Here’s my article on Notiziarte.com (ITA)
Throughout history, emerging technologies have consistently acted as catalysts in redefining the boundaries of creativity, shaping, and transforming the very essence of the artistic experience. In light of this ongoing evolution, new models and aesthetic paradigms are emerging today that combine art, Generative AI, and extended reality (XR).
Twentieth-century art explores boundaries, probes its limits, and self-criticizes. From matter to the medium itself— the vehicle through which it is represented— to the very concept of what art is, which in its purest form has always been the expression of humanity’s continuous desire not only to explore and creatively interpret the world, society, and reality, but also as a tool for imagining and inventing new models and representing them. From this process, a dialectic between art and science emerges, ever more evident in the search for the essence of life, the meaning of our existence, and the universe around us. Experimentation has become not only a means of expression but the core around which the entire artistic experience revolves.
In this race between the evolutionary model of technology—centered on surpassing limits, time, and obsolescence—and the model of art, which knows no evolution and exists as long as humanity exists, we are witnessing an unexpected synthesis. This is a sort of heterogenesis of ends, where the two models of technology and art converge, where one is no longer merely a tool for the other. To arrive at this revolutionary synthesis of artistic creativity, which we are currently experiencing in its infancy—its hesitations, colossal errors, and magnificent outcomes—we have journeyed through a Cambrian explosion triggered by the digital revolution. This revolution has literally, culturally, and anthropologically changed the way humanity views and perceives the world, thus equipping us with enhanced sensitivity.
The integration of science and algorithmics into art not only expands the field of possible creative expressions but also allows artists to explore and represent complex concepts such as chaos, natural patterns, or mathematical structures in visually stunning ways. This holistic approach embraces multiple disciplines and converges toward the idea that such experimentation will be capable of proposing new forms of thought. Paradoxically, this art first calls into question and relegates to the past the very concept of “new” in the sense of evolutionary, further, or other.
Albert Laszlo Barabasi, a notable figure who combines mathematics and art, has captured the beauty of data and relationships upon which he has built his aesthetic. He states, “The art of connection captures something much deeper, essential to human existence, something that precedes us. It captures our biological existence, the roots of consciousness, and even the biology of emotions, which emerge from an interaction of elements that we cannot fully understand or control. Connectivity is what makes life and emotions possible, which are merely imprints of complexity.” From our perspective, we think of art not only as an expressive form but as an “ecosystem” in which multiple interconnected elements and parallel disciplines coexist, all part of a fabric that extends between the real and the virtual.
An ecosystem where the collaborative action of humans and AI systems becomes an aesthetic experience that manifests within spaces endowed with a profound immersive component. By doing so, the physical/digital interaction becomes the foundation of creative chemistry, which is why we introduced the concept of “Extended Art.” This is an area where artists are not limited to defining or constructing creative artifacts but conceive entire systems—a series of processes that can manifest through the interpretation of data flows, generative procedures, or even visual transpositions of intellectual insights.
Dario Buratti, Stefano Lazzari