experience that involves the recipient as an active and essential entity. Contrary to the reproach of an unreflected appropriation, which Peter Geimer also addresses, Kolesch sees in immersive situations a potential of an “interruption of aesthetic illusion.” D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 8. 6 Image worlds in VR in particular illustrate the tendency of the image to become an environment, as they are characterized by an unframedness, presentness and immediatness, and in this way, make their own image status precarious. A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (2020): 594-603, 602, https://doi.org/10.1093/ screen/hjaa060. 7 D. Kolesch, “Immersion and Spectatorship”: 4. 8 T. Hochscherf, H. Kjär, P. Rupert-Kruse, “Phänomene und Medien der Immersion,” in Jahrbuch immersiver Medien: Immersion: Abgrenzung, Annäherung, Erkundung (Kiel: Schüren, 2011): 9-18, 14, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/18222. JULIA REICH 129 AN-ICON  which is first and foremost a directed movement that is fol- lowed by the topos of surroundedness. And, as quite a few works of film and art hi- story demonstrate, the first – often exploratory and reco- gnizing – immersive movement into unknown terrain is led by the hand9. By contrast, the 21st century resembles an era of the hands’ oblivion [Handvergessenheit], as Jochen Hörisch notes.10 According to him, it is precisely cogni- tively abstract, immaterial processes and values that are displacing the dimensions of handiness and craftsmanship in the (post)digital age, even though they are based on them.11 Yet it is these aspects that seem to be emphasi- zed in AR artworks, when one’s own hand literally moves forward into the screen-viewed hybrid sphere, or when the hand in VR works takes on the function of a tool by means of hand tracking and starts to interact with virtually found objects. While so-called data gloves were already used in the early VR art of the 1990s to navigate from one space to another, the possibilities for action have multiplied con- siderably.12 If one considers immersion in this sense as a bodily movement that creates a simultaneity of being here and there, of which the recipients are quite aware, then the stretching forward and pulling back of the hand seems to be paradigmatic for a perception of difference, from which a self-reflexive quality can emerge.13 Based on this observation, this paper focuses on the significance of the (virtual) hand and its forms of action in AR and VR art. While the concept of image act(ion) [Bildhandlungen] is applied to different image types and 9 In their introduction, Burcu Dogramaci and Fabienne Liptay discuss an immersion conceptualized particular in film and in the process name various film scenes in which the sense of sight is usually doubted and therefore a reassurance by hand takes place. For example, in the case of Neo, the Matrix protagonist, who recognizes his own reality as a dream by touching a billowing mirror. Cfr. F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2016): 1-17. 10 J. Hörisch, Hände: Eine Kulturgeschichte (München: Hanser, 2020): 22. 11 Ibid. 12 An early example in which data gloves were used to provide orientation and navigation in the virtual space with hand movements is Monika Fleischmann’s and Wolfgang Strauss’ installation Home of the Brain (1989-1992). 13 According to Doris Kolesch, immersion include not only the process of diving in, but also that one of surfacing, which in the case of the hand can be understood as a stretching forward and pulling back. D. Kolesch, “Immersion and spectatorship”: 9. JULIA REICH 130 AN-ICON  widely discussed in the discourse of image studies and art philosophy, it can only be meaningfully related to the interactive image, according to Silvia Seja. Because only the interactive image allows an action with things, ima- ges, spaces, and bodies that are merely virtually in the image and thus present and manageable.14 Referring to simulated scenarios, Inge Hinterwaldner points out that interactive images not only allow but also significantly shape and influence actions.15 Users both intervene in and are influenced by the iconic configuration, as it de- termines the way in which they can interact with it, as is the case in AR and VR artworks.16 Accordingly, iconicity and interactivity are reciprocal.17 Along with current works by Jeremy Bailey, Ari- starkh Chernyshev, Rachel Rossin, and Florian Meisenberg, this contribution aims to contour the forms of action in which the (virtual) hand, in particular, allows an immersive experience in interaction with the virtual sphere and knows how to combine distance with nearness. In this context, the actions in and with images are further developed on the basis of three perspectives: the hand as a stage, the hand as a symbiotic contact zone, and the hand as a designing hand. Prior to examining these artistic works in detail, it may be useful to first explain the technological background and development, determining the importance of the hand in relation to virtual sceneries. The (virtual) hand The constant progress of media technology de- velopments in the field of hand recognition seems to be something of a paradox when one considers the hands’ oblivion in the 21st century, as identified by Hörisch. In 14 S. Seja, “Der Handlungsbegriff in der Bild- und Kunstphilosophie,” in I. Reichle, S. Siegel, A. Spelten, eds. Verwandte Bilder: Die Fragen der Bildwissenschaft (Kadmos: Berlin, 2007): 97-112, 111. 15 I. Hinterwaldner, The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations (2010), trans. E. Tucker (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2017): 229. 16 Ibid. The author emphasizes two qualities of the systematic image focusing on interaction: the presentational and the operative aspect, and therefore, highlights the image as its own interface. 17 Ibid., especially the chapter “Iconicity and Interactivity”: 215-271. JULIA REICH 131 AN-ICON  February 2023, Mark Zuckerberg published a short demo video of the now-available Direct Touch feature for the VR headsets Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro. The feature pro- mises a more intuitive operation in the VR and mixed rea- lity view,18 via gesture control, manual scrolling, and tap- ping, for example, in a superimposed browser page or a basketball game. Thereby, the user’s hands are tracked with external headset cameras and appear in the user’s view as grayish virtual hands. What can be traced in this current example is the technological genesis of the (virtual) hand, which seems far from complete. After the first prototypes in the 1970s, the first commercial data glove developed by VPL Research was launched in 1987 and already featured gesture recognition and tactile feedback.19 In addition to the further development of wearables and external periphe- rals, such as handheld controllers, vision-based tracking experiments with gesture recognition started parallel in the 1980s.20 Dependence on previously complex calibrations and external power sources was no longer necessary with the 2013 launch of Leap Motion Technology. Although now taken for granted, for example, in VR gaming, it marked an important step towards free-hand interaction with the desktop screen and later within a VR environment. With this technology, small infrared sensors and cameras track the hands motions and visualize them in VR or desktop view. While Leap Motion Tracking is now mostly implemented in VR headsets, there have also been efforts to combine this with AR applications on private devices to provide more natural interaction with mobile AR objects.21 In the early years, AR interaction was mainly based on physical objects with markers. More recent applications, however, 18 In this context, the mixed reality mode is understood as an interweaving of real environment and virtual elements, which clearly comes close to the passthrough mode mentioned later, but also makes the separation to AR questionable. For this aspect, Cfr. A. Urban, J. Reich, M. van der Veen, “Passthrough: Von Portalen, Durchblicken und Übergängen zwischen den (virtuellen) Welten,” Kunstforum International 290 (2023): 86-95. 19 Cfr. P. Premaratne, Human Computer Interaction Using Hand Gestures (Singapur: Springer, 2014): 5-12. 20 Ibid: 12f. 21 Cfr. M. Kim, J. Y. Lee, “Touch and Hand Gesture-based Interactions for Directly Manipulating 3D Virtual Objects in Mobile Augmented Reality,” Multimed Tools Appl 75 (2016): 16529-16550, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3355-9 JULIA REICH 132 AN-ICON  increasingly use hand tracking. What this very brief outline illustrates is the increasing desire for the most device-free and intuitive handling possible in and with virtual environ- ments, which is reflected in these technological innova- tions. Even if hand tracking is not an essential feature for VR applications, and 360° VR films, for example, usually manage without it, numerous research studies point to an increased sense of immersion and presence in the virtual environment with visualized hands.22 While technological advancements have made it possible to simulate manual activity and seem to have brought the hand out of oblivion, the hand movements required in virtual environments are often different from those needed in daily life. For instan- ce, simply flicking your index finger won’t be enough to put a basketball into a basket, as Digital Touch simulates. Thus, while these endeavors may bring the hand out of oblivion, they still fall short of replicating true-to-life expe- riences. Rather, the hand seems to adapt to the existing motion patterns of the virtual hand. As will become clear in the following, the desire to hold one’s own hand in the virtual world does not first arise from hand tracking but starts with image configurations that presuppose much less interaction. The hand as stage In the context of the AR Biennal (Aug. 22nd, 2021-Apr. 24th, 2022), initiated by the NRW Forum, visitors were able to explore and marvel at AR sculptures in the public spaces of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Essen using a specially developed app on their devices. Regular strollers in the Düsseldorf Hofgarten became accustomed to people performing crazy movements with their smartphones held 22 Cfr. G. Buckingham, “Hand Tracking for Immersive Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Challenges,” Frontiers in Virtual Real 2 (2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.728461; J. N. Voigt-Antons et al., “Influence of Hand Tracking as a Way of Interaction in Virtual Reality on User Experience,” Twelfth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (2020): 1-4, https://doi.org/10.1109/QoMEX48832.2020.9123085. For the complex discussion of immersion and presence sensations in virtual space, cfr. M. I. Berkman, E. Akan, “Presence and Immersion in Virtual Reality,” in N. Lee, ed., Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games (Cham: Springer, 2019): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_162-1. JULIA REICH 133 AN-ICON  high or staging themselves for a photo as if they were inte- racting with invisible objects. In short, these were physical actions that addressed not so much the real-life environ- ment but rather the hybrid space of the display view. These aimed to enter the picture by anticipating the hybrid zone of the AR work, as is the case with Jeremy Bailey’s oversi- zed steel bean YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc (2021) (Fig.1). As expected, AR works tempt us to document that individual moment of hybrid interaction in the image spa- ce via screenshot, simply because of their genuine form of appearance in the display. This need, trained by social networks, is additionally motivated by the app’s own recor- ding function, which enables uncomplicated, one-handed screen recording while the other hand can enter into a rela- tionship with the virtual objects.23 Like illusionistic vacation snapshots, where different distance ratios enable one’s own fingers to hold, for example, the top of the Eiffel Tower, there are numerous screenshots from the AR Biennal in which the palm acts as a stage for the augmented objects. Unlike in photography, here the hand becomes the ground for the figure, making it part of the environment Fig. 1. Jeremy Bailey, YOUar, stainless steel ellipsoidal arc, 2021, Augmented Reality App, at Düsseldorf AR-Biennal, 2021, photograph by Katja Illner, courtesy of the Artist and NRW-Forum Düsseldorf. or replacing it in interaction. Therefore, these image actions can be described as an anticipation of one’s own bodily pla- cement in the image and result in pictorial relations between 23 With common devices, a screen shot requires two hands, since two remotely located keys have to be pressed simultaneously. JULIA REICH 134 AN-ICON  body, virtual object, and space. In doing so, they stand out as self-evident, playful explorations of a boundary sphere and thus emphasize the close connection between a sense of immersion and the user’s movements. Symptomatic of these not directly intended image actions, our hands prove to be a central interface to the (physical and virtual) world in the digital age as well, in which manual grasping is still intertwined with cognitive comprehension.24 While AR figures can generally be pla- ced anywhere, the palm of the hand seems to offer itself as a particularly appealing stage. Surreal proportions are emphasized in the image; a physical nearness to the virtual figure is suggested; and one’s own body, moving forward into the virtual sphere, is immersed in it. Conversely, the hand has no influence on the movements of the figure and cannot change anything in the AR, but rather adapts to it and thus, as a stage-like presentation site, resets itself in its actual ability to act and create. While these movements are individual amuse- ments of the users, in Jeremy Bailey’s video work Nail Art Museum (2014) (Fig. 2) the hand becomes a very concrete stage of an AR exhibition. In the exaggerated manner of a DIY YouTube video, Bailey, who remains anonymous, notes a renewed shift in the artistic paradigm of creation. If artists moved into organizational-curatorial roles as early as the 1960s, the turn away from manual creation seems to have been amplified by the digital and transformed into the crea- tion of entire worlds. Bailey’s proposal is an AR application that allows everyone to independently curate exhibitions, appropriate existing works, and literally present them on their own fingertips. Through AR, company logos, palm trees, and iconic artworks of every era – from the ancient Venus de Milo to Ai Weiwei’s Neolithic vases to Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog – can be assembled on one’s own hand. The artworks, themselves in thrall to a consumer culture, are perched on finger-bound museum pedestals. In the role of his extravagant alter ego – the self-proclaimed “famous new 24 J. Hörisch, Hände: 18. JULIA REICH 135 AN-ICON  media artist,” – Bailey satirizes the self-staging practices of social media, addressing museums and artists who in turn use these networks as exhibition spaces. In doing so, he touches upon the sensitive tension between the topos of a democratization of art via its mediatized (over)availability and the question of artistic-creative innovation in times of its medial (re)producibility. Bailey further exacerbates this relationship with the aforementioned oversized AR mir- ror bean: its unmistakable model is Anish Kapoor’s steel sculpture Cloud Gate (2004-2006), with which countless tourists pose daily for the perfect snapshot. Its social me- dia usability continues to be effective in Bailey’s AR and is even facilitated since the sculpture can even be placed on one’s own hand with a click. Fig. 2. Jeremy Bailey, Nail Art Museum, 2014, video Performance and Augmented Reality, still from video, courtesy of the Artist. The hand as symbiotic contact zone In contrast to the preceding image acts, in whi- ch the hand becomes dissimilar to itself because it fun- ctions more as a stage or exhibition space, the AR appli- cation Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1. (2019) by Aristarkh Chernyshev, and Rachel Rossin’s mixed reality theater The Maw Of (2022) focus on the hand in its physical genuineness, namely as a contact zone between humans and technology. At the interface between science fiction, JULIA REICH 136 AN-ICON  biotechnology, and speculative art, both works allude to so-called anthropophilic media25 for which their unobtru- siveness and cuddliness toward the body and its every- day routines are particularly characteristic. Affect-sensitive wearables, such as smartwatches, are examples of this. These rely less on the user’s activity at the interface but rather measure, collect, and utilize personal body data and mental states in the mode of passivity, such as the oxygen saturation in the blood or an incipient feeling of frustration.26 With the AR PiO 1.1. (Fig. 3), which can be accessed via QR code on social channels of Instagram or Snapchat, Chernyshev imagines a digital hybrid organism consisting of a genetically modified leech and a smartpho- ne whose natural habitat is the human body. The creature, which nestles tenderly around the wrist, lives on the blood of its user but, in return, takes care of his or her health. It does this by continuously monitoring the user’s body, even releasing insulin in the case of a rise in blood sugar. It also proves to be a practical tool for Zoom conferencing. While such symbioses are still speculative, the direct link between our brain and the machine has recently become real. The controversial media mogul Elon Musk and his neurotech company, for example, announced recently that they would be conducting clinical studies on humans with so-called brain-machine interfaces.27 The fact that Chernyshev’s PiO 1.1. so far only gets under the skin in its conception allows users to experience a futuristic interaction with a wearable assistance creature that intuitively adapts to the movement of one’s own hand. When used, the wrist becomes the contact zone of an imagined symbiosis, transforming at the same time into a control surface with various display 25 Cfr. M. Andreas, D. Kasprowicz, S. Rieger, eds., Unterwachen und Schlafen: Anthropophile Medien nach dem Interface (Lüneburg: Meson Press, 2018). 26 For Michael Andreas, Dawid Kasprowicz and Stefan Rieger, this mode of passivity is a central marker for the definition of “antropophilic media,” which, in contrast to actively used tools, provoke a reduction of distance, since they operate in a new physical, social, and semantic nearness. Of particular interest is the underlying thesis of a shift from technical- medial surveillance to a surveillance that increasingly eludes perception as such and outwits the users. Cfr. M. Andreas, Unterwachen: 19. 27 R. Levy, “Elon Musk Expects Neuralink’s Brain Chip to Begin Human Trials in 6 Months,” Reuters (December 1, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-expects- neuralink-begin-human-trials-six-months-2022-12-01/, accessed May 4, 2023. JULIA REICH 137 AN-ICON  Fig. 3. Aristarkh Chernyshev, Personal Information Organism. PiO 1.1., 2019, screenshot from Augmented Reality App, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 4. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, view of the exhibition “KW on location: Rachel Rossin The Maw of” at Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin, 2022, photograph by Frank Sperling, courtesy of the Artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. JULIA REICH 138 AN-ICON  modalities and thus suggesting self-control. This collides with the underlying consent of permanent information uti- lization and must, therefore, be a hollow promise. The qui- ckly transferred consent of a foreign control in assistance systems such as Alexa is closely related to the design of socially compatible counterparts, which is why PiO’s 1.1. animal-like movements also generate familiarity but thus prompt a self-reflection of the quickly conceded acceptan- ce in dealing with the artwork. Rachel Rossin’s multimedia setting The Maw Of (Fig. 4) not only combines various media formats (instal- lation, VR and AR, video, and net art) that blur the boun- daries between the virtual and physical worlds as well as technological and organic systems, but also the bodies that inhabit them. Rossin’s work is decidedly based on recent research experiments that fuse body, mind, and techno- logy. These experiments are no longer about developing prosthetic extensions of the human body but rather about an invasive fusion of hardware and the nervous system, by means of which our thought center can act beyond the body. The central storyline is a narrative interwoven through the media formats and accompanied by a manga figure, in which the visitors themselves are conceived, as agents of a larger techno-organic network. They follow the figure as a machine spirit through a widely ramified network that embodies the human nervous system. When visiting the work at the Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin (Sept.14th– Oct. 22nd 2022), the application on an HMD enabled a view (Fig. 5) into the symbiotic sphere Rossin transmedially desi- gned. In the midst of a lush grassy hill environment, which is revealed by a superimposed progression diagram as genuinely calculated and instantaneously processed, two bluish transparent hands appear. They directly implement the hand’s own movements and gestures in the virtual en- vironment by means of Leap Motion. The media-reflexive and at the same time instructive text field, “you are looking for your hands,” brings one’s own hands into the field of vision. Since they appear uniquely in both spheres, they are a contact zone: in the palms of the hands, text codes JULIA REICH 139 AN-ICON  Fig. 5. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. Fig. 6. Rachel Rossin, The Maw of, 2022, screenshot from HMD-Experience, courtesy of the Artist. JULIA REICH 140 AN-ICON  and symbols alternate with wondrous beings, such as a blazing flame spirit or a human-shaped nervous system. This idiosyncratic interplay continues even as the virtual environment recedes and users find themselves in their physical, but colorless, world with the same virtual figures (Fig. 6). In this superimposed mode of perception, also called “pass-through,” the user’s own hands intersect with the represented hands, blurring the boundaries between an action in physical and virtual space – for example, when a virtual moth settled on the hand can be shaken off – and paradoxically leading to a disembodiment as well as a sen- sitization of the user’s own corporeality. The designing hand While the focus so far has been on the active hand, which has been integrated into the art works as a stage or contact zone, the perspective of the designing hand will be examined in conclusion using the example of Florian Meisenberg’s VR installation Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek) (2017). As a collaborative project between Meisenberg and programmer Jan Ahrens, Pre-Alpha connects installable, sculptural, and painterly elements with VR, video, and design processes. In the exhibition, visitors are greeted by a carpet drawn up in the manner of an infinity cove used for photography. On its left side, a vertical second-screen projection gives out- siders a glimpse into the intimate VR sphere. By putting on the HMD in the midst of the virtual environment with its rudimentary cosmic world reference, users can model their own virtual objects with pattern-like hand represen- tations, almost like God-like creators (Fig 7). For this pur- pose, a grid shape shoots up from the underground onto the image surface, which goes back to the basic geometric shapes of 3D programs, so-called graphic primitives, with which illusionistic VR worlds are “built.” Even though the hands do not feel any resistance in reality, the shape can be bent and distorted in all directions by lightly touching it in accordance with physical laws, thus referring to artistic JULIA REICH 141 AN-ICON  modeling processes. In the next step, the naked grid can be clothed with texturing material. This derives from the artist’s own image archive, from which individual images with a textile texture randomly rise up, fluttering in front of the user’s hands. In addition to Meisenberg’s physically existent paintings, this archive contains all kinds of image material – from antique portrait busts to net-genuine me- mes to online head texture maps – that are made available to the users for designing the grid surface. Quite literally, an action with images is invoked in this way. The specific gesture of two palms raised in front of the HMD causes the appearance of those double-sided images that can be Fig. 7. Florian Meisenberg, Pre-Alpha Courtyard Games (raindrops on my cheek), 2017, screenshot from HMD- Experience, courtesy of the Artist. manually applied to the grid shape. While such creation processes delegated to museum visitors may have a special visual value for visi- tors outside the VR, this process is withdrawn in Pre-Alpha. While the second screen usually provides a voyeuristic live insight into the processes within VR, in this case it merely shows the pantomime-like hand movements of the immer- sed user around an empty center. The VR-internally desi- gned virtual object remains intimate, eludes a view, and meanwhile shifts the focus to the manual performance of the (non-) creating hands of the immersed user. In this way, the user on the stage-like carpet becomes an exposed JULIA REICH 142 AN-ICON  performer and twists the exhibition logic inherent in the exhibition space. Along the provisional spectrum of the three for- ms of action in and with images in AR and VR artworks pre- sented here, the aim was to clarify the extent to which a loss of distance achieved by hand does not primarily subscribe to a technological euphoria or an affirmative immersive experience, but rather offers the recipient the opportunity for reflection in the sounding out of those border zones between the physical and virtual spheres, one’s own body and other bodies. With the focus on the hand, it becomes apparent to what extent immersion, in the sense of getting inside a direct contact or a design, grants the potential of becoming aware of and critically sensitizing oneself to those technologies that permeate our lives. Immersion as a productive extension does not exclude emergence – as exemplified by the hand. For whoever puts on the VR gog- gles must also take them off again, willy-nilly. JULIA REICH 143 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19858

I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveil ance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms by S()fia Braga Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveilance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms S()FIA BRAGA, (artist) – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858 Abstract Today we find ourselves immersed in digital environments made available by centralised social media platforms on a daily basis. While these platforms did pro- vide users expanded connectivity and visibility, they also confined the same user in an economic system focused on collection and commodification of personal data for profit, and in return used them as resources of free labour. In light of this analysis, is it possible to carry out an artistic practice within centralised social media platforms, therefore take an active part in them, while remaining critically engaged, in the attempt to highlight some of the structural dynamics and problems of these realities? In this paper some fundamental aspects of the aforementioned channels will be discussed through the anal- ysis of selected works and two methods utilised by the au- thor to avoid the culture of interveillance. Keywords Centralised social media platforms Interveillance Online narratives Digital bodies Subversion To quote this essay: S. Braga “I Stalk Myself More than I Should: Online Narratives to Disrupt and Investigate Interveillance and Digital Bodies Politics within Centralised Social Media Platforms,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 144-155, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19858. S()FIA BRAGA 144 AN-ICON  When we talk about immersiveness within the digital realm we should consider the fact that, nowadays, there is no longer a clear distinction between our real and virtual existence, since these two realities are heavily inter- connected and they coexist interdependently. In this paper we will focus on digital environ- ments made available to users by centralised social me- dia platforms, where we witness a radical shift in terms of control, power and representation of the body and the self. Over the past few years I developed my artistic research on the social impact of web interfaces and the subversion of centralised social media platforms by focus- ing on ways to avoid the culture of Interveillance,1 which is a participatory surveillance enabled by social media’s operational structures that leverage the human need of auto-determination, and carry the non-institutional agen- cies that operate on the Internet – GAFAM –,2 as well as the users themselves, as new objects of power. Often unaware, users become an active part of these hidden power dynamics that are no longer based on control and repression of bodies,3 but on prevention through the promotion of beliefs and habits that take ad- vantage of processes of identification, and that manifest themselves in the form of viral trends. The evolution of the web and the self In the early web (web 1.0), users started ex- perimenting with HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – to build their own “virtual homes.” They used to see the WWW as a parallel world in which they could build and develop 1 A. Jansson, M. Christensen, Media, Surveillance and Identity: Social Perspective (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). 2 GAFAM is an acronym for a group of American technology companies: Google, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft. 3 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1977). S()FIA BRAGA 145 AN-ICON  their personal space. This gave users the feeling they had control on the construction of a unique space, by using a new universal language, that offered them a chance to present and spread their thoughts worldwide. Despite this fresh feeling of freedom, the early web was neither a democratic nor a completely free space, but the lack of user-friendly tools for web development put users in the position of working on an “empty canvas,” which offered more possibilities with less limitation. For the Web 1.0 user, the web space was an extension of the physical one: “Welcome to My Website,” “Welcome to S()fia’s homepage,” a space which only ex- ists in the moment the computer is on and the browser window open. Moreover, the distinction between the two spaces was still very clear because of the medium. Firstly, because of the impossibility of connecting anywhere due to the technical limitations of the Personal Computer and access to the Internet. Secondly, because the user tend- ed to spend more time building their digital space rather than constructing their online persona due to the act of programming. The introduction of web development systems in most web hosting services gave space to everyone to build websites through user-friendly tools which restrict the creativity of the user, together with the characteristic uniqueness of the 1.0 era web pages. With the structural change of the web also its final purpose shifted: with the advent of the web 2.0, we witnessed the beginning of the Social Media era, in which the focus shifted towards the creation of content for the platform and on the user’s online image. This indicates the transition between My and Me,4 where the online space becomes an extension of the user’s identity based on real data, reshaping new dynamics of 4 O. Lialina, Turing Complete User. Resisting Alienation in Human-Computer-Interaction (Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2021).  S()FIA BRAGA 146 AN-ICON  control and proving that modifying the structure of the web interface changes the experience of the medium radically. The Digital Panopticon Nowadays we find ourselves in an economic system focused on the collection and commodification of personal data for profit, where Big Tech companies are gaining exponential power and control over our decisions and behaviour through sentiment analysis. Surveillance Capitalism pushes people to become prosumers – produc- ers, consumers and products – by using them as resources of free labour. This results in what can be considered a total collapse of the private space through the use of intimate human experiences as free raw material that is later trans- lated into behavioural data.5 In this context the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning find themselves in a very critical po- sition: on the one hand AI holds the potential to be utilised on the way to human self-realisation by enhancing human agency and increasing societal capabilities, while on the other hand, the misuse of these algorithms by Big Tech corporations as data scrapers are already gaining more control over people, consequently undermining human self-determination.6 Today’s misconceptions surrounding the algo- rithm and its tendency to become even more of a black box as it advances, consequently leads to an animist, al- most magic-like, perception towards it. The fact that these 5 S. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2019). 6 J. Cowl, L. Floridi, M. Taddeo, “The Challenges and Opportunities of Ethical AI,” in J. Rogers, I. Papadimitriou, A. Prescott, eds., Artificially Intelligent: V&A Digital Design Weekend 2018 (Dundee: University of Dundee, 2018). S()FIA BRAGA 147 AN-ICON  technologies are developed by the human mind is being overlooked in the face of the worldwide crises we are facing. People in power at tech monopolies build their narratives around technology in a way that give responsi- bility and agency to it, whereas the ethical responsibility relies on the ones that are developing, monitoring, using, and taking advantage of said technologies. Therefore, it is misguided to fear the machine based on the dystopic dispositions it has been displaying, while the focus on the people behind those machines, taking decisions that intro- duce biases and lead their direction, is lacking. Within the next pages, by analysing a selection of my works, I will outline two possible methods I developed within my artistic practice as ways to subvert centralised social media platform dynamics and problematics to bring awareness to users about their role and power within these structures. 1. Data overload: appropriation and manipulation of users’ personal content to make data unreadable. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should There is a narcissistic aspect in surveillance which empowers internet users to monitor their behaviour daily, overcoming the fear of being observed. Sharing struc- tured, rationalised, and complex private content with in- timate details online places users in a digital panopticon. This content is not easily read and is subject to interpreta- tion, hence it is possible to find various starting points for speculative stories. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should is an archive of expired memories that were meant to die within 24 hours. The work displays a selection of Instagram Stories preserved through the use of screen recordings. Going against the S()FIA BRAGA 148 AN-ICON  nature of this feature, the project investigates appropriation, interpretation, and representation, as well as qualities and hierarchies of humans memories shared and stored online. I Stalk Myself More Than I Should shows cha- otic collages of short footage where users’ narrations and promotional ads coexist: selfies, morning routines, semi- nudes, ads, parties, concerts, complaints, ads, quotes, me- mes, self-promotion, ads, exhibitions, and so on are com- bined as sounds and images that hypnotise and capture us in front of the screen wondering what will come next. By making rather straightforward connections between videos, the audience can easily read users’ stories in vari- ous ways, nevertheless we progressively discover that the artist is actually the exposed one: through her interaction with these short stories we are able to unveil information via her personal preferences just by paying attention to the viewing time of each video, or to the ads recommended for instance. This process highlights how the act of appropri- ation is still a way to express the self. Fig. 1. S()fia Braga, I Stalk Myself more than I should and Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 149 AN-ICON  Users have made this project possible by shar- ing and giving permission to anyone to get a glimpse into their daily life, which is constructed on the foundation of impressions they want to convey about themselves. What might represent itself as a moral problem – the appropri- ation of other people’s “private” content – is actually an insolent take on how to deal with issue of data storage by centralised online platforms. The general misconception of being in control of the data we give up, because of the interface’s presented possibility of deletion, or because they will automatically disappear thanks to a feature of the platform, leads users to readily share an abundance of con- tent, increasing profits of the platform itself which stores all data within databases, making use of them as prediction products to be sold into future behavioural markets. Fig. 2. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, A Study on the characteristics of Douyin, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 150 AN-ICON  The research that was initiated with I Stalk My- self More Than I Should was then developed further with the realisation of A Study on the characteristics of Douyin and Meanwhile in China, two video installations created in collaboration with artist Matthias Pitscher, which analyse the app Douyin, the original version of TikTok created in China. Within this platform users attempt to copy specific patterns that go viral to achieve success: the same dances or memes are continuously repeated using the same music, while the individual seeks acceptance within the platform by conforming to the standards set by the community. It is not a coincidence that the majority of users on Douyin and TikTok are young people, who are still developing their self image by being part of a peer group to begin with. In fact TikTok promotes different internet aesthetics and vibes in which young users tend to find a sense of belonging within. Fig. 3. S()fia Braga and Matthias Pitscher, Meanwhile in China, view of the exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2019. S()FIA BRAGA 151 AN-ICON  Nevertheless Meanwhile in China also focus- es on problematics related to freedom of speech within Chinese social media platforms due to restrictions caused by the Great Firewall, a series of legislation that enforce censorship by regulating internet domestically. The project shows different tricks and symbols users utilise within the platform to find ways to talk about censored topics. Even if it manifests itself in different ways, we should not forget that censorship is not foreign to west- ern social platforms either, which consistently update their content restrictions for users. Welcome to My Channel Welcome to My Channel delves into the vast world of video sharing, in which intimate storytelling has become a tool to achieve visibility and gather views as part of a process of self-determination. Within this context, mental distress itself becomes a dangerous narrative tool, as it becomes more and more difficult to delineate the boundaries between reality and fiction. Through the appropriation of Vlogs downloaded from one of the most famous video sharing platforms on the Internet, the video reflects on the contemporary condition of confiding online. Fig. 4. S()fia Braga, Welcome to my channel, 2020, still from video. S()FIA BRAGA 152 AN-ICON  In this mash-up of appropriated videos, suicidal thoughts are alternated with promotion of online counselling apps, creating a disturbing combination that questions the reality of the narration and highlights the latest neo-liberal marketing trends on mental health and self-care, with the ultimate goal of controlling people’s behaviours by covertly imposing a series of habits. Thus Social Media becomes the most accessible tool to control bodies in a subtle way, leveraging the human need of belonging, and therefore conforming. 2. Online fictional narratives and transmedia storytelling. Die Verwandlung The project, commissioned by TBD Ultramag- azine on the topic of metamorphosis, the human/non-hu- man relation, and immersivity, is a short movie for Insta- gram Stories in which a disturbing everyday life is narrated through an atmospheric mix typical of the psychological horror genre, found footage sub-genre, and vernacular on- line aesthetics such as cursed images and backrooms. The short movie is permeated with a continu- ous feeling of alienation towards the domestic environment and the body, that is victim to a slow process of mutation, and becomes undesirable and alien. The body in Die Ver- wandlung is passive, and is tired of behaving conformingly, while trapped in the house and within a screen that manip- ulates its own reality. The body we witness is a body that is looking for its own identity within several realities: the physical one, the mediated one of the Instagram story in- terpreted by the audience, that – as in a video game – will be asked to choose a finale, and gameplay moments that become a meta-narrative tool in which the body, wandering S()FIA BRAGA 153 AN-ICON  within the walls of a virtual castle as an avatar, is desper- ately searching for the identity of a video game character affected by amnesia. The atypical format of the IG Stories that were used to develop a traditional format such as a short movie, challenges and subverts the user’s fruition as well as the concept of fiction and credibility of images within social media platforms. Fig. 5. S()fia Braga, Die Verwandlung, 2020, stills from video. Courtesy of the Artist and TBD Ultramagazine. Forehead Vulva Channelling Research The Forehead Vulva Channelling Research is a speculative transhumanist research which focuses on de- veloping advanced studies on the human body’s potential to reach lifelong emotional well-being via a re-calibration of pleasure-centers by channeling hidden organs through the use of specialised technologies. The purpose of opening the “Forehead Vulva” is to bring the body to an uninhibited state, and thereby transform it, rediscovering new poten- tials that humans are still not aware of. Started as a series of Forehead Vulva Channel- ers – a specific Augmented Reality specialised technology –, The Forehead Vulva Channeling Research found rapid sup- port and success within centralised social media platforms, consequently creating a spontaneous worldwide online S()FIA BRAGA 154 AN-ICON  performance: just within 24 hours of the first Forehead Vul- va channeller release, it was already used by 10.000 users and had more than 250.000 impressions. The project deals with topics such as tech- no-gender identity and the perception of digital and hy- brid bodies, looking for ways to use technology to disrupt identity standards, while at the same time challenging the contemporary capitalistic propaganda of finding ways to reach a “higher” or “better” version of the self through pro- motion of specific habits and beliefs. Within this context, in a dark and humorous way, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research brings the non-compliant body within a capital- istic context, causing a short circuit. Fig. 6. S()fia Braga, Forehead Vulva Channeling Research, 2021, still from video. These methods have proven that the disruption of the user experience within social media platforms hold the potential to engage with users and bring awareness with a non-manipulative approach, and that a system, in order to be changed, needs to be modified and subverted from within. In my work, I try to make users aware of their relevance within these structures and invite them to take a critical stance by triggering subversion techniques aimed at disrupting and upsetting the everyday use of the platform. S()FIA BRAGA 155 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19760

. .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map ThroughUrbanPerformances by Alice Volpi Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello . .Or We Wil Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances. ALICE VOLPI, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3498-6379 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760 Abstract The article discusses the evolution of urban mapping and innovative urban design. It explores the transition from functional urban planning to more cre- ative approaches inspired by artists such as Guy Debord, Yoko Ono and others. It suggests that the city is a stage for events, similar to Antonin Artaud’s vision. The central question is how the city can be transformed into a theatre through practical design rules. The paper presents two ex- periments. The first involves random map rearrangement, encouraging new exploration of familiar neighbourhoods. The second experiment introduces guidance and unpre- dictability, reflecting the uncertainties of architectural proj- ects. These experiments aim to apply theatrical concepts to urban design. The article seeks to develop a manual for dramatic urban navigation, highlighting the inherent dramatic structure of the city and promoting innovative design regulations. Keywords Urban Maps Flânerie Theatre Performance To quote this essay: A. Volpi “…Or We Will Do Without the Theatre. Challenging the Urban Space, Drafting a New City Map Through Performances,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 156-165, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19760. ALICE VOLPI 156 AN-ICON  Since we started to be aware of the concept of urbanity – since humans began to organize their set- tlements and to design their cities – simultaneously we have left traces of this exercise. Over the years, the finest technique for representing the forms of communal living – the cities – has been sought. Surprisingly early on, this practise begun to be regulated and detailed cartographies have been consequently elaborated. Today, city maps take different forms and are composed of different layers each time, in accordance with the information needed by the specific target user. Urban planning nowadays follows strict rules, meticulous, and unfortunately not always exhaustive terri- tory plans – primarily devoted to the ideas of functionality and services per-capita. Those guidelines should help the architect in the elaboration of schemes, and in the design of a reality, capable of satisfying the needs of those who live in it: the citizens. As designers, we learn early on that choosing to draw certain elements instead of others and consequently reporting selected information on a blank sheet of paper, is itself already a creative process – a selection. The act of drawing represents nothing more than translating a preliminary impression from reality to a two-dimensional surface. In most cases, this choice will evolve into a deliberate synthesis of our intents, while at times it will end up being nothing more than an unpre- dictable personal discovery. The information presented changes across different maps and over time, making the analysis of these visual representation a fascinating archive. By examining these maps, we can gain insights into the goals that were established during each specific period and era. The process of designing and mapping cit- ies with a focus on functionality and services is just one approach to cartographic representation. On the other end of the spectrum, we encounter alternative maps that diverge from urban efficiency and instead employ a psy- cho-geographic analysis of the territory. Guy Debord, as well as other members of the Situationist International ALICE VOLPI 157 AN-ICON  in the late 1950s, accurately retraces the steps of the flâneur,1 creating new maps – new traces – and thus pro- viding us with an innovative, and more up-to-date, play- ful-constructive vision of the city of Paris. In the same years Constant Nieuwenhuys, drawing the New Babylon, suggests a different map – an anti-capitalist city – whose planimetric representation is reassembled by considering an analysis of social structure and not the functionality of urban grids. Hence, New Babylon becomes the city where Homo-Ludens wanders from one leisure environ- ment to another, in search of new vibrations; it becomes the new urban reality where the canonical, bourgeois ideas of work, family life and civic responsibility can and must be abandoned. Constant would be overwhelmed, yet not surprised, by knowing how relevant it still is nowadays. Debord and Constant are two of the major exponents in the field, but it is perhaps even more interesting to mention the many artists in the second half of the 20th century, who “played” with challenging the intricate urban grids. Those performers have allowed themselves to be guided by unusual stimuli or seemingly inappropriate or negligible details, succeeding in drawing new maps or in overwriting the existing ones. We are not surprised to see how, with the group Fluxus, Yoko Ono incites us to draw a map to get lost (1964);2 or how Richard Long traces his paths by inscribing them in predetermined geometric shapes on the land, Cerne Abbas Walk (1975).3 Not long afterwards, these maps begin to be translated into direc- tions, so to be given to those, other than the artists, who want to attempt to navigate cities differently. Therefore, 1 The terms of flânerie date to the 16th or 17th century, denoting strolling, idling, often with the connotation of wasting time. With Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd,” the flâneur entered the literary scene. 2 Y. Ono, Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono (1964) (New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 3 Long uses walking as an artistic medium. This work is the result of a six-day walk around an ancient figure cut into a chalky hillside in Dorset. The map shows his route, retracing and re- crossing many roads to stay within a predetermined circle. Cerne Abbas Walk is an artwork by Richard Long, in the collection of the Tate Modern in London. ALICE VOLPI 158 AN-ICON  Janet Cardiff’s Video Walks4 guides us around Edinburgh through a new video-3dimesional experience of the city, and also through the past and present of the places we cross by following her instructions. These exercises are innumerable and they vary in form and declination, to the point of becoming actual algorithms that mathematically directs our moves inside our cities, such as the Psycho- geographic Walks by Wilfred Hou Je Bek.5 These various experiments and performances, offer a new understanding of cities and of the city as a map, whether two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, etc. However, in most cases, they remain episodic. While they are diligently catalogued and graphically displayed, the primary focus is on the performance itself and what the artist learns through its execution. The city however, regardless the way it is nav- igated and crossed by its users every day, and especially regardless its own graphic implementation, constitutes itself a significant stage of events. When Antonin Artaud, in the late 1920s, begins his invective against the conven- tional idea of theatre, he immediately brings the city to the core of his dissertation and our attention. By announcing that we have come to an age where we can dispense with the theatre, envisioned as a physical place, a stage, the playwright can “afford” such a bold statement only because he trusts in the possibility that a performance – a true and complete spectacle6 – is already taking place somewhere else, outside the theatres: in the city. Starting from Artaud teasing manifesto, and re- flecting on different themes: urban planning, performance 4 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 5 Wilfried Hou Je Bek uses algorithms to design psycho-geographic walks through cities and other areas. The geographic and psychological output is visualized with the help of simple software. Wilfried is a “culture hacker” who develops generative psychogeography. 6 A. Artaud, S. Sontag, Antonin Artaud: Selected writings (Berkeley-Los Angeles CA: University of California Press, 1988). ALICE VOLPI 159 AN-ICON  in the city, and the transurbanza,7 it could be interesting to codify a new substructure, a new set of rules and di- rections that can be provided to the architect in the first place, but then to the universal user to answer a single question: how to transform the city into a theatre? As an architect, I ask myself how it is possible to analyse the space of the city through tools other than those provided by urban planning studies, being – the city – the reality in which 54% of the world’s population (4 billion people) necessarily gets implicated – immersed – every day. Thus seeking to obtain, not a resolute nor repeatable episode, but setting up a handbook for navigating the city dramatically, where the theatrical performance becomes an instrument of urban design, and will dictate, obviously with a dash of impertinence, new rules for the drafting of new master plans for our cities. If we are looking for a complete spectacle, the following question might be: 7 Transurbanza is a term used by Francesco Careri in Walkscapes: Camminare come pratica estetica (Turin: Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, 2006). With this concept the author invites us to go in search of empty spaces to be traversed as in a labyrinth, to identify urban natural-ground pathway, tracks where it is still possible to experience the difference between nomadism and sedentariness, basic categories for being able to understand the presence of our species on earth. ALICE VOLPI 160 AN-ICON Can we walk (in) the city “dramatically” and thus subverting the concept of urban functionality by introducing new variables that belong to theatre’s world? Not only by cataloguing recurring daily ac- tions – as Artaud suggested by wondering which chore- ographies belonged to the places we inhabit, considering the inevitable show – but by understanding how can we turn these performances into urbanistic tools, and thus from being the ultimate goal to have them becoming the design means. To answer these questions, the initial step is to start navigating the city; immersing oneself in the ur- ban fabric through some experimental tentative; trying to follow the advice of these artists; attempting to get lost in familiar places. To walk dramatically we definitely need a few tips, a method. How to follow the footsteps of strangers, how to make them taking us where I wanted to go but through paths we did not intentionally choose. How to follow random geometric shapes in the cluttered building grid; how to draw new ones, disregarding the ob- stacles. Can we do this, however, trying to avoid becoming performers ourselves, but persisting as designers? The idea is to “shift the logic” preserving the artist’s creative ownership of the original experiment, while simultaneously adapting their perspectives into a fresh framework for a different design approach. The following two experiments are an early attempt to set the methodology for this urban wandering; with the intent to continue in the extrapolation and setting up of instructions taken from the performative exercises. The goal is to achieve a graphically translatable practice that can be likened to real design rules, with an attempt to show that urbanism can meet functionality requirements even if it responds to a different structure, the drama. ALICE VOLPI 161 AN-ICON  Experiment 01. The Dadaist map. Moving into the city through randomness. Inspired from Tristan Tzara proposed recipe for a poem.8 Tzara suggested to cut out a piece of a newspaper the length of the poem we want to write. Then divide and cut singular word. Mix them in a bag. Then take it out one by one randomly and built the poem respecting the random order of the words. Can this be done with a map, with the city? Recipe for a new map: Take a map of the city; choose a neighbourhood; cut out the blocks with the streets around them. Find rules that make the pieces still readable; put the map back together like a puzzle, randomly; try to make the streets connect to each other; draw a route on the new map. Take the map with you and walk around that neighbourhood trying to respect the directions on the newly reassembled map. The purpose of this experiment is to navigate and immerse oneself within a familiar neighbourhood, while trying not to be overcome, or be affected, by what one recognizes as familiar. After all, how many times have we gone to the same theatre, to see completely different plays; or indeed very often even the same drama, staged in the same theatre, but the different sets, choreography, directing allowed us to transcend the venue to enjoy the new play. How can we apply these rules to the city? Experiment 02. Moving within the city, driven by others. Speaking of guidance, the purpose of this second experiment is to introduce the element of a di- rection. Very early on I felt the need to be guided by the stage directions of someone else, precisely the director 8 T. Tzara, “Pour faire un poème dadaiste” Littérature, no. 15 (July-August, 1920): 18. ALICE VOLPI 162 AN-ICON  or choreographer of the urban drama I am looking for. By introducing a director, thus including the other, we also get the chance of inevitably familiarising, with the possi- bility of unpredictability and mistakes. The risk that the performance, the dramatic act, will not come to fruition as planned or at all – which is an issue that even the architect often wonders about, the failure of the project. Take two identical maps of a portion of a city. Ask someone to draw a path on one of them without paying too much attention to it. Do not look at the route and leave the first map with your friend. Take a second, identical but clean, map with you. Ask your friend to tell you where to start based on the route he or she has drawn - identify a place. Then, by phone, be guided by his directions that respect the route he has drawn. ALICE VOLPI 163 AN-ICON  Before starting establish rules and lexicon to be used:w ■ The walkers must be silent. ■ The walkers can only pace their steps. If not wearing shoes that make noise, use another object against the microphone to pace the steps. ■ The director must not use street names. ■ The director must not use landmark references. ■ Do not use monuments as landmarks. ■ Use only simple direction verbs: turn, cross, continue, stop, turn back. ■ Use only simple direction indicators: left or right. ■ The driver should not suggest how long to walk in a specific direction. ALICE VOLPI 164 AN-ICON  ■ The driver must not use numbers to indicate the distance be- tween points on the map. ■ Prohibited phrases: take the first (or second, etc.) on the left. ■ The same applies to the right. ■ The driver: must sense the length by hearing your footsteps and suggest when to turn and change direction by feeling that you have walked far enough. While walking take track on the second map of where you are and of the path. When your friend has finished directing you, mark where you are. If you are not where you were supposed to be, go back to your friend at the starting point. Confront the two maps, and the two paths. Do it again, switch roles. ALICE VOLPI 165 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19850

THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) by Emilio Vavarella in conversation with Sofia Pirandello VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees Issue №2 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022) EMILIO VAVARELLA, artist, Harvard University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-8093 in conversation with SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850 Lazy Sunday is the third work in THE ITALIAN JOB series. Started in 2014, straddling the distance be- tween Italy and the United States, this series intends to highlight the hidden structures behind themes such as artistic legitimacy, virtuality, immaterial labour and 2.0 rela- tionships between artists and curators. Lazy Sunday takes shape after an invitation to participate in a virtual residency within the spaces of the 12th Atelier of Casa degli Artisti in Milan. The artist accepts the invitation, overturning the assumptions of the residency: instead of participating at a distance, Vavarella transforms his point of view into an open space for the virtual participation of other people. The work consists of a 12-hour film made with a 360° camera and shot continuously on August 8 2021, on an ordinary day. Starting at 9:40 a.m., Emilio Vavarella filmed the events of one of his summer Sundays, recording his every activity, from waking up until the evening. The film has been shown in the space set up in the Casa degli Ar- tisti, where visitors took on the point of view of the artist using a Virtual Reality headset. Keywords VR Performance POV Portrait 360-degrees To quote this essay: E. Vavarella in conversation with S. Pirandello, “THE ITALIAN JOB - Job N. 3, Lazy Sunday (2022),” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 2 (2023): 166-172, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19850. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 166 AN-ICON SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was produced in response to a call for you to make a VR work during a remote residen- cy; the idea was to create a workspace, an online artist’s studio. With your work, you decided to overturn these premises: you transported us between Cambridge and Boston, opening a window on your everyday life, chang- ing the cards on the table a bit as regards the roles of the people involved. I am thinking above all of us curators and the public. What kind of experience does this result in for the parties involved, in your opinion? EMILIO VAVARELLA: Actually, on an empirical level, you would be better equipped to answer the question, because it was in a way your role, along with Elisabetta’s, that was partially turned on its head. And those who enjoyed the work could, or should, answer the question. Because I, after all, could not share their point of view either...From my perspective, it was about working simultaneously on several fronts. On the theoretical front, I was interested in exploring the idea, or ideology, of immersion, precisely because it represented the starting point of your research project, and offered so much food for thought. From a conceptual point of view, I was interested in creating a work that seemed very straightforward and direct, like the other works in this series, but capable of opening up multiple discourses and various types of analysis and interpretation. From the point of view of the material production of the work, I needed to give concrete material form to my ideas by bringing the dimension of techne as close as possible to that of logos, and I needed, as requested in your invitation, to use Virtual Reality. And finally, from an interpersonal point of view, it was important to me that no matter how much my operation was cloaked in a certain irony, unscrupulousness, and even a certain amount of irreverence, it was still clear that it was not a boutade, but an operation driven by a deep desire to get to the bottom of all of these issues. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 167 AN-ICON  And precisely because each of my works stems from a synthesis between concept and material, the synthesis came very naturally and spontaneously, almost as if it were something absolutely necessary. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday was conceived as the third chapter of a series, THE ITALIAN JOB, dedicated to the relationship between artists and curators in the realisation of online works. What are the two works that precede Lazy Sunday and what are they about? EMILIO VAVARELLA: First of all, all the works in THE ITALIAN JOB series share a number of characteristics related to the mode of production, the geographical context of the works, and the issues addressed. The conditions of production reflect general socio-tech- nical changes: production through (technical and social) networks; production at zero cost to the artist; production in the absence of a traditional artist’s studio; and alternative forms of monetisation of artistic practice. With regard to geography, the artist’s position strad- dling two countries, Italy and the United States, should be emphasised. But also a position straddling online and offline and at the intersection of material production and intellectual work. The issues addressed, all interconnected, are origi- nality, technical reproducibility, the relationship between original and copy, artistic legitimisation and the value of the work of art. The first work in the series was in 2014. I had been selected for a digital artist residency on the theme of cloud computing entitled embarrassment party, created and di- rected by Marii Nyröp. My project consisted of stealing the entire residency plus the eleven works created by seven other international artists. The work, or operation, was sup- ported by curatorial texts by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and Marii Nyröp. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 168 AN-ICON  The second work is entitled An-Archiving Game, and is from the following year. I created a virtual exhibition in the form of an animated GIF using photographs from the FBI’s archive of stolen artworks, the “National Stolen Art File.” I then offered physical copies of the stolen photos for sale using an experimental open source platform that offers a decentralised, peer-to-peer, tax-free, censorship-free online network through which to trade in Bitcoins. This second project was accompanied by curatorial texts by Monica Bosaro and Emma Stanisic. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Immersive experiences, artistic or otherwise, often aim to involve those who participate in them thanks to a strong interactive dimension. You made a twelve-hour film in which, as you yourself pointed out, the highlights are those in which you read a book, eat an ice cream, take a motorbike ride, and chat on the terrace on a lazy summer Sunday. It is often said that VR is capable of recreating the world we live in, and you have decided to do this in a way that the viewer might not expect: you have provided twelve hours of your life and the chance to be present. Elisabetta wrote in this regard that there is no climax, all the moments are equally important and interesting. What prompted you to create a 360° film with these characteristics? EMILIO VAVARELLA: I believe that spending an entire day in someone else’s shoes is as interesting as it is impractical, for innumerable reasons. The duration of the work then has as much to do with how I recorded my point of view as with how I imagined it would be enjoyed, i.e. a one-off projection, from morning to night, performative and un- repeatable. A kind of live performance filmed for deferred broadcast. With the hours of the night, the darkness, the immobility of the body, the negation of the image, marking its beginning and its end. If I had made cuts and editing, arbitrarily, the meaning of the work would have inexora- bly slipped through those same cuts. Editing would have produced a semantic structure that would have interfered EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 169 AN-ICON with the very idea of “live action.” Only the annihilation of the montage, or at least its reduction to a minimal, almost non-existent form, makes it possible to focus on the con- tent of the frame, which in turn is 360°, thus itself free of the cuts made by the image frame. The 360° element, I believe, serves even more to ne- gate the idea of immersiveness it promises. Because, while it provides an immersive image, there is in a sense a dis- comfort in immersion that becomes glaringly obvious when one finds oneself cramped and constricted within an image that is as impenetrable as it is immersive. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: At first, Lazy Sunday may seem an extreme- ly sincere work: you lay bare your everyday life without veils, you share everything and everyone with us. When we enter the film, we put ourselves in your shoes. Yet, one thing we soon realise is that even if we spend hours immersed in your environment, we will never have the experience you have had. Both as an artist and as a researcher, what is your stance on the rhetoric of presentiality and immedia- cy of immersive media such as 360° cinema and Virtual Reality? Are we ever really present in such a context and in what way? EMILIO VAVARELLA: The work offers exactly what it promis- es: it provides the artist’s point of view. On the other hand, this type of residency is mainly aimed at this, and every artist has in a way a duty to please the patrons they decide to work with. The interesting thing, for me, is that the ideology im- plicit in the discourses related to immersivity cloaks this work with a desire for sharing and identification which is not currently possible, and perhaps never will be, but which arises almost automatically in the spectators / viewers. The work promises the audience the possibility of expe- riencing a recording in Virtual Reality, but it is the expectation linked to this type of fruition that immediately cloaks the work EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 170 AN-ICON with a desire, partially conscious and partially unconscious, for immersion and identification with other bodies. Then there remains the question of access to the artist, to his body as much as to his mind. I believe that there has long been a deep fascination with artworks also as a means of immersion in the minds of artists: it is perhaps a history of art in reverse that has yet to be written. But this is undoubtedly there. I like Elisabetta’s interpretation of the work, speaking of a “faceless self-portrait,” linked in various ways to other works of mine. I am thinking of The Sicilian Family, which merges my family memories with images of my relatives, but blends everything into impenetrable glitches; I am thinking of my genetic portrait at the MAMbo Museum in Bologna, of the series The Other Shapes of Me, in which I exist as a digital clone in textile format, but still impenetrable, un- readable. In Mnemograph I trace my childhood memories but without letting anyone else have access to them. In a way then, all these works are a form of negoti- ating, in an era dominated by visibility, the need to make oneself visible, readable, recognisable, and accessible. I think it is more interesting to deny all this regime of ab- solute visibility, and thus always remain partially invisible, inaccessible, or unrecognisable. SOFIA PIRANDELLO: Lazy Sunday is a film, but it is also a per- formance, in a more or less broad sense: a performance which you carried out by filming subjectively for twelve hours straight last summer and which was only available for twelve hours on January 23 this year, at the Casa degli Artisti in Milan; it is for those who wear helmets, ideally for twelve hours, and who have to physically bear the burden that reliving even just an ordinary day entails. Does this have anything to do with betraying the promises of enter- tainment often linked to VR in order to rethink the use of this medium in an alternative way? EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 171 AN-ICON  EMILIO VAVARELLA: This has to do with my desire, traceable in all my works regardless of the medium used, to create a space for reflection. We could call it a critical space within which to exercise one’s thoughts. The long, even boring times of an anti-spectacular and prolonged fruition can bring about this critical space. But it also has to do with a certain way of seeing reality, which for me is a constant performance, or metamorphosis, of events, of flows, to which we give order and which we try to break up and segment according to our own arbitrary logic and our own forms of experience. By offering to the public a kind of mirrored experience of a day in my life I necessarily gave form to my own idea of what reality looks like. EMILIO VAVARELLA AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 172 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I (2023)1 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22448 Introduction Vol. 2, no. I (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. I (2023): 4-10, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22448. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cusses the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provides a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and through various methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, will shift the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those performative ar- tistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non- peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and independent researchers who present their strategy to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Immersions In recent years we have witnessed a growing fashion for every experience to be “immersive.” At least this is what the rhetoric of communication and marketing suggests, promising immersions of various kinds, but with a common denominator that goes beyond a general idea of attention as absorption:2 the feeling of being physically enveloped and interactively engaged in a multisensory en- vironment.3 Hence, we speak of immersive environments, 2 W. Wolf, W. Bernhardt, A. Mahler, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2013). 3 A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museums, and the Immersive View (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013); F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  immersive cinema and video, immersive exhibitions and installations, and so on. The term “immersion” has only been used with some regularity since the 1990s in relation to technologies such as Virtual Reality, which was then being experimented for the first time outside the labora- tories where it was developed in the late 1960s.4 However, some researchers have attempted to reconstruct a possible genealogy of immersive environments much earlier. Like a subterranean river, the immersive aesthetic experience would resurface in different periods, beginning with Pa- leolithic cave paintings, through Pompeian painting and trompe-l’œil, and then from Baroque illusionistic ceiling paintings to multimedia installations.5 A decisive moment for the design of these environments has been traced back to the 19th century, in particular the obsession for ὅραμα (from the ancient Greek “view”), which saw the spread of devices such as the panorama, the diorama, the cosmora- ma, etc.,6 responsible for the construction of an “emotional geography.”7 However, one of the most significant moments in this history, which has not yet been sufficiently explored in this debate,8 is that of the installations and environments that appeared in the first decades of the 20th century in the works of the avant-garde artists of the time. In 1976, invited by Vittorio Gregotti, Germano Celant curated the exhibition Ambiente/Arte: Dal Futurismo alla Body Art, held at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini for the 37th Venice Biennale. In this occasion, the history of environments was 4 I. Sutherland, “The Ultimate Display,” Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 65. Washington 1 (1965): 506-508; I. Sutherland, “A Head-Mounted Three-Dimensional Display,” AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference Proceeding 33 (Washington: Thompson Books, 1968): 757-64. 5 J. Nechvatal, Immersive Ideals/Critical Distances: A Study of the Affinity between Artistic Ideologies Based in Virtual Reality and Previous Immersive Idioms (Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009). 6 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge-London: The MIT Press, 2003); S. Bordini, Storia del panorama (Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2006). 7 G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotions: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (New York: Verso, 2000). 8 E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte semiotiche. Rivista internazionale di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine 7 (2021): 71-78. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  reconstructed from the beginning of the 20th century, when avant-garde artists began to create “wall boxes on a human scale.”9 These environments allowed the visitor to physi- cally enter the work, going beyond the frame.10 Since then, artists have increasingly experimented with installations11 and works that aim to produce enveloping, participatory and interactive physical experiences,12 also making use of new technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. The exhibition itself, as an immersive device, has played a significant role throughout the 20th venues, from the Venice Biennale to the Kassel documenta, is increasing- ly blurring the boundaries between artwork and exhibition.13 The physical presence of the visitor in the multisensory space of the artwork,14 as well as their role as activator and experiencer, is central to any discussion of immersive contemporary art. Indeed, immersive installations bring to different forms of narration and storytelling,15 presenting themselves both as an exclusive space (separated from the rest of the world) and an inclusive context (as they literally absorb the visitor). Within the environment (analogue, digital​,​or mixed), 9 G. Celant, ed., Ambiente/Arte: Dal Futurismo alla Body Art: Biennale Arte 1976 (Venezia: La Biennale): p. 6. 10 G. Celant, “La cornice: dal simbolismo alla land art,” in G. Celant, ed., Il limite svelato: Artista, cornice, pubblico (Milano: Electa, 1981); D. Ferrari, A. Pinotti, eds., La cornice: Storie, teorie, testi (Milano: Johan & Levi, 2018); P. Conte, Unframing Aesthetics (Milano-Udine: Mimesis International, 2020). 11 C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (New York: Routledge, 2005). 12 I. Kabakov, M. Tupitsyn, V. Tupitsyn, “About Installation,” Art Journal 58, no. 4 (1999): 62- 73. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1999.10791966; J. Reiss, From Margin to Center: The Spaces of Installation Art (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001); C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (New York: Routledge, 2005); B. Groys, “Politics of Installation,” E-flux journal reader 2009 (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2009); S. Zuliani, Senza cornice: Spazi e tempi dell’installazione (Roma: Arshake, 2015). 13 E. Filipovic, M., van Hal, S. Ovstebo, eds., The Biennial Reader: An Anthology on Large- scale Perennial Exhibitions of Contemporary Art (Ostfildernn: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010). 14 C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History; A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine; F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media. 15 M. Bal, “Narrative Inside Out: Louise Bourgeois’ Spider as Theoretical Object,” Oxford Art Journal 22, no. 2 (1999): 103-126. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/22.2.101; M. Bal, Louise Bourgeois’ Spider: The Architecture of Art-writing (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001); Allen, N., Combrink, L., “Character (and absence) as a narrative key in installation art,” Literator 40, no. 1 (2019): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v40i1.1449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  at times artists leave clues or hints of stories; at other times, they build real scripts linked to real or plausible events or based on fictional characters – think of the growing role of science fiction in building utopian or dystopian narratives.16 Nowadays also the debate on how best to pre- serve and respect the authenticity of complex installations is compelling, considering the need to respect their time and site specificity.17 As a matter of fact, the latest generation of im- mersive technologies, together with the most recent theories of the environmentalisation of the image,18 suggest that we reconsider Boris Groys’s assertion about the possibility of interpreting installation as image and image as installation,19 thus confronting art history and theory with visual studies. In this respect, this first volume brings togeth- er different strategies and fields of analysis that have rea- soned about the processes involved. In her essay, Mieke Bal places a strong emphasis on exhibition practices as key for understanding the contemporary realm. Bal calls for the recognition of the interplay between past and present, advo- cating for visitor engagement that solicits affective empathic attitudes. Through her video installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, she stresses the transformative potential of art-making as a tool for cultural analysis. Giuliana Bruno challenges the established no- tion of immersion itself by introducing the concept of “en- vironmental projection.” Bruno invites us to reconsider the ecological dimensions of representation, particularly in terms 16 D. Byrne-Smith, ed., Documents of Contemporary Art: Science Fiction (London: White Chapel Gallery, 2020). 17 B. Ferriani, M. Pugliese, Monumenti effimeri: Storia e conservazione delle installazioni (Milano: Electa, 2009). 18 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 19 B. Groys, “Multiple Authorship” in B. Vanderlinden, E. Filipovic, eds. The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005); E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte semiotiche. Rivista internazionale di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine 7 (2021): 71-78. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  of movement and scale. She questions the relationship be- tween immersion and magnification, ultimately proposing the notion of “empathic projection” as a means to transcend human-centric perspectives in immersive experiences. Lucia Corrain’s text delves into the immersive qualities of art, particularly in the Chamber of the Giants by Giulio Romano in Mantua (Italy). Corrain explores the phe- nomenological and ontological aspects of immersion in art, emphasizing the viewer’s sense of awe and estrangement. Filippo Fimiani analyzes allegories of immersion through the lens of the LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS series, con- sidering in particular the episode Fish Night. He examines the cultural topos of immersive experience, highlighting the ambivalent relationship between living bodies, images, and media in deep time-bending scenarios. Roberto Pinto shifts the focus to the intersec- tion of art and history through Jeremy Deller’s immersive performance We Are Here Because We Are Here. Deller’s work exemplifies a change in commemorating historical events, focusing on individual stories and emotions rather than traditional heroic narratives. The artwork engages the audience on a personal level, prompting reflection and emo- tional connection, ultimately redefining the role of public art in collective memory. Francesco Tedeschi’s paper takes the reader on a journey through Italian environmental art, examining the trans- formation of space by artists such as Lucio Fontana, Gruppo T, and others in the 1950s and 1960s. Tedeschi’s investiga- tion focuses on the evolving link between interior and exterior spaces, the concept of passage, and the reasons which invite viewers to traverse rather than merely inhabit spaces. Annette Urban explores the blurred boundaries between art objects, space, and beholders in VR art and exhibitions. She discusses how VR art challenges tradi- tional subject-object relationships and often embeds itself ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  into physical exhibition spaces, resulting in potentiated environmentalisation. Stefano Velotti’s suggestion to revert the usu- al perspective on the concept of “immersivity,” consists in introducing the idea of “an-immersivity,” namely the onto- logical condition of individuals who are immersed in reality but aware of it. In order to do so, he discusses the limits and characteristics of immersive VR experiences, the role of art, and the tension between control and uncontrollability in immersive encounters. Lastly, Giorgio Zanchetti examines the per- sistence of the locution “looking glass,” – that primarily comes from Lewis Carroll’s novel – which highlights the duality of a glass surface as a means of viewing the world and as an object to be observed. Italian artists of the 20th century, such as Lucio Fontana and Luciano Fabro, frequently explored three attitudes: looking through the glass, observing the re- flected image in a mirror, and examining the glass itself as a tool for presenting and representing spaces. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON proj- ect would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Ama- dasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribution to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I (2023) by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena and Sofia Pirandello Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Introduction Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I (2023)1 ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-789X ELISABETTA MODENA, Università degli Studi di Pavia – https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4875 SOFIA PIRANDELLO, Università degli Studi di Milano – https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4477-9199 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22448 Introduction Vol. 2, no. I (2023) The present volume Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality of the journal AN- ICON: Studies in Environmental Images is divided into two issues, each one dedicated to a specific thematic analy- sis, originated by the same conceptual core. The volume reflects on the concept of immersivity, which has become increasingly prominent in many different fields, including contemporary art. The constant reference to immersive experience is redefining the boundaries of artistic practice Keywords Immersion Dives Installation Virtual reality Augmented reality 1 This essay is the result of research activity developed within the frame of the project AN- ICON. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images. AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. [834033 AN-ICON]) and is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan in the frame of the project “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2023-2027” sponsored by Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (MUR). The authors Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello equally contributed to this paper. To quote this essay: R. P. Malaspina, E. Modena, S. Pirandello, “Introduction: Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality, Vol. 2, no. I,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. I (2023): 4-10, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/22448. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 4 AN-ICON  and fruition, highlighting the complex relationships between art, environments, and human perception. The first issue of the volume, Immersions, dis- cusses the recent “immersive trend” as applied to artis- tic perceptual dynamics and to display design. Through a perspective that combines both history and theory of art, Immersions provides a broad and heterogeneous mapping of the many uses of this concept, exploring it in different historical contexts and through various methodologies of analysis. The second issue, Dives, will shift the concep- tual focus to action. Diving, understood as a preparatory and essential movement of immersion, becomes a meta- phor for investigating in particular those performative ar- tistic practices that have engaged in various bodily forms with immersive environments. Dives also includes a non- peer-reviewed section devoted to contributions by artists and independent researchers who present their strategy to dive into immersive spaces and environments, in order to physically explore them. Immersions In recent years we have witnessed a growing fashion for every experience to be “immersive.” At least this is what the rhetoric of communication and marketing suggests, promising immersions of various kinds, but with a common denominator that goes beyond a general idea of attention as absorption:2 the feeling of being physically enveloped and interactively engaged in a multisensory en- vironment.3 Hence, we speak of immersive environments, 2 W. Wolf, W. Bernhardt, A. Mahler, eds., Immersion and Distance: Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and Other Media (Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2013). 3 A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museums, and the Immersive View (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013); F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media (Leiden-Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2016). ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 5 AN-ICON  immersive cinema and video, immersive exhibitions and installations, and so on. The term “immersion” has only been used with some regularity since the 1990s in relation to technologies such as Virtual Reality, which was then being experimented for the first time outside the labora- tories where it was developed in the late 1960s.4 However, some researchers have attempted to reconstruct a possible genealogy of immersive environments much earlier. Like a subterranean river, the immersive aesthetic experience would resurface in different periods, beginning with Pa- leolithic cave paintings, through Pompeian painting and trompe-l’œil, and then from Baroque illusionistic ceiling paintings to multimedia installations.5 A decisive moment for the design of these environments has been traced back to the 19th century, in particular the obsession for ὅραμα (from the ancient Greek “view”), which saw the spread of devices such as the panorama, the diorama, the cosmora- ma, etc.,6 responsible for the construction of an “emotional geography.”7 However, one of the most significant moments in this history, which has not yet been sufficiently explored in this debate,8 is that of the installations and environments that appeared in the first decades of the 20th century in the works of the avant-garde artists of the time. In 1976, invited by Vittorio Gregotti, Germano Celant curated the exhibition Ambiente/Arte: Dal Futurismo alla Body Art, held at the Central Pavilion in the Giardini for the 37th Venice Biennale. In this occasion, the history of environments was 4 I. Sutherland, “The Ultimate Display,” Proceedings of the IFIP Congress 65. Washington 1 (1965): 506-508; I. Sutherland, “A Head-Mounted Three-Dimensional Display,” AFIPS Fall Joint Computer Conference Proceeding 33 (Washington: Thompson Books, 1968): 757-64. 5 J. Nechvatal, Immersive Ideals/Critical Distances: A Study of the Affinity between Artistic Ideologies Based in Virtual Reality and Previous Immersive Idioms (Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009). 6 O. Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge-London: The MIT Press, 2003); S. Bordini, Storia del panorama (Roma: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2006). 7 G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotions: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (New York: Verso, 2000). 8 E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte semiotiche. Rivista internazionale di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine 7 (2021): 71-78. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 6 AN-ICON  reconstructed from the beginning of the 20th century, when avant-garde artists began to create “wall boxes on a human scale.”9 These environments allowed the visitor to physi- cally enter the work, going beyond the frame.10 Since then, artists have increasingly experimented with installations11 and works that aim to produce enveloping, participatory and interactive physical experiences,12 also making use of new technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. The exhibition itself, as an immersive device, has played a significant role throughout the 20th venues, from the Venice Biennale to the Kassel documenta, is increasing- ly blurring the boundaries between artwork and exhibition.13 The physical presence of the visitor in the multisensory space of the artwork,14 as well as their role as activator and experiencer, is central to any discussion of immersive contemporary art. Indeed, immersive installations bring to different forms of narration and storytelling,15 presenting themselves both as an exclusive space (separated from the rest of the world) and an inclusive context (as they literally absorb the visitor). Within the environment (analogue, digital​,​or mixed), 9 G. Celant, ed., Ambiente/Arte: Dal Futurismo alla Body Art: Biennale Arte 1976 (Venezia: La Biennale): p. 6. 10 G. Celant, “La cornice: dal simbolismo alla land art,” in G. Celant, ed., Il limite svelato: Artista, cornice, pubblico (Milano: Electa, 1981); D. Ferrari, A. Pinotti, eds., La cornice: Storie, teorie, testi (Milano: Johan & Levi, 2018); P. Conte, Unframing Aesthetics (Milano-Udine: Mimesis International, 2020). 11 C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (New York: Routledge, 2005). 12 I. Kabakov, M. Tupitsyn, V. Tupitsyn, “About Installation,” Art Journal 58, no. 4 (1999): 62- 73. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1999.10791966; J. Reiss, From Margin to Center: The Spaces of Installation Art (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001); C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History (New York: Routledge, 2005); B. Groys, “Politics of Installation,” E-flux journal reader 2009 (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2009); S. Zuliani, Senza cornice: Spazi e tempi dell’installazione (Roma: Arshake, 2015). 13 E. Filipovic, M., van Hal, S. Ovstebo, eds., The Biennial Reader: An Anthology on Large- scale Perennial Exhibitions of Contemporary Art (Ostfildernn: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010). 14 C. Bishop, Installation Art: A Critical History; A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine; F. Liptay, B. Dogramaci, eds., Immersion in the Visual Arts and Media. 15 M. Bal, “Narrative Inside Out: Louise Bourgeois’ Spider as Theoretical Object,” Oxford Art Journal 22, no. 2 (1999): 103-126. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/22.2.101; M. Bal, Louise Bourgeois’ Spider: The Architecture of Art-writing (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001); Allen, N., Combrink, L., “Character (and absence) as a narrative key in installation art,” Literator 40, no. 1 (2019): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.4102/lit.v40i1.1449. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 7 AN-ICON  at times artists leave clues or hints of stories; at other times, they build real scripts linked to real or plausible events or based on fictional characters – think of the growing role of science fiction in building utopian or dystopian narratives.16 Nowadays also the debate on how best to pre- serve and respect the authenticity of complex installations is compelling, considering the need to respect their time and site specificity.17 As a matter of fact, the latest generation of im- mersive technologies, together with the most recent theories of the environmentalisation of the image,18 suggest that we reconsider Boris Groys’s assertion about the possibility of interpreting installation as image and image as installation,19 thus confronting art history and theory with visual studies. In this respect, this first volume brings togeth- er different strategies and fields of analysis that have rea- soned about the processes involved. In her essay, Mieke Bal places a strong emphasis on exhibition practices as key for understanding the contemporary realm. Bal calls for the recognition of the interplay between past and present, advo- cating for visitor engagement that solicits affective empathic attitudes. Through her video installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, she stresses the transformative potential of art-making as a tool for cultural analysis. Giuliana Bruno challenges the established no- tion of immersion itself by introducing the concept of “en- vironmental projection.” Bruno invites us to reconsider the ecological dimensions of representation, particularly in terms 16 D. Byrne-Smith, ed., Documents of Contemporary Art: Science Fiction (London: White Chapel Gallery, 2020). 17 B. Ferriani, M. Pugliese, Monumenti effimeri: Storia e conservazione delle installazioni (Milano: Electa, 2009). 18 A. Pinotti, Alla soglia dell’immagine: Da Narciso alla realtà virtuale (Turin: Einaudi, 2021). 19 B. Groys, “Multiple Authorship” in B. Vanderlinden, E. Filipovic, eds. The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005); E. Modena, “Immersi nell’irreale: Prospettive an-iconiche sull’arte contemporanea dall’ambiente alla realtà virtuale,” Carte semiotiche. Rivista internazionale di semiotica e teoria dell’immagine 7 (2021): 71-78. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 8 AN-ICON  of movement and scale. She questions the relationship be- tween immersion and magnification, ultimately proposing the notion of “empathic projection” as a means to transcend human-centric perspectives in immersive experiences. Lucia Corrain’s text delves into the immersive qualities of art, particularly in the Chamber of the Giants by Giulio Romano in Mantua (Italy). Corrain explores the phe- nomenological and ontological aspects of immersion in art, emphasizing the viewer’s sense of awe and estrangement. Filippo Fimiani analyzes allegories of immersion through the lens of the LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS series, con- sidering in particular the episode Fish Night. He examines the cultural topos of immersive experience, highlighting the ambivalent relationship between living bodies, images, and media in deep time-bending scenarios. Roberto Pinto shifts the focus to the intersec- tion of art and history through Jeremy Deller’s immersive performance We Are Here Because We Are Here. Deller’s work exemplifies a change in commemorating historical events, focusing on individual stories and emotions rather than traditional heroic narratives. The artwork engages the audience on a personal level, prompting reflection and emo- tional connection, ultimately redefining the role of public art in collective memory. Francesco Tedeschi’s paper takes the reader on a journey through Italian environmental art, examining the trans- formation of space by artists such as Lucio Fontana, Gruppo T, and others in the 1950s and 1960s. Tedeschi’s investiga- tion focuses on the evolving link between interior and exterior spaces, the concept of passage, and the reasons which invite viewers to traverse rather than merely inhabit spaces. Annette Urban explores the blurred boundaries between art objects, space, and beholders in VR art and exhibitions. She discusses how VR art challenges tradi- tional subject-object relationships and often embeds itself ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 9 AN-ICON  into physical exhibition spaces, resulting in potentiated environmentalisation. Stefano Velotti’s suggestion to revert the usu- al perspective on the concept of “immersivity,” consists in introducing the idea of “an-immersivity,” namely the onto- logical condition of individuals who are immersed in reality but aware of it. In order to do so, he discusses the limits and characteristics of immersive VR experiences, the role of art, and the tension between control and uncontrollability in immersive encounters. Lastly, Giorgio Zanchetti examines the per- sistence of the locution “looking glass,” – that primarily comes from Lewis Carroll’s novel – which highlights the duality of a glass surface as a means of viewing the world and as an object to be observed. Italian artists of the 20th century, such as Lucio Fontana and Luciano Fabro, frequently explored three attitudes: looking through the glass, observing the re- flected image in a mirror, and examining the glass itself as a tool for presenting and representing spaces. The editors of the volume and the AN-ICON proj- ect would like to thank Pirelli HangarBicocca, Giovanna Ama- dasi, and Roberta Tenconi for their essential contribution to the organisation of the conference “Immersed in the Work. From Environment to Virtual Reality” (Milan, June 13th -16th 2022), a seminal occasion of reflection for the development of this thematic double issue. ROBERTO P. MALASPINA, ELISABETTA MODENA, AND SOFIA PIRANDELLO 10 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19939

Con-Temporary: Thinking and FeelingExhibition Together by Mieke Bal Video essay Don Quijote Political art Artistic process Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Con-Temporary: Thinking and Feeling Together MIEKE BAL, ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis) – https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5483-3218 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19939 Abstract The paper focuses on exhibition practice, tak- ing exhibitions as the key to contemporaneity. I will make a strong plea for the mutuality between past and present, the encouragement of visitors becoming participants through soliciting affective empathic attitude, and the accommo- dation to make this possible thanks to the enticement of durational looking. I will do this through the theoretical anal- ysis of what exhibiting means and does, and through a consideration of my recent video installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances. One episode of this project will be the hook on which to hang my view of art-making as, not an illustration of but a method of cultural analysis. Keywords Exhibition Video essay Don Quijote Political art Artistic process To quote this essay: M. Bal, “Con-Temporary: Thinking and Feeling Together,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 1 (2023): 11-28, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19939. MIEKE BAL 11 AN-ICON  In this article I am particularly keen to explore the implications of the preposition “con-” as a guideline for immersive art. With the qualifier “immersive” I aim to suggest that art can offer insights into the process of art, rather than the aesthetic, intellectual qualities, objecthood, or history of particular artworks. The process is what in- volves people, social issues and contexts, and what is “live” – dynamic, unstoppably moving, and never stable – about art. Art is not a “thing;” we, as its viewers or users, are inside it. In particular, I would like to argue how making audio-visual installations can be a terrific resource for the integration of “academic” reflection and scholarship with art processing through immersion. The making aspect enables me to reflect on and create situations where the relationship with visual art can become a social route while remaining artistically relevant. For this to happen, contemporaneity is key: immersion can only happen in the present. The integration of approaches I have termed “cultural analysis:” the detailed analysis of cultural objects or artefacts, not in isolation but in their live, social and political context, as artistic and aesthetic, intertwined with intellectu- al reflection. The two approaches of detailed, close analysis and framing in context are not in contradiction: this is my starting point. More than 25 years ago I have co-founded an institute at the University of Amsterdam, called ASCA: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. Its goal was and is to promote an approach wherein the socio-political and the contemporary are not in contradiction, only in a productive tension with detailed analysis and lessons in looking; nor is the contemporariness in tension with history. When, in 2002, by chance I found myself in a situation where I had to make a film as a witness statement, witnessing the police injustice against immigration, I bought a small video camera and started filming. It concerned the life of my neighbour – an immigrant “sans papiers.” Meeting him in the courtyard, MIEKE BAL 12 AN-ICON  by chance, seeing his arm was in a cast, I asked him what happened, invited him in, and our conversation about his situation led to an enduring friendship – given the need for mutual trust, this is the a priori condition of making a doc- umentary. With a small group of friends, under the heading of Cinema Suitcase we made a documentary, A Thousand And One Days, obviously alluding to the Arabic classic, and inspired by the name of the collective, a number of doc- umentaries and performance films followed, focusing on “migrimages,” to borrow a term from a research project at the University of Granada indicating visual presentations of situations of migration.1 This was the moment I discovered how deeply making an artwork helps intellectual thinking. But also, how intellectual thinking is never alone. In the book that has appeared in 2022, titled Image-Thinking: Art Making as Cul- tural Analysis I explain in detail how making the films I have since then made, have helped me immensely to deepen my thinking. That is what I have termed “image-thinking,” in an attempt to come up with a term for integration of the different activities of which my work consists. Of course, in a short article I can only briefly touch upon the import- ant questions this endeavour brings up. To make it work, I would like to count on you having seen, or going to see, the episode 6, of 8 minutes, of my installation from 2019, Don Quijote: Tristes figuras, based on fragments from (mostly) the first part of the novel by Cervantes (from 1605). Hard as that decision was, I declined to make a feature film, as I had done with my other projects based on the cultural heritage of fiction. This seemed unacceptable, because 1 For more information about the resulting documentary: https://www.miekebal.org/films/ mille-et-un-jours-(1001-days), accessed July 15, 2023, and M. Bal, “A Thousand and One Voices,” in M. Anders Baggesgaard, J. Ladegaard, eds., Confronting Universalities: Aesthetics and Politics under the Sign of Globalisation (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2011): 269- 304. The third chapter of my book Image-Thinking: Artmaking as Cultural Analysis (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022): 90-130 is devoted to the question of “who speaks?” in documentaries, with this film as the example. The term “migrimages” was invented by literary theorist Domingo Sánchez-Mesa Martínez. MIEKE BAL 13 AN-ICON  turning that novel into a linear, coherent narrative film would be a betrayal of the most crucial aspect of the novel: its non-linearity, even incoherence. Instead, an immersive in- stallation, as you can see in the documentation, where we showed its installations done immediately after finishing the project.2 Take the scene Narrative Stuttering, which I hope you have watched or will do so. This scene shows Don Quijote alone on a dark theatrical stage. Sancho Panza is sitting on a chair on the side, helping him when needed, as a prompter. The knight is desperately trying to tell his story, the adventures, his opinions, whatever happened to him, but he is unable to act effectively as a narrator. At the end, he bursts into tears and Sancho holds him in order to comfort him, demonstrating, by physical touch, that he is not entirely alone. See the photograph on the web page, second column. The appeal to empa- thy is a key aspect of what we tried to achieve with this installation. Sancho is giving the example; the visitors can follow his lead (imaginatively). The darkness of the stage deprives the space of perspectival depth. The dark stage isolates him and, at the same time, gives him an audience. The theatrical setting is a material “theoretical fiction” that explores how theatricality can perhaps help to enable the narratively dis- abled. My commitment to addressing the issue of narrative 2 See https://www.miekebal.org/film-projects-1, accessed July 16, 2023. http://miekebal. withtank.com/artworks/installations/don-quijote-sad-countenances/episode-6-narrative- stuttering. For a book on the installation, see M. Bal, Don Quijote: Sad Countenances (Växjö: Trolltrumma, 2019), also in bilingual English-Spanish edition as Don Quijote: Tristes figuras / Don Quijote: Sad Countenances (Murcia: Cendeac, 2020). The installation has been exhibited at a World première in Småland Museum / Kulturparken, Växjö, Sweden (October 31, 2019), then at Usina Cultural, Villa María, Argentina, VIII Congreso (April 26 to May 6, 2022), the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), as part of the congress of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ästhetik (German Society for Aesthetics) Ästhetik und Erkenntnis (July 13-15, 2021). Installed in the Aktionsraum of Toni-Areal (July 13-21, 2021), in the exhibition Art out of Necessity, video installations by Mieke Bal at the Museum Jan Cunen, Oss, Netherlands (October 3, 2020 - January 31, 2021), interrupted mid-December by the second corona lockdown); in the Leeds Arts University Gallery a.k.a. The Blenheim Walk (January 7 - February 14, 2020). Curator: Catriona McAra, and in the Sala de exposiciones, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Bellas Artes (November 14, 2019 - January 18, 2020), curated by Jesús Segura. MIEKE BAL 14 AN-ICON  disablement through trauma has been nourished especially when I made, with British artist Michelle Williams Gamak- er, and with the participation of psychoanalyst of trauma Françoise Davoine, the theoretical fiction film A Long Histo- ry of Madness (2011) and installations derived from it. This film is “about” madness, but it also stages, performs, en- acts, and critiques ideas about madness and their cultural history. Based on the 1998 book Mère Folle by Davoine, the film stages the question and practice of the psychoanalytic treatment of people diagnosed as “psychotic” and whom, to avoid narrowing diagnostic discourse, we call “mad.”3 The film raises the art-historical question whether we can say there is an “iconography of madness.” Most of the actors play “madness.” None of them are mad. Davoine’s book, written as a fiction, theorizes this question. In that sense it is a “theoretical fiction.” That term comes from Sigmund Freud. He came up with it to defend his quite crazy story of the sons who kill and eat their tyrannical father. Freud made up a fiction, not simply to explain his theoretical finding of the Oedipus complex, but primarily to develop it through immersion in fiction, which he needed to understand and articulate what he had been intuitively groping toward. This is thinking in, through and with fiction- al characters and events. My book title “Image-Thinking” was derived from Freud’s concept. When, later, I showed my film Reasonable Doubt, on René Descartes and Queen Kristina of Sweden, to an artist friend, she complimented me on the “theatrical” quality of the film. Then I understood why theatricality had, in fact, always been an important aspect of my fiction films. The theatricality helps to do what I have called “exhibiting 3 On this issue of madness as a consequence of trauma, the book by Françoise Davoine Mère folle: Récit (Paris: Hypothèses Arcanes, 1998) is crucial. Our film A Long History of Madness came out in 2011 (directed by Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker). For more information: https://www.miekebal.org/films/a-long-history-of-madness, accessed July 16, 2023. See also the special issue on the book and the film: E. Landa, ed., “Cinéma et psychanalyse,” Le Coq-héron 4, no. 211 (2012). MIEKE BAL 15 AN-ICON  ideas.” In the video project based on Don Quijote, this the- atricality is even more prominent, not only in the acting, but in the exhibition itself. The exhibition as installed is, then, itself a “theoretical fiction.” Theatre scholar Kati Röttger considers theatricality a specific mode of perception, a central figure of representation, and an analytic model of crises of representation that can be traced back to changes in the material basis of linguistic behaviour, cultures of perception, and modes of thinking.4 The multi-tentacled description gives theatrical- ity many functions, and foregrounds its inherent intermedial- ity. In addition, and more specifically for our project, theatre and performance scholar Maaike Bleeker gives theatricality the critical edge that the exhibition seeks to achieve when she calls it “a critical vision machine.”5 These two defini- tions together already show that theatricality can offer a critical perspective on the images and ideas that circulate, in this case, in the exhibition that is as mad as the main figure of Cervantes’s novel is generally assumed to be. A madness in which the visitor is immersed. For this need of the narratively incapacitated figure an empathic audience is indispensable. It is the task of the artwork to solicit such an audience. This requires a form of display that changes the traditional museal display, which keeps audience members at a distance and is quite hard on the audience’s physical condition. But it is primarily an artistic issue. This governs the temporality of looking. In the theatre, in contrast to traditional display, visitors can sit, relax, and concentrate. If the display is nearby and 4 K. Röttger, “The Mystery of the In-Between: A Methodological Approach to Intermedial Performance Analysis,” Forum Modernes Theater 28, no. 2 (2018): 105-16, https://doi.org/10.1353/fmt.2013.0014. 5 M. Bleeker, “Being Angela Merkel,” in E. van Alphen, M. Bal C. Smith, eds. The Rhetoric of Sincerity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009): 247-62. See also Bleeker, Visuality in the Theatre: The Locus of Looking (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). MIEKE BAL 16 AN-ICON  accessible, and visiting can consist of quietly sitting, the museum can become such a theatre. You see people sitting down, and as a result, talking together about the painting that is in front of them, low-hung, on eye-level. The Don Quijote exhibition seeks to produce such material comfort, and thus will facilitate affective engagement in visitors. The consequence is a radically different temporality of viewing. And time, thus, turns out to be a condition of an immersion that effectively affects. If affect is a vibrant communication between people, or between people and artwork, then they must be given the time, the physical comfort this requires. This imagining, testing, and reasoning regarding the affec- tive effectivity of museum display shows how this project pertains to what is currently called “artistic research” – a search through analysis through artmaking.6 That concept is deeply problematic. It main- tains the hierarchy between academic and artistic research, suggesting that artists can earn academic diplomas if they can explain and articulate how their works came to be. The risk is an over-intellectualizing of art. The linearity built into the concept is deceptive; this is not how art-making hap- pens. As Kamini Vellodi warns us in her Deleuzian critique of the concept of “artistic research:” “it is difficult to deny that a major impetus of artistic research has been econom- ic, policy-driven, and managerial.”7 With these words she invokes the curse that is destroying universities word-wide as we speak. Both art and thought are thus being dam- aged. When thinking is subjected to methods, it becomes 6 I have strongly argued for the relevance of seating in exhibitions in a show I curated at the Munch Museum (Oslo) in 2017 (with a book publication). 7 K. Vellodi, “Thought Beyond Research: A Deleuzian Critique of Artistic Research, ” in P. de Assis, P. Giudici, eds., Aberrant Nuptials: Deleuze and Artistic Research 2 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019): 215-33, 216. MIEKE BAL 17 AN-ICON  re-productive. In a Deleuzian view, thought, instead, ought to be the production of the new. This thinking is congenial to art-making, but just as much to academic work. The integration of these two creative activities is explained in my book Thinking in Film from 2013, on the video art by Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahti- la. But the search is not for direct academic answers. The concept of “image-thinking,” in the form of a verb, renders the interaction between thinking and imaging more forceful. To foreground this, we titled an exhibition of my video work in 2019 in Murcia, Spain, Contaminations: Reading, Imag- ining, Imaging. The noun “contaminations” suggests that the art is inevitably in process and “contagious,” having an affective impact, as I said above. The verb “imagining” was my attempt to foreground the way the imagination creates images. The collaboration with Hernández made these issues clearer and the neologisms more productive.8 The fourfold challenge to make a video proj- ect based on Don Quijote engage its troubled relationship between content and form, and between the narrative and visual aspects involved. The research part was, firstly, to decide which aspects of the novel are crucial to make a video work that has a point. Secondly, that point had to connect artistic and social issues, and to improve our un- derstanding of how these two domains can go together, in the contemporary, with the collaboration of the past in what we call “cultural heritage” – here, Cervantes’ novel. The importance of the past for the present, and vice versa, how our present changes the past as we can see it, must be foregrounded on the basis of non-chronological, mutual relations. The fourth chapter of my new book, Multi-Tenta- cled Time: Contemporaneity, Heterochrony, Anachronism for Pre-posterous History analyses time in its multiplicity. 8 That exhibition was curated by Miguel Ángel Hernández. A collective volume, edited by Hernández, was published in 2020. MIEKE BAL 18 AN-ICON  This is also a central concern both in narrative theory and in film.9 In my academic work I have a controversial reputation as someone who does not take chronology for granted. After publishing Reading “Rembrandt” (1991) I was blamed for being ahistorical, which, although not true, was a stimulating incentive to think harder about histori- cal time. That led to my book Quoting Caravaggio (1999), in which I addressed that critique, and developed a new sense of history in relation to time. But it was when, already filmmaking, I was working with Miguel Ángel Hernández Navarro on a large collective video exhibition devoted to the connections between the movement of images and the movement of people, in other words, video and migration (not on migration), that my thinking about temporality took another turn. 2MOVE (the exhibition), was shown in four countries, with in each a local artist added. The last concept in the chapter’s title, “pre-pos- terous history,” is presented again through my latest, 2020 short “essay film” It’s About Time! This film, the title of which is as ambiguous as the concept of “pre-posterous history” with its self-ironic wink, addresses the world’s self-destruc- tive impulse. It does this through the voice of Christa Wolf’s character Cassandra. She was the prophetess from antiquity, who will see and know the future, as a gift with the purpose of seduction from the god Apollo. But when she refused to sleep with her employer, he punished her: she was doomed never be believed. An antique case of #MeToo. In that fourth chapter I discuss the different is- sues of time that, in narrative theory, are usually divided into order, rhythm, and duration. I complicate that tripartite 9 M. Bal, Image-Thinking: 131-74. I have first developed this neologism, “pre-posterous history,” in my book on Caravaggio in its mutual relationship with contemporary art Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History (Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999). “Multi-tentacled” stands for the plurality of temporal relationships, for which I chose the octopus as a symbol. MIEKE BAL 19 AN-ICON  theory by adding the experiential aspect (heterochrony) and the categories of the historical disciplines. This rethinking of chronology has an important impact on how we see our- selves in history. For the first time I have taken a biograph- ical fact on the novel’s author on board. This “fact” is the five-and-a-half years Cervantes spent as a slave in Algiers, without knowing he would ever get out. If we take this on, all the adventures, the madness, the violence that colour the adventures of the Knight Errant, get a different shade. On my reading, the issue that rules the novel’s aesthetic is the difficulty of story-telling due to the horror encountered. This is now called “post-traumatic stress disorder” – except that, as usual, the preposition “post-” perverts the connections between past and present. The traumatized subject is “dis- ordered” because, precisely, the trauma doesn’t go away. There is nothing “post-” possible for the trau- matized. The insights the novel generates connect to other experiences of war, violence, and captivity: contemporary ones. You can see succinctly what the consequences of traumatization tend to be, according to a very lucid article by Ernst van Alphen. The author analyses the experiential handicaps resulting from trauma as well as the narrative ones. To sum it up succinctly: as a failed experience, trau- ma leads to semiotic incapacitation, unavailable forms of representation, the stalling of the discursive process, which would be needed for having experiences. Specifically, in narrative terms, ambiguous actantial position, the negation of subjectivity, the lack of meaning-giving plot, and unac- ceptable frames. But a well-thought-through immersive video project can explore and transgress the limits of what MIEKE BAL 20 AN-ICON  can be seen, shown, narrated, and empathically witnessed, in relation to notoriously un-representable trauma.10 Full of incongruous events and repetitive sto- ries, maddening implausibility, lengthy interruptions of the story-line, inserted poems and novellas, and at the same time, anchored in a harrowing reality, while also making readers laugh out loud, this novel, in form and content, challenges reading itself. This requires interdisciplinarity, in all meanings of that preposition “inter-.” I have termed it “intership.” The similarity to the word “internship” suggests that this, too, concerns learning, as a practice of mutuality. Film seems the least apt to do justice to the novel’s turbulent incoherence, repetitiveness, and incon- gruous adventures told in the novel. Talking about it with actor Mathieu Montanier, who came up with the idea of making a Don Quijote video work, we decided that an im- mersive video installation consisting of different, non-linear episodes presented with seating would be more effective in showing, rather than representing, not the moment trauma occurs but enduring violence-generated traumatic states. The importance of showing is to enable witnessing as an engaged activity against the indifference of the world, our worst opponent. The ambition was to make a work the theatricality of which in immersive display helps to turn onlookers and voyeurs into activated, empathic witnesses. This artwork must yield “thought-images” or Denkbilder, created by means of “image-thinking.” The small iconic texts that Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer wrote, were texts only. What did the word Bilder do there, then? This is where “image-thinking” can meet, and yield, “thought-im- ages.” In a study of the genre, US-based scholar of German 10 E. v. Alphen, “Symptoms of Discursivity: Experience, Memory, Trauma,” in M Bal, J. Crewe, L. Spitzer, eds., Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present (Hanover NH: University of New England Press, 1999): 24-38. MIEKE BAL 21 AN-ICON  Gerhard Richter begins his description with a whole range of negativities. Indeed, a programmatic treatise would be something like a political pamphlet, as opposed to histor- ical objectivations – an opposition that audio-visual art is devoted to questioning. This is an important point in con- nection to attempts to separate political art or scholarship from propaganda. The difference is important: propagan- da dictates, as in dictators, which is close to imposing; whereas political art and scholarship expose and propose, but leave the freedom of the addressees intact; as long as they are immersed, so that they are enticed to respond to the art they see. What Richter disparagingly calls “fanciful fiction” stands opposed to an equally dismissed “mere reflections of reality.” “Rather,” Richter continues, “the min- iatures of the Denkbild can be understood as conceptual engagements with the aesthetic and as aesthetic engage- ments with the conceptual, hovering between philosophical critique and aesthetic production.”11 The word “engage- ment” is crucial; it requires contemporaneity. This matches Benjamin’s fifth thesis on images of the past, which has been a guideline for my work on art between history and anachronism: “Every image of the past that is not recog- nized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.”12 This warning is one of the main motors of immersive projects and needs endorsement of their contemporariness. For, the cultural heritage from the 11 G. Richter, Thought-Images: Frankfurt School Writers’ Reflections on Damaged Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007): 2. 12 W. Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in Illuminations, trans. Harry Zorn (London: The Bodley Head, 2015): 245-55, 247. MIEKE BAL 22 AN-ICON  past matters for today’s world. But only if we manage to bring it to bear on the present.13 Richter further describes the thought-image thus: “The Denkbild encodes a poetic form of condensed, epigrammatic writing in textual snapshots, flashing up as poignant meditations that typically fasten upon a seemingly peripheral detail or marginal topic.”14 The word “flashes up” suggests the quick flash that Benjamin urges us to preserve by means of recognition in the first sentences of that thesis V from which I now quote a later sentence: “The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.”15 This also connects to the question of historical truth, at stake in the scene “Who is Don Quijote?”16 In this regard, in his Aesthetic Theory Adorno writes: What cannot be proved in the customary style and yet is com- pelling — that is to spur on the spontaneity and energy of thought and, without being taken literally, to strike sparks through a kind of intellectual short-circuiting that casts a sudden light on the familiar and perhaps sets it on fire.17 As in Benjamin’s thesis, as well as Lyotard’s fig- urality, the language here is again both visual and shock-ori- ented, with “sparks,” “short-circuiting,” “sudden light” and “sets it on fire.” This is thought alive, living thought, here-now, 13 On this necessary contemporaneity I have published the short book Exhibition-ism: Temporal Togetherness in the series The Contemporary Condition (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2020), requested by the author of a fabulous later book on contemporariness: J. Lund, The Changing Constitution of the Present: Essays on the Work of Art in the Time of Contemporaneity (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022). My point was the idea that exhibitions are the most precise “model” for the contemporary. 14 G. Richter, Thought-Images: 2. 15 W. Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History:” 247. 16 See for this scene, http://miekebal.withtank.com/artworks/installations/don-quijote- sad-countenances/episode-4-who-is-don-quijote/. This scene also suggests that the actor, Mathieu Montanier, bears a striking resemblance to the (totally imaginative and imaged) figure who never existed historically, but of whom we have a clear image. 17 T. W. Adorno, “The Essay as Form” (1954-58), in Notes to Literature, trans. S. Weber Nicholson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991): vol.1, 3-23. MIEKE BAL 23 AN-ICON  and this living thought has agency; it is capable of engag- ing viewers in a dialogic relationship. And it is visual. For such sparks to happen, thought needs a formal innovation that shocks, and time to make immersion in it, possible. Thus, it can gain new energy and life, involve people, and make thought a collective process rather than the kind of still images we call clichés. Our attempt to achieve such “sparking,” shocking innovation can be glimpsed in this photograph by Ebba Sund: the frame is both blurred, since the escaping slave leaves it behind, and foregrounded, in the large proportions the iron bars have compared to the fleeing man (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Mieke Bal, The Captive escapes, photograph by Ebba Sund. An epsiode of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019, video, color, Dolby sound, 8 minutes. Courtesy the artist. In the videos, such sparks lay in the combina- tion of material, practical changes of the mode of display as immersive, short-circuiting the anachronistic bond be- tween present and past, the confusion of languages and other categories we tend to take for granted as homoge- neous, and the intermediality of the audio-visualization of a literary masterpiece. In view of the need for witnessing, such a messy “thinking” form enables and activates view- ers to construct their own story, and connect it to what they have seen around them; on the condition that they MIEKE BAL 24 AN-ICON  are immersed through being given time. Thus, we aimed to turn the hysteria of endless story-telling into a reflection on communication, as it can breach, and reach beyond, the boundaries that madness draws around its captive subjects, and instead, open up their subjectivity. Here, in the brilliant photograph also by Ebba Sund, the Captive cannot speak; his mouth is visually muzzled. But his eyes do speak, to us – if we are given the time, through seating, to respond (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Mieke Bal, episode 6 of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019, video, color, Dolby sound, 8 minutes. Courtesy the artist. To give insight into the stagnation that char- acterises the adventures, these scenes are predominantly descriptive. Any attempt at narrative is “stuttering,” without development. The scene Narrative Stuttering I recommend- ed you watch before reading this essay, shows both the in- capacitation to narrate and the frustration this causes. The theatrical setting is meant to draw visitors’ attention to the way they are themselves situated: inside a theatre, sitting on the stage, rather than in front of it, where they can fall asleep or get excited, identify or not, and possibly remain indiffer- ent. Here, such indifference is hard to sustain, because the viewers’ freedom to determine themselves how long they wish to stay with a scene makes falling asleep contradictory. MIEKE BAL 25 AN-ICON  This is the tentative design of the installation I made be- forehand, suggesting the total arbitrariness of the lay-out. The different installations follow this design roughly (Fig. 3). Fig. 3. Mieke Bal, project for the design of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019. Courtesy the artist. What Françoise Davoine calls, citing histori- an Fernand Braudel: “poussières d’événements” (literally, dust of events) is the motto of this work’s form: sprinkling situations, moments, throughout the gallery space. This is adequate to the state of trauma presented in the pieces and in the juxtapositions among them. The disorderly dis- play gives a shape, however unreadable and unclear, to the trauma-induced madness of the novel’s form. Cervantes, I presume, was one of those “mad” ones. The trauma incurred by Cervantes after being held in captivity as a slave, has been beautifully traced in his writ- ings and those of contemporary witnesses by Colombian literary historian María Antonia Garcés, a must-read book for anyone interested in Cervantes, Don Quijote, or slavery, then and now. Con-temporary. As it happens, Garcés was held captive by the FARC terrorist guerillos for five months. This contemporaneity is incompatible with the ridiculing representation of the “mad Knight Errant” that is so routine, both in cinematic representations and in much of the schol- arship. Supported by Garcés’s well-documented analysis, I MIEKE BAL 26 AN-ICON  see a haunting autobiographical spirit in the three chapters on the Captive (pp. 39-41 of part I). But the shape of the theatrical display does not “re-present” the madness. It hints at it, makes us reflect on it. The Denkbild is in the form, so that a contem- porary aesthetic can reach out to, and touch, a situation of long ago that, as befits the stilled temporality of trau- ma, persists in the present. Through experimenting with possible forms of the art of video, we attempted to invent new forms for the formlessness of trauma. By means of image-thinking this installation had to answer to the para- doxical concept, or thought-image, of the shape of form- lessness. Here, theatricality returns: ostensibly acting is the form that does not overrule the history, the violence, or the traumatic state. Acting, these videos suggest, is a social role. Acting, and making videos, exhibiting them in a thought-through immersive mode, is an attempt to give the formlessness of society a form. This is an attempt to do just that: to shape formlessness as the form of the trau- matic state, by designing a display that is both theatrical, in that it appeals to empathy, and turns “live,” that primary characteristic of theatre, into “life,” which concerns the social reality we live in and are responsible to sustain; and the knowledge acquired through the integration of making, analysing, reflecting, and boldly proposing new insights. Filmmaking begins with casting. In the case of Don Quijote, the actor cast himself; knowing he was the spitting image of the character as we know, or think we know him. An earlier significant casting decision occurred when Michelle Williams Gamaker and I decided to cast the three men in Emma’s life, in Madame B, in the same actor, suggesting the woman was in love with love and its prom- ises of excitement, not with any man in particular. I have made many films and installation pieces, over the last twenty years, and I guarantee you, there is MIEKE BAL 27 AN-ICON  no more effective mode of doing research and developing ideas than integrating these two activities. You can learn more about these films on the relevant page of my web- site. So, let me end on my personal motto, already cited, which demands the remedy of immersion: “Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.” This is pre-posterous history. The past without present is pointless. The present without past is empty. But as soon as we try to fix either one, the future disappears. MIEKE BAL 28 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

anicon

https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19939

Con-Temporary: Thinking and FeelingExhibition Together by Mieke Bal Video essay Don Quijote Political art Artistic process Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello Con-Temporary: Thinking and Feeling Together MIEKE BAL, ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis) – https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5483-3218 https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19939 Abstract The paper focuses on exhibition practice, tak- ing exhibitions as the key to contemporaneity. I will make a strong plea for the mutuality between past and present, the encouragement of visitors becoming participants through soliciting affective empathic attitude, and the accommo- dation to make this possible thanks to the enticement of durational looking. I will do this through the theoretical anal- ysis of what exhibiting means and does, and through a consideration of my recent video installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances. One episode of this project will be the hook on which to hang my view of art-making as, not an illustration of but a method of cultural analysis. Keywords Exhibition Video essay Don Quijote Political art Artistic process To quote this essay: M. Bal, “Con-Temporary: Thinking and Feeling Together,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 1 (2023): 11-28, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19939. MIEKE BAL 11 AN-ICON  In this article I am particularly keen to explore the implications of the preposition “con-” as a guideline for immersive art. With the qualifier “immersive” I aim to suggest that art can offer insights into the process of art, rather than the aesthetic, intellectual qualities, objecthood, or history of particular artworks. The process is what in- volves people, social issues and contexts, and what is “live” – dynamic, unstoppably moving, and never stable – about art. Art is not a “thing;” we, as its viewers or users, are inside it. In particular, I would like to argue how making audio-visual installations can be a terrific resource for the integration of “academic” reflection and scholarship with art processing through immersion. The making aspect enables me to reflect on and create situations where the relationship with visual art can become a social route while remaining artistically relevant. For this to happen, contemporaneity is key: immersion can only happen in the present. The integration of approaches I have termed “cultural analysis:” the detailed analysis of cultural objects or artefacts, not in isolation but in their live, social and political context, as artistic and aesthetic, intertwined with intellectu- al reflection. The two approaches of detailed, close analysis and framing in context are not in contradiction: this is my starting point. More than 25 years ago I have co-founded an institute at the University of Amsterdam, called ASCA: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. Its goal was and is to promote an approach wherein the socio-political and the contemporary are not in contradiction, only in a productive tension with detailed analysis and lessons in looking; nor is the contemporariness in tension with history. When, in 2002, by chance I found myself in a situation where I had to make a film as a witness statement, witnessing the police injustice against immigration, I bought a small video camera and started filming. It concerned the life of my neighbour – an immigrant “sans papiers.” Meeting him in the courtyard, MIEKE BAL 12 AN-ICON  by chance, seeing his arm was in a cast, I asked him what happened, invited him in, and our conversation about his situation led to an enduring friendship – given the need for mutual trust, this is the a priori condition of making a doc- umentary. With a small group of friends, under the heading of Cinema Suitcase we made a documentary, A Thousand And One Days, obviously alluding to the Arabic classic, and inspired by the name of the collective, a number of doc- umentaries and performance films followed, focusing on “migrimages,” to borrow a term from a research project at the University of Granada indicating visual presentations of situations of migration.1 This was the moment I discovered how deeply making an artwork helps intellectual thinking. But also, how intellectual thinking is never alone. In the book that has appeared in 2022, titled Image-Thinking: Art Making as Cul- tural Analysis I explain in detail how making the films I have since then made, have helped me immensely to deepen my thinking. That is what I have termed “image-thinking,” in an attempt to come up with a term for integration of the different activities of which my work consists. Of course, in a short article I can only briefly touch upon the import- ant questions this endeavour brings up. To make it work, I would like to count on you having seen, or going to see, the episode 6, of 8 minutes, of my installation from 2019, Don Quijote: Tristes figuras, based on fragments from (mostly) the first part of the novel by Cervantes (from 1605). Hard as that decision was, I declined to make a feature film, as I had done with my other projects based on the cultural heritage of fiction. This seemed unacceptable, because 1 For more information about the resulting documentary: https://www.miekebal.org/films/ mille-et-un-jours-(1001-days), accessed July 15, 2023, and M. Bal, “A Thousand and One Voices,” in M. Anders Baggesgaard, J. Ladegaard, eds., Confronting Universalities: Aesthetics and Politics under the Sign of Globalisation (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2011): 269- 304. The third chapter of my book Image-Thinking: Artmaking as Cultural Analysis (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022): 90-130 is devoted to the question of “who speaks?” in documentaries, with this film as the example. The term “migrimages” was invented by literary theorist Domingo Sánchez-Mesa Martínez. MIEKE BAL 13 AN-ICON  turning that novel into a linear, coherent narrative film would be a betrayal of the most crucial aspect of the novel: its non-linearity, even incoherence. Instead, an immersive in- stallation, as you can see in the documentation, where we showed its installations done immediately after finishing the project.2 Take the scene Narrative Stuttering, which I hope you have watched or will do so. This scene shows Don Quijote alone on a dark theatrical stage. Sancho Panza is sitting on a chair on the side, helping him when needed, as a prompter. The knight is desperately trying to tell his story, the adventures, his opinions, whatever happened to him, but he is unable to act effectively as a narrator. At the end, he bursts into tears and Sancho holds him in order to comfort him, demonstrating, by physical touch, that he is not entirely alone. See the photograph on the web page, second column. The appeal to empa- thy is a key aspect of what we tried to achieve with this installation. Sancho is giving the example; the visitors can follow his lead (imaginatively). The darkness of the stage deprives the space of perspectival depth. The dark stage isolates him and, at the same time, gives him an audience. The theatrical setting is a material “theoretical fiction” that explores how theatricality can perhaps help to enable the narratively dis- abled. My commitment to addressing the issue of narrative 2 See https://www.miekebal.org/film-projects-1, accessed July 16, 2023. http://miekebal. withtank.com/artworks/installations/don-quijote-sad-countenances/episode-6-narrative- stuttering. For a book on the installation, see M. Bal, Don Quijote: Sad Countenances (Växjö: Trolltrumma, 2019), also in bilingual English-Spanish edition as Don Quijote: Tristes figuras / Don Quijote: Sad Countenances (Murcia: Cendeac, 2020). The installation has been exhibited at a World première in Småland Museum / Kulturparken, Växjö, Sweden (October 31, 2019), then at Usina Cultural, Villa María, Argentina, VIII Congreso (April 26 to May 6, 2022), the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), as part of the congress of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ästhetik (German Society for Aesthetics) Ästhetik und Erkenntnis (July 13-15, 2021). Installed in the Aktionsraum of Toni-Areal (July 13-21, 2021), in the exhibition Art out of Necessity, video installations by Mieke Bal at the Museum Jan Cunen, Oss, Netherlands (October 3, 2020 - January 31, 2021), interrupted mid-December by the second corona lockdown); in the Leeds Arts University Gallery a.k.a. The Blenheim Walk (January 7 - February 14, 2020). Curator: Catriona McAra, and in the Sala de exposiciones, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Bellas Artes (November 14, 2019 - January 18, 2020), curated by Jesús Segura. MIEKE BAL 14 AN-ICON  disablement through trauma has been nourished especially when I made, with British artist Michelle Williams Gamak- er, and with the participation of psychoanalyst of trauma Françoise Davoine, the theoretical fiction film A Long Histo- ry of Madness (2011) and installations derived from it. This film is “about” madness, but it also stages, performs, en- acts, and critiques ideas about madness and their cultural history. Based on the 1998 book Mère Folle by Davoine, the film stages the question and practice of the psychoanalytic treatment of people diagnosed as “psychotic” and whom, to avoid narrowing diagnostic discourse, we call “mad.”3 The film raises the art-historical question whether we can say there is an “iconography of madness.” Most of the actors play “madness.” None of them are mad. Davoine’s book, written as a fiction, theorizes this question. In that sense it is a “theoretical fiction.” That term comes from Sigmund Freud. He came up with it to defend his quite crazy story of the sons who kill and eat their tyrannical father. Freud made up a fiction, not simply to explain his theoretical finding of the Oedipus complex, but primarily to develop it through immersion in fiction, which he needed to understand and articulate what he had been intuitively groping toward. This is thinking in, through and with fiction- al characters and events. My book title “Image-Thinking” was derived from Freud’s concept. When, later, I showed my film Reasonable Doubt, on René Descartes and Queen Kristina of Sweden, to an artist friend, she complimented me on the “theatrical” quality of the film. Then I understood why theatricality had, in fact, always been an important aspect of my fiction films. The theatricality helps to do what I have called “exhibiting 3 On this issue of madness as a consequence of trauma, the book by Françoise Davoine Mère folle: Récit (Paris: Hypothèses Arcanes, 1998) is crucial. Our film A Long History of Madness came out in 2011 (directed by Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker). For more information: https://www.miekebal.org/films/a-long-history-of-madness, accessed July 16, 2023. See also the special issue on the book and the film: E. Landa, ed., “Cinéma et psychanalyse,” Le Coq-héron 4, no. 211 (2012). MIEKE BAL 15 AN-ICON  ideas.” In the video project based on Don Quijote, this the- atricality is even more prominent, not only in the acting, but in the exhibition itself. The exhibition as installed is, then, itself a “theoretical fiction.” Theatre scholar Kati Röttger considers theatricality a specific mode of perception, a central figure of representation, and an analytic model of crises of representation that can be traced back to changes in the material basis of linguistic behaviour, cultures of perception, and modes of thinking.4 The multi-tentacled description gives theatrical- ity many functions, and foregrounds its inherent intermedial- ity. In addition, and more specifically for our project, theatre and performance scholar Maaike Bleeker gives theatricality the critical edge that the exhibition seeks to achieve when she calls it “a critical vision machine.”5 These two defini- tions together already show that theatricality can offer a critical perspective on the images and ideas that circulate, in this case, in the exhibition that is as mad as the main figure of Cervantes’s novel is generally assumed to be. A madness in which the visitor is immersed. For this need of the narratively incapacitated figure an empathic audience is indispensable. It is the task of the artwork to solicit such an audience. This requires a form of display that changes the traditional museal display, which keeps audience members at a distance and is quite hard on the audience’s physical condition. But it is primarily an artistic issue. This governs the temporality of looking. In the theatre, in contrast to traditional display, visitors can sit, relax, and concentrate. If the display is nearby and 4 K. Röttger, “The Mystery of the In-Between: A Methodological Approach to Intermedial Performance Analysis,” Forum Modernes Theater 28, no. 2 (2018): 105-16, https://doi.org/10.1353/fmt.2013.0014. 5 M. Bleeker, “Being Angela Merkel,” in E. van Alphen, M. Bal C. Smith, eds. The Rhetoric of Sincerity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009): 247-62. See also Bleeker, Visuality in the Theatre: The Locus of Looking (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). MIEKE BAL 16 AN-ICON  accessible, and visiting can consist of quietly sitting, the museum can become such a theatre. You see people sitting down, and as a result, talking together about the painting that is in front of them, low-hung, on eye-level. The Don Quijote exhibition seeks to produce such material comfort, and thus will facilitate affective engagement in visitors. The consequence is a radically different temporality of viewing. And time, thus, turns out to be a condition of an immersion that effectively affects. If affect is a vibrant communication between people, or between people and artwork, then they must be given the time, the physical comfort this requires. This imagining, testing, and reasoning regarding the affec- tive effectivity of museum display shows how this project pertains to what is currently called “artistic research” – a search through analysis through artmaking.6 That concept is deeply problematic. It main- tains the hierarchy between academic and artistic research, suggesting that artists can earn academic diplomas if they can explain and articulate how their works came to be. The risk is an over-intellectualizing of art. The linearity built into the concept is deceptive; this is not how art-making hap- pens. As Kamini Vellodi warns us in her Deleuzian critique of the concept of “artistic research:” “it is difficult to deny that a major impetus of artistic research has been econom- ic, policy-driven, and managerial.”7 With these words she invokes the curse that is destroying universities word-wide as we speak. Both art and thought are thus being dam- aged. When thinking is subjected to methods, it becomes 6 I have strongly argued for the relevance of seating in exhibitions in a show I curated at the Munch Museum (Oslo) in 2017 (with a book publication). 7 K. Vellodi, “Thought Beyond Research: A Deleuzian Critique of Artistic Research, ” in P. de Assis, P. Giudici, eds., Aberrant Nuptials: Deleuze and Artistic Research 2 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2019): 215-33, 216. MIEKE BAL 17 AN-ICON  re-productive. In a Deleuzian view, thought, instead, ought to be the production of the new. This thinking is congenial to art-making, but just as much to academic work. The integration of these two creative activities is explained in my book Thinking in Film from 2013, on the video art by Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahti- la. But the search is not for direct academic answers. The concept of “image-thinking,” in the form of a verb, renders the interaction between thinking and imaging more forceful. To foreground this, we titled an exhibition of my video work in 2019 in Murcia, Spain, Contaminations: Reading, Imag- ining, Imaging. The noun “contaminations” suggests that the art is inevitably in process and “contagious,” having an affective impact, as I said above. The verb “imagining” was my attempt to foreground the way the imagination creates images. The collaboration with Hernández made these issues clearer and the neologisms more productive.8 The fourfold challenge to make a video proj- ect based on Don Quijote engage its troubled relationship between content and form, and between the narrative and visual aspects involved. The research part was, firstly, to decide which aspects of the novel are crucial to make a video work that has a point. Secondly, that point had to connect artistic and social issues, and to improve our un- derstanding of how these two domains can go together, in the contemporary, with the collaboration of the past in what we call “cultural heritage” – here, Cervantes’ novel. The importance of the past for the present, and vice versa, how our present changes the past as we can see it, must be foregrounded on the basis of non-chronological, mutual relations. The fourth chapter of my new book, Multi-Tenta- cled Time: Contemporaneity, Heterochrony, Anachronism for Pre-posterous History analyses time in its multiplicity. 8 That exhibition was curated by Miguel Ángel Hernández. A collective volume, edited by Hernández, was published in 2020. MIEKE BAL 18 AN-ICON  This is also a central concern both in narrative theory and in film.9 In my academic work I have a controversial reputation as someone who does not take chronology for granted. After publishing Reading “Rembrandt” (1991) I was blamed for being ahistorical, which, although not true, was a stimulating incentive to think harder about histori- cal time. That led to my book Quoting Caravaggio (1999), in which I addressed that critique, and developed a new sense of history in relation to time. But it was when, already filmmaking, I was working with Miguel Ángel Hernández Navarro on a large collective video exhibition devoted to the connections between the movement of images and the movement of people, in other words, video and migration (not on migration), that my thinking about temporality took another turn. 2MOVE (the exhibition), was shown in four countries, with in each a local artist added. The last concept in the chapter’s title, “pre-pos- terous history,” is presented again through my latest, 2020 short “essay film” It’s About Time! This film, the title of which is as ambiguous as the concept of “pre-posterous history” with its self-ironic wink, addresses the world’s self-destruc- tive impulse. It does this through the voice of Christa Wolf’s character Cassandra. She was the prophetess from antiquity, who will see and know the future, as a gift with the purpose of seduction from the god Apollo. But when she refused to sleep with her employer, he punished her: she was doomed never be believed. An antique case of #MeToo. In that fourth chapter I discuss the different is- sues of time that, in narrative theory, are usually divided into order, rhythm, and duration. I complicate that tripartite 9 M. Bal, Image-Thinking: 131-74. I have first developed this neologism, “pre-posterous history,” in my book on Caravaggio in its mutual relationship with contemporary art Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History (Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999). “Multi-tentacled” stands for the plurality of temporal relationships, for which I chose the octopus as a symbol. MIEKE BAL 19 AN-ICON  theory by adding the experiential aspect (heterochrony) and the categories of the historical disciplines. This rethinking of chronology has an important impact on how we see our- selves in history. For the first time I have taken a biograph- ical fact on the novel’s author on board. This “fact” is the five-and-a-half years Cervantes spent as a slave in Algiers, without knowing he would ever get out. If we take this on, all the adventures, the madness, the violence that colour the adventures of the Knight Errant, get a different shade. On my reading, the issue that rules the novel’s aesthetic is the difficulty of story-telling due to the horror encountered. This is now called “post-traumatic stress disorder” – except that, as usual, the preposition “post-” perverts the connections between past and present. The traumatized subject is “dis- ordered” because, precisely, the trauma doesn’t go away. There is nothing “post-” possible for the trau- matized. The insights the novel generates connect to other experiences of war, violence, and captivity: contemporary ones. You can see succinctly what the consequences of traumatization tend to be, according to a very lucid article by Ernst van Alphen. The author analyses the experiential handicaps resulting from trauma as well as the narrative ones. To sum it up succinctly: as a failed experience, trau- ma leads to semiotic incapacitation, unavailable forms of representation, the stalling of the discursive process, which would be needed for having experiences. Specifically, in narrative terms, ambiguous actantial position, the negation of subjectivity, the lack of meaning-giving plot, and unac- ceptable frames. But a well-thought-through immersive video project can explore and transgress the limits of what MIEKE BAL 20 AN-ICON  can be seen, shown, narrated, and empathically witnessed, in relation to notoriously un-representable trauma.10 Full of incongruous events and repetitive sto- ries, maddening implausibility, lengthy interruptions of the story-line, inserted poems and novellas, and at the same time, anchored in a harrowing reality, while also making readers laugh out loud, this novel, in form and content, challenges reading itself. This requires interdisciplinarity, in all meanings of that preposition “inter-.” I have termed it “intership.” The similarity to the word “internship” suggests that this, too, concerns learning, as a practice of mutuality. Film seems the least apt to do justice to the novel’s turbulent incoherence, repetitiveness, and incon- gruous adventures told in the novel. Talking about it with actor Mathieu Montanier, who came up with the idea of making a Don Quijote video work, we decided that an im- mersive video installation consisting of different, non-linear episodes presented with seating would be more effective in showing, rather than representing, not the moment trauma occurs but enduring violence-generated traumatic states. The importance of showing is to enable witnessing as an engaged activity against the indifference of the world, our worst opponent. The ambition was to make a work the theatricality of which in immersive display helps to turn onlookers and voyeurs into activated, empathic witnesses. This artwork must yield “thought-images” or Denkbilder, created by means of “image-thinking.” The small iconic texts that Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer wrote, were texts only. What did the word Bilder do there, then? This is where “image-thinking” can meet, and yield, “thought-im- ages.” In a study of the genre, US-based scholar of German 10 E. v. Alphen, “Symptoms of Discursivity: Experience, Memory, Trauma,” in M Bal, J. Crewe, L. Spitzer, eds., Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present (Hanover NH: University of New England Press, 1999): 24-38. MIEKE BAL 21 AN-ICON  Gerhard Richter begins his description with a whole range of negativities. Indeed, a programmatic treatise would be something like a political pamphlet, as opposed to histor- ical objectivations – an opposition that audio-visual art is devoted to questioning. This is an important point in con- nection to attempts to separate political art or scholarship from propaganda. The difference is important: propagan- da dictates, as in dictators, which is close to imposing; whereas political art and scholarship expose and propose, but leave the freedom of the addressees intact; as long as they are immersed, so that they are enticed to respond to the art they see. What Richter disparagingly calls “fanciful fiction” stands opposed to an equally dismissed “mere reflections of reality.” “Rather,” Richter continues, “the min- iatures of the Denkbild can be understood as conceptual engagements with the aesthetic and as aesthetic engage- ments with the conceptual, hovering between philosophical critique and aesthetic production.”11 The word “engage- ment” is crucial; it requires contemporaneity. This matches Benjamin’s fifth thesis on images of the past, which has been a guideline for my work on art between history and anachronism: “Every image of the past that is not recog- nized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.”12 This warning is one of the main motors of immersive projects and needs endorsement of their contemporariness. For, the cultural heritage from the 11 G. Richter, Thought-Images: Frankfurt School Writers’ Reflections on Damaged Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007): 2. 12 W. Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in Illuminations, trans. Harry Zorn (London: The Bodley Head, 2015): 245-55, 247. MIEKE BAL 22 AN-ICON  past matters for today’s world. But only if we manage to bring it to bear on the present.13 Richter further describes the thought-image thus: “The Denkbild encodes a poetic form of condensed, epigrammatic writing in textual snapshots, flashing up as poignant meditations that typically fasten upon a seemingly peripheral detail or marginal topic.”14 The word “flashes up” suggests the quick flash that Benjamin urges us to preserve by means of recognition in the first sentences of that thesis V from which I now quote a later sentence: “The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.”15 This also connects to the question of historical truth, at stake in the scene “Who is Don Quijote?”16 In this regard, in his Aesthetic Theory Adorno writes: What cannot be proved in the customary style and yet is com- pelling — that is to spur on the spontaneity and energy of thought and, without being taken literally, to strike sparks through a kind of intellectual short-circuiting that casts a sudden light on the familiar and perhaps sets it on fire.17 As in Benjamin’s thesis, as well as Lyotard’s fig- urality, the language here is again both visual and shock-ori- ented, with “sparks,” “short-circuiting,” “sudden light” and “sets it on fire.” This is thought alive, living thought, here-now, 13 On this necessary contemporaneity I have published the short book Exhibition-ism: Temporal Togetherness in the series The Contemporary Condition (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2020), requested by the author of a fabulous later book on contemporariness: J. Lund, The Changing Constitution of the Present: Essays on the Work of Art in the Time of Contemporaneity (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2022). My point was the idea that exhibitions are the most precise “model” for the contemporary. 14 G. Richter, Thought-Images: 2. 15 W. Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History:” 247. 16 See for this scene, http://miekebal.withtank.com/artworks/installations/don-quijote- sad-countenances/episode-4-who-is-don-quijote/. This scene also suggests that the actor, Mathieu Montanier, bears a striking resemblance to the (totally imaginative and imaged) figure who never existed historically, but of whom we have a clear image. 17 T. W. Adorno, “The Essay as Form” (1954-58), in Notes to Literature, trans. S. Weber Nicholson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991): vol.1, 3-23. MIEKE BAL 23 AN-ICON  and this living thought has agency; it is capable of engag- ing viewers in a dialogic relationship. And it is visual. For such sparks to happen, thought needs a formal innovation that shocks, and time to make immersion in it, possible. Thus, it can gain new energy and life, involve people, and make thought a collective process rather than the kind of still images we call clichés. Our attempt to achieve such “sparking,” shocking innovation can be glimpsed in this photograph by Ebba Sund: the frame is both blurred, since the escaping slave leaves it behind, and foregrounded, in the large proportions the iron bars have compared to the fleeing man (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Mieke Bal, The Captive escapes, photograph by Ebba Sund. An epsiode of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019, video, color, Dolby sound, 8 minutes. Courtesy the artist. In the videos, such sparks lay in the combina- tion of material, practical changes of the mode of display as immersive, short-circuiting the anachronistic bond be- tween present and past, the confusion of languages and other categories we tend to take for granted as homoge- neous, and the intermediality of the audio-visualization of a literary masterpiece. In view of the need for witnessing, such a messy “thinking” form enables and activates view- ers to construct their own story, and connect it to what they have seen around them; on the condition that they MIEKE BAL 24 AN-ICON  are immersed through being given time. Thus, we aimed to turn the hysteria of endless story-telling into a reflection on communication, as it can breach, and reach beyond, the boundaries that madness draws around its captive subjects, and instead, open up their subjectivity. Here, in the brilliant photograph also by Ebba Sund, the Captive cannot speak; his mouth is visually muzzled. But his eyes do speak, to us – if we are given the time, through seating, to respond (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Mieke Bal, episode 6 of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019, video, color, Dolby sound, 8 minutes. Courtesy the artist. To give insight into the stagnation that char- acterises the adventures, these scenes are predominantly descriptive. Any attempt at narrative is “stuttering,” without development. The scene Narrative Stuttering I recommend- ed you watch before reading this essay, shows both the in- capacitation to narrate and the frustration this causes. The theatrical setting is meant to draw visitors’ attention to the way they are themselves situated: inside a theatre, sitting on the stage, rather than in front of it, where they can fall asleep or get excited, identify or not, and possibly remain indiffer- ent. Here, such indifference is hard to sustain, because the viewers’ freedom to determine themselves how long they wish to stay with a scene makes falling asleep contradictory. MIEKE BAL 25 AN-ICON  This is the tentative design of the installation I made be- forehand, suggesting the total arbitrariness of the lay-out. The different installations follow this design roughly (Fig. 3). Fig. 3. Mieke Bal, project for the design of the 16-screen installation Don Quijote: Sad Countenances, 2019. Courtesy the artist. What Françoise Davoine calls, citing histori- an Fernand Braudel: “poussières d’événements” (literally, dust of events) is the motto of this work’s form: sprinkling situations, moments, throughout the gallery space. This is adequate to the state of trauma presented in the pieces and in the juxtapositions among them. The disorderly dis- play gives a shape, however unreadable and unclear, to the trauma-induced madness of the novel’s form. Cervantes, I presume, was one of those “mad” ones. The trauma incurred by Cervantes after being held in captivity as a slave, has been beautifully traced in his writ- ings and those of contemporary witnesses by Colombian literary historian María Antonia Garcés, a must-read book for anyone interested in Cervantes, Don Quijote, or slavery, then and now. Con-temporary. As it happens, Garcés was held captive by the FARC terrorist guerillos for five months. This contemporaneity is incompatible with the ridiculing representation of the “mad Knight Errant” that is so routine, both in cinematic representations and in much of the schol- arship. Supported by Garcés’s well-documented analysis, I MIEKE BAL 26 AN-ICON  see a haunting autobiographical spirit in the three chapters on the Captive (pp. 39-41 of part I). But the shape of the theatrical display does not “re-present” the madness. It hints at it, makes us reflect on it. The Denkbild is in the form, so that a contem- porary aesthetic can reach out to, and touch, a situation of long ago that, as befits the stilled temporality of trau- ma, persists in the present. Through experimenting with possible forms of the art of video, we attempted to invent new forms for the formlessness of trauma. By means of image-thinking this installation had to answer to the para- doxical concept, or thought-image, of the shape of form- lessness. Here, theatricality returns: ostensibly acting is the form that does not overrule the history, the violence, or the traumatic state. Acting, these videos suggest, is a social role. Acting, and making videos, exhibiting them in a thought-through immersive mode, is an attempt to give the formlessness of society a form. This is an attempt to do just that: to shape formlessness as the form of the trau- matic state, by designing a display that is both theatrical, in that it appeals to empathy, and turns “live,” that primary characteristic of theatre, into “life,” which concerns the social reality we live in and are responsible to sustain; and the knowledge acquired through the integration of making, analysing, reflecting, and boldly proposing new insights. Filmmaking begins with casting. In the case of Don Quijote, the actor cast himself; knowing he was the spitting image of the character as we know, or think we know him. An earlier significant casting decision occurred when Michelle Williams Gamaker and I decided to cast the three men in Emma’s life, in Madame B, in the same actor, suggesting the woman was in love with love and its prom- ises of excitement, not with any man in particular. I have made many films and installation pieces, over the last twenty years, and I guarantee you, there is MIEKE BAL 27 AN-ICON  no more effective mode of doing research and developing ideas than integrating these two activities. You can learn more about these films on the relevant page of my web- site. So, let me end on my personal motto, already cited, which demands the remedy of immersion: “Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably.” This is pre-posterous history. The past without present is pointless. The present without past is empty. But as soon as we try to fix either one, the future disappears. MIEKE BAL 28 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19827

The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The NatureAtmospheric of Scal by Giuliana Bruno e thinking Ecology of immersivity Empathy and immersion Scale and magnification Jesper Just Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The Nature of Scale GIULIANA BRUNO, Harvard University – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19827 Abstract How does an artwork express an “environ- mentality?” Can we redefine immersion, in critical terms, as a form of environmental projection? In taking up such questions from my latest book, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media, my text address- es the relation between projection and environmentality in the visual arts in order to question immersivity. Confronted with the phenomenon of environmentalization, we need to re-imagine the ecology of representation. Positing ecolo- gy as an environmental relation, I will consider its artistic imagination both historically and theoretically. I propose that we revisit the environmentality of media archaeology to understand how this impulse is furthered in current mov- ing-image projections in the art gallery that call themselves immersive. I will especially address environmentality as it relates to movement and scale, questioning the relation between immersion and magnification. I will advance my argument by presenting the large-scale moving-image in- stallations of the Danish-born, New York artist Jesper Just. Does magnification always, only imply spectatorial immer- sion? Other forms of experience arise when confronting an ecology of scale in art. What else happens when we scale? Can immersion be understood, more critically, as a form of environmental absorption? In recasting immersion in envi- ronmental terms, I propose that we consider absorption as empathic projection with space. In shifting from the human GIULIANA BRUNO 29 AN-ICON  subject’s own immersive identification to this critically aware, enveloping field of empathic projection with the non-human, we can discard the prevalent human-centric position that pervades most immersive discourses. A different ecology of immersivity rises to the surface by relating the empathic “projective imagination” to “atmospheric thinking.” Keywords Atmospheric thinking Ecology of immersivity Empathy and immersion Scale and magnification Jesper Just To quote this essay: G. Bruno, “The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The Nature of Scale,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 1 (2023): 29-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19827. GIULIANA BRUNO 30 AN-ICON For some years now the activity of the artist in our society has been trending more toward the function of the ecologist: one who deals with environmental relationships. Ecology is the [...] pattern of relations between organisms and their environment.1 How does an installation artist construct an atmosphere? What are the “elements” of its architecture – the visuals and sound – that design the ambiance of an aesthetic environment? In other words, how does an art- work express an “environmentality?” These questions are central to my latest book, Atmospheres of Projection: Envi- ronmentality in Art and Screen Media, and will be reprised in this essay with regard to the topic of this publication.2 I will address the relation between projection and environ- mentality in the visual arts with the aim of questioning the notion of immersivity and critiquing a strain of its dominant discourse. I am interested in exploring whether we can understand immersion as an atmospheric ambiance and redefine it, critically, as a form of environmental projection. We are indeed confronted today with various forms of envi- ronmentalization.3 This phenomenon asks us to reimagine the very ecology of immersivity. I understand ecology, as Gene Youngblood prefigured in envisioning an “expanded cinema,” to be a fundamental form of environmental relation and related- ness. Such a form of relationality needs to be considered in the realms of history and geography in order to discern how the phenomenon of environmentalization affects the space of the visual arts and its transformations in time. In this respect, I propose that we reconsider the early history 1 G. Youngblood, “The Artist as Ecologist,” in Expanded Cinema (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1970): 346. 2 See G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022), which considers the interrelations of projection, atmosphere, and environment, linking “the projective imagination” to forms of “atmospheric thinking.” 3 See A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 594-603, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. GIULIANA BRUNO 31 AN-ICON  of projection to account for the changes in its environment that are occurring in the arts and media of our time. I have long argued that an environmentality is rooted in the gene- alogy of the moving image in modernity.4 It was particularly present in the panoramic visual culture that emerged at the birth of the art of projection. The extensive phenom- enon that involved spectators flocking to experience the enveloping ambiance of a panorama might be considered an early experiential form of immersivity.5 In an effort to recast immersion in this historic setting and understand it as a more panoramic and ambient situation, I will consider the environmentality of this form of media archaeology. I will do so in order to explore how a panoramic impulse is furthered in contemporary moving-image projections in the art gallery that call themselves immersive. Such an exploration will redefine immersivity in spatiotemporal terms as an atmospheric envelopment, while analyzing the making of this ambient space in visual art. In linking up the early environmental impulse of pre- cinematic projection to the post-cinematic art installation of our times, I will especially address issues of movement and scale. I pursue this path of mobility and scaling to question the passivity, inactivity, and individuality that is usually attributed to immersivity, and to challenge a fixation on the subject’s optical identification with the device that produces immersion. In contrast to these views that often color both the practice and discourse of immersion, I wish to establish a much less static and more haptic paradigm 4 See G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (London: Verso, 2002); and G. Bruno, “The Screen as Object: Art and the Atmospheres of Projection,” in C. Iles, ed., Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016 (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016, exhibition catalogue): 156-67. 5 On the subject of early immersive views, see, among others, A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museum, and the Immersive View (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008). GIULIANA BRUNO 32 AN-ICON  that emphasizes the relational activation of spectatorial mobilities and the mobilizing force of atmosphere. To this end, I will especially rethink the relation between immersion and a specific architecture: the “mag- nification” of the image. This phenomenon, first defined by early film theorist and filmmaker Jean Epstein, has itself today become magnified.6 In current popular and even the- oretical discourses on virtual or augmented reality, there is a tendency to believe that a large projective image nec- essarily induces immersion. But do we really need to col- lapse these two notions? Does magnification always imply spectatorial immersion? I am interested in pursuing other forms of ex- perience that arise when confronting an ecology of scale. Scaling has long been practiced in art history, where mag- nification has gone hand in hand with miniaturization.7 And large scale has not always manifested itself as an immersive condition. Nor has it necessarily implied an affirmation of the sublime, with its immersive vision of boundless infinity and arresting effects of awe. In my view, the most interest- ing way of understanding scale is in relation to other aes- thetic histories and especially as an architectural practice. This is because in architecture scaling is an essential tool for building an environment. Hence a central question for me is: What happens to a projective environment when we scale? Can the effects of large forms of scaling imply a critical awareness, a participatory relationality? Finally, can immersion be redefined, more critically, as an active, transformative form of absorption in an environment? In recasting immersion in these different, more dynamic environmental terms, I propose that we consid- er its perceptual affects as well as effects. For immersive 6 See J. Epstein, “Magnification and Other Writings,” October, no. 3 (Spring 1977): 9-25, https://doi.org/10.2307/778434. 7 For a treatment of scale in art history, see J. Kee, E. Lugli, eds., To Scale (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2015). GIULIANA BRUNO 33 AN-ICON  effects are indeed affects. To be aesthetically absorbed in space mobilizes a particular affect: a feeling of empathy and sympathy with the space itself – the atmosphere – in which one is immersed. As an aesthetic practice, absorp- tion engages an empathic “projection” into an environment. It is a form of envelopment in an atmosphere. And thus, to move away from optical immersivity toward an awareness of this atmospheric environmentality, I suggest in my book turning to theories of empathy and sympathies with space, and advancing their discourse in contemporary ways.8 Let me simply mention here the writings of Theodor Lipps, who developed a vision of Einfühlung, or in-feeling, as a spatial empathy, and whose notion of em- pathic projection in ambiance possessed an atmospheric quality and tonality that aligns closely with the discourse on Stimmung.9 This atmospheric, tonal interpretation of the transmission of affects in art has been inspirational to my work, and some aspects of empathy and sympathy appear to be returning, with different interpretations, in other new materialist, “sympathetic” forms of aesthetic philosophy.10 With the specific aim here of expanding the projective reach of absorption in aesthetic space, one might turn in particular to “the laying bare of empathic projec- tion” as recently reconsidered by Michael Fried.11 The art historian has long been interested in the “the invention of 8 For further articulation of this subject, see G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection, especially: chapters 2-3. 9 See, among others, T. Lipps, “Empathy and Aesthetic Pleasure” (1905), in K. Aschenbrenner, A. Isenberg, eds, Aesthetic Theories: Studies in the Philosophy of Art (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965): 403-12; H. F. Mallgrave, E. Ikonomou, eds., Empathy, Form, and Space: Problems in German Aesthetics, 1873-1893 (Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1994). 10 See J. Bennett, “Of Material Sympathies, Paracelsus, and Whitman,” in S. Iovino, S. Oppermann, eds., Material Ecocriticism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014): 239-52; J. Bennett, Influx & Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2020). 11 M. Fried, “The Laying Bare of Empathic Projection,” in Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2011): 205-15. For a different interpretation of empathy in art, grounded in the political force of trauma and sensitive to its cultural memory, see J. Bennett, Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2005). GIULIANA BRUNO 34 AN-ICON  absorption:”12 what he calls “a powerful mode of emotional communication [that] can be actuated by absolutely mini- mal physiognomic and gestural means.”13 Such a minimal, non-representational form of “empathic projection” com- municates an atmosphere of inner absorption. It is interest- ing that Fried borrows the term “empathic projection” from the philosopher Stanley Cavell, for whom this is a path for overcoming the borders of separation and creating “a seam in human experience.”14 If understood as such a projection, an immer- sive process can create relational seams that are atmo- spheric joinings and affective joints. To perceive empathy with space is to sense the ecology of its atmospheric, situ- ational existence in time. This experience of an atmospheric tonality has the connective capacity to bridge the divide between subjects and objects. An empathic absorption in an environment further connects the human and the nonhuman, creating an experiential seam between the an- imate and the inanimate. If we become attuned to sensing immersivity as such an active, interstitial space of relation, we can access an ecology of relationality that is not con- fined to anthropocentric modalities. Environmentality, then, offers a way not only to reclaim empathic projection in art but to project it into larger ecologies. In the form of “empathic projection” practiced in the art of cine-projection, the work of technology extends to the surroundings, and this affects its atmosphere. The projective apparatus itself plays an important part in this process of absorption. A deeper absorptive modality sur- faces in environmental artworks that do not hide their own 12 M. Fried, “Four Honest Outlaws:” 208. 13 M. Fried, The Moment of Caravaggio (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010): 76-7. 14 S. Cavell, The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999): 425. GIULIANA BRUNO 35 AN-ICON  projective mechanism in their temporality and spatiality.15 The energy of a diffused projective empathy is mobilized when a self-reflexive technology reveals its own mechanism at play, laying it bare and activating it in ambiance. If we recast immersivity with this sense of environmentality – that is, with awareness of the cultural techniques that make it possible – we can discard the prevalent human-centric, per- spectival position that pervades most immersive discours- es. We can overcome the fixation on the human subject’s visual identification and singular preoccupation with the projective apparatus, especially those of VR or AR, to focus instead on the inanimate, the environment, and the natural realm. It is time to stop putting individuality and opticality at the center of immersivity, and to pursue a more critically aware, haptic field of empathic projections. In this way, a different ecology of immersivity and relationality can rise to the surface in enveloping forms of environmental screening that link the “projective imagination” to an “atmospheric thinking.” Environmentality and Empathic Projection in Art Having laid out my theoretical premises, let me now turn to an artistic practice that is in line with what I have proposed. I like to think closely, along and through the work of contemporary artists who perform analytical gestures of environmental projection. Hence, I will pursue my critical argumentation about immersion by navigating through the work of the Danish-born, New York-based artist Jesper Just, whose forms of empathic projection express an atmospher- ic thinking. I will specifically address the manifestation of 15 On this subject, see K. Wilder, “Projective Art and the ‘Staging’ of Empathic Projection,” Moving Image Review & Art Journal 5, no. 1-2 (2016): 125-40, https://doi.org/10.1386/ miraj.5.1-2.124_1. Wilder analyzes in particular the experimental landscape films of Chris Welsby. GIULIANA BRUNO 36 AN-ICON  scale and the magnification of the image in these works to challenge the notion that these are totalizing immersive conditions. His work will also enable us to rethink a crucial architectural component of immersivity: the design of an installation. A projection that is “environ-mental” – that cre- ates a psychic atmosphere of empathy with space, its size and motion – arises in the ambiance of Just’s moving-image installation This Nameless Spectacle, presented several times since 2011. This is due to the self-aware design and spatial construction of the installation. As viewers walk into the gallery space, they confront two very large screens that face each other. Each screen measures approximately twenty meters in length by five meters in height. As they are also placed more than twenty meters apart, it is hard to escape the sense of magnitude of this projection.16 The massive scale of the installation provokes a physical re- action, demanding that the viewers become not simply immersed but rather “incorporated” into it. Indeed, one cannot help being absorbed into the space of this projec- tion, empathetically enveloped in its atmosphere. To understand what is going on in this magni- fied ambiance of projection, gallery viewers must position themselves in the midst of this moving work and negotiate a space between the large ambient screens. Moving along the course of the gallery, not only a physical displacement but also an imaginary motion takes hold of one’s body. A form of “empathic projection” is triggered here because the work lays bare its exhibitionary mechanism, showing off its magnificent projective scale in moving form. Confronting this particularly large species of screen, and the distance that both isolates and unites the 16 This Nameless Spectacle was conceived and exhibited with these dimensions as part of the monographic exhibition This Unknown Spectacle, devoted to the work of Jesper Just, on view October 21, 2011-February 5, 2012, at MAC/VAL, Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de- Marne, France. GIULIANA BRUNO 37 AN-ICON  two screen entities, one’s habitual relation to space, even the space of one’s body, changes. Different types of scal- ing are confronted, haptically sensed, resulting in a sculp- tural experience of screen architecture. As the projective screen becomes a sculptural object, it impels the viewer to become more aware of volumes. One constantly has to measure the scale of one’s body against the scale of this milieu of projection. Corporeally absorbed in the space of this vid- eo work, rather than being optically, passively immersed, viewers physically experience a form of spatial, even atmo- spheric “perturbation.” Nothing is static on these encom- passing screens, including the landscape they present. At the beginning of the film, the camera tracks through the space of a park. An atmosphere blossoms into being here: as the light shimmers on the leaves of trees for a long while, the sound of movement can be heard. You follow the sound cue that propels you to continue through the space of the park, sensing its atmosphere, breathing its “air.”17 There is a breeze, and the tree branches tremble and quiver. The motion of leaves in the wind on one screen always finds corresponding atmospheric movement on the other. These screens, you discover, always move in unison, often giving the impression of a movement advancing through space. Different views and vistas are presented, and you feel as if you were actually “tracking” through the park, sympathet- ically absorbing its atmospheric scenery. 17 As further developed in Atmospheres of Projection, an “air” is here understood to be the atmosphere of a site, and an affect that affects us. On the effects of air in painting, see G. Didi- Huberman, “The Imaginary Breeze: Remarks on the Air of the Quattrocento,” Journal of Visual Culture 2, no. 3 (2003): 275-89, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412903002003001; S. Connor, The Matter of Air: Science and Art of the Ethereal (London: Reaktion, 2010). GIULIANA BRUNO 38 AN-ICON  Panorama of a Historical Movement, while Absorbed in the Atmosphere of a Park A park [is] a process of ongoing relationships existing in a physical region [...] a “thing-for-us.”18 As you navigate the sea of images of this en- vironment, you end up displaced back in time as well as destabilized by atmospheric perturbations. The scale of the installation space communicates a geology of strat- ified temporalities and nonlinear times. With This Name- less Spectacle, Just has created a post-cinematic ride that takes us inside the prehistory of large-scale visual display. As it transports us through the atmosphere of the park, it leads us to rediscover the environmental configuration of modern visual culture and the emergence of a form of im- mersive projection from its very atmosphere. The point of entry that Just stages for This Nameless Spectacle is the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, a public garden, developed as part of the plan for remodel- ing the urban fabric of Paris directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The manner in which Just films in this park, employing scale and movement in its depiction, reveals the cultural ambiance of environmentalization of which the park is a part. In the nineteenth century, an ambient movement arose across diverse cultural expressions, including land- scape design. Moving along the path of modernity from view painting to garden views, from travel sketches to itiner- ant viewing boxes, from panoramas and other geographical “-oramas” to forms of interior/exterior mapping, from the mobile views of train travel to urban promenades, a trans- formative experience of spatial absorption was born. This 18 R. Smithson, “Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectical Landscape,” in N. Holt, ed., The Writings of Robert Smithson, (New York: New York University Press, 1979): 119. GIULIANA BRUNO 39 AN-ICON  new geography was the product of a “panoramic vision” that dynamically reconfigured the environment.19 In this novel geovisuality, sites were set in mov- ing perspectives, expanding both outward and inward as they were absorbed and consumed in movement by the spectator. This new ambient sensibility engaged the phys- icality of the observers, challenging their ability to take in a mobilized space. And from this moving panorama at the end of the nineteenth century a new observer emerged in the persona of the film spectator, a body empathically “projected” into an environment of moving images.20 With This Nameless Spectacle, Jesper Just im- pels us to travel back to this history of “site-seeing.” He employs a panoramic mode of spatio-visual construction, and does so to expand the potential of this precinematic history in our times. Absorbed in this projective space, one can experience in particular the sense of scale and the at- mospheric touch of garden vistas. Garden views created the experience of embracing an environmental terrain, and of being enveloped in its ambiance. They combined a sen- sualist theory of the imagination with a touch of physicality. The garden designs of modernity engaged the corporeality of the body in the moving absorption of an environment. Automata, sculptures, and playful fluid mechanisms that included fountains and watery landscapes enhanced this natural atmospherics, as is the case with the Parisian park Just films. The vistas themselves incited viewers to move into the transformation of an ambiance. Ultimately, then, 19 See W. Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977). 20 For a more extensive treatment of the history of modern, mobilized space, see, among others, G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotion; A. Friedberg, The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006); F. Casetti, Eye of the Century: Film, Experience, Modernity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008); L. Charney ,V.R. Schwartz, eds., Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995). GIULIANA BRUNO 40 AN-ICON  landscape offered the body an ever-changing experience of atmospheric spatio-visual display. As one ponders the origin of this embracing space – a landscape of “atmospheric screening” – one realizes why Just chose this setting for This Nameless Spectacle. This is an installation that enhances the mate- rial apparatus of visual display to create an environmental projection. Landscape is not at all a simple background here but rather the moving core of a technology of projec- tion that self-reflexively incorporates a historical setting in its very ambiance. Its design holds within itself the actual movement in space that led from garden views to the es- tablishment of the filmic screen as a place for pictures to be “sensed” in projective, atmospheric motion. This Nameless Spectacle reminds us that the garden, like the cinema, is not an optical but a haptical af- fair, inviting empathy with space. The picturesque garden, in particular, was the place that historically “enable[d] the imagination to form the habit of feeling through the eye.”21 It was an affective “mode of processing the physical world for our consumption.”22 This modern landscape initiated a form of immersivity that is a virtual form of touch, putting us “in touch” with inner space and engaging all senses syn- esthetically in shifting sensations of ambiance. Empathic projection would be felt as one’s interiority was mobilized in the process of relational connection with the natural site. A reciprocal, sympathetic relation with the nuances of am- biance was thus established in architecting the atmosphere of the garden. In moving through the Parisian park in This Nameless Spectacle, Just retraces this ambient genealogy of modernity: the mobilization of atmosphere, understood 21 C. Hussey, The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View (London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927): 4. 22 J. Dixon Hunt, Gardens and the Picturesque: Studies in the History of Landscape Architecture (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1992): 4. GIULIANA BRUNO 41 AN-ICON  also as affective ambiance, in an environmental process that traveled from landscape design to cine-projection. In this ambient sense, as the shimmering light of the projec- tion, the breath of air, and the motion of the wind come to be virtually sensed on one’s skin, a real atmospheric “per- turbation” can be felt in the installation. Even an effect of weather arises in this empathic projection. And so environ- mental phenomena that are present in a natural landscape come to join the very atmosphere of projection. Environments of Projection: A Digital Mareorama Announcing an upheaval in the relation of art to technology, pan- oramas are at the same time an expression of a new attitude toward life.23 In the context of this environmental panorama, the technique of projective display of This Nameless Spec- tacle is also to be considered, especially as it regards ab- sorption in scale. The spatial arrangement of the work, set on two large screens that appear to roll out moving images for a spectator in their midst, mediates a haptic, atmospher- ic communication that clearly reinvents modernity’s pan- oramic forms of immersive exhibition. This contemporary mode of enveloping display exhibits a fluid technological history of environmentality, especially in its way of mobiliz- ing scale. In its gigantic mobility, it specifically recalls the technique of the “moving panorama.” A product of nineteenth-century’s exhibitionary culture, the panorama form is usually associated with enor- mous paintings exhibited in circular spaces, surrounding 23 W. Benjamin, “Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century (Exposé of 1935),” in The Arcades Project, trans. H. Eiland, K. McLaughlin (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press-Harvard University Press, 1999), 6. GIULIANA BRUNO 42 AN-ICON  the observer with the weight of their scale.24 One applica- tion of this giant form of display included movement. In- spired by the circular panorama, the moving panorama was particularly engaged with geography.25 A popular form of entertainment across Europe and the United States, mov- ing panoramas offered spectators the sensation that they themselves were being transported as images of space scrolled panoramically before their eyes, with sound and light effects that enhanced the overall sense of transport. The apparatus of display played an import- ant part in the construction of this absorbing geography, which was not merely representational. A framed fabric of drawable curtains, moved by a mechanical cranking system, could suffice to produce the effect of a moving screen, turn- ing into an enveloping scrolling screen. But more complex mechanisms were also devised, and the most advanced were exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle Interna- tionale, in Paris. The Stereorama, for one, let spectators imagine they were taking a sea voyage, sailing along the Mediterranean coast, aboard a ship rocked by waves. This elaborate form of environmental display involved a feat of technological imagination and execution. The point of this technique of moving exhibition was the scale of motion. “Unlike the usual panoramas,” as a contemporary article tells us, “the background is painted on the outer mantle of a slowly revolving cylinder with a wide protruding edge carrying forty concentric sheet-metal screens four inches in height on which the waves have been painted.” As for the screens, they “are moved up and down by an electric 24 See, among other works, R. Hyde, Panoramania! The Art and Entertainment of the “All- Embracing” View, (London: Trefoil-Barbican Art Gallery, 1988, exhibition catalogue); S. Bordini, Storia del panorama. La visione totale nella pittura del XIX secolo (Rome: Officina Edizioni, 1984); K. Trumpener, T. Barringer, eds., On the Viewing Platform: The Panorama between Canvas and Screen (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2020). 25 As media archaeologist Erkki Huhtamo shows in his comprehensive history of these panoramas, motion, both virtual and actual, was an essential sensory component of this particular precinematic form, which produced kinesthetic effects in the audience. See E. Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2013): 46-54. GIULIANA BRUNO 43 AN-ICON  motor through a linkage system including rods, hinges, and wheels.” 26 Considering this history of exhibition, we can venture to propose that the invention of the projection of moving images on a screen, and the function of active immersivity that is reinvented today, arose from the scale of the enterprise of the moving panorama, which not only produced scrolling motion and waves of perturbation but was also an itinerant medium.27 Spectators were offered the virtual sensation of being absorbed in a journey through the shifting atmospheres of a landscape.28 With this public spectacle, open to the environment, a majestic, virtual form of imaging atmospheric change took hold of one’s body. The panoramic object of display, capable of offering the pleasure of scrolling through an ambiance, thus created the material condition of existence of the cinematic screen as itself a space of atmospheric projection. The projective screen, then, did not come into being as a small, flat, frontal, windowed geometry, as is usually assumed is some media studies, but rather as a gigantic geographic and moving display.29 In other words, the screen emerged as an environmental medium. It is im- portant to acknowledge this lack of frontality, fixity, and flatness in early forms of screening, and to underscore an expansive milieu of volumetric plasticity and movement, if we wish to rewrite the genealogic course of the projective 26 “Die neuesten Panoramen,” in De Natuur (1900): 257-58, as cited in S. Oettermann, The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium (1980), trans. D. L. Schneider (New York: Zone Books, 1997): 177. 27 This was an apparatus of haptic mobility, for it not only produced scrolling motion and waves of perturbation with its mechanism but was also an itinerant medium. It was often taken from place to place by itinerant showmen. 28 A particularly precinematic development of this traveling medium, also presented at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, was the exhibition Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama, which simulated a trip from Moscow to Beijing aboard the famous railway. A succession of images of the diverse environment viewers were imaginatively traversing appeared as if rolling past a framed window of the train car. 29 In arguing that the screen performs an environmental operation, and challenging a narrow interpretation of its geometry, I specifically respond to claims put forth in L. Manovich, “The Screen and the User,” in The Language of New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2001): 94- 115. GIULIANA BRUNO 44 AN-ICON  apparatus as a set of environmental operations. It is crucial as well to stress for my argument regarding the atmospher- ic ecology of visual display that, in the moving panorama, atmosphere was not only displayed but cultivated. The display constituted an environment in itself, and it was ca- pable of registering change in the atmosphere of a site. The changes in ambiance were at times en- hanced by cutouts that depicted objects in the surround- ing scenery, moving in zones that extended from the fore- ground to trees far out in the field. Rotating in endless loops around the scrolling canvas of the panorama, these cutouts “projected” a sense of depth to the transformation of the landscape. Multiple backdrops operated at different speeds to create a sense of rolling vistas, with the added effect that the differences in speed between each of them created variable combinations of scenes. In this display, which turned a means of transport into the emerging cin- ematic screen, endowing it with the ability to modify an ambiance, the scale of the display was as relevant as the rolling, diffracted, dispersed movement. An Oceanic Voyage from Postcinema to Precinema As this form of “projective imagination” merged, at time of modernity, with an “atmospheric thinking,” a projective future was also envisaged, for inscribed here is also the kind of magnification that characterizes display in our digital age. As we ponder the elaborate construction of Just’s This Nameless Spectacle, it becomes evident that his giant installation has, built into it, a mechanism that reinvents the environmental history of projective display we have just outlined. In its digital configuration, it cre- ates virtual traveling through atmospheres that reenact the GIULIANA BRUNO 45 AN-ICON  immersive ambiance and environmentality of the moving panorama. The perambulating movement through the Parc des Buttes Chaumont recalls in particular the function of the early roll transparencies created by Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle, representing the moving vistas of the Parc Monceau, near Paris.30 But it is not only the motion of the representation that creates the emotion and triggers the empathic projection with the garden space but also the moving mechanism of the projective dispositif, and espe- cially its scale. The corresponding, diffracted motion that occurs in the space of the installation, not simply on but between the two large screens that face each other, is laid bare, and it is closely connected to the empathy with space created in a particularly absorptive form of moving panorama. The configuration of Just’s moving-image in- stallation recalls especially the dynamic, atmospheric use of display that characterized the environment of the Mareo- rama.31 This was a spectacular form of moving panorama that used two “screens” simultaneously, rolling out a set of moving scenes that simulated the atmosphere of a voy- age at sea. Spectators were positioned in the middle of the display, aboard a ship, which rocked back and forth to enhance the sensation of motion and perturbation of being projected into the natural environment of a seascape. An article written at the time tells us that the plan for the Mareorama presented [...] two screens, each 2,500 feet long and forty feet in height [...] to be unrolled,” with “a double, swinging movement [that] was to be imparted to the spectator’s platform which was shaped like a ship. 30 See E. Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: 40-6. 31 The topic of the moving panorama was discussed in an interview with the artist in New York on September 16, 2011. Just has generously shared his artistic process with me on several other occasions, for which I thank him. GIULIANA BRUNO 46 AN-ICON  The scale of the scrolling screens was grandi- ose, for “215,000 square feet of screen was to be unrolled before the visitor’s eye.” And the movement produced was impressive and destabilizing: “One of the screens moves on the port side, the other on the starboard.”32 In addition to this mechanics of perturbation, elaborate effects repro- duced atmospheric changes related to different times of day and rendered shifts in weather and actual perturbations. Absorption in the Mareorama was an experi- ence of unfolding events in a floating, situational ambiance – even in climatic perturbation – precisely as happens in Just’s installation. Viewers were sandwiched between two giant, moving screens that enhanced the sensation of tak- ing in an atmosphere and experiencing its changing states. All the kinesthetic effects made the visitors to the space of the Mareorama not only feel the motions but empathize with them. In a similar manner, spectators of Just’s installation who negotiate their own movement between complex ap- paratuses of rolling projective display, do so kinesthetically, imaginatively, and virtually as well as with actual motion. In This Nameless Spectacle, architectural mag- nitude contributes greatly to the empathic absorption in the shifting, fluid ambiance, that is, in the environment itself of the projection.33 The Mareorama “ship” could accom- modate seven hundred spectators. Just’s double-screen movement likewise relies on the scale of the gallery in which it is exhibited, and on a physically grandiose sense of space that underscores the environmental root of the emergence 32 S. Oettermann, “Die neuesten Panoramen,” in The Panorama: 179. 33 Although conceived in the extremely large format discussed, the screens have been adapted to the architecture of the gallery site for subsequent exhibitions. A reduced scale, for instance, at J. Cohan in New York in 2012, created a more intimate feeling for the spectator, who was sandwiched between the still-large screens of the mareoramic display. GIULIANA BRUNO 47 AN-ICON  of projection in forms of giant, moving display.34 The Mareo- rama ultimately magnified the sensory, sympathetic impact of exposure to an affecting atmosphere; following its cur- rents, Just’s own liquid mode of exhibition activates this ambient “sense” of display in installation form in its own empathic projection. Laying bare the projective dispositif that turns the gallery space into a moving vessel, it makes it into a vehicle of atmospheric perturbations. In this sense, the space of the art gallery constitutes a real part of the installation, and the persona of the gallery viewer becomes, quite poignantly, “installed.” On this screen interface, the turn of the last century thus joins the beginning of the new millennium in a reflection on the environment of projection and its cultural ecology. Just links together the energy of potentiality that characterized the space of visual display in early modernity with the potential expressed today when experimenting environmentally with digital technology. The artist not only shows us how central the environment of projection is in our time but argues that the desire for absorption in geo- graphic display is truly enduring. Ultimately, This Nameless Spectacle demonstrates how the large-scale architecture of the screen has traveled across time in projection while exhibiting the screen itself as an environment, even an am- bient architecture – the atmospheric form in which projec- tion comes into being, and can even dissolve. 34 Just’s installation returns us to that historically dynamic, multiple form of ambient display without, however, reproducing the construction literally. He does not exhibit the actual machine or mechanism that is at the origin of the work but rather incorporates the scale of the Mareorama and its movement across screens in the physical spatiality of the installation, which encompasses the transit of viewers in gallery space. In this sense, the installation does not follow the trend of display that has been spreading since the arrival of the digital age, in which artists have taken to exhibiting outmoded forms of visual technology in the gallery. Just does not belabor the obsolescence of the cinematic apparatus or its panoramic predecessor or show any sense of nostalgia for older forms of display. This Nameless Spectacle rather works at historicizing from within, reinventing the possibilities of screening expressed by the moving, modern mode of ambient display that gave rise to the cinematic era of projection. GIULIANA BRUNO 48 AN-ICON  Scaling an Environment As screens become prominently incorporated into both our private and public lives, the work of scalar reinterpretation that Just pursues becomes particularly sig- nificant, for a reinvention of the act of screening in the en- vironment is especially pressing today. Screens proliferate in widely different forms in our surroundings. They have decreased in size, becoming more portable: computers, smart phones, and iPads, which enable us to scroll hapti- cally, now travel with us at all times as our personal pan- oramas. The rise of the miniature form goes hand in hand with magnification. In contrast to the shrinking size of our personal screens, we are witnessing an increasing use of the gigantic as screens have become especially magnified in the spectacle of three-dimensional exhibition. Digital technology has enlarged the possibilities of projection in expanded cinematic forms of immersivity. Large-scale panoramic forms of projection, such as LED video walls, proliferate and have changed the very pan- orama of our environment, creating a veritable immersive screenscape.35 The technique of 3-D projection mapping, in particular, can turn an entire building or landscape into a screen environment.36 Heirs of the atmospheres of “son et lumière” shows, and of modernity’s dioramas and pan- oramic spectacles, these magnified projections can even design a performative environment. A haptic, immersive landscape is digitally fashioned as the façade of an edifice 35 On the urban screen, see, among others, S. McQuire, M. Martin, S. Niederer, eds., Urban Screens Reader (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009); N. Verhoeff, “Screens in the City,” in D. Chateau, J. Moure, eds., Screens: From Materiality to Spectatorship (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 125-39; C. Berry, J. Harbord, R. Moore, eds., Public Space, Media Space (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 36 S. Chakravorty, “Spaces of Spectatorship: Architectures of the Projected Image,” Polished Panels 1, no. 2, Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture (March 7, 2016), http://www. mediapolisjournal.com/2016/03/spaces-of-spectatorship-architectures-of-the-projected- image/, accessed August 30, 2023. In projection mapping, a two- or three-dimensional object is spatially mapped by using specialized software that mimics the real environment it is to be projected upon. This software can interact with a projector to fit any desired image onto any surface, small or large. GIULIANA BRUNO 49 AN-ICON  turns into a projective skin. Cities are punctuated by these seductive large-scale projective envelopes that create am- biance. But in projection mapping, the idea of an en- vironment of projection risks becoming literalized. If the ambiance of projection is remapped in a reductive way, the notion of ambient media itself shrinks. The effects of media façades created in literal ways are often questionable, as “ambient” begins to take on environmental connotations that are pacifying and not far removed from commerce.37 After all, large-scale projection mapping is mostly used, contiguously with artistic and urban-branding pursuits, by publicity and advertising firms. Basking in the glow of giant projections can lead to opiate effects or the simple encour- agement of consumption as opposed to the production of engagement and perturbation. As the ambiance of projection is being trans- formed by digital technology, artists are increasingly re- sponding creatively and critically to these issues of the sculptural and panoramic scale of immersive projection. Just, for instance, critically exposed how large-scale projec- tion transforms the urban environment with the projection of his Servitudes (2015), a cinematic, architectural work consisting of eight sequences filmed in and around the World Trade Center in New York. Originally conceived for the subterranean gallery space of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, this filmic work was scaled up in November 2015 and displayed on a series of large electronic billboards on the building façades of New York’s Times Square. In 2019, the same work was also projected onto layers of semitransparent fabric in yet another geographic location, in museum space – a fact that makes one question the function of scaling as well as further reflect on the nature 37 For a critical reading of the ambient, see P. Roquet, Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016); S. Kim-Cohen, Against Ambience and Other Essays (London: Bloomsbury, 2016). GIULIANA BRUNO 50 AN-ICON  and fabric of projection in relation to its specific geography and location.38 Projecting a Global Urban Scale These experiments on the vast projective po- tential of digital technology thus force us to rethink the issue of large-scale immersive projection in light of its own com- plex history. It is particularly urgent to ask ourselves ques- tions about the nature and consequences of scaling. What changes in an environment of projection when subjected to different scales? How does scale change the nature of the screen itself as an object? What kinds of projection, understood as forms of cultural transmission, does mag- nification comport? With this variability of scale, Servitudes rein- forces the penchant for “empathic” projection that Just exhibited in his earlier works, for, as we have noted, this process is set in motion when works actively lay bare their own projective mechanism rather than keeping it static and invisible. Intercourses, which premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale, took this up at a global scale.39 This five-channel video and installation was set in a suburb of Hangzhou, China, that has been built as a replica of Paris, France. The 38 When this work was commissioned by Paris’s Palais de Tokyo for their expansive subterranean gallery space, Just began to research the exhibition hall, which dates from Paris’s 1937 world’s fair. The 2015 projection of Servitudes in New York’s Times Square was part of Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance. Servitudes was installed on semitransparent screen fabric in Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 15 - August 11, 2019. 39 Reflecting on how a pavilion at the Biennale represents a country inside another country, Just engaged the architectural configuration of this conflated projection and intervened in the site of the Danish Pavilion, itself a composite structure. By walling in the grand entrance of the building’s neoclassic façade, he enticed viewers to walk around the colonnade and enter instead through a courtyard, which ushered them inside the modernist part of the pavilion. Here, the interior space had been transformed into a construction site. Walls built from concrete cinder blocks created another architectural path within the already hybrid space of the pavilion. The rough, impermanent fabrication of the concrete blocks lent a sense of eeriness to the site: though it appeared to be a place in the making, it felt as if it were already in ruins. In constructing an installation space that evoked the atmosphere of a ruin in progress, Just made material the layered process inherent in the imaginary fabrication of such sites, closely engaging their imaginative “projections.” GIULIANA BRUNO 51 AN-ICON  large scale of the projection inside the pavilion created a feeling of cultural displacement. In it, three Black men me- ander in a desolate ambiance of empty streets, uninhabited façades, and unfinished staircases that lead nowhere. This Paris imagined in China had a postapocalyptic feeling, even a quasi–science fiction dimension, despite actually being a real place. The projected images worked together with the architectural design of the pavilion to instill in us a concrete sense of how a global urban imaginary is made, and what scale this process has assumed. What is performed and projected here is a becoming of global scale – a state that contains processes of dislocation, hybridization, and entropy. Intercourses is named after that which lies in between: relational things like processes of interstitial con- struction. It deals with the actual process of projection as a space of relation and intermediation. In this sense, it fol- lows the course of Just’s investigation of environmentality as a magnified psychogeography. The very magnitude of the exhibition space drives a navigation of atmospheres, engaging viewers in the scale of the destabilizing projec- tive ambiance in which they are themselves empathically projected. Intercourses confronts even more directly than This Nameless Spectacle the effects and affects of the tech- nology of scaling in contemporary digital culture. This is a work of actual scalar construction, for its five screens have different configurations that generate further geographic dislocation through their differing positions in space and angles of view. Moreover, this Paris-in-China suspended between states of ruin and construction offers projections that can vary radically in size, from one to fifteen meters, depending on the site of the installation. In such a way, Just questions the different forms of screen scale that proliferate in our digital envi- ronment. In laying bare the architecture of the projective GIULIANA BRUNO 52 AN-ICON  mechanism, he triggers a critical response to the cultural phenomenon of variable screen size, making us reflect on how miniaturization relates to magnification in digital cul- ture. By confronting what happens in the process of scaling up or down, from one size to the other, he creates cultural awareness of the state of screening today while exhibiting the process itself of flexible projection. This architectural scaling makes gallery viewers aware of the very architec- ture of screening, and especially attuned to how ambiance changes in scale. Furthermore, for Just, large scale does not consist in simple magnification or simplistic immersivity. The magnitude of the largest screen in Intercourses, rather, challenges the conventional use of magnitude in film.40 Less associated with figurative facial close-ups, as is traditionally most often the case in cinema, it is more attuned to the vastness and complexity of the geographic and cultural landscapes it renders. Scale is here also anything but mon- umental and does not constitute a direct correlate of the aesthetic of the sublime, so often evoked when speaking of immersion. Rather than monumentalizing its own object, the large scale of the projection takes the gallery viewer into an ambiguous affective and cognitive space that asks for attentive, even contemplative absorption – displaying a critical form of empathic projection. This process of projective absorption in scale leads to deciphering the geographic hybridity of the site shown on screen while enveloped in the siting of the pro- jection. After all, wandering through a look-alike Paris with French actors of African descent, one could easily believe that this is in fact Paris – and that would be an acceptable response. But if, galvanized by the scale of the large screen, the installation viewer scans the surface and “screens” the 40 On magnification and the close-up in film, see M. A. Doane, Bigger than Life: The Close-up and Scale in the Cinema (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2021). GIULIANA BRUNO 53 AN-ICON  space closely, she can sense that something is off: the ur- ban scale here is quite different than that of Paris. As one tunes in to surface, scale, and atmosphere, scanning the big screen, and further notices the presence of Chinese inscriptions or too many air conditioners dotting the build- ing façades, one can finally understand how, working with and against architecture, inhabitants of this replica of Paris in China, located in the district of Tianducheng, adapt the space to their own use. In Intercourses, then, Just enhances scale as a geography, detecting defining nuances in ambient pro- jection and working with dimension in culturally affecting ways that defy the simple effect of immersive viewing. Here, immersion is not understood, as conventionally assumed, to produce virtual illusion but, rather, spatial awareness. As was the case in This Nameless Spectacle, the artist also works specifically against the astonishing use of magni- fication one finds in digital hyperrealism, with its purely spectacular effects of immersivity.41 For Just, scale rather functions as a real environmental modality. His installations invite close discernment of the surrounding space and en- gage contact with the larger environment. They resist using scale as a building block to create virtual monuments and, working with movement and active screening, also resist the arresting sense of awe associated with boundless im- mersive magnitude. In other words, Just is an artist who does not fall into the trap of large projection as mere man- ifestation of a technological sublime. Jesper Just’s critical investigation of this press- ing subject of immersivity finds correspondence in the prac- tices of other artists who are attentive to scale, reconfigure scalar paradigms, and also engage the panoramic form of exhibition as a projective environment. In a compelling way, 41 This reminds us that, as Susan Stewart suggested long ago, “the gigantic” is a particularly enveloping notion. See S. Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1993). GIULIANA BRUNO 54 AN-ICON  Lisa Reihana also questioned the scale and atmosphere of immersive projection at the New Zealand Pavilion of the 2017 Venice Biennale with her large-scale installation In Pur- suit of Venus [infected] (2015-17), for which she reinvented the giant form of the panoramic spectacle in scrolling dig- ital fashion. Inspired by the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804-1805), the installation created a large-scale panorama in which real and invent- ed narratives of colonial encounter take place. This work took the very surface of a panoramic wallpaper and made it into an animated, moving surface of unfolding projection. Here, videographic and animation technologies contribute to a reimagination of the nineteenth-century shape of the moving panorama while probing its historical, ideological, and political dimensions. In Reihana’s reinterpretation of this mode, history is not only displayed but scrolls out and drifts along panoramically, in a critical reading that ques- tions the very form of its spectacular, colonial, scalar, im- mersive projections. In the face of digitally magnified immersion, and the return of the spectacular phenomenon of large-scale panoramic projection, one can only welcome the kind of environmental research that motivates Jesper Just and Lisa Reihana, for this is an exploration that is aimed at critically excavating, and exhibiting, the complex history of large- scale, immersive visual display, its forms of mediality, and the culture that it transmits and circulates in the environment. Here, the present not only exposes but challenges the past, and finally, changes its course. Only if we are put in a posi- tion to experience critically the cultural atmosphere that links scale and motion to immersive screening, and consider this multifaceted, nonlinear historicity, can we hope to redefine the terms of, and give a new name to, the ecology of ab- sorption in space – the environment itself of projection. GIULIANA BRUNO 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON 

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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/anicon/article/view/19827

The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The NatureAtmospheric of Scal by Giuliana Bruno e thinking Ecology of immersivity Empathy and immersion Scale and magnification Jesper Just Issue №1 Year 2023 → Immersions and Dives: From the Environment to Virtual Reality Edited by Roberto P. Malaspina, Elisabetta Modena, and Sofia Pirandello The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The Nature of Scale GIULIANA BRUNO, Harvard University – https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19827 Abstract How does an artwork express an “environ- mentality?” Can we redefine immersion, in critical terms, as a form of environmental projection? In taking up such questions from my latest book, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media, my text address- es the relation between projection and environmentality in the visual arts in order to question immersivity. Confronted with the phenomenon of environmentalization, we need to re-imagine the ecology of representation. Positing ecolo- gy as an environmental relation, I will consider its artistic imagination both historically and theoretically. I propose that we revisit the environmentality of media archaeology to understand how this impulse is furthered in current mov- ing-image projections in the art gallery that call themselves immersive. I will especially address environmentality as it relates to movement and scale, questioning the relation between immersion and magnification. I will advance my argument by presenting the large-scale moving-image in- stallations of the Danish-born, New York artist Jesper Just. Does magnification always, only imply spectatorial immer- sion? Other forms of experience arise when confronting an ecology of scale in art. What else happens when we scale? Can immersion be understood, more critically, as a form of environmental absorption? In recasting immersion in envi- ronmental terms, I propose that we consider absorption as empathic projection with space. In shifting from the human GIULIANA BRUNO 29 AN-ICON  subject’s own immersive identification to this critically aware, enveloping field of empathic projection with the non-human, we can discard the prevalent human-centric position that pervades most immersive discourses. A different ecology of immersivity rises to the surface by relating the empathic “projective imagination” to “atmospheric thinking.” Keywords Atmospheric thinking Ecology of immersivity Empathy and immersion Scale and magnification Jesper Just To quote this essay: G. Bruno, “The Environmentality of Immersive Projection: The Nature of Scale,” AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images [ISSN 2785-7433] 2, no. 1 (2023): 29-55, https://doi.org/10.54103/ai/19827. GIULIANA BRUNO 30 AN-ICON For some years now the activity of the artist in our society has been trending more toward the function of the ecologist: one who deals with environmental relationships. Ecology is the [...] pattern of relations between organisms and their environment.1 How does an installation artist construct an atmosphere? What are the “elements” of its architecture – the visuals and sound – that design the ambiance of an aesthetic environment? In other words, how does an art- work express an “environmentality?” These questions are central to my latest book, Atmospheres of Projection: Envi- ronmentality in Art and Screen Media, and will be reprised in this essay with regard to the topic of this publication.2 I will address the relation between projection and environ- mentality in the visual arts with the aim of questioning the notion of immersivity and critiquing a strain of its dominant discourse. I am interested in exploring whether we can understand immersion as an atmospheric ambiance and redefine it, critically, as a form of environmental projection. We are indeed confronted today with various forms of envi- ronmentalization.3 This phenomenon asks us to reimagine the very ecology of immersivity. I understand ecology, as Gene Youngblood prefigured in envisioning an “expanded cinema,” to be a fundamental form of environmental relation and related- ness. Such a form of relationality needs to be considered in the realms of history and geography in order to discern how the phenomenon of environmentalization affects the space of the visual arts and its transformations in time. In this respect, I propose that we reconsider the early history 1 G. Youngblood, “The Artist as Ecologist,” in Expanded Cinema (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1970): 346. 2 See G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022), which considers the interrelations of projection, atmosphere, and environment, linking “the projective imagination” to forms of “atmospheric thinking.” 3 See A. Pinotti, “Towards An-Iconology: The Image as Environment,” Screen 61, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 594-603, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjaa060. GIULIANA BRUNO 31 AN-ICON  of projection to account for the changes in its environment that are occurring in the arts and media of our time. I have long argued that an environmentality is rooted in the gene- alogy of the moving image in modernity.4 It was particularly present in the panoramic visual culture that emerged at the birth of the art of projection. The extensive phenom- enon that involved spectators flocking to experience the enveloping ambiance of a panorama might be considered an early experiential form of immersivity.5 In an effort to recast immersion in this historic setting and understand it as a more panoramic and ambient situation, I will consider the environmentality of this form of media archaeology. I will do so in order to explore how a panoramic impulse is furthered in contemporary moving-image projections in the art gallery that call themselves immersive. Such an exploration will redefine immersivity in spatiotemporal terms as an atmospheric envelopment, while analyzing the making of this ambient space in visual art. In linking up the early environmental impulse of pre- cinematic projection to the post-cinematic art installation of our times, I will especially address issues of movement and scale. I pursue this path of mobility and scaling to question the passivity, inactivity, and individuality that is usually attributed to immersivity, and to challenge a fixation on the subject’s optical identification with the device that produces immersion. In contrast to these views that often color both the practice and discourse of immersion, I wish to establish a much less static and more haptic paradigm 4 See G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (London: Verso, 2002); and G. Bruno, “The Screen as Object: Art and the Atmospheres of Projection,” in C. Iles, ed., Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016 (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016, exhibition catalogue): 156-67. 5 On the subject of early immersive views, see, among others, A. Griffiths, Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museum, and the Immersive View (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008). GIULIANA BRUNO 32 AN-ICON  that emphasizes the relational activation of spectatorial mobilities and the mobilizing force of atmosphere. To this end, I will especially rethink the relation between immersion and a specific architecture: the “mag- nification” of the image. This phenomenon, first defined by early film theorist and filmmaker Jean Epstein, has itself today become magnified.6 In current popular and even the- oretical discourses on virtual or augmented reality, there is a tendency to believe that a large projective image nec- essarily induces immersion. But do we really need to col- lapse these two notions? Does magnification always imply spectatorial immersion? I am interested in pursuing other forms of ex- perience that arise when confronting an ecology of scale. Scaling has long been practiced in art history, where mag- nification has gone hand in hand with miniaturization.7 And large scale has not always manifested itself as an immersive condition. Nor has it necessarily implied an affirmation of the sublime, with its immersive vision of boundless infinity and arresting effects of awe. In my view, the most interest- ing way of understanding scale is in relation to other aes- thetic histories and especially as an architectural practice. This is because in architecture scaling is an essential tool for building an environment. Hence a central question for me is: What happens to a projective environment when we scale? Can the effects of large forms of scaling imply a critical awareness, a participatory relationality? Finally, can immersion be redefined, more critically, as an active, transformative form of absorption in an environment? In recasting immersion in these different, more dynamic environmental terms, I propose that we consid- er its perceptual affects as well as effects. For immersive 6 See J. Epstein, “Magnification and Other Writings,” October, no. 3 (Spring 1977): 9-25, https://doi.org/10.2307/778434. 7 For a treatment of scale in art history, see J. Kee, E. Lugli, eds., To Scale (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2015). GIULIANA BRUNO 33 AN-ICON  effects are indeed affects. To be aesthetically absorbed in space mobilizes a particular affect: a feeling of empathy and sympathy with the space itself – the atmosphere – in which one is immersed. As an aesthetic practice, absorp- tion engages an empathic “projection” into an environment. It is a form of envelopment in an atmosphere. And thus, to move away from optical immersivity toward an awareness of this atmospheric environmentality, I suggest in my book turning to theories of empathy and sympathies with space, and advancing their discourse in contemporary ways.8 Let me simply mention here the writings of Theodor Lipps, who developed a vision of Einfühlung, or in-feeling, as a spatial empathy, and whose notion of em- pathic projection in ambiance possessed an atmospheric quality and tonality that aligns closely with the discourse on Stimmung.9 This atmospheric, tonal interpretation of the transmission of affects in art has been inspirational to my work, and some aspects of empathy and sympathy appear to be returning, with different interpretations, in other new materialist, “sympathetic” forms of aesthetic philosophy.10 With the specific aim here of expanding the projective reach of absorption in aesthetic space, one might turn in particular to “the laying bare of empathic projec- tion” as recently reconsidered by Michael Fried.11 The art historian has long been interested in the “the invention of 8 For further articulation of this subject, see G. Bruno, Atmospheres of Projection, especially: chapters 2-3. 9 See, among others, T. Lipps, “Empathy and Aesthetic Pleasure” (1905), in K. Aschenbrenner, A. Isenberg, eds, Aesthetic Theories: Studies in the Philosophy of Art (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965): 403-12; H. F. Mallgrave, E. Ikonomou, eds., Empathy, Form, and Space: Problems in German Aesthetics, 1873-1893 (Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1994). 10 See J. Bennett, “Of Material Sympathies, Paracelsus, and Whitman,” in S. Iovino, S. Oppermann, eds., Material Ecocriticism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014): 239-52; J. Bennett, Influx & Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2020). 11 M. Fried, “The Laying Bare of Empathic Projection,” in Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2011): 205-15. For a different interpretation of empathy in art, grounded in the political force of trauma and sensitive to its cultural memory, see J. Bennett, Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2005). GIULIANA BRUNO 34 AN-ICON  absorption:”12 what he calls “a powerful mode of emotional communication [that] can be actuated by absolutely mini- mal physiognomic and gestural means.”13 Such a minimal, non-representational form of “empathic projection” com- municates an atmosphere of inner absorption. It is interest- ing that Fried borrows the term “empathic projection” from the philosopher Stanley Cavell, for whom this is a path for overcoming the borders of separation and creating “a seam in human experience.”14 If understood as such a projection, an immer- sive process can create relational seams that are atmo- spheric joinings and affective joints. To perceive empathy with space is to sense the ecology of its atmospheric, situ- ational existence in time. This experience of an atmospheric tonality has the connective capacity to bridge the divide between subjects and objects. An empathic absorption in an environment further connects the human and the nonhuman, creating an experiential seam between the an- imate and the inanimate. If we become attuned to sensing immersivity as such an active, interstitial space of relation, we can access an ecology of relationality that is not con- fined to anthropocentric modalities. Environmentality, then, offers a way not only to reclaim empathic projection in art but to project it into larger ecologies. In the form of “empathic projection” practiced in the art of cine-projection, the work of technology extends to the surroundings, and this affects its atmosphere. The projective apparatus itself plays an important part in this process of absorption. A deeper absorptive modality sur- faces in environmental artworks that do not hide their own 12 M. Fried, “Four Honest Outlaws:” 208. 13 M. Fried, The Moment of Caravaggio (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010): 76-7. 14 S. Cavell, The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999): 425. GIULIANA BRUNO 35 AN-ICON  projective mechanism in their temporality and spatiality.15 The energy of a diffused projective empathy is mobilized when a self-reflexive technology reveals its own mechanism at play, laying it bare and activating it in ambiance. If we recast immersivity with this sense of environmentality – that is, with awareness of the cultural techniques that make it possible – we can discard the prevalent human-centric, per- spectival position that pervades most immersive discours- es. We can overcome the fixation on the human subject’s visual identification and singular preoccupation with the projective apparatus, especially those of VR or AR, to focus instead on the inanimate, the environment, and the natural realm. It is time to stop putting individuality and opticality at the center of immersivity, and to pursue a more critically aware, haptic field of empathic projections. In this way, a different ecology of immersivity and relationality can rise to the surface in enveloping forms of environmental screening that link the “projective imagination” to an “atmospheric thinking.” Environmentality and Empathic Projection in Art Having laid out my theoretical premises, let me now turn to an artistic practice that is in line with what I have proposed. I like to think closely, along and through the work of contemporary artists who perform analytical gestures of environmental projection. Hence, I will pursue my critical argumentation about immersion by navigating through the work of the Danish-born, New York-based artist Jesper Just, whose forms of empathic projection express an atmospher- ic thinking. I will specifically address the manifestation of 15 On this subject, see K. Wilder, “Projective Art and the ‘Staging’ of Empathic Projection,” Moving Image Review & Art Journal 5, no. 1-2 (2016): 125-40, https://doi.org/10.1386/ miraj.5.1-2.124_1. Wilder analyzes in particular the experimental landscape films of Chris Welsby. GIULIANA BRUNO 36 AN-ICON  scale and the magnification of the image in these works to challenge the notion that these are totalizing immersive conditions. His work will also enable us to rethink a crucial architectural component of immersivity: the design of an installation. A projection that is “environ-mental” – that cre- ates a psychic atmosphere of empathy with space, its size and motion – arises in the ambiance of Just’s moving-image installation This Nameless Spectacle, presented several times since 2011. This is due to the self-aware design and spatial construction of the installation. As viewers walk into the gallery space, they confront two very large screens that face each other. Each screen measures approximately twenty meters in length by five meters in height. As they are also placed more than twenty meters apart, it is hard to escape the sense of magnitude of this projection.16 The massive scale of the installation provokes a physical re- action, demanding that the viewers become not simply immersed but rather “incorporated” into it. Indeed, one cannot help being absorbed into the space of this projec- tion, empathetically enveloped in its atmosphere. To understand what is going on in this magni- fied ambiance of projection, gallery viewers must position themselves in the midst of this moving work and negotiate a space between the large ambient screens. Moving along the course of the gallery, not only a physical displacement but also an imaginary motion takes hold of one’s body. A form of “empathic projection” is triggered here because the work lays bare its exhibitionary mechanism, showing off its magnificent projective scale in moving form. Confronting this particularly large species of screen, and the distance that both isolates and unites the 16 This Nameless Spectacle was conceived and exhibited with these dimensions as part of the monographic exhibition This Unknown Spectacle, devoted to the work of Jesper Just, on view October 21, 2011-February 5, 2012, at MAC/VAL, Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de- Marne, France. GIULIANA BRUNO 37 AN-ICON  two screen entities, one’s habitual relation to space, even the space of one’s body, changes. Different types of scal- ing are confronted, haptically sensed, resulting in a sculp- tural experience of screen architecture. As the projective screen becomes a sculptural object, it impels the viewer to become more aware of volumes. One constantly has to measure the scale of one’s body against the scale of this milieu of projection. Corporeally absorbed in the space of this vid- eo work, rather than being optically, passively immersed, viewers physically experience a form of spatial, even atmo- spheric “perturbation.” Nothing is static on these encom- passing screens, including the landscape they present. At the beginning of the film, the camera tracks through the space of a park. An atmosphere blossoms into being here: as the light shimmers on the leaves of trees for a long while, the sound of movement can be heard. You follow the sound cue that propels you to continue through the space of the park, sensing its atmosphere, breathing its “air.”17 There is a breeze, and the tree branches tremble and quiver. The motion of leaves in the wind on one screen always finds corresponding atmospheric movement on the other. These screens, you discover, always move in unison, often giving the impression of a movement advancing through space. Different views and vistas are presented, and you feel as if you were actually “tracking” through the park, sympathet- ically absorbing its atmospheric scenery. 17 As further developed in Atmospheres of Projection, an “air” is here understood to be the atmosphere of a site, and an affect that affects us. On the effects of air in painting, see G. Didi- Huberman, “The Imaginary Breeze: Remarks on the Air of the Quattrocento,” Journal of Visual Culture 2, no. 3 (2003): 275-89, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412903002003001; S. Connor, The Matter of Air: Science and Art of the Ethereal (London: Reaktion, 2010). GIULIANA BRUNO 38 AN-ICON  Panorama of a Historical Movement, while Absorbed in the Atmosphere of a Park A park [is] a process of ongoing relationships existing in a physical region [...] a “thing-for-us.”18 As you navigate the sea of images of this en- vironment, you end up displaced back in time as well as destabilized by atmospheric perturbations. The scale of the installation space communicates a geology of strat- ified temporalities and nonlinear times. With This Name- less Spectacle, Just has created a post-cinematic ride that takes us inside the prehistory of large-scale visual display. As it transports us through the atmosphere of the park, it leads us to rediscover the environmental configuration of modern visual culture and the emergence of a form of im- mersive projection from its very atmosphere. The point of entry that Just stages for This Nameless Spectacle is the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, a public garden, developed as part of the plan for remodel- ing the urban fabric of Paris directed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The manner in which Just films in this park, employing scale and movement in its depiction, reveals the cultural ambiance of environmentalization of which the park is a part. In the nineteenth century, an ambient movement arose across diverse cultural expressions, including land- scape design. Moving along the path of modernity from view painting to garden views, from travel sketches to itiner- ant viewing boxes, from panoramas and other geographical “-oramas” to forms of interior/exterior mapping, from the mobile views of train travel to urban promenades, a trans- formative experience of spatial absorption was born. This 18 R. Smithson, “Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectical Landscape,” in N. Holt, ed., The Writings of Robert Smithson, (New York: New York University Press, 1979): 119. GIULIANA BRUNO 39 AN-ICON  new geography was the product of a “panoramic vision” that dynamically reconfigured the environment.19 In this novel geovisuality, sites were set in mov- ing perspectives, expanding both outward and inward as they were absorbed and consumed in movement by the spectator. This new ambient sensibility engaged the phys- icality of the observers, challenging their ability to take in a mobilized space. And from this moving panorama at the end of the nineteenth century a new observer emerged in the persona of the film spectator, a body empathically “projected” into an environment of moving images.20 With This Nameless Spectacle, Jesper Just im- pels us to travel back to this history of “site-seeing.” He employs a panoramic mode of spatio-visual construction, and does so to expand the potential of this precinematic history in our times. Absorbed in this projective space, one can experience in particular the sense of scale and the at- mospheric touch of garden vistas. Garden views created the experience of embracing an environmental terrain, and of being enveloped in its ambiance. They combined a sen- sualist theory of the imagination with a touch of physicality. The garden designs of modernity engaged the corporeality of the body in the moving absorption of an environment. Automata, sculptures, and playful fluid mechanisms that included fountains and watery landscapes enhanced this natural atmospherics, as is the case with the Parisian park Just films. The vistas themselves incited viewers to move into the transformation of an ambiance. Ultimately, then, 19 See W. Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977). 20 For a more extensive treatment of the history of modern, mobilized space, see, among others, G. Bruno, Atlas of Emotion; A. Friedberg, The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2006); F. Casetti, Eye of the Century: Film, Experience, Modernity (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008); L. Charney ,V.R. Schwartz, eds., Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995). GIULIANA BRUNO 40 AN-ICON  landscape offered the body an ever-changing experience of atmospheric spatio-visual display. As one ponders the origin of this embracing space – a landscape of “atmospheric screening” – one realizes why Just chose this setting for This Nameless Spectacle. This is an installation that enhances the mate- rial apparatus of visual display to create an environmental projection. Landscape is not at all a simple background here but rather the moving core of a technology of projec- tion that self-reflexively incorporates a historical setting in its very ambiance. Its design holds within itself the actual movement in space that led from garden views to the es- tablishment of the filmic screen as a place for pictures to be “sensed” in projective, atmospheric motion. This Nameless Spectacle reminds us that the garden, like the cinema, is not an optical but a haptical af- fair, inviting empathy with space. The picturesque garden, in particular, was the place that historically “enable[d] the imagination to form the habit of feeling through the eye.”21 It was an affective “mode of processing the physical world for our consumption.”22 This modern landscape initiated a form of immersivity that is a virtual form of touch, putting us “in touch” with inner space and engaging all senses syn- esthetically in shifting sensations of ambiance. Empathic projection would be felt as one’s interiority was mobilized in the process of relational connection with the natural site. A reciprocal, sympathetic relation with the nuances of am- biance was thus established in architecting the atmosphere of the garden. In moving through the Parisian park in This Nameless Spectacle, Just retraces this ambient genealogy of modernity: the mobilization of atmosphere, understood 21 C. Hussey, The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View (London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927): 4. 22 J. Dixon Hunt, Gardens and the Picturesque: Studies in the History of Landscape Architecture (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1992): 4. GIULIANA BRUNO 41 AN-ICON  also as affective ambiance, in an environmental process that traveled from landscape design to cine-projection. In this ambient sense, as the shimmering light of the projec- tion, the breath of air, and the motion of the wind come to be virtually sensed on one’s skin, a real atmospheric “per- turbation” can be felt in the installation. Even an effect of weather arises in this empathic projection. And so environ- mental phenomena that are present in a natural landscape come to join the very atmosphere of projection. Environments of Projection: A Digital Mareorama Announcing an upheaval in the relation of art to technology, pan- oramas are at the same time an expression of a new attitude toward life.23 In the context of this environmental panorama, the technique of projective display of This Nameless Spec- tacle is also to be considered, especially as it regards ab- sorption in scale. The spatial arrangement of the work, set on two large screens that appear to roll out moving images for a spectator in their midst, mediates a haptic, atmospher- ic communication that clearly reinvents modernity’s pan- oramic forms of immersive exhibition. This contemporary mode of enveloping display exhibits a fluid technological history of environmentality, especially in its way of mobiliz- ing scale. In its gigantic mobility, it specifically recalls the technique of the “moving panorama.” A product of nineteenth-century’s exhibitionary culture, the panorama form is usually associated with enor- mous paintings exhibited in circular spaces, surrounding 23 W. Benjamin, “Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century (Exposé of 1935),” in The Arcades Project, trans. H. Eiland, K. McLaughlin (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press-Harvard University Press, 1999), 6. GIULIANA BRUNO 42 AN-ICON  the observer with the weight of their scale.24 One applica- tion of this giant form of display included movement. In- spired by the circular panorama, the moving panorama was particularly engaged with geography.25 A popular form of entertainment across Europe and the United States, mov- ing panoramas offered spectators the sensation that they themselves were being transported as images of space scrolled panoramically before their eyes, with sound and light effects that enhanced the overall sense of transport. The apparatus of display played an import- ant part in the construction of this absorbing geography, which was not merely representational. A framed fabric of drawable curtains, moved by a mechanical cranking system, could suffice to produce the effect of a moving screen, turn- ing into an enveloping scrolling screen. But more complex mechanisms were also devised, and the most advanced were exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle Interna- tionale, in Paris. The Stereorama, for one, let spectators imagine they were taking a sea voyage, sailing along the Mediterranean coast, aboard a ship rocked by waves. This elaborate form of environmental display involved a feat of technological imagination and execution. The point of this technique of moving exhibition was the scale of motion. “Unlike the usual panoramas,” as a contemporary article tells us, “the background is painted on the outer mantle of a slowly revolving cylinder with a wide protruding edge carrying forty concentric sheet-metal screens four inches in height on which the waves have been painted.” As for the screens, they “are moved up and down by an electric 24 See, among other works, R. Hyde, Panoramania! The Art and Entertainment of the “All- Embracing” View, (London: Trefoil-Barbican Art Gallery, 1988, exhibition catalogue); S. Bordini, Storia del panorama. La visione totale nella pittura del XIX secolo (Rome: Officina Edizioni, 1984); K. Trumpener, T. Barringer, eds., On the Viewing Platform: The Panorama between Canvas and Screen (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2020). 25 As media archaeologist Erkki Huhtamo shows in his comprehensive history of these panoramas, motion, both virtual and actual, was an essential sensory component of this particular precinematic form, which produced kinesthetic effects in the audience. See E. Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2013): 46-54. GIULIANA BRUNO 43 AN-ICON  motor through a linkage system including rods, hinges, and wheels.” 26 Considering this history of exhibition, we can venture to propose that the invention of the projection of moving images on a screen, and the function of active immersivity that is reinvented today, arose from the scale of the enterprise of the moving panorama, which not only produced scrolling motion and waves of perturbation but was also an itinerant medium.27 Spectators were offered the virtual sensation of being absorbed in a journey through the shifting atmospheres of a landscape.28 With this public spectacle, open to the environment, a majestic, virtual form of imaging atmospheric change took hold of one’s body. The panoramic object of display, capable of offering the pleasure of scrolling through an ambiance, thus created the material condition of existence of the cinematic screen as itself a space of atmospheric projection. The projective screen, then, did not come into being as a small, flat, frontal, windowed geometry, as is usually assumed is some media studies, but rather as a gigantic geographic and moving display.29 In other words, the screen emerged as an environmental medium. It is im- portant to acknowledge this lack of frontality, fixity, and flatness in early forms of screening, and to underscore an expansive milieu of volumetric plasticity and movement, if we wish to rewrite the genealogic course of the projective 26 “Die neuesten Panoramen,” in De Natuur (1900): 257-58, as cited in S. Oettermann, The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium (1980), trans. D. L. Schneider (New York: Zone Books, 1997): 177. 27 This was an apparatus of haptic mobility, for it not only produced scrolling motion and waves of perturbation with its mechanism but was also an itinerant medium. It was often taken from place to place by itinerant showmen. 28 A particularly precinematic development of this traveling medium, also presented at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, was the exhibition Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama, which simulated a trip from Moscow to Beijing aboard the famous railway. A succession of images of the diverse environment viewers were imaginatively traversing appeared as if rolling past a framed window of the train car. 29 In arguing that the screen performs an environmental operation, and challenging a narrow interpretation of its geometry, I specifically respond to claims put forth in L. Manovich, “The Screen and the User,” in The Language of New Media (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2001): 94- 115. GIULIANA BRUNO 44 AN-ICON  apparatus as a set of environmental operations. It is crucial as well to stress for my argument regarding the atmospher- ic ecology of visual display that, in the moving panorama, atmosphere was not only displayed but cultivated. The display constituted an environment in itself, and it was ca- pable of registering change in the atmosphere of a site. The changes in ambiance were at times en- hanced by cutouts that depicted objects in the surround- ing scenery, moving in zones that extended from the fore- ground to trees far out in the field. Rotating in endless loops around the scrolling canvas of the panorama, these cutouts “projected” a sense of depth to the transformation of the landscape. Multiple backdrops operated at different speeds to create a sense of rolling vistas, with the added effect that the differences in speed between each of them created variable combinations of scenes. In this display, which turned a means of transport into the emerging cin- ematic screen, endowing it with the ability to modify an ambiance, the scale of the display was as relevant as the rolling, diffracted, dispersed movement. An Oceanic Voyage from Postcinema to Precinema As this form of “projective imagination” merged, at time of modernity, with an “atmospheric thinking,” a projective future was also envisaged, for inscribed here is also the kind of magnification that characterizes display in our digital age. As we ponder the elaborate construction of Just’s This Nameless Spectacle, it becomes evident that his giant installation has, built into it, a mechanism that reinvents the environmental history of projective display we have just outlined. In its digital configuration, it cre- ates virtual traveling through atmospheres that reenact the GIULIANA BRUNO 45 AN-ICON  immersive ambiance and environmentality of the moving panorama. The perambulating movement through the Parc des Buttes Chaumont recalls in particular the function of the early roll transparencies created by Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle, representing the moving vistas of the Parc Monceau, near Paris.30 But it is not only the motion of the representation that creates the emotion and triggers the empathic projection with the garden space but also the moving mechanism of the projective dispositif, and espe- cially its scale. The corresponding, diffracted motion that occurs in the space of the installation, not simply on but between the two large screens that face each other, is laid bare, and it is closely connected to the empathy with space created in a particularly absorptive form of moving panorama. The configuration of Just’s moving-image in- stallation recalls especially the dynamic, atmospheric use of display that characterized the environment of the Mareo- rama.31 This was a spectacular form of moving panorama that used two “screens” simultaneously, rolling out a set of moving scenes that simulated the atmosphere of a voy- age at sea. Spectators were positioned in the middle of the display, aboard a ship, which rocked back and forth to enhance the sensation of motion and perturbation of being projected into the natural environment of a seascape. An article written at the time tells us that the plan for the Mareorama presented [...] two screens, each 2,500 feet long and forty feet in height [...] to be unrolled,” with “a double, swinging movement [that] was to be imparted to the spectator’s platform which was shaped like a ship. 30 See E. Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: 40-6. 31 The topic of the moving panorama was discussed in an interview with the artist in New York on September 16, 2011. Just has generously shared his artistic process with me on several other occasions, for which I thank him. GIULIANA BRUNO 46 AN-ICON  The scale of the scrolling screens was grandi- ose, for “215,000 square feet of screen was to be unrolled before the visitor’s eye.” And the movement produced was impressive and destabilizing: “One of the screens moves on the port side, the other on the starboard.”32 In addition to this mechanics of perturbation, elaborate effects repro- duced atmospheric changes related to different times of day and rendered shifts in weather and actual perturbations. Absorption in the Mareorama was an experi- ence of unfolding events in a floating, situational ambiance – even in climatic perturbation – precisely as happens in Just’s installation. Viewers were sandwiched between two giant, moving screens that enhanced the sensation of tak- ing in an atmosphere and experiencing its changing states. All the kinesthetic effects made the visitors to the space of the Mareorama not only feel the motions but empathize with them. In a similar manner, spectators of Just’s installation who negotiate their own movement between complex ap- paratuses of rolling projective display, do so kinesthetically, imaginatively, and virtually as well as with actual motion. In This Nameless Spectacle, architectural mag- nitude contributes greatly to the empathic absorption in the shifting, fluid ambiance, that is, in the environment itself of the projection.33 The Mareorama “ship” could accom- modate seven hundred spectators. Just’s double-screen movement likewise relies on the scale of the gallery in which it is exhibited, and on a physically grandiose sense of space that underscores the environmental root of the emergence 32 S. Oettermann, “Die neuesten Panoramen,” in The Panorama: 179. 33 Although conceived in the extremely large format discussed, the screens have been adapted to the architecture of the gallery site for subsequent exhibitions. A reduced scale, for instance, at J. Cohan in New York in 2012, created a more intimate feeling for the spectator, who was sandwiched between the still-large screens of the mareoramic display. GIULIANA BRUNO 47 AN-ICON  of projection in forms of giant, moving display.34 The Mareo- rama ultimately magnified the sensory, sympathetic impact of exposure to an affecting atmosphere; following its cur- rents, Just’s own liquid mode of exhibition activates this ambient “sense” of display in installation form in its own empathic projection. Laying bare the projective dispositif that turns the gallery space into a moving vessel, it makes it into a vehicle of atmospheric perturbations. In this sense, the space of the art gallery constitutes a real part of the installation, and the persona of the gallery viewer becomes, quite poignantly, “installed.” On this screen interface, the turn of the last century thus joins the beginning of the new millennium in a reflection on the environment of projection and its cultural ecology. Just links together the energy of potentiality that characterized the space of visual display in early modernity with the potential expressed today when experimenting environmentally with digital technology. The artist not only shows us how central the environment of projection is in our time but argues that the desire for absorption in geo- graphic display is truly enduring. Ultimately, This Nameless Spectacle demonstrates how the large-scale architecture of the screen has traveled across time in projection while exhibiting the screen itself as an environment, even an am- bient architecture – the atmospheric form in which projec- tion comes into being, and can even dissolve. 34 Just’s installation returns us to that historically dynamic, multiple form of ambient display without, however, reproducing the construction literally. He does not exhibit the actual machine or mechanism that is at the origin of the work but rather incorporates the scale of the Mareorama and its movement across screens in the physical spatiality of the installation, which encompasses the transit of viewers in gallery space. In this sense, the installation does not follow the trend of display that has been spreading since the arrival of the digital age, in which artists have taken to exhibiting outmoded forms of visual technology in the gallery. Just does not belabor the obsolescence of the cinematic apparatus or its panoramic predecessor or show any sense of nostalgia for older forms of display. This Nameless Spectacle rather works at historicizing from within, reinventing the possibilities of screening expressed by the moving, modern mode of ambient display that gave rise to the cinematic era of projection. GIULIANA BRUNO 48 AN-ICON  Scaling an Environment As screens become prominently incorporated into both our private and public lives, the work of scalar reinterpretation that Just pursues becomes particularly sig- nificant, for a reinvention of the act of screening in the en- vironment is especially pressing today. Screens proliferate in widely different forms in our surroundings. They have decreased in size, becoming more portable: computers, smart phones, and iPads, which enable us to scroll hapti- cally, now travel with us at all times as our personal pan- oramas. The rise of the miniature form goes hand in hand with magnification. In contrast to the shrinking size of our personal screens, we are witnessing an increasing use of the gigantic as screens have become especially magnified in the spectacle of three-dimensional exhibition. Digital technology has enlarged the possibilities of projection in expanded cinematic forms of immersivity. Large-scale panoramic forms of projection, such as LED video walls, proliferate and have changed the very pan- orama of our environment, creating a veritable immersive screenscape.35 The technique of 3-D projection mapping, in particular, can turn an entire building or landscape into a screen environment.36 Heirs of the atmospheres of “son et lumière” shows, and of modernity’s dioramas and pan- oramic spectacles, these magnified projections can even design a performative environment. A haptic, immersive landscape is digitally fashioned as the façade of an edifice 35 On the urban screen, see, among others, S. McQuire, M. Martin, S. Niederer, eds., Urban Screens Reader (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009); N. Verhoeff, “Screens in the City,” in D. Chateau, J. Moure, eds., Screens: From Materiality to Spectatorship (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 125-39; C. Berry, J. Harbord, R. Moore, eds., Public Space, Media Space (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). 36 S. Chakravorty, “Spaces of Spectatorship: Architectures of the Projected Image,” Polished Panels 1, no. 2, Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture (March 7, 2016), http://www. mediapolisjournal.com/2016/03/spaces-of-spectatorship-architectures-of-the-projected- image/, accessed August 30, 2023. In projection mapping, a two- or three-dimensional object is spatially mapped by using specialized software that mimics the real environment it is to be projected upon. This software can interact with a projector to fit any desired image onto any surface, small or large. GIULIANA BRUNO 49 AN-ICON  turns into a projective skin. Cities are punctuated by these seductive large-scale projective envelopes that create am- biance. But in projection mapping, the idea of an en- vironment of projection risks becoming literalized. If the ambiance of projection is remapped in a reductive way, the notion of ambient media itself shrinks. The effects of media façades created in literal ways are often questionable, as “ambient” begins to take on environmental connotations that are pacifying and not far removed from commerce.37 After all, large-scale projection mapping is mostly used, contiguously with artistic and urban-branding pursuits, by publicity and advertising firms. Basking in the glow of giant projections can lead to opiate effects or the simple encour- agement of consumption as opposed to the production of engagement and perturbation. As the ambiance of projection is being trans- formed by digital technology, artists are increasingly re- sponding creatively and critically to these issues of the sculptural and panoramic scale of immersive projection. Just, for instance, critically exposed how large-scale projec- tion transforms the urban environment with the projection of his Servitudes (2015), a cinematic, architectural work consisting of eight sequences filmed in and around the World Trade Center in New York. Originally conceived for the subterranean gallery space of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, this filmic work was scaled up in November 2015 and displayed on a series of large electronic billboards on the building façades of New York’s Times Square. In 2019, the same work was also projected onto layers of semitransparent fabric in yet another geographic location, in museum space – a fact that makes one question the function of scaling as well as further reflect on the nature 37 For a critical reading of the ambient, see P. Roquet, Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016); S. Kim-Cohen, Against Ambience and Other Essays (London: Bloomsbury, 2016). GIULIANA BRUNO 50 AN-ICON  and fabric of projection in relation to its specific geography and location.38 Projecting a Global Urban Scale These experiments on the vast projective po- tential of digital technology thus force us to rethink the issue of large-scale immersive projection in light of its own com- plex history. It is particularly urgent to ask ourselves ques- tions about the nature and consequences of scaling. What changes in an environment of projection when subjected to different scales? How does scale change the nature of the screen itself as an object? What kinds of projection, understood as forms of cultural transmission, does mag- nification comport? With this variability of scale, Servitudes rein- forces the penchant for “empathic” projection that Just exhibited in his earlier works, for, as we have noted, this process is set in motion when works actively lay bare their own projective mechanism rather than keeping it static and invisible. Intercourses, which premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale, took this up at a global scale.39 This five-channel video and installation was set in a suburb of Hangzhou, China, that has been built as a replica of Paris, France. The 38 When this work was commissioned by Paris’s Palais de Tokyo for their expansive subterranean gallery space, Just began to research the exhibition hall, which dates from Paris’s 1937 world’s fair. The 2015 projection of Servitudes in New York’s Times Square was part of Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance. Servitudes was installed on semitransparent screen fabric in Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 15 - August 11, 2019. 39 Reflecting on how a pavilion at the Biennale represents a country inside another country, Just engaged the architectural configuration of this conflated projection and intervened in the site of the Danish Pavilion, itself a composite structure. By walling in the grand entrance of the building’s neoclassic façade, he enticed viewers to walk around the colonnade and enter instead through a courtyard, which ushered them inside the modernist part of the pavilion. Here, the interior space had been transformed into a construction site. Walls built from concrete cinder blocks created another architectural path within the already hybrid space of the pavilion. The rough, impermanent fabrication of the concrete blocks lent a sense of eeriness to the site: though it appeared to be a place in the making, it felt as if it were already in ruins. In constructing an installation space that evoked the atmosphere of a ruin in progress, Just made material the layered process inherent in the imaginary fabrication of such sites, closely engaging their imaginative “projections.” GIULIANA BRUNO 51 AN-ICON  large scale of the projection inside the pavilion created a feeling of cultural displacement. In it, three Black men me- ander in a desolate ambiance of empty streets, uninhabited façades, and unfinished staircases that lead nowhere. This Paris imagined in China had a postapocalyptic feeling, even a quasi–science fiction dimension, despite actually being a real place. The projected images worked together with the architectural design of the pavilion to instill in us a concrete sense of how a global urban imaginary is made, and what scale this process has assumed. What is performed and projected here is a becoming of global scale – a state that contains processes of dislocation, hybridization, and entropy. Intercourses is named after that which lies in between: relational things like processes of interstitial con- struction. It deals with the actual process of projection as a space of relation and intermediation. In this sense, it fol- lows the course of Just’s investigation of environmentality as a magnified psychogeography. The very magnitude of the exhibition space drives a navigation of atmospheres, engaging viewers in the scale of the destabilizing projec- tive ambiance in which they are themselves empathically projected. Intercourses confronts even more directly than This Nameless Spectacle the effects and affects of the tech- nology of scaling in contemporary digital culture. This is a work of actual scalar construction, for its five screens have different configurations that generate further geographic dislocation through their differing positions in space and angles of view. Moreover, this Paris-in-China suspended between states of ruin and construction offers projections that can vary radically in size, from one to fifteen meters, depending on the site of the installation. In such a way, Just questions the different forms of screen scale that proliferate in our digital envi- ronment. In laying bare the architecture of the projective GIULIANA BRUNO 52 AN-ICON  mechanism, he triggers a critical response to the cultural phenomenon of variable screen size, making us reflect on how miniaturization relates to magnification in digital cul- ture. By confronting what happens in the process of scaling up or down, from one size to the other, he creates cultural awareness of the state of screening today while exhibiting the process itself of flexible projection. This architectural scaling makes gallery viewers aware of the very architec- ture of screening, and especially attuned to how ambiance changes in scale. Furthermore, for Just, large scale does not consist in simple magnification or simplistic immersivity. The magnitude of the largest screen in Intercourses, rather, challenges the conventional use of magnitude in film.40 Less associated with figurative facial close-ups, as is traditionally most often the case in cinema, it is more attuned to the vastness and complexity of the geographic and cultural landscapes it renders. Scale is here also anything but mon- umental and does not constitute a direct correlate of the aesthetic of the sublime, so often evoked when speaking of immersion. Rather than monumentalizing its own object, the large scale of the projection takes the gallery viewer into an ambiguous affective and cognitive space that asks for attentive, even contemplative absorption – displaying a critical form of empathic projection. This process of projective absorption in scale leads to deciphering the geographic hybridity of the site shown on screen while enveloped in the siting of the pro- jection. After all, wandering through a look-alike Paris with French actors of African descent, one could easily believe that this is in fact Paris – and that would be an acceptable response. But if, galvanized by the scale of the large screen, the installation viewer scans the surface and “screens” the 40 On magnification and the close-up in film, see M. A. Doane, Bigger than Life: The Close-up and Scale in the Cinema (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2021). GIULIANA BRUNO 53 AN-ICON  space closely, she can sense that something is off: the ur- ban scale here is quite different than that of Paris. As one tunes in to surface, scale, and atmosphere, scanning the big screen, and further notices the presence of Chinese inscriptions or too many air conditioners dotting the build- ing façades, one can finally understand how, working with and against architecture, inhabitants of this replica of Paris in China, located in the district of Tianducheng, adapt the space to their own use. In Intercourses, then, Just enhances scale as a geography, detecting defining nuances in ambient pro- jection and working with dimension in culturally affecting ways that defy the simple effect of immersive viewing. Here, immersion is not understood, as conventionally assumed, to produce virtual illusion but, rather, spatial awareness. As was the case in This Nameless Spectacle, the artist also works specifically against the astonishing use of magni- fication one finds in digital hyperrealism, with its purely spectacular effects of immersivity.41 For Just, scale rather functions as a real environmental modality. His installations invite close discernment of the surrounding space and en- gage contact with the larger environment. They resist using scale as a building block to create virtual monuments and, working with movement and active screening, also resist the arresting sense of awe associated with boundless im- mersive magnitude. In other words, Just is an artist who does not fall into the trap of large projection as mere man- ifestation of a technological sublime. Jesper Just’s critical investigation of this press- ing subject of immersivity finds correspondence in the prac- tices of other artists who are attentive to scale, reconfigure scalar paradigms, and also engage the panoramic form of exhibition as a projective environment. In a compelling way, 41 This reminds us that, as Susan Stewart suggested long ago, “the gigantic” is a particularly enveloping notion. See S. Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1993). GIULIANA BRUNO 54 AN-ICON  Lisa Reihana also questioned the scale and atmosphere of immersive projection at the New Zealand Pavilion of the 2017 Venice Biennale with her large-scale installation In Pur- suit of Venus [infected] (2015-17), for which she reinvented the giant form of the panoramic spectacle in scrolling dig- ital fashion. Inspired by the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804-1805), the installation created a large-scale panorama in which real and invent- ed narratives of colonial encounter take place. This work took the very surface of a panoramic wallpaper and made it into an animated, moving surface of unfolding projection. Here, videographic and animation technologies contribute to a reimagination of the nineteenth-century shape of the moving panorama while probing its historical, ideological, and political dimensions. In Reihana’s reinterpretation of this mode, history is not only displayed but scrolls out and drifts along panoramically, in a critical reading that ques- tions the very form of its spectacular, colonial, scalar, im- mersive projections. In the face of digitally magnified immersion, and the return of the spectacular phenomenon of large-scale panoramic projection, one can only welcome the kind of environmental research that motivates Jesper Just and Lisa Reihana, for this is an exploration that is aimed at critically excavating, and exhibiting, the complex history of large- scale, immersive visual display, its forms of mediality, and the culture that it transmits and circulates in the environment. Here, the present not only exposes but challenges the past, and finally, changes its course. Only if we are put in a posi- tion to experience critically the cultural atmosphere that links scale and motion to immersive screening, and consider this multifaceted, nonlinear historicity, can we hope to redefine the terms of, and give a new name to, the ecology of ab- sorption in space – the environment itself of projection. GIULIANA BRUNO 55 AN-ICON AN-ICON has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON. The project is hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” – Department of Excellence at the State University of Milan. 1 / I AN-ICON