The Digital Respiration of Art: How New Technologies Are Redefining the Aesthetic and Environmental Experience

In a world seeking answers to the ecological crisis, a growing number of artists are employing technology not just as an aesthetic tool, but as a medium to create a new dialogue on sustainability and the environmental experience.

New digital forms of expression are no longer limited to representing the world; they actively interpret it through data, interactions, and immersive experiences. This evolution marks a crucial shift: from art as a contemplative object to art as a living system, capable of breathing, learning, and dialoguing with its surrounding environment.

Through an analysis of recent developments in digital art, immersive experiences, and virtual platforms, this essay explores how emerging technologies are redefining the very concept of the aesthetic experience, transforming it into a dynamic process that transcends the boundaries between the human, the digital, and the natural.

Datapoiesis: When Data Becomes Artistic Expression

Oriana Persico’s work pneumOS is an emblematic example of how environmental data can be transformed into living artistic expression. This cybernetic organ, selected for the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, translates air quality data into expressive behaviors, generating what the artist calls a “Grammar of breath” (Source 1). This is not simply about visualizing information, but about creating a system that literally breathes through data, establishing a sensory dialogue with the viewer.

This form of datapoietic art represents a significant evolution in the relationship between technology and creativity: data are no longer just analytical tools but become the raw material for generating new forms of artificial life. As highlighted in Source 1, pneumOS engages in a dialogue with classical masterpieces like the Farnese Atlas and works by Leonardo, Caravaggio, and Tintoretto, creating a temporal bridge between artistic tradition and technological innovation.

In parallel, initiatives like that of the Victoria Miro gallery demonstrate how digitization is also transforming access to art. The Live / Archive platform, launched by the gallery, uses cutting-edge technology to expand the reach of exhibitions and, significantly, to “considerably reduce the carbon emissions associated with traditional art viewing” (Source 2). This approach highlights how the digital transition in art is not only an aesthetic issue but also a concrete response to contemporary environmental challenges.

Immersion and Corporeality in the Digital Age

The contemporary artistic experience is undergoing a profound transformation thanks to immersive technologies. Wayne McGregor’s panoramic installation, which uses a 12k LED screen with 26 million pixels, offers a dance experience so intimate that viewers can “see how their [the dancers’] toes grip the floor” (Source 3). This digital hyper-presence challenges the traditional distance between performer and audience, creating a paradoxical intimacy through technological mediation.

XR (Extended Reality) technologies are further expanding these possibilities. As reported in Source 4, Genie 3 is showing “a new way of doing 3D experiences,” while Meta is adding new AI features to Horizon Worlds. These innovations are not mere technical novelties but represent a fundamental rethinking of how we perceive and interact with virtual spaces.

The application of these technologies extends beyond the purely artistic field. The recent acquisition by the Texas Department of Public Safety of a VR training system developed by Operator XR, valued at $3.7 million (Source 5), demonstrates how immersive technologies are finding practical applications in areas such as public safety and professional training.

This convergence between art and training is further underscored by the emergence of specialized educational programs like the Master Digital Exhibit, focused on “Digital Environments and Artificial Intelligence for the Arts” (Source 6). Such educational initiatives recognize the need to develop interdisciplinary skills that combine artistic sensibility with technological mastery.

The Ibrida International Festival of Intermedia Arts in Forlì, with its tenth edition titled “Moltitudine” (Multitude), celebrates this interdisciplinarity through video art, performance art, installations, and dialogues (Source 7). The presence of Gary Hill, a pioneer of video art and a Golden Lion winner at the Venice Biennale, underscores the maturity achieved by these hybrid expressive forms.

Finally, the reflection proposed by the LAS Art Foundation in the project “Interspecies Future: A Primer” poses fundamental questions about the post-Anthropocene future: “Can we depart from our human-centered perspective to build a future for the benefit of all species?” (Source 8). This question resonates deeply with the approach of works like pneumOS, which use environmental data to create sensitive connections between humans and ecosystems.

Toward an Ecological and Interspecies Aesthetic

The emergence of these new artistic forms suggests a paradigm shift in the very conception of art. It is no longer just about representing or interpreting the world, but about creating systems that actively interact with it, generating new forms of ecological awareness.

As highlighted in Source 8, we are searching for tools and techniques to help us overcome the anthropocentric perspective. Datapoietic artworks like pneumOS (Source 1) offer an interesting model: by using environmental data as creative raw material, they establish a direct dialogue between human and non-human systems, making perceptible and significant information that would otherwise remain abstract.

At the same time, platforms like Victoria Miro’s Live / Archive (Source 2) demonstrate how the digitization of art can contribute concretely to environmental sustainability by reducing the ecological footprint associated with traditional art consumption. This approach suggests that the digital transition, if guided by ecological values, can represent not a threat but an opportunity to rethink the relationship between culture and nature.

Immersive experiences like the one created by Wayne McGregor (Source 3) and the XR technologies discussed in Source 4 are also redefining the concept of corporeality in the digital age. Far from disembodying the experience, these technologies can amplify bodily awareness through new forms of presence and perception.

This evolution also requires new educational and training approaches, as demonstrated by the Master Digital Exhibit (Source 6) and initiatives like the Ibrida Festival (Source 7), which recognize the need to develop interdisciplinary skills to navigate this new artistic-technological landscape.

In conclusion, the works and initiatives analyzed in this essay suggest the emergence of a new ecological aesthetic that uses digital technologies not to distance us from nature, but to create new forms of connection and awareness. Like an artificial lung breathing environmental data, contemporary art is developing new sensory organs to perceive and respond to the challenges of our time, transcending the boundaries between the human, the technological, and the natural.

References:

This essay was generated using an artificial intelligence workflow designed and supervised by Enzo Gentile. The sources were selected and analyzed automatically, and the final text was critically reviewed before publication. The images accompanying the article were also created by the same author through a generative AI process to visually illustrate the topics discussed.