“META EFFECT” IS OPEN, FEATURING THE FIRST ART EXHIBITION CONCEIVED AND DESIGNED BY ETT IN THE METAVERSE. Also on display are works created using artificial intelligence. At the opening ceremony were Serena Bertolucci, director of Palazzo Ducale – Genoa Culture Foundation, and Luca Malavasi, professor of Film history and analysis and Elements of visual culture, Diraas, University of Genoa
Milan, 20 December 2022 – Meta Effect inaugurated, the first exhibition entirely designed by ETT in the Metaverse. What is art? What is creativity? Can Artificial Intelligence be considered creative? ETT SpA, the Genoa-based digital creative industry of SCAI Group, addressed these issues by coordinating and bringing together artistic contributions by Paolo Bonfiglio, Mark Cooper, Gaia Midj and Corrado Zeni, and implementing visual and conceptual dialogue and investigation. The opening was in the company of two outstanding avatars: Serena Bertolucci, director of Palazzo Ducale – Genoa Culture Foundation, and Luca Malavasi, professor of Film history and analysis and Elements of visual culture, Diraas, University of Genoa.
Giovanni Verreschi, CEO of ETT SpA, declared that “the Meta Effect exhibition began as research, a discussion space where visitors are called on to question the role of human creativity and experimentation in the art world. It is possible, in the Metaverse, to start a debate on what until recently was considered an oxymoron, by which I mean the combination of concepts such as emotion and technological development, demonstrating the possibility of combining a humanistic approach with computer knowledge. As far back as 1928, Paul Valéry (La conquête de l’ubiquité) stated that ‘neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was since time immemorial… the first use will be the reproduction and transmission of works of art’. It becomes possible, therefore, in line with the radical progress of scientific research that we see before us, to make art and Artificial Intelligence converge; breaking down ideological barriers by working on the awareness that both can be used to develop thus far uncalculated synergies”.
Artificial Intelligence has something of a blurred boundary and often ends up merging with cognitive fields considered to be unrelated, one of which is indeed art. Algorithms are also taking on their own unquestionably creative characteristics and their products, from music to visual arts and NFTs (non-fungible tokens, proprietary digital objects), are increasingly difficult to distinguish from man-made ones. Can Artificial Intelligence, therefore, autonomously replicate an act that we have always believed to be the prerogative of humans; creativity?
The digital Metaverse of Meta Effect can be accessed using a Virtual Reality headset (3D) or, failing this, through a link to a desktop computer or an iOS / Android smartphone (2D). The artists who exhibit their works move in the gateway opened by current technological achievements and they each give a personal interpretation of the concepts of space, time, borders, dreams and consciousness, all abstract and multipurpose semantic areas. These are devoid of concrete and objective references in visual terms and are, therefore, particularly suitable when verifying the dynamics of artificial neural networks relative to human ones. Artificial Intelligence has a fully-fledged creative role in the exhibition; the artistic product of AI interfaces with the other works.
Meta Effect is the first exhibition designed by ETT in the Metaverse of Spatial.io, a virtual place identified and chosen above all by the community of crypto-artists linked to the world of NFTs, who have identified it as the ideal Metaverse in which to grow. This is why artists of all kinds, architects, advertising agencies and video production studios have begun to exhibit there. It is, in short, a metaphysical space both in form and concept.
Spatial.io, in the meantime, gives a high level of identification with digital works by using them immersively. But visitors are not isolated at the exhibition since it is possible to share real-time comments and impressions on the works with other visitors, using the avatar’s microphone and webcam. The Metaverse space, therefore, is conceived as a true art gallery and can host 50 avatars that move freely among the works.
Enter the Metaverse ETT – Meta Effect
See the opening ceremony