The first European centre wholly dedicated to the immersive arts is opening on the Island of San Servolo in Venice, Italy, as the result of a programme agreement signed a year ago by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and the Veneto Region’s Department for Education.

CSC Immersive Arts, whose education director is Sara Tirelli, will look to explore and further understand possible applications of Extended Reality by studying their evolution, the major trends characterising their use, and their as-yet untapped potential, in order to leverage a sector which has seen significant development in recent years and offers huge possibilities for growth within the audiovisual and performing arts sectors.

“There is a considerable need, across the Italian and European landscape, for a research and production centre wholly dedicated to the Immersive Arts”, Tirelli insists. “This is also an important opportunity to show that the city of Venice isn’t just an exhibition platform; it’s also a creative breeding ground for experimentation with contemporary filmmaking practices”.

CSC Immersive Arts is a training, research and production centre which will offer up an international educational programme combining theory and practice, while aiming to create a space for study and interdisciplinary working. With a floor area of around 700 square metres, the centre will boast the most avant-garde technology for those working within immersive reality, including a volumetric capture studio and immersive sound, which will also be available to external professionals.

The centre’s unique training courses will take the form of residencies and labs: the first course (commencing in the spring of 2024) will be a year-long programme with two main focuses, Creator and Creative Technologist, with a view to fostering fruitful discussions between the different worlds of artistic and technical direction; the labs, meanwhile (commencing in autumn 2023), will consist of intensive sessions geared towards professionals and dedicated to specific aspects and workforces within the audiovisual world and beyond.

The various training courses run by CSC Immersive Arts Labs include Immersive Production and Distribution, for producers and distributors in the film industry; Expanding Spatial Narratives, for professionals in the art and culture sectors; Spaces for Performance, for artists and professionals within the performing arts; Immersive Journalism, for professionals in the journalistic sector; Immersive Filmmaking for professionals in the film industry; Immersive Environment Design, for the architecture and design sectors; Focus on volumetric capture and Game Engine, for the film, architecture and performative arts sectors; Focus on Photorealistic Environment, for the film, architecture, performing arts and cultural heritage sectors; and Immersive Technology Applied To Psychotherapy And Wellness, for the psychology and education industries.

For more information, contact sara.tirelli@fondazionecsc.it.