ImGame: An Immersive Educational Environment to Teach

Contemporary Art

Ieva Gintere

, Emmanouel Rovithis

, Ágnes Karolina Bakk

and Alvis Misjuns

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Tērbatas street 10, Valmiera, Latvia

Ionian University, Plateia Tsirigoti 7, Corfu, Athens, Greece

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary, Zugligeti út 9, Budapest, Hungary

Keywords: Immersiveness, New Media Art, Serious Games, Ecosystems, Meditation.

Abstract: The study describes a creative virtual environment named ImGame which serves as an interactive platform

hosting recent works by new media artists in Latvia, Greece, and Hungary. The study explores the common

conceptual characteristics of these works as interpreted by the ImGame researchers. The artworks have been

categorized under two intertwined aspects, namely meditation and ecosystems. The terms are slightly different

in each country: the Latvian artworks demonstrate a meditative state of mind linked to reflection about

ecology that also encompasses purity of mind. The Greek works highlight the organicity and

interconnectedness of elements that form alternate ecosystems which can be seen as ways to escape previous

thought patterns. For unpredictable realities to be plausible there is a need for a contemplative mind set before

the change of perspective. The human role is reimagined as a set of data-driven variables participating in the

dialogue between old and new, physical and digital, natural and artificial. In Hungary, artworks often deal

with data gathering techniques and their visualization. They are simulated ecosystems, where the viewer is

part of that system and can contemplate and submerge in it with the aim of raising the participant’s level of

sensitization towards social issues or phenomena.

1 INTRODUCTION

The serious art game entitled ImGame is being

designed cooperatively by three research institutions

in the framework of a Creative Europe grant from the

European Commission (2022-2025) to demonstrate

the contemporary artistic phenomena related to the

psychological experience of immersiveness which is

close to the feeling a reader has when wrapped up in

a good novel. The game aims to teach about trends in

new media art, strengthen an investigative,

observational relationship with our current cultural

environment and create a dialogue about ideas

generated by these artworks during recent years. As

various researchers have noted, effective learning

occurs when a relationship between user, cultural

context, and the immersive reality system is

established (Bekkele and Champion, 2019). ImGame

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0203-3351

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7404-4063

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-256X

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4841-9302

offers an artistic interaction with the environment, a

possibility to encounter recent works and learn about

their cultural context through specially designed

activities.

The project’s design proposes an indirect mode of

learning created by the user playing in the virtual

environment, exploring, memorizing, and

remembering specific aspects of the experience. An

interactive relationship is established between user

and content, as the former freely moves in the virtual

space, which is organized in compartments, like

separate game-stages, featuring different thematics

and posing different challenges. The first stage is

dedicated to the antecedents of modern aesthetics.

There, users are expected to be able to comprehend

and briefly describe the conceptual aspects pertaining

to the feeling of immersion. Before entering the next

stage, they will be asked to name the targeted

338

Gintere, I., Rovithis, E., Bakk, Á. and Misjuns, A.

ImGame: An Immersive Educational Environment to Teach Contemporary Art.

DOI: 10.5220/0012600000003693

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer Suppor ted Education (CSEDU 2024) - Volume 1, pages 338-346

ISBN: 978-989-758-697-2; ISSN: 2184-5026

associations as well as historical ideas related to

immersiveness, such as the keywords “awe”,

“captivation” or “flow”. The next stage is where the

digital artifacts are exhibited. Users are encouraged to

examine them, as well as the surrounding space, in

search of tokens that will be redeemed for creative

modules in the final stage, a virtual studio designed

for experimentation. By means of all the above, the

game creators intend to improve learning by

contextualizing immersive experiences “within a

lesson” (Makransky and Mayer, 2022). The

educational results will be evaluated via interviews of

users during the last year of the project.

The authors of ImGame utilize experience-based

knowledge or the ‘learning by doing’ approach where

the user learns by constructing knowledge while

doing a meaningful activity (Mortara et al., 2014) so

that a player is considered “as an active transformer

and not as a passive contemplator” (Marxen, 2009).

For best results, exploration as well as a social context

in terms of interaction between learners is

encouraged. Hence, the ImGame project will

eventually guide users to take part in the playful

environment and create some artifacts using virtual

creative tools unlocked by quizzes and challenges that

help one denote the basic features of immersiveness.

The explorative nature of the game is expected to

motivate users to spend time examining the virtual

exhibition space. Since all the researchers working in

the team are university teachers, the game will be

used in a classroom to ensure discussions and the

exchange of experience after the course.

The niche of serious art games dedicated to the art

styles of the 21st century has been left with almost no

attention. On a global scale, only a few games teach

contemporary art (Gintere, 2020); however, these

games do not represent the examples of immersive

aesthetics as such. The digital role-playing game

Kronos that educates on concepts of electronic music

is one of the few that are connected to contemporary

art (Rovithis et al., 2014). ImGame intends to fill this

gap and support the knowledge acquisition of art

during the last decades.

2 THE CONCEPT OF

IMMERSIVENESS AND ITS

IDEOLOGICAL PROFILE IN

CONTEMPORARY

ARTWORKS

At this stage of the project only a theoretical model of

ImGame has been created which will be empirically

tested. The project’s “knowledge discovery”

(Janševskis, Osis, 2023) will be built on a qualitative

research basis, using deep semi-structured interviews

of users to assess the educational results and develop

the game following the obtained data during the

testing and interviews. Qualitative data are planned to

be collected at Ionian University (Greece), Latvian

Academy of Music and other institutions of

education.

This paper describes the main concept and

ideological framework of ImGame, which has served

as the basis for its design. The game is focused on the

psychological feeling of immersiveness that has been

defined by the authors as a twofold phenomenon

encompassing:

- a meditative yet rational reflection,

- ‘disappearing’ into the aesthetic object

(affective, timeless contemplation of an

artwork).

These aspects cannot be separated as in most cases

they come as an ensemble or a shifting between the

two. Musicologist Veit Erlmann (2010) has precisely

described this mental state where the subject’s mind

balances between distanced, deliberate watching or

listening and momentary self-forgetfulness. This

particular twofold characteristic of immersiveness

also appears in works by the theoreticians Harri

Mäcklin (2021) and Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihályi

(1996). They note that even when the subject is

‘floating’ in the aesthetic experience and identifies

oneself with the artistic material such as music,

literary work or film, the subject can still be reflecting

on this experience. Hence, immersiveness can be

called an altered mode of the subject’s mental

involvement that marries a rational self-awareness

with a dream-like condition.

The experience of immersiveness will be

represented in the game by artworks created by the

young artists (described below). The theoretical

context will be demonstrated with the help of Greek

myths about Narcissus and Medusa, as well as the

Kantian concept of sublime in order to briefly explain

the feeling of awe, captivation, flow and other

keywords related to contemporary aesthetics of

immersiveness.

2.1 Technical Aspects of ImGame

The idea of ImGame is based on a post-doctoral

project at the Vidzeme University of Applied

Sciences in Latvia. The demo version of the game

entitled Art Space (Gintere et al., 2021) was created

in the frames of the post-doctoral project led by

ImGame: An Immersive Educational Environment to Teach Contemporary Art

339

researcher Ieva Gintere. It is a demo version of an

educational virtual space with gaming elements that

transfers knowledge about contemporary aesthetics to

a wider public and teaches the audience about modern

digital audio-visual stylistics. Technically, Art Space

was made using the Unity game engine which

requires a gaming PC to run. ImGame is stylistically

and educationally a continuation from Art Space.

ImGame is a web-based game currently under

development using the A-Frame framework which

simplifies the game development as it uses the ECS

(entity-component-system) architecture. A notable

feature of A-Frame is its implementation of the

WebXR API (Application Programming Interface),

enabling virtual reality experiences to run through

supported web browsers. ImGame can run not only

on smartphones, tablets, computers, and similar

devices but also with head-mounted displays (HMDs)

(Rodríguez et al., 2021).

Interaction in ImGame is achieved through point-

and-click or touch, depending on the device. It is

facilitated by a custom component called trigger.js,

designed specifically to activate animations on 3D

objects and manage loading and unloading content.

As A-Frame is taught in the Art Academy of Latvia

across multiple study programs, ImGame

components have been developed with user-friendly

usability in mind.

ImGame comprises three stages (figure 1)

arranged linearly, facilitating quick navigation from

one end to another when all stages are unlocked. The

first stage, Antecedents visualizes concepts in an

abstract manner (figure 2), and when interacted with,

grants information and points. The second stage,

Exhibition presents the greatest technical challenges

due to the nature of digital artworks. While some

artworks like images and videos can be directly

integrated into ImGame, others require custom

components for point-cloud visualization, portals,

360 recordings, and more. In the Exhibition, tokens

and points can be collected, which are then utilized in

the final stage, the Studio (figure 3). Here, tokens and

points unlock creative tools for users to craft

expressive compositions.

Figure 1: ImGame three stages.

To preserve user compositions and progress, a

component named db.js has been developed,

managing user logins and saved game states.

Additionally, this component can be employed to

gather data, draw conclusions, and make adjustments

to game design as needed.

Figure 2: Antecedents.

Figure 3: Exhibition and Studio.

2.2 Characteristic of Immersiveness in

Latvian Recent Artworks:

Calmness and Pureness

There is a visible tendency among the Latvian new

media artists to demonstrate a calm, meditative state

of mind. It is often linked to reflection about ecology

that encompasses an eco-psychology, as it might be

called, or pureness of mind. The mood of deep

thought in these works mirrors the ecological

approach; the mind as an ecosystem needs to be taken

care of to avoid negative influences or an overload of

information. A promenade in these virtual landscapes

can be sometimes treated as an allusion to wandering

in one’s soul or subconsciousness to maintain its

spiritual qualities. The works are conceptually close

to Cory Arcangel’s popular video installation “Super

Mario Clouds” (2002) which is a modification of the

game “Super Mario Brothers” (1985). Arcangel has

hacked the original game and erased all the sound and

visual elements such as Super Mario’s jumping and

running through a labyrinth, leaving just the pixelated

white clouds that slowly move over the blue sky

(Iantorno, 2023). Thus, the author has turned the

game into an abstraction with lots of space for a deep

reflection, using the symbols of sky and clouds as

icons of thoughtfulness and purity. Latvian new

media artworks of the 21st century are not so radical,

yet they demonstrate, as Arcangel does, an inclination

to get rid of the unnecessary activity, creating a mood

of reverie and a reference to nature.

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2.2.1 “Peace on Web” and “Atmospheric

Forest”

The WebXR experience “Peace on Web” by Alvis

Misjuns (2022) is a virtual place for the user wishing

to be alone and skip influencers, ads, purchases and

competitive activities characteristic of the modern

web. The environment is created as a sandy terrain

landscape with a calm sun, distant water and

meditative sound. A holy water container has been

added to the work in the exhibition hall to represent

the spiritual idea of the work in the analogue space. In

order not to disturb the peace and the serene passing

of time, each user is provided with an avatar that

harmoniously fits into the environment, for example,

a branch or a rock. Verbal and text communication is

unavailable. Thus, the work’s atmosphere is

meditative, and its message is eco-psychological at

the same time: it proposes an alternative, purified

environment that helps keep stress away from our

digital activities and maintain mental well-being.

“Peace on Web” was created in reaction to the

attempts by such companies as “Meta”, “Microsoft”,

“Nvidia”, and “Google” to create a metaverse – a

wide-reaching 3D virtual world that combines

various communication platforms, industries and

payment systems. Some features of the metaverse are

used on popular platforms, such as “Roblox”,

“Minecraft”, and “Fortnite” where the players are

made to compete with each other in order to survive.

Although the “Atmospheric Forest” (2020) by

Rasa Šmite and Raitis Šmits is focused on a forest as

an ecosystem, it is a meditative environment at the

same time as it evokes slow reflection and a

contemplative mood in the user. It provides an

immersive experience by visualizing the complex

relations between forest and climate change. Trees

emit large amounts of volatile organic compounds

that we can sense as the scent of the pine forest, yet

some scientists believe that these emissions could

make global warming worse. “Atmospheric Forest”

creates visual data of volatile emissions and resin

pressure in pine trees. The viewer can navigate

through the emitting trees of virtual forest, observe it

from the bottom up, and follow the path through the

tree trunk to get far up above the emitting forest,

experiencing the interactions between the terrestrial

ecosystems and the Earth’s atmosphere.

2.2.2 Other Examples of Meditation and

Ecology of Mind

“Imagination” by Paula Ostupe-Dejus (2022)

contains over 300 unique illustrations of nature and

imagination created by the artist: aliens, plants,

animals, characters, and mushrooms. She uses

cascades of images, creating depth in the 3D space to

achieve the feeling that the scene is revealed through

exploring. The work offers a promenade in wonderful

scenery that can help unburden one’s mind.

“Imagination” can be interpreted as an attempt to

escape from reality to a certain degree as it

demonstrates an idealistic, uncontaminated world.

Another ecosystemic immersive work by Ostupe-

Dejus is Solution (2018) that reflects the problem of

air pollution. It is a VR projection of a futuristic,

hermetically sealed space where oxygen is being

produced artificially to solve the problem of air

pollution. This environment, much like

“Imagination”, is a subtle invitation to take a deep

breath and feel isolated for a moment from the harsh

reality outside.

“Transfungus” by Gints Gabrāns offers a

meditative experience of mushrooms. Visitors to the

exhibition can learn about the nature of mushrooms

with the help of AI generated images and responses

from their own body. As the artist points out, “self-

exploration of a mushroom/human is infinite”

because the versions of AI human-mushroom images

are not limited. Mushrooms are the embodiment of

divine thoughts, he affirms, as they reveal a variety of

beauty and peace. “What cannot be talked about can

only be enjoyed,” says Gabrāns. “The project reveals

the mushrooms’ adventures with the human

exobody” (Arterritory, 2023) as well as

demonstrating the integration of humans into the

ecosystem of forests and the wonders of nature.

In Zane Zelmene’s “Guide to Invisible

Landscapes” (2022), one walks in a space of magic

orbs using the HM headset and enters different dream

worlds (they are made on the basis of the artist’s own

lucid dreams). The orbs are parallel realities, each

with its own, calm character. The artist invites the

user to dive into meditative spaces and explore the

sophisticated visions of these virtual areas. The user

is invited to meditate on the view, yet the work

belongs to the category of ecosystems as well because

it tends to initiate psychological refinements through

a peaceful wandering in the microcosmos created by

the artist.

Rute Marta Jansone (2020) has created a

contemplative VR environment “Insight” that recalls

the famous board game “Circus”. Here, by using the

touchpad, the user is invited to illuminate the images

and reveal what is hidden under their surface. The

particular field that is illuminated transforms and

demonstrates the inner nature of situations as well as

triggers the associative mind of the viewer. The user

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sees the characters in different dispositions as if

explaining their secret meaning. The narrative is

formed following the user’s subjective interpretation

and individual impressions. “Insight” falls under the

category of mental ecosystem in a broad meaning as

it intends to manifest our personal understanding of

situations, to show things as we see them unrelated to

social standards, and moral norms. The work is

contemplative and thoughtful, too, as the user is

offered the opportunity to dive into one’s own

reflection to seek explanations of the situations.

2.3 Characteristic of Immersiveness in

Hungary

Many Hungarian immersive artworks aim to provide

a sense of a system that can immerse viewers in two

ways. These artworks either challenge the viewers

with an immersive meta-level type of reflection on

how data abundance can mesmerize us, or by

addressing our sense of empathy by putting the

viewer into the middle of the ecosystem that can

sensitize them regarding social issues or phenomena.

The artworks use various types of techniques, but

many of them rely on generative AI algorithms.

2.3.1 Awe by Data Structures

The data visualizations “150 Years of Nature” crafted

by the Barabási Lab, were featured on the cover of the

National Geographic (Barabási, 2019) and presented

at the “Hidden Patterns” exhibition at ZKM Gallery

in 2021 to provide a distinctive opportunity for

recipients to reflect on the intricacies of data and its

societal connections. Viewing data visualization

becomes a contemplative practice, requiring time and

effort to unravel and comprehend extensive

information. This process enables individuals to

engage in introspection. Moreover, the visualizations

create a unique convergence of science

communication and its artistic implications. This

interdisciplinary perspective can create a certain awe

that enables the viewer to have the sense of

meditation.

Máté Előd Jánky’s works are intricately tied to

virtual experiences, predominantly utilizing digital

media and internet footage to convey ambiguous

emotions within bustling yet delicate realms,

spanning both auditory and visual domains. His

creations resemble pages extracted from a coded

diary, visually delving into the development of

personal symbolism and mythology while exploring

diverse psychological concepts. His images serve as

mind maps or visual depictions of thought patterns,

saturated with self-reflection through shapes,

textures, and narratives. In the realm of sound, he

explores improvisation, textural thinking,

eclecticism, and the frontiers of music. His work “The

Dream of Love” (Előd Jánky, 2020) epitomizes the

meditative states that virtual communities can

provide to users. The meditative, sometimes self-

destructive messages offer viewers a moment for

contemplation on how continuous online aesthetics

influence our perception of reality.

Kati Katona’s work offers a reinterpretation of

nature’s rule-based systems and prompts viewers to

contemplate the concept of predestination. The

interactive video installation “Submerge” (Katona,

2022) utilizes motion graphics to immerse users in a

state of fusion with the environment. Her artistic

focus centers on generative, procedural, and 3D

animation. Inspired by nature’s elements, biomorphic

structures, and natural algorithms, this project aims to

deliver the viewer into nature artificially drawing

attention to the granularity of it.

2.3.2 Ecosystem as a Tool for Social

Imagineering

Judit Navratil’s “Szívküldi Lakótelep” (2021-)

incorporates the experience of her temporary

relocation to a small Canadian island, where she

resided in a friend’s enchanting boathouse. Life on

Salt Spring Island presented a unique experience,

surrounded by the silence and rhythm of nature in a

challenging landscape for her video “Long Distance

Somersaults”. Inspired by this, she chose to chart the

various sections of the VR Neighborhood by

somersaulting through its virtual realms. To unify the

different facets of Szívküldi Lakótelep, Navratil

intertwined the practice of “Long-Distance

Somersaults” into these realms, forming the

foundational structure of the project.

Her work is categorized as an ecosystem,

representing a cyberspace where individuals are

invited to engage. These gatherings serve as

consciousness-shaping events, encouraging

participants to confront anxieties and reconsider their

physical and psychological conditions – a

manifestation of a pure and eco-centric approach on a

broader scale (Navratil, 2018).

KirstófLab’s (Kristóf Szabó) “Wrong Data

Landscape” (Szabó, 2023) explores the dynamic

between nature and a constructed environment,

juxtaposing the static nature of human-inhabited

structures with the organic movements of the natural

world. This contrast is visually evident in the video,

where the gradual, rhythmic undulations of the

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earth’s grains harmonize with the frozen stillness of

the buildings. The visual error within the image

serves as a symbolic reference to human presence,

suggesting that this error is a consequence of human

intervention.

The installation “Limbo” by Gábor Kitzinger and

his team (Kitzinger et al., 2020) unveils the

perpetually repeating life cycle of a digitally

generated entity. The simulation, captured by four

cameras within the program’s virtual space, is then

displayed within a precise plexiglas pyramid or

frustum. The holographic animation depicts a bust,

allowing us to witness the entity’s accelerated life

cycle from the zygote state to death and onward to

Limbo, where the entire cycle recommences, trapping

the entity in an unending repetitive loop. The audio

material controls the character, yet the viewers can

also interact with it through simple gestures that

modify accompanying soundwaves. These gestures

serve as stimuli, disrupting and altering the entity’s

repetitive reality, introducing uncertain events into its

cyclical existence.

The artwork presents an abstract and ambiguous

representation of life as an ecosystem. Life, with all

its living components, forms a living ecosystem with

a rhythm dictated by biological elements. The

ecosystem is biologically conditioned, but it also

demonstrates how our actions have consequences on

our life. In Limbo, the user is shown how the

consequences of individual acts can manifest in

changes of the desired rhythm. The work offers a

possibility to change, this way manipulating the

lifecycle of an individual. It demonstrates our ability

to affect the biological lifecycle, illustrating how

human gestures and our assumed agency can become

integrated into the system.

2.4 Characteristic of Immersiveness in

Greece: Escapism and Organicity

Escapism seems to be the underlying fabric in the

works of the Greek artists that were examined by the

researchers. Possibly rooted in the economic crisis

experienced in the last decade and still lurking today,

there is a visible tendency to distort reality, not in the

sense of “disrupting the message” through techniques

of deformation or under-representation, but rather by

changing its generic parameters to present an

alternate version, a different but still plausible

universe. Economic recession coupled with political

turbulence and social insecurity, has produced a sense

that the cards can easily be reshuffled, and the dice re-

rolled instantly by fate into a dystopian future. The

artworks reflecting these considerations do not

embrace panic, nor do they wish to warn by being

repulsive; instead, they invite the audience into

convincing possibilities, as manifested by the

interdependencies that govern their elements.

Fictional worlds are held together by their organic

environments, yet the tweaking of selected details can

lead to major deviations, where anything is possible.

In the Greek artists’ attempts to virtually construct

such immersive “living and breathing” systems, two

perspectives are salient: the one aims to challenge the

perception of reality and leave the spectator in awe

before the implications of an unknown fictional

world, whereas the other focuses on organic

autonomy per se aiming to turn the audience towards

themselves in an inward contemplation of the

individual’s complexity, and one’s fluid and fragile

place in the cosmos.

2.4.1 Parallel Ecosystems

Anestis Anestis’ “Love Distortion Field” (Anestis,

2021) features a snapshot of a humid urban

environment, an empty dark alley illuminated by a

neon sign. In the middle of the picture lies a black

hole, dark and mysterious, with its corona blending

into the neon light in hues of red. Yet, the distortion

seems to fit in the picture like a normal, everyday

occurrence. In fact, this and all other instances of the

artist’s collection “Night Encounters” follow the

same pattern: urban landscapes with “naturally”

embedded cosmic phenomena blending into a new,

coherent reality.

In her VR exhibition “Uh everything looks so

fresh – Oh everything is so rotten!” (2020) Eva

Papamargariti invites the audience to roam around a

series of CGI (Computer Generated Image) rooms

populated by hybrid, ominous creatures, comprising

an audio-visual world beyond the boundaries of space

and time. In these extraordinary landscapes with

inhabitants behaving absurdly, natural shapes are

highlighted with intense colors and shining textures,

and gestures that obey natural physics yet become

entangled in repetitive loops. As the artist herself has

stated, biological systems set the example for other

systems’ functions. In her work, the micro and macro

characteristics of ecosystems act as guides for cycles

of generation and development (Papamargariti,

2020).

In his video work “Ichographs II – Absentia”

(2021) Yannis Kranidiotis disrupts classical paintings

through modern, digital ways of abstraction by letting

human figures decompose themselves into a fluid

stream of pixels until they reach the state of

nonexistence. Detached from their core elements, the

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depicted ecosystems are now seen through a different,

holistic prism, where the notion of emptiness gains its

own substance. In the fused reality of stability and

flux, a dialog between the old and the new, the viewer

is guided to contemplate the process of change

(Kranidiotis, 2021).

Thomas Valianatos uses AI generated imagery to

reinvent the city of Athens in the work “Athens, the

present that did not exist” (2023). In a fictional

timeframe that is neither present nor future, people in

public spaces are represented as entities in a constant

change of state between human and robotic elements,

whereas buildings and streets claim their space on the

verge between familiarity and unrecognizability as a

way to escape from the present to a world of

possibilities (Valianatos, 2023).

2.4.2 Meditative Organisms

In her interactive virtual installation “Where do I

exist?” (2021) Sousana Romanidou explores the

boundaries between virtual and physical ecosystems,

and wonders about the role of human interaction in

that bipole. Her work is a collection of virtual rooms

that can only be changed via user input of a specific

hashtag. A symbol of communication becomes the

only variable able to transform an otherwise closed

system. Besides intervening from the outside, users

can also examine themselves in the virtual space

through a camera, which invites them to reflect upon

their place. The conceptual focus is shifted from the

environmental rules governing the organisms of the

ecosystem to the organisms themselves (Romanidou,

2021).

“Not Allowed for Algorithmic Audiences” (2021)

is a video installation of seven monologues narrated

in seven consecutive days by a virtual entity. The

artist, Kyriaki Goni, investigates the relationship

between humans and machines by letting a symbol

for Artificial Intelligence borrow a human form and

reveal information about their programming,

infrastructure, and even share tips on how humans

and machines can be reconciled. The work’s post-

anthropocentric approach implies a paradigm shift in

societal equilibrium, in which new balances must be

sought through reflection and contemplation (Goni,

2021).

Pandelis Diamantides’ generative audiovisual

artwork “Pulse” (2022) uses data from the artist’s

own heartbeat and breath coupled with data from the

crowd’s movement around a social point of interest to

drive its software. The artist fuses three metaphorical

axes, the emotional, the physical, and the social, into

one organic entity, whose body is placed in the

middle of a dark vacuum, and whose function reflects

the need for inward exploration (Diamantides, 2022).

3 CONCLUSIONS

A study of digital artworks from the beginning of the

21st century has been conducted in the three partner

states of the ImGame project – Latvia, Hungary and

Greece with the aim to include the works in a digital

game about contemporary art, support their

international circulation and disseminate knowledge

about the most visible characteristics of art today.

A certain bipolarism can be observed in the

structure of the overlooked artistic concepts; they

often refer to a gap between the ecosystem (a pure,

organic place in various interpretations) and the other

which can be the polluted environment or a virtual

platform which is considered a world of new

possibilities. The notion of ecosystem is also

frequently linked to a mediation state as the user is

invited to contemplate the calm atmosphere of the

ecosystem and its beauty, or adaption possibilities to

the new technological reality. Thus, the trends of

meditation and ecosystems are often related.

There is a visible tendency in Latvian new media

art to reflect upon a clean, uncontaminated world. The

concepts are sometimes utopian, escapist, and

introverted. An ecosystem is a territory of peace and

mental purity which helps to maintain a psychological

balance between the stressful reality and sometimes

idealistic or even hallucinatory scenes of art. The

notion of ecosystem has been used in the classical

sense i.e. related to nature preservation, but it is also

a place for a search of freedom and true, individual

consciousness.

In Hungary, the artists using new technologies

including generative AI often aim to immerse the

viewers by relying on a meditative state that these

data visualization types of artworks can represent.

Other works aim to approach the concept of

ecosystem in unconventional ways, for instance, to

create new fictional worlds. Digital technologies

offer them an opportunity to represent their views on

contemporary society on a micro- as well as on a

macro level in an immersive manner.

The notion of ecosystem is vivid also in the works

of Greek artists. The ecosystem behaves as a whole,

its elements are interconnected, its parts united in an

organic whole. Greek artists seek a refuge outside of

time, yet the structured laws of the ecosystem are still

needed to ensure stability. Physicality is sought in

streams of data, familiarity in exotic imagery, and

cause and effect in novel interaction. The Greek

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artworks prompt the audience to immerse and search

inward for a natural equilibrium in changing times.

The ideas of these artists have been collected and

analyzed by the project authors to promote digital art

created recently and demonstrate the common

concepts in these works. They will be assembled in a

digital environment entitled ImGame to demonstrate

the psychological feeling of immersiveness in digital

art in relation to the mood of meditation and

ecosystemic awareness.

ImGame belongs to the narrow niche of serious

art games as it offers educational content and a

journey into new art. The project intends to expand

the industry of gaming in general and improve

competitiveness in the specific field of artistic

gaming. The project aims as well to support the

creative activities of artists in the 21

century and to

improve access to their works, thus safeguarding

them in the modern, rapidly changing world where

the works are at risk of being lost without

documentation in the huge number of fleeting

experimental

artifacts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The creative research project “ImGame – An

Innovative Digital Environment Based on Research

with Elements of Immersive Aesthetics and Serious

Gaming” (2022-2025) No. 101054570 was funded by

the European Union and co-funded by the Latvian

Ministry of Culture in frames of the program

“Creative Europe”. Many thanks to Mr. Wayne

Chislett for his kind support and copy/line editing.

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