10.54103/2036-461X/20560
application/pdf
2036-461X
20560
40
en
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
AN-ICON – An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images (ERC Advanced Project – European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
23
Projects & Abstracts
2023-09-22
2023-07-10
2023-09-22
2023-09-22
179-182
Cinéma & Cie
Barbara Grespi
2023/09/22
10.54103/2036-461X/20560
179
University of Milan
2036-461X
40
en
182
Terrenghi, Ilaria, and Andrea Garavaglia. 2022. “Development of experiential learning, modelling, and repetition processes in Virtual Reality applications. Theoretical analysis and didactic implications.” In 4th International Conference on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, 58–60.
AN-ICON – An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images (ERC Advanced Project – European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme)
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/20560/18792
23
                                                                                       AN-ICON
                                                                                       An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of
                                                                                       Environmental Images
                                                                                       Barbara Grespi / ERC Advanced Project –
                                                                                       European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
                                                                                       University of Milan
                                                                                       DOI https://doi.org/10.54103/2036-461X/20560




                                                                                         Recent technologies (such as virtual and           corresponding to the different backgrounds of the
                                                                                       augmented reality) have given new impetus            senior and junior scholars involved in the project
                                                                                       to a type of image which asks us to adopt a          (with a predominance of Aesthetics, followed by
                                                                                       specific cognitive and affective modality in order   Film and Media Studies, Art History, History of
                                                                                       to enjoy it. The Spectator is transformed into       Science, Computer Science and Pedagogy).
                                                                                       an Experiencer who perceives the image as an           Initially, the group focused on immersivity
                                                                                       autonomous quasi-real world, inhabiting it not       and its history in the field of art. The term
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License




                                                                                       only with the imagination but also with the body     “immersion” has only appeared since the 1990s,
                                                                                       and senses. The ERC Advanced project AN-ICON:        but in the first decades of the 20th century
                                                                                       An-iconology, history, theory, and practices         artists already practiced forms of immersivity.
                                                                                       of environmental images (2019-2024), led by          Assistant Professor Elisabetta Modena (now at
                                                                                       Full Professor Andrea Pinotti, explores the          the University of Pavia) and PI Andrea Pinotti
                                                                                       properties of this experience, defining it as an-    focused on the legacy of contemporary art
                                                                                       iconic, that is, characterised by a weak or absent   with this historical period in collaboration with
                                                                                       image consciousness. In the virtual worlds,          HangarBicocca (Immersed in the work, 2022).
                                                                                       icons deny themselves as such, concealing their      Art-based research curated by Modena and
                                                                                       mediateness, and ideally freeing themselves of       Postdoc researcher Sofia Pirandello led to two
                                                                                       any framing device that traditionally separated      VR works: THE ITALIAN JOB n.3, Lazy Sunday by
                                                                                       images and contexts.                                 Emilio Vavarella, and Rosetta Mission 2020 by
                                                                                         AN-ICON is working on defining and describing      Luca Pozzi, both exhibited in the virtual space 12°
                                                                                       the an-iconic experience along three axes: 1)        Atelier (Casa degli artisti, Milan). A monograph
                                                                                       history, focusing on the manifold an-iconic          tracing the history of artistic practices based
                                                                                       strategies and devices employed in the past;         on the trespassing of the threshold between
                                                                                       2) theory, questioning concepts like presence,       the real and the virtual, from Narcissus to VR,
                                                                                       interactivity, virtuality; 3) practices, exploring   was conclusively written by Pinotti (Pinotti
                                                                                       the impact of an-iconic environments on              2021, English translation forthcoming), while
                                                                                       contemporary professional domains and                Modena’s monograph concentrated on the rise
                                                                                       everyday life. Research along these axes is          of immersive storytelling in different cultural
                                                                                       characterized by an interdisciplinary approach,      contexts (journalism, documentaries, cinema,


                                                                                       Cinéma & Cie vol. 23 no. 40 2023 · ISSN 2036-461X                                               179
videogames, museums, and cultural heritage)            also interested in the paleocybernetic fascination
(Modena 2022).                                         with prehistoric caves and their virtual and “in-
  Along the theoretical axis, several investigations   the-flesh” replicas (Fontana and Pinotti 2022).
are ongoing. After devising the concept of             Assistant Professor Ilaria Ampollini investigates
environmental image (Pinotti, 2020) and                the Planetarium as an ancestor of virtual
exploring the consequent rhetoric of empathy,          environments with the methodology of History
Pinotti is developing a phenomenology and              of Science. Postdoc researcher Sofia Pirandello
ontology of immersive environments, based on           has studied the extended spaces of Augmented
the historical dimension of technologies, image        Reality (Pirandello 2020). She interprets AR as
experience, and perception itself. He is focusing      a technology of imagination and questions its
especially on the theological background of            feedback on human creativity, evaluating its pros
fundamental concepts of virtual technology             and cons from an aesthetical and political point
such as icon, avatar, incarnation, bilocation,         of view. Pirandello addresses AR as a tool used
ecstasy. Associate Professor Pietro Conte works        for transforming environmental affordances
around the notions of illusion and deception           which then has many material consequences on
in the contemporary mediascape and aims at             the concrete world, in whatever field it is used
deconstructing the rhetorical and commercial           (military, industrial, artistic, activist).
narratives surrounding the idea of presence              While research on space is predominantly
(Conte and Wiesing 2022). A specific aspect            characterized by a philosophical approach,
of this techno-aesthetic perspective concerns          research on the body develops at the intersection
how immersive media and artificial intelligence        of media archaeology, image theory and gender
are exploited to make the dead present again           studies. Associate Professor Barbara Grespi
by endowing them with so-called “digital               has worked on gesture-based interfaces in
immortality”. In the same vein, Ph.D. student          virtual environments to question the idea of
Maria Serafini investigates emerging visual            immersive images as unframed and introduce
practices and rituals of mourning in digital and       a non-ocularcentric concept of frame, ultimately
virtual environments. She considers the role of        defined by the user’s body and senses (Grespi
images in shaping the ways in which mourning is        2021). She curated art-based research on the
expressed and experienced, and in constructing         same topic (Anna Franceschini’s residency,
new forms of “social presence of the dead”.            Triennale, 2023, and dancer and choreographer
  Over the years, the interplay between body and       Margherita Landi’s residency, La fabbrica del
space has proved to be key for the understanding       vapore, 2023). Grespi’s investigation of the
of an-iconic experiences, and the group is now         genealogy of the an-iconic image in the astro-
focusing on both. Postdoc researcher Fabrizia          photography of the late Nineteenth century, only
Bandi is elaborating a phenomenology of                faintly linked to ocular perception, complemented
the environment between image and spatial              her study of the decline of the visual in favour
experience (Bandi 2021), but also working on VR        of the gestural and bodily. In the same vein,
and AR as implementation tools for architectural       Ph.D. student Rosa Cinelli focuses on the theme
and urban practice, in line with historical            of visual evidence and algorithmic images. Her
techniques of representation. Postdoc researcher       research aims at redefining the documentary
Margherita Fontana addresses space from a              evidentiary paradigm, comparing the forensic
political and cultural perspective, exploring the      role of photography to that of virtual reality
American milieu of the emergence of VR as it           reconstructions (Cinelli 2023).
relates to psychedelic and sci-fi culture, 1960s         Many avenues of media archaeological
counterculture and geodesic architecture. She is       research are currently open in the AN-ICON



180                                                                                     Grespi, AN-ICON
group, including Grespi’s exploration of the         physical and mental healthcare, and adopting
genealogical role of television and its early        a methodology that combines theoretical
technologies, as well as that of the olfactory       reflection and empirical data (Cavaletti 2021). At
sense, currently studied by Postdoc researcher       the same time, she is studying the experience
Giancarlo Grossi. In previous years, Grossi          of shame, and in particular body shame, and
investigated the relationship between immersive      how it can be overcome using contemporary
media and altered states of consciousness, such      interactive technologies. Postdoc researcher
as dreaming and hallucination. He drew on a          Ilaria Terrenghi is approaching the area of
conception of media as forms of exteriorization      education by dealing with the effectiveness of
and materialization of the mental universe, as       teaching and learning processes and the impact
his media archaeological monograph on the            of immersive technologies on the learning
same topic demonstrates (Grossi 2021). His first     path (Terrenghi 2022). Alessandro Costella is
article on the olfactory sense is contained in the   combining computer science, disability studies
current monographic issues of “Cinéma & Cie”,        and phenomenology to explore AR interfaces for
co-edited by Assistant Professor Anna Caterina       implementing devices for disabled and physically
Dalmasso. As a member of AN-ICON, Dalmasso           impaired people (Costella, 2023).
is outlining an archaeology of virtuality which
draws on the history of the cinematic point-
of-view shot as well as on visual devices of
ancient divination. In parallel, she is working
on a phenomenology of embodied experience in
immersive environments (Dalmasso 2022), also
curating the residency of artist and filmmaker
Sara Tirelli. Ph.D. student Roberto Paolo
Malaspina’s research explores, with a similar
approach, the relationship between immersive
technologies and erotic-pornographic material
(together with their genealogy in stereoscopic
devices), aiming at understanding the impact of
virtual reality on the production, consumption,
and social agency of contemporary pornography.
A second “body genre”, as film theory calls it,
is addressed by Ph.D. student Rossana Galimi,
who re-discusses the cinematic imaginary of
the horror movie, in order to develop a “feminist
horror theory” updated to the time of immersive
media.
  Finally, a different focus on the body of the
experiencer in practical and professional
applications is being developed by Postdoc
researchers Federica Cavaletti and Ilaria
Terrenghi, together with Ph.D. student
Alessandro Costella. Cavaletti is working on
the practical applications of virtual reality in
professional settings, with a particular focus on


Cinéma & Cie vol. 23 no. 40 2023 · ISSN 2036-461X                                              181
REFERENCE LIST
Bandi, Fabrizia. 2021. “Cyberspazio e realtà virtuale. L’esperienza della spazialità negli ambienti digitali,”
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Cavaletti, Federica. 2021. “Virtual Reality as A Time-Dissolving Machine in Distressing Medical Treatments.
Current Perspectives and Future Directions,” Reti, Saperi, Linguaggi 1: 155–176.
Cinelli, Rosa. 2023. “Immagini Algoritmiche come prove visive. Il ‘metodo’ Forensic Architecture,” La Valle
dell’Eden 41, forthcoming.
Conte, Pietro, and Lambert Wiesing, eds. 2022. AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images 1 (II) “Just an
illusion? Between simulation, emulation, and hyper-realism”.
Costella, Alessandro. 2023. “Forare la superficie. Storia e archeologia dell’interfaccia trasparente.” In
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Pinotti, Andrea. 2020. “Towards an-iconology: the image as environment,” Screen 61 (4): 594–603.
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Cinergie – Il cinema e le altre arti 19: 135–145.
Terrenghi, Ilaria, and Andrea Garavaglia. 2022. “Development of experiential learning, modelling, and repetition
processes in Virtual Reality applications. Theoretical analysis and didactic implications.” In 4th International
Conference on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, 58–60.




182                                                                                             Grespi, AN-ICON
