On 20 June 2023, at the Vittoriale degli Italiani (Gardone Riviera, Brescia), it’s been held the meeting “Metaverse – A Hypercultural Journey“, organized by the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti LABA of Brescia.
A day full of speeches by specialists and opportunities for discussion on the theme of the Metaverse.
The program was opened by Luciano Floridi (Professor of Philosophy and Information Ethics at the Universities of Oxford, Yale and Bologna) with an in-depth analysis of the ethics of Artificial Intelligence.
This was followed by the dialogue between Lorenzo Montagna (one of the leading italian experts in digital technologies applied to business) and Marco Senaldi (Artistic Director of the Libera Academy of Fine Arts LABA Brescia), with Lorenzo Montagna sharing his experience in the art/technology and Metaverse continuum, contextualizing how this coexistence already has its reason to exist today already.
Lorenzo Montagna, after having worked for twenty years as CEO in companies that have made the history of the web 1 such as AltaVista, Yahoo!, ViaMichelin, and before entering the world of Augmented and Virtual Reality in 2017, worked at artoday, an innovative project that combines the art world (painting, sculpture, installations) and the digital world.
Artoday is a network of over 400 international artists who have established themselves as a point of reference for collectors and professionals in the art sector in order to get to know emerging young talents through instagram.
The Metaverse at the moment is indeed a technological environment, but once the digital infrastructure will been created, this digital, or rather fi-gital, world will be the elective territory of the artists. Every time technology brings some innovation, as Philippe Daverio claimed, artists move first to CREATE, AMAZE, INTERPRET, REFLECT.
There was also speeches on how contemporary art is increasingly questioning the new relationships between spaces and people after 2020 (as can be seen by visiting museums such as Hangar Bicocca or Fondazione Prada today).
The day continued with insights and conversations on the relationship between the Metaverse and areas such as Artificial Intelligence, creativity, art (“Piero Manzoni‘s unrealized projects in a metaverse version”), music, teaching, spirituality.
It was also be possible to try the AR / VR viewers to enter the virtual environments of the Metaverse firsthand.
The event, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the Lombardy Region, the Province of Brescia and Artribune, had a limited number of entries (info and reservations were managed on the LABA website) and was also streamed on LABA‘s web and social channels.
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Here’s the detailed program (in italian language) of the event:
Metaverse - A Hypercultural Journey (Program)
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[Update] Here’s the in-depth report from Bresciaoggi (in italian language) on the event:
Metaverse - A Hypercultural Journey (Libera Accademia di Belle Arti LABA, Brescia)
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Some images from the meeting:
