Immersive environments: fragmented and discontinuous spaces for action and art

The spectator of contemporary art is located in a special operating space during an exhibition, where he/she can participate, take action, modify, intervene, expand: nevertheless, is the possibility of action really the main feature of a work of art, if action is considered as a performance with a clear and specific goal? What will become of the spectator’s role, if we shift our conception of the artwork and consider it as something we can’t use in a self-evident way? This essay will try to loosen the bond between an active spectator and an artwork recognized as such, and to bring out a disinterested and value-centered approach; in so doing, the aim is to overshadow the need for functionality and action when we deal with art. Immersion appears to respond to the need to be in the image, through a new type of interaction that takes place in real time, offering freedom and the chance to intervene, to participate, to modify the conditions under which experience unfolds: but if the need is to shorten the distance and achieve proximity with the image, to expand it, modify it, to be in it as if it was reality, wouldn’t it be less costly to experience reality directly, without doubling it? A promising and successful experience in this sense is the ongoing series of sensitive environments by Studio Azzurro, an Italian collective of artists: immersive environments where the spectator’s actions are not predetermined, he/she is encouraged to interact with the artwork through creative gestures, and the transition from spectator to participant/agent of an immersive artwork is connected with evaluative and operational processes at the same time.