Emanuele Garzia

Naples historical fountains are today testimonials of its huge and centenarian changes and urban transformations. Recording their distribution and movements in time and space, this project has the extent to analyze their spatial and diachronic contextualization in a relational mode using ‘nodegoat’, a web-based data management, analysis and visualisation environment, in order to get a deep understanding of the phenomenon both
for researcher and for the public interested. Mapping in fact is here used as a form of spatial and data storytelling.

L'utilizzo, la condivisione e visualizzazione dei dati rappresentano una sfida importante in quella che si preannuncia come la cosiddetta Data Driven Economy. Il nodo chiave è l'efficacia delle modalità di condivisione della grande mole di dati di cui, è noto, solo una piccola parte viene sfruttata. Le scienze dell'Information Design forniscono strumenti che consentono di spiegare fenomeni complessi, utilizzando semplici raffigurazioni di dati quantitativi, spesso attraverso rappresentazioni dinamiche e interattive. Le Digital Humanities raccolgono la sfida sfruttando queste nuove opportunità. In particolare, nel campo della discussa valorizzazione dei beni culturali, sembra finora si sia colto solo in minima parte il peso delle innovazioni a disposizione, ritenendolo ancora come poco funzionale allo sviluppo dei servizi offerti. Questo studio propone una modalità di rappresentazione e condivisione dei dati relativi all'interazione tra esseri umani e opere d'arte, usando metodologie e strumenti mutuati dalle scienze dell'informazione. L'interazione è intesa, in questo lavoro, nell'esperienza di fruizione di un'opera pittorica, mentre i dati, relativi a tale dimensione immateriale, sono di carattere psicofisiologico, legati al percorso visivo effettuato nell'esplorazione dell'opera. Oltre a fornire interessanti spunti per l'arricchimento interpretativo dell'opera d'arte, la rappresentazione proposta per le esperienze di osservazione rende possibile la condivisione ed il confronto dei rapporti intangibili ed intimi tra osservatore e opera.

Premise Arts can use new fundamental technologies, shedding light on invisible dimensions of the artistic experience. Among these, the creative act is certainly the most hidden aspect. The 'Empathize with my gaze' performance aims to deepen the fascinating and magmatic field of artistic perception. This topic has been investigated in previous studies by our research team. For example, by using quantitative assessment methodologies, the relationship between visitors and artwork in different contexts has been accurately analyzed. In this way, it has been possible to examine how a specific pictorial behavior would have brought the observer to follow a certain pathway in the fruition of the artwork. Within the field of Neuro-Aesthetics, this research line encourages scholars to examine further aspects, up to the specific moment of the creative act. In this work, the creative act of a contemporary artist is explored. The possibility to share the experience of the artistic creation by showing the artist's eye-tracking data would reduce the physical and metaphorical barrier between the artist and his public. In this way, in fact, the artwork is presented while it is created through the artist's gaze. With wearable eye-trackers, the artist will paint on the spot on a transparent panel. Therefore, the artist will share the creative act and its outcomes with the public. So, the fruition of an artwork is enriched by new dimensions, which are undoubtedly among the most substantial of the whole pictorial creation: the eyesight and the cognitive processes which are linked to it.

Data representation takes advantage, above all, of the visual channel, by also allowing interaction and manipulation. However, data can be rarely physically manipulated, thus renouncing to the potential of the perceptual channel of touch. The main purpose of this project is to represent in a 3D format intangible data, concerning the perception of works of art, i.e. data belonging to the visual pathway of subjects during art perception. Therefore, a physical artifact shows the results of visual behaviors, i.e. the ocular-motorial tasks performed by people who stand in front of a Caravaggio’s masterpiece, with the result of an unexpected synesthesia. The aim of this project is to go beyond the state of the art in digital objects and data physicalization field by providing new and innovative devices which allow a new type of sensorial exploration. In this way, we have also suggested a possible development of this research by applying the same methodology to written texts, in particular by designing an experiment that wants to lead to the data physicalization as a reading support for a text closely related to the Caravaggio masterpiece here studied.