​The Artcast4D consortium of research, technology, culture, and media partners met in Valencia, Spain, to mark the project’s achievements during its first year, working with artists, cultural organisations, creative businesses, museums, city, and local authorities to develop new, immersive experiences in public spaces.

Artcast4D consortium partners held a showcase demo combining projection, sound and motion-sensitive technology with modern dance improvisation to extend the performing arts experience and present the project’s expected outcomes.

​

Spanish partners CulturaLink and Valencia Cultural Institute’s Espai LaGranja are developing one of four project pilots to explore the possibilities of using open-source AAASeed software in the creative cultural industries.

​

“Piloting the application with creative users in living lab settings makes the latest immersive technology usable and accessible to the creative and cultural sector,” said Mâa Berriet, designer and developer of ARTCAST4D and AAASeed.

​

Greek research and technology centre CERTH, organised a living lab workshop involving local professionals from the arts and cultural industries, to provide insights on user requirements, as well as the use case scenario to be implemented during the project’s pilot phase. Technology partner EXUS AI Labs presented its large language model (LLM) chatbot being developed to explore the moral dilemma of disinformation as part of the Greek pilot and a workshop for the eventual exploitation of project results.

​

Partners also took part in Future Backcasting workshops to co-create scenarios for immersive experiences in 2050. Led by the Politecnico di Milano, the workshop projected scenarios included climate change, digital tourism, behavioural science, AI and scientific excellence on emerging future technologies.

​

Project papers were presented and live-streamed from the Valencia Art and Technology Rethinking Clusters Conference 2023, hosted by the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

​

Topics included:

​

• Living Lab as an open innovation network (CERTH)

• Impact first: Artcast4D media release and its impact on all digital channels (IFAAR)

• A proposal for an integrated framework for immersive technologies (CLINK)

• Defining the concept of Immersion and the keys to immersion (POLIMI)

​

In its first year, Artcast4D has produced a state-of-the-art study on the concept of immersion led by POLIMI and an experimental study into the keys to immersion in open spaces led by Université Paris-Saclay. Through an in depth questionnaire and quantitative behavioural recordings, the latter has started evaluating the responses of passersby while interacting with the screen wall and ground projection of Ariadne’s Fibres, an art installation at Forum des Images, in the busiest shopping mall, Forum des Halles, downtown Paris. Mâa Berriet gave a master class to pioneering users at Tumo Paris, a digital creative school, exploring the creative potential of immersive AAASeed technology.

​

Partners have organised living lab workshops, user surveys, and training workshops to demonstrate the AAASeed software in pilot countries and reached over 5000 stakeholders through media outreach and events in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and Oman.

​

The initial survey results indicate that the top three factors contributing to immersion in the arts are viewing experience, engaging younger generations, and experimentation in artistic performance.

Furthermore, interactivity, innovation, and experimentation are identified as the most crucial user values.

​

Subsequently, the co-creative technical design phase was launched with the primary objective of gathering feedback on the specific needs and requirements of experts and professionals in the cultural industry. A series of workshops were conducted, revealing that body tracking, floor projections, face recognition, and interaction with physical objects were at the forefront of the most preferred immersive features.

​

Over the coming year, Artcast4D will launch four pilots in Paris, Valencia, Hounslow, and Athens, with different cultural and creative topics and experiences: Citizens Engagement, Art in Public Spaces, Innovation in Art and Experience, Wisdom Tourism, bringing together creative actors and industrial partners with civil society.

​

Artcast4D Consortium:

The consortium is coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) and brings together ten partners from seven European Countries, merging research, technology, creative, media and cultural backgrounds. Pilot partners include: Issy-les-Moulineaux municipality, France; Watermans, an arts centre in London, UK; cultural consultancy CulturaLink in collaboration with regional associated partner Espai LaGranja – IVC, in Valencia, Spain; and CERTH research centre with technology partner EXUS AI Labs in Athens, Greece.

​

​