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Coordinated Research Centre EXT
The departmental coordinated research centre “Extended Realities” aims to investigate the increasingly pressing questions arising within aesthetics, cognitive sciences, image and media theories, and philosophy of technology, especially in relation to the progressively complex integration between organic life and material and digital prostheses. The analysis of the enhancement and expansion of human-accessible realms, through hybridisation with rapidly evolving technologies, will focus specifically on the possibilities offered by Extended Realities (XR): an umbrella term encompassing a broad spectrum of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies, in their numerous and increasingly pervasive forms and applications.
This theoretical research has immediate practical implications across various professional fields. Consider, for instance, the exponential growth of architectural projects related to so-called smart cities, the integration of digital information into real-world environments in medical contexts, or experimental applications in art, museum studies, and archival sciences.
The use of XR also opens pathways to exploring new creative modes and cognitive empowerment through advanced artistic performances, facilitating the integration of artificial intelligence methods such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The convergence of XR with these AI technologies significantly expands creative possibilities within the artistic sphere. Indeed, the combination of XR and GAN represents an emerging dimension at the intersection of art, technology, and artificial intelligence, offering new perspectives for artistic creation and interpretation, as well as interdisciplinary research extending beyond the traditional boundaries of the involved disciplines.
The Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” is both the proposing and coordinating department for the CRC.
Dialogue with other institutions and Third Mission
The widespread use of extended reality across diverse sectors provides the Department of Philosophy with the opportunity to enhance dialogue, not only with other entities within the University of Milan (beginning with the Department of Computer Science and the Musa-University Museum of Anthropological Sciences), as well as with other universities and national and international research centres, but also—in line with its Third Mission objectives—with external organisations. This will enable combining a predominantly theoretical-philosophical approach with practical and outreach activities, attracting a broader audience.
A final, yet equally important, aspect concerns the use of extended reality in education. Here, research will intersect directly with teaching, enabling experimentation with innovative and increasingly in-demand teaching methodologies in immersive, augmented, and mixed environments.
Research Units
The CRC “Extended Realities” comprises two research units already active within the Department of Philosophy:
1. An-Icon. An-Iconology: History, Theory, and Practices of Environmental Images (coordinated by Andrea Pinotti): an ERC Advanced Grant project initiated in 2019, which conducts research on immersive environments in virtual and augmented reality, adopting a multidisciplinary approach encompassing ontology, phenomenology, contemporary art history, visual cultural studies, media archaeology, computer science, history of science and technology, education, and urban studies.
2. PIS. Performing Identity Studies (coordinated by Chiara Cappelletto): a departmental laboratory investigating the performative dynamics of human identity, examining the epistemic conditions, dispositifs, environments, and artefacts involved in the processes of subjectivation.
Within the framework of activities planned by the Project of Excellence, the CRC “Extended Realities” will closely cooperate with the forthcoming XRLab (scientific director Barbara Grespi): a laboratory dedicated to applied research on technologies related to extended realities.