
Art Before Art 2.0
A three-day conference and a Virtual Reality exhibition
International Conference Art Before Art 2.0 | Paleolithic Art, a Contemporary Issue. From Painted Cave to Extended Realities
Organized by IULM University and ERC Advanced Grant AN-ICON (Department of Philosophy "Piero Martinetti," State University of Milan) in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History of Milan.
The international conference Art Before Art 2.0 | Paleolithic Art, a Contemporary Issue. From Painted Cave to Extended Realities addresses Paleolithic art by integrating historiography and archaeology with visual culture studies, media theory and the tools of contemporary art history and criticism.
The cave lived by our ancestors, and the art preserved in it, is an immersive environment par excellence, because of the intimate perceptual relationship established between geological wall, paintings, graffiti, carved and shaped blocks. Beginning with this "environmental" and immersive overlap, between cave and (new) technologies, the International Conference "Art Before Art 2.0 | Paleolithic Art: A Contemporary Question" interrogates paleoart, and its remediation, addressing a very broad body of intermediary sources and venues, from material replication to film, from contemporary art to gaming, from Mixed Reality, to pop imagosphere, to the use of Artificial Intelligence.
The conference is accompanied by "Paleocybernetics: Prehistory Imagined by VR," a VR exhibition that makes accessible two recent works that imagined, configured, and reconstructed Paleolithic caves and the humans who inhabited them.
In 1995, at the dawn of virtual reality as we know it today, Benjamin Britton shaped his anxieties about the future of humanity by recreating the environments of the Lascaux cave. Britton's Lascaux was a metaphorical space, a shamanic and techno-ritual place, to be rediscovered and experienced in new ways. In recent years, the history of VR has been marked by experiences that engage with prehistoric environments, not only to reproduce them, but to restore their vitality and imagine their visitors. The showcase Paleocybernetic: Prehistory Imagined by Virtual Reality features two experiences designed to make accessible again the cave spaces lived by our ancestors, weaving narratives that suggest what human (and non-human) uses of these immersive environments might have been. Digital and prehistoric immersiveness meet in this unique liminal zone, through a medium, virtual reality, that perhaps more than others shares an aesthetic and spiritual dimension with paleoart.
On view
Rafael Pavon, Memoria: Stories of La Garma, VR 6DOF, Spain, 8'
Memoria: Stories of La Garma offers audiences the opportunity to explore the stories enshrined for more than 16,000 years in the cave of La Garma. Guided by the voice of Geraldine Chaplin, users can explore three spaces of the cave, reproduced with exact precision by laser scanning and photogrammetry, and discover the memories encapsulated there, those of Paleolithic hunters, a mother and her child, and even the cave lion who chose the cave as the place to spend his last days.
Pierre Zandrowicz, The Dawn of Art, VR 6DOF, USA, 2020, 15'
The Dawn of Art is an invitation to explore Chauvet Cave, one of humanity's oldest rock art sites, dating back some 36,000 years. Guided by the voice of Daisy Ridley, the user is plunged into the depths of the Ardèche gorges in southern France, where our ancestors created the first masterpieces, shaping their beliefs. This experience is not just a guided tour, but an exciting narrative that transports the user into the past, restoring a lived relationship with the art and spirituality of our ancestors.
This initiative has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) within the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), hosted by the Department of Philosophy "Piero Martinetti" of the University of Milan as part of the "Departments of Excellence 2023-2027" project awarded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR).
When
November 25-27, 2024, Milan
Where
IULM University and Museum of Natural History of Milan
Summary Program
Day 1
25.11.2024 | IULM University, via Carlo Bo 1, Milan
IULM 1 | Aula Seminari | 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Day 2
26.11.2024 | IULM University, via Carlo Bo 1, Milan
IULM 1 | Aula Seminari | 9:30 a.m.-18:30 p.m.
Day 3
27.11.2024 | Milan Museum of Natural History, Corso Venezia, 55, Milan
10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Access by reservation at this link.
VR Exhibition "Paleocybernetics: Prehistory Imagined by Virtual Reality"
IULM University, via Carlo Bo 1, Milan
IULM 1 | Pyramid Hall
25.11.24 | 5:00-7:00 p.m.
25.11.24 | 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Free access