My name is Giovanni Santini and I am Assistant Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong –Liverpool University. Classical musician by formation, I then jumped into electronic music and then few years ago I embraced XR development, realizing the tremendous potential of XR technologies for performing arts. I realized several software and arts experiences in an XR context and that is why I now define myself as an XR artist. I am based in Taicang, China, few km from Shanghai. I teach Immersion and Virtual Worlds, Audio Landscape Design, and World Building at the School of Cultural Technology – XJTLU.
I first heard about the concept of Convergent Reality (CR) in 2022 and I found a strong resonance with my current artistic practice. The idea of blending virtual and real world into a new reality that transcends the virtual-real distinction has a tremendous potential in the arts and entertainment industry. That is what my current work tries to approximate with progressive degrees of refinement. So I was very interested in joining this project.
One of the current limitations of immersive technologies applied to arts is that, for a live performance, it is technically very challenging to share an immersive, XR experience, that at once preserves the energy and sociality of a live event, while enriching the world with virtual objects. That issue is both about technology and design: how do we craft an immersive live experience that embraces the new possibilities of XR technologies and creates a new form of live performance? The potential for a revolution is there, the ways to realize it still need to be explored. How do we share immersivity between performer and audience in a live XR concert? How do we craft a narrative that powerfully takes advantage of the new technological horizons? These are some of the questions that arts practice needs to answer to.
In my opinion, Convergent Reality portrays both the aesthetic and technical aim of XR live performance. In fact, it does not refer to a specific technology, such as the terms VR, AR and, in broader sense, XR do. It refers to the perceptual result. It is a vision, rather than a technique. The end, not the mean. As such, it encourages the use of multiple technical resources, crafted into a unitary experience that can bridge between virtual and real world and between performer and audience.
I see Convergent Reality as an aesthetic and technical reference that can orient XR arts practices. Its value resides in the idea of entangling virtual and real world in something new and unitary. At least, that is its tendency and horizon.
Author: Giovanni Santini, Convergent Reality (CR) Advisor Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovanni-santini-xrart/
Published by Convergent Reality (CR) on 22 May 2023