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360 GRADI Magazine is the trendy, elegant, refined, and sophisticated publishing about Second Life (the virtual world by Linden Lab).
Out every two months.
360 GRADI
Magazine
ARTISTA
CHERRY MANGA
Cherry Manga is a well-known artist in
the virtual world of SL.
She creates works that have an
extraordinary visual and emotional.
SADYCAT LITTLEPAWS:
THE VERSATILE STYLE
OF A SUCCESSFUL
BLOGGER
P hotography
NEUROESTHETICS: BRAIN,
EMPATHY AND EXPERIENCE
OF BEAUTY
Second Life VALENTINA E.
Why do images attract the viewer so
much? One of the main activities in
SL is the photographer: have we ever
wondered what attracts us most to
photographs?
A dress store with an unmistakable
style, which is characterized by class,
elegance and originality. We know
Valentina in this exclusive interview.
360 GRADI
JANUARY FEBRUARY 2021 - N. 3
1
CONTENT
18
Why
NEUROAESTHETICS:
BRAIN, EMPATHY
AND EXPERIENCE OF
BEAUTY
do images attract
the viewer so much? One
of the main activities in
SL is the photographer:
have we ever wondered
what attracts us most to
photographs?
54
A
HAZELNUT’S
KINGDOM
refined location,
with Mediterranean
style and vintage
French-style
buildings. There are
many activities to
entertain the visitor.
74
A
SLICE OF
HEAVEN
charming winter
destination that
will soon change to
its spring version.
Let’s get to know it
through the eyes of
Serena Amato.
92
Cherry
CHERRY
MANGA
Manga is a
well-known artist
in the virtual world
of SL. She creates
works that have
an extraordinary
visual and emotional
impact.
126
An
DORIAN KASH
important male
voice in the Italian
music scene. An
artist that makes
the musical evening
a success in every
occasion.
142
Style,
VALENTINA E.
class, originality
are just some of
the characteristics
of Valentina E., a
brand that shines in
the scenario of the
fashion world of SL.
160 A
SADYCAT
LITTLEPAWS
successful
photographer,
blogger and blogger
manager, SadyCat
has a versatile style
that can adapt to the
many demands of
the fashion world.
172
Spectacular
CHOSEN ON
FLICKR
images
found on Flickr.
Let’s explore new
artists.
360 GRADI MAGAZINE is the magazine that covers Second Life at 360°. Destinations, Art, Music, Fashion, Photography, Furniture and Decoration
all in one bimonthly magazine. You can read the magazine on the web, visiting our YUMPU page.
2 360 GRADI
Welcome to issue #3 of 360 GRADI MAGAZINE.
92 126 160
CHERRY MANGA
DORIAN KASH
SADYCAT
LITTLEPAWS
An artist capable of
creating works that have
an extraordinary visual
and emotional impact.
An important musical
artist and reference in the
Italian music scene.
A successful
photographer, blogger
and blogger manager, she
features a versatile style.
WELCOME
Welcome to issue 3 of the magazine.
In this third issue, 360GRADI introduces
Serena Amato, an occasional contributor
to the “destinations” section who allows
us to explore Luane’s World through her
eyes.
We’ll get to know Dorian Kash, an
important musical artist on the Italian
scene.
We will explore the art of Cherry Manga
capable of arousing great emotional and
visual impact.
For the area related to the human mind,
which is of great interest, Degoya will
talk to us about how the mind reacts to
beauty and images.
Finally we will meet in person Valentina
Evangelista, one of the finest designers
in Second Life.
I invite you to be an active part, telling
us your impressions and/or ideas/
suggestions.
Enjoy reading!
360 GRADI
3
TEAM
LADMILLA VAN MISOINDITE
SERENA
HEAD OF ART
COLUMN
HEAD OF MUSIC
COLUMN
HEAD OF
FASHION
COLUMN
ASSISTANT
DESTINATIONS
COLUMN
Artist and Owner of
THE EDGE Gallery.
Dj , Designer AND
Architect Planning.
Model and Fashion
Event Manager.
Occasional
contributor to
destinations.
4 360 GRADI
JARLA
VIOLET
DEGOYA
HEAD OF
PHOTOGRAPHY
COLUMN
Photographer.
HEAD OF
MARKETING
COLUMN
Social Media
Marketing expert.
HEAD OF BRAIN, MIND
AND VIRTUAL REALITY
COLUMN
Psychiatrist.
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5
EDITOR NOTES
We have reached the third issue of 360GRADI Magazine.
The first novelty
I would like to
introduce is the entry
into the team, albeit
occasionally, of Serena
Domenici. This is an
exciting collaboration
because Serena loves
to write, and she does
it with passion. I hope
she will decide to be
a permanent part of
the team, giving the
magazine a significant
added value in the
“destinations” sector.
The first novelty I would like to introduce is the entry into the
team, albeit occasionally, of Serena Domenici. This is an exciting
collaboration because Serena loves to write, and she does it
with passion. I hope she will decide to be a permanent part of
the team, giving the magazine a significant added value in the
“destinations” sector.
The “brain, mind, and virtual reality” column has a huge success,
thanks to Degoya Galthie’s professionalism. I’m getting a lot of
positive feedback, and I’m delighted.
In this issue, we will talk about the artistic side of Cherry Manga,
a very well known artist in the Second Life scenario. Her
extraordinariness is her ability to stir emotions and have a strong
visual impact. In this issue, we will have the chance to get to know
her better.
On the musical front, Dorian Kash is the protagonist of this issue.
A well-known Italian artist, each of his evenings is a moment of
relaxation for the audience and a successful Dorian performance.
On the fashion front, we delve into the knowledge of Valentina
E., a brand appreciated and known for its originality and quality.
I enjoyed personally interviewing Valentina Evangelista, who
promptly answered questions while also giving valuable
suggestions to all those who wish to pursue a career as a fashion
designer.
Jarla interviewed SadyCat Littlepaws, a highly regarded
photographer, blogger, and blogger manager on the
photographic front. It’s an opportunity to understand more
about photography and how the world of bloggers and their
recruitment works.
In wishing you a good reading, I always invite you to collaborate: if
we manage to improve, it’s also thanks to readers’ suggestions.
See you at the next issue.
WELCOME
360GRADI is an interactive magazine
available on YUMPU. Pick up your
copy of the kiosk at the newsroom.
6 360 GRADI
Emotion is the clearest evidence
that something has affected us
deeply. All the talents we talk
about in this issue reach our hearts.
- Oema
360 GRADI
7
ART PROMOTION ON FACEBOOK
8 360 GRADI
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9
VIOLET BOA
My responsibilities include planning, implementing, and managing PR
strategies and organizing and managing various PR activities.
I use different channels to optimize the outreach and success of a
campaign, with a customer-oriented focus and assured delivery that I
represent unequivocally. I carry out the interests, wishes, needs, and
expectations of my clients.
Violet Boa,
MARKETING
Head Column
A natural part of my work involves arranging interviews and
coordination, researching and collecting opportunities for
partnerships, establishing and maintaining relationships with
journalists, influencers, and bloggers, and supporting the team
members of my client in communicating and running a campaign.
Through years of experience with social media management, which
always requires excellent communication, presentation, leadership
skills, and excellent organizational and time management skills, I
have become self-critical and am still interested in new impulses.
Learning, be it self-directed or through knowledge of apt sources, is
part of the daily process.
Observations and reflections (self-reflection) of the external and
internal situations give me the chance to recognize problems and
change them positively.
I am a positive but also critical thinker and analytical problem solver
who - with a lot of empathy - accepts conflicting interests, personal
(in) tolerance, and others’ opinions. I am very adaptable and willing
to compromise to get positive alternatives that make everyone happy
and lead to the desired success.
My top ten topics of interest are fine art, photography, design, digital
art, music, performing arts, literature, science, mindfulness, and a
positive attitude.
I feel very honored and proud of the trust that Oema has placed in
me and invited me in my role as PR to act for magazines from the first
publication of their classy, stylish and elegant 360 GRADI Magazine.
We have an exciting and excellent task ahead of us, and I am looking
forward to it!
Violet
10 360 GRADI
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11
LUNDY ART GALLERY
LUNDY ART GALLERY IS A CREATION OF LEE1 OLSEN AND PERIODICALLY
FEATURES NEW ARTISTS.
THE GALLERY BOASTS A VERY LARGE EXHIBITION SPACE, ALLOWING THE
VISITOR TO APPRECIATE NUMEROUS WORKS OF ART.
12 360 GRADI
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Moya Patrick
Etamae
Ilyra Chardin
Adwehe
ZackHermann
Sandi Benelli
Jessamine2108
Steele Wilder
Adelina Lawrence
Magda Schmidtzau
Jos (mojosb5c)
TELEPORT TO LUNDY ART GALLERY
360 GRADI
13
CAMP ITALIA
CAMP ITALIA, EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ONE DESTINATION.
COME VISIT US!
Camp Italia is an educational sim in Italian language with an international vocation, where
you can find a warm welcome, artistic and musical events, many lessons to learn how to use
Second Life and breathtaking landscapes for a wonderful experience of your SL.
Visit Camp Italia & Enjoy!
Slurl
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Camp%20Italia/127/64/23
Official Website
https://campitaliasecondlife.org
14 360 GRADI
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15
DEGOYA GALTHIE
Since the beginning of his appearance in the world, man has tried to
represent and tell his experience with different tools such as drawing,
photography, and cinema; at the base of this incessant search is
the desire to describe one’s inner world with ever greater levels of
fidelity. In our post-modern society, the most advanced frontier of
this research is represented by virtual reality. This technology allows
us to “immerse ourselves” in a computer-generated environment, in
which it is possible to move and interact as in reality.
Degoya Galthie,
Head Column
BRAIN, MIND AND
VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual reality has numerous applications ranging in different fields
and represents an advanced communication interface that allows
people to interact naturally at a distance. It is now a technology
growing in popularity in the entertainment industry, where it finds
applications and the video game sector, cinematography, theme parks,
and museums. Social networks, e-commerce, education, sport are just
some of the many areas that virtual worlds promise to revolutionize.
In the medical field, virtual reality is demonstrating excellent
potential with applications in neuroscience and psychotherapy.
In light of these premises, the goal I set myself in this section of the
magazine is to tell the “virtual revolution” through a perspective
that highlights the transformative impact of this technology on
the brain and human experience. In particular, I will investigate the
effects of virtual experiences on one’s real-world and highlight the
opportunities that virtual technologies can offer, and highlight the
potential risks they imply through a survey of the most advanced
research in psychology and neuroscientific field. Finally, I will try
to explain how simulation technologies are changing how people
communicate and interact, analyzing the opportunities and challenges
implied by the emergence of virtual worlds.
Degoya
16 360 GRADI
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17
NEUROESTE
THE BRAIN, EMPATHY AN
OF BEAUTY
Written by DEGOYA GALTHIE.
Images by JARLA CAPALINI.
18 360 GRADI
TICS
D THE EXPERIENCE
Why do we like images so much? What effects
do they have on our minds? Let’s delve into this
fascinating topic.
360 GRADI
19
NEUROESTETICS
THE BRAIN, EMPATHY AND THE
EXPERIENCE OF BEAUTY
If cognitive neuroscience studies human cognition and mind, what is so uniquely
human as the obsession to create images? On the one hand, the obsession with
creating images, and on the other hand, the power these images exert on the
viewer.
The words that make up the title of
this article: art, empathy, aesthetic
experience and neuroscience, that is
the study of the brain, constitute topics
that in the space available I will not
be able to deal with in a serious and
exhaustive way. First of all, I will try to
explain the fact that a neuroscientist
applies his research methodology to
fields that, traditionally and apparently,
seem so distant; especially in the
last 70 years the field of science has
been considered other than that
of aesthetics and art. The human
sciences and cognitive neuroscience,
however, share a fundamental object
of investigation: understanding what
makes us human. Obviously, they do
it with very different approaches and
with different description languages.
If cognitive neuroscience studies
cognition and the human mind, what is
so uniquely human as the obsession
with creating images? On the one hand
the obsession with creating images
and on the other the power that these
images exert on the viewer. Within
these topics that will often recur in
the course of my exhibition, I decided
to start from a theme that I consider
central to approaching the question
of aesthetic experience: why we like
images and what we feel in front of an
image, especially when this image was
created by man.
To this end, I believe it is
essential to deal with the
theme of empathy; empathy
is a terribly complicated
concept with numerous
synonyms (identification,
emotional contagion, perspective
20 360 GRADI
Why do we like
the images so
much?
taking, theory of mind)
or presumed so. These
concepts are used by
many scholars in an
interchangeable way,
mistakenly when they
confuse empathy with
the theory of mind, that
is, with a cognitively very
sophisticated way of
entering the other’s
mind and taking its
perspective. There are
those who have felt the
need to talk about a
cognitive empathy to be
distinguished from true
empathy and there are
those who confuse
empathy with sympathy.
A simplistic way that
helps us clear the ground
from misunderstandings
could be this definition:
empathy means feeling
with the other, while
sympathy means feeling
for the other. So, it’s hard
to sympathize with
someone without being
able to feel empathy, but
the reverse isn’t
necessarily true; we can
empathize with the other
without passing through
the hall of the brain to
sympathize with or even
to help. There is a dark
side to empathy, even a
torturer and a sadist must
be empathic if they want
to do their job well; if I
serve someone, I have to
understand where he
hurts the most. Somehow,
I have to put myself in his
shoes imaginatively and
360 GRADI
21
emotionally to get the worst effect of
the intervention I am applying to him, as
often happens in confessions extracted
with torture.
In starting from the term empathy,
obviously I am not referring to the
classical empathy of the Greeks, but to
the term that was born and developed
in Germany at the end of the nineteenth
century within an aesthetic debate.
The discussion was about what makes
the difference when I confront a work
of art: is it the formal characteristics of
the painting, sculpture or fresco that
make the difference or is it what that
particular object makes me feel, the
ability of that object to evoke something
in me as I look at it.
Within this comparison, the
German philosopher Robert
Vischer published a small
book, destined to exert an enormous
influence on the aesthetic debate in the
decades to come, entitled: On the
Optical Sentiment of Form (Über das
optische Formgefühl, 1873). The author
makes his contribution to aesthetics by
emphasizing the centrality of Einfühlung
that we translate empathy (Einfühlung
literally means to feel inside,
identification); this is a quote from his
book: “I move into the inner essence of
the object I contemplate (the object is a
work of art) and explore its formal
characteristics, so to speak, from the
inside”. This type of transposition can
take a motor or sensorial form even in
the case of lifeless and immobile forms,
in practice when I put myself in front of
a painting some of the characteristics
of those images are such as to arouse
in me an empathic reaction; a reaction
that most of the time is only internal
and that in certain situations can
surface on the surface of my body with
behaviors and attitudes that we will
see.
In this work Vischer distinguishes the
mere perceptual process of seeing
from the pragmatically active one of
looking. According to Vischer, the
aesthetic use of images, in general, and
of the work of art, in particular, implies
an empathic involvement that would
appear in a whole series of physical
reactions in the observer’s body.
Particular forms observed would
arouse reactive emotions, depending
on their conformity to the design and
function of the body muscles.
According to Vischer, the symbolic
form, far from being pure as Kantian is
transcendental, derives its nature in
the first instance from its
anthropomorphic content; it is through
the unconscious projection of the
image on one’s body that the observer
is able to establish an aesthetic
relationship between himself and the
image. A few years later this same logic
of Einfühlung, thanks to Lipps, will be
transferred to the domain of the
psychology of interpersonal relations,
exerting a considerable influence on
Freud as well. Vischer’s work exerted a
great influence, among others, on two
very important figures in the history of
art: the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand
and the art historian Aby Warburg.
22 360 GRADI
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23
The theme of
empathy was at the
center of Edith
Stein’s doctoral thesis, a student of
Edmund Husserl, German philosopher
and founder of Phenomenology; Stein
made some statements in this thesis
that I could not fail to subscribe with
enthusiasm. She was a Christian nun,
German philosopher and mystic of the
Discalced Carmelite Order, victim of the
Shoah. She of Jewish origin, she
converted to Catholicism after a period
of atheism that lasted from
adolescence. She was arrested in the
Netherlands by the Nazis and locked up
in the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp where she,
together with her sister Rosa, was
murdered in 1942. In 1998 Pope John
Paul II proclaimed her saint and the
following year he declared her
patroness of Europe. When
phenomenologists speak of the human
body, they make a distinction, or rather
they argue that this body has a dual
nature. We have a physical body made
of bone and flesh that has weight and
occupies space; if we look at our body
from this point of view,
phenomenologists call it Körper. This
Körper, however, (brain, liver, heart,
muscles, bones, joints, all organs and
our physical body structure) is at the
same time leib: it is a living body, that
is, it is the source of our experience; all
that is psychic is consciousness linked
to the leib, the living body.
Neuroscience today has the
opportunity to shed light on Leib by
questioning Körper. The point is not to
flatten the Leib on the Körper, but to
understand that the empirical
investigation conducted on the Körper
can tell us new things about the Leib.
You have often heard parallels
between the human mind and
computer software in the way in which
the ways in which certain mental
processes are believed, rightly or
wrongly, are described. Words and a
vocabulary taken from the language of
computers and artificial intelligence
are used, so many talking about the
brain say that it is a biological machine
that does things not very different from
what a processor does: it processes
information and it is possible to
refer to our mental activities such as
processing information. If it were only
this, in my opinion, it would leave
out the most relevant aspect that
describes us as human beings, namely
the domain of experience. By knowing
the world, opening ourselves to the
world, entering into a relationship with
the world, we feel something and have
an experience. One of the compasses
that has guided and continues to
guide research and my studies is the
ambition or perhaps only the illusion
of seeking the bodily origins of this so
fundamental aspect of our life, which
is experiencing something. In this
specific case, experiencing images and,
among the thousands of images we
experience every day, those particular
images that we have historically begun
to define as works of art.
24 360 GRADI
Stein argued that the notion of
empathy, hence the feeling inside
the other, should not be limited to
the mere sharing of emotions and
feelings, a partial vision that often
dominates. Stein and Husserl with her
defined empathy as something even
more fundamental than a mechanism
that allows me to understand if the
person in front of me is angry, happy,
sad, surprised or disgusted. We
experience the other, says Stein, as
another human being like us, thanks
to the perception of a relationship of
similarity. So I don’t have to reinvent
myself every time the discovery that
Mrs. Rossi or Mr. Bianchi standing in
front of me are human beings like me
at the end of a complicated path of
logical inferences; empathy is at the
basis of this detection of similarity in
otherness, it is another not me, it is
another human being like me, if this
were not the case we would enter
the domain of psychopathology. This
perception of similarity, this other
that speaks to me in a language that
is more or less familiar to me, that is
understandable to me, this creature in
which I find myself, which is not alien,
always within certain limits and with
enormous inter-individual variability,
is the product of this basic mechanism
that allows me to detect this similarity
which, I repeat, is not only a similarity
of affects, emotions and sensations
but which is global. Stein has also
specifically emphasized the domain
of action, comparing the hand of the
child, the hand of the monkey and the
hand of the elderly: even if visually
they have different dimensions,
different colors, different levels
of hirsute certainly very different
nevertheless for us they are all hands;
their characteristic of belonging to
this same semantic category derives
precisely from the common domain of
movement, of action that we recognize
regardless of age, genus or even
species.
In Germany, the character
who has ferried the
notion of empathy from a
debate totally within aesthetics to
psychology is Theodor Lipps. Theodor
Lipps is an author that Freud read
avidly, for whom he felt a great
esteem, and whom he mentioned in
many passages in his writings about
him. For example, in Inhibition
Symptom and Distress, an essay he
published in 1926, he argues that it is
only thanks to empathy that we know
the existence of a psychic life different
from ours. Therefore, empathy is the
fundamental element that allows us to
relate to the other, certainly not the
only one but, probably from an
evolutionary point of view, the much
older one and also present in animal
species that have not yet reached the
language.
Now we see how the theme of
empathy, of this direct resonance
between me and the other,
becomes a crucial aspect of my
360 GRADI
25
elationship with others; it allows us
to better understand the question of
intersubjectivity, the possibility, by
relating to the other, to recognize a
mind in the other, someone who thinks
and feels emotions, someone who if
he gets hurt will probably feel pain
like me. Let us therefore examine how
these aspects relate to the aesthetic
experience; this word, the history of
words is always very important, it
comes from the Greek aisthesis and
refers to bodily sensitivity. So, this
term has a close link with our bodily
nature. The first hypothesis I want to
discuss is this: by creative expression
I mean the ability, since the origins of
the human species, to create objects,
images, sculptures and paintings that
did not have a utilitarian purpose, for
which our ancestors did not build only
tools to kill a mammoth or skin animals
just to get the skins to build a tent.
These artifacts, these objects, these
sculptures and these paintings, which
archaeologists probably tell us were
already part of the cognitive skills of
the Neanderthals, allow us to backdate
the origin of our symbolic and artistic
expression.
The hypothesis is that this
expressiveness and this symbolic
creativity are some of the
characteristic brands and fundamental
interpretations that make us
understand who we are and what it
means to be human beings; they are
peculiarities closely intertwined with
the performativity of the body, that is,
with the movement potential of our
body. We do not find this performative
aspect only in the production of images
but, here lies the novelty, we also find
it in their reception. I anticipate what I
am going to say shortly: when we place
ourselves in front of a body depicted
two-dimensionally on the wall of a
cave, on the fresco of a cathedral or on
the canvas of a painting, when we place
ourselves in front of the image of a
body that someone else has made with
brushes and colors, there is a part of
our corporeality that resonates.
Even when we’re not moving, there is
a sensorimotor part of our brain that
simulates what we are seeing on the
canvas or wall. So the history of man is
a history in which nature and culture
are intertwined, they are two terms
that we have tried desperately to keep
distinct; however, what biology tells
us more every day is how they are
two sides of the same coin. Beyond
this discourse, the history of nature
and human culture is a history that
proceeds in a progressive process of
distancing from the body, perhaps as
an instrument to somehow exorcise
the awareness of our finite nature and
the awareness of death; therefore the
desperate attempt to leave a trace
that is not the footprint imprinted
by the animal on the ground, but
an intentional trace that we leave
voluntarily, with the hope that this
sign then survives us and continues to
speak about us in some way.
Art becomes the mature fruit of
the new and different way in which
man, at a certain point in his own
evolution, relates to the “reality” of
26 360 GRADI
the outside world. The material world
is no longer considered exclusively
as a domain to be bent utilitarianly
to one’s needs. The material object
loses the exclusive connotation of
an instrument to become a symbol,
a public representation, an eidos
capable of evoking the presentification
of something that, apparently, is not
present except in the mind of the
artist and in that of the beholder. This
“mental tuning” between creator and
user has deep roots in the shared
experience that we all have of the
natural evidence of the world, probably
even if not completely, thanks to
some neural mechanisms. Art distills
and condenses this experience by
universalizing it and, at the same time,
affirming a new possible way of looking
at reality by staging it. The artistic
object, which is never an object in
itself, is the pole of an intersubjective,
and therefore social, relationship which
excites as it evokes sensorimotor and
affective resonances in those who
relate to it.
Think of those
temples of human
creativity that are
natural
environments such
as the Lascaux
Caves, a cave complex found in
southwestern France (Upper Paleolithic,
approximately 17,500 years ago) or,
closer to us, the Chauvet cave where
during the Paleolithic a character
unknown to us, a man or a woman, we
do not know who this artist was,
suddenly draws animals as he sees
them in the surrounding environment;
he draws figures that still amaze us
today with their beauty and their
expressive effectiveness. The brain of
that Homo Sapiens was a brain that had
felt the deep need to represent
something that he saw with which he
was in relationship; this is to say how
basically an artistic manifestation is an
expression of our brain function. This
process goes through the engravings of
ocher blocks of 70 thousand years ago
in the cave of Blombos near Cape Town,
the Paleolithic paintings in the south of
France or Spain that today we date back
in some respects also 70 thousand
years ago (so they were certainly not
Sapiens not yet arrived in Europe, but
Neanderthal), up to the invention of the
alphabet, writing, printing,
photography, cinema, television and
this electronic gadget that allows me to
navigate in virtual worlds. Despite this
process of moving away from the body,
the link with our bodily nature also in
these artifacts external to our body
remains intact, this is what
neuroscientific research seems to
suggest.
A famous art historian,
Heinrich Wölfflin, in 1886
published his doctoral thesis
entitled: “Prolegomena to a
psychology of architecture”;
the author has made statements that
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27
are still extraordinarily modern today
and that are even more relevant if we
reread them in the light of what, in the
meantime, we have learned about our
body and our brain. Physical forms,
Wölfflin here referred to the columns
and structure of a Greek temple, can be
characteristic for the viewer only to the
extent that we ourselves possess a
body; if we were purely optical entities,
the aesthetic judgment of the physical
world would be precluded from us. It is
our bodily nature and our being subject
to the physical laws that, governing life
in this particular world that we inhabit,
dictate some of the characteristics that
distinguish the way we relate to these
particular images which can also be
architectural images (the Cathedral of
Ferrara, the Estense Castle or any
product of human architectural
ingenuity).
Another essential aspect
for understanding the
artistic experience, which
I mentioned earlier, is
that the body is not only
the tool for producing
images, it is also the
fundamental tool for their reception;
these things have already been said,
written and repeated several times in
the history of human culture. Adolf von
Hildebrand was a German sculptor, in
my view not particularly exciting as a
sculptor and much more interesting as
an art theorist. As a theorist of
aesthetics, he published in 1893 the
book “The Problem of Form in Figurative
Art” where he argued that the reality of
artistic images lies in their
effectiveness, both as the consequence
of actions of the artist who produced
them both in light of the impact these
images have on the viewer. The
aesthetic value of works of art resides
in the power they have to establish
links between the artist’s intentional
creative acts and their reconstruction
by those who put themselves in front
of these images, therefore their
reconstruction in the mind of those
who see them. look. Hildebrand in this
book argued that the perception of the
spatiality of the image is the result of a
sensorimotor constructive process:
space would not constitute an “a priori”
of experience, as suggested by Kant,
but would be a product of it. He also
affirmed that the reality of the artistic
image resides in its effectiveness,
conceived twofold both as a result of
the causes that produced it and as an
effect it provokes in those who observe
it. According to the same
“constructivist” logic, the value of a
work of art would consist in the ability
to establish a relationship between the
artist’s intentional planning and the
reconstruction of such planning by
those who benefit from the work. In
this way a direct relationship is
established between creation and
artistic fruition. Knowing the image is
equivalent, according to Hildebrand, to
knowing the process that creates it.
Even more in line with my perspective
is Hildebrand’s idea that the aesthetic
experience is fundamentally connoted
28 360 GRADI
in motor terms. He supported
Andrea Pinotti in the presentation
of Hildebrand’s work to the Italian
edition, which he edited with Fabrizio
Scrivano: “For Hildebrand, everything
begins with the movements of the
hands and eyes; that is, when the body
reaches out towards the construction
of space. [...] Movement is what allows
the articulation of meaning, it is what
allows you to connect the elements
available in space, it is what allows the
object to be formed, it is what allows for
representation and representation. [...]
For this reason the work of art always
contains the indications of mobility,
because it is itself a product of its own
and at the same time asks the user
to set in motion his own perceptive
activity that allows him to break down
/ recompose the ‘image”. In a nutshell,
for Hildebrand the body is the set
of structures that make sensible
experience and the significance of the
image possible. In chapter VI, entitled
“Form as functional expression”,
Hildebrand wrote: “In a state of total
stillness, a tendinous hand with long
fingers remembers so much the image
of the hand that is stretched out to
grasp that it expresses the tendency
of grasping and the bodily sensation
that connects to it. It bears, so to speak,
the imprint of a latent state activity.
Strongly developed jaws give the
impression of strength and energy [...].
In this way certain forms, even if they
are not thought of in motion at all, come
to express inner processes, because they
recall forms in motion. On the basis
of this method of transposition, the
artist succeeds in fixing and configuring
formal types that have a certain
expression and that arouse certain
bodily and psychic sensations in the
observer “.
In Neuroscience when we talk about
art, creativity, symbolic faculty,
aesthetics, empathy it is like seeing
the world looking through a keyhole,
that is, limiting the variables to the
maximum in a completely artificial
environment that is that of the
laboratory, taking one element at a
time because otherwise we would not
be able to master these variables all
at once. On the basis of the results we
obtain, with each small brick we build
something incrementally; the results of
each experiment give partial answers,
raise new questions that stimulate us
to do new experiments, that give us
other partial answers that raise other
questions and in doing so, I assure you,
the pay is low, but the fun is maximum
and it is a beautiful job.
For what has been said previously,
we can see the aesthetic experience
of images as a mediated form of
intersubjectivity; every time I place
myself in front of a painting, a
sculpture or a fresco, I do not relate
exclusively to an object of the physical
world provided with some formal
characteristics such as color, shape,
features, mass and volume, I also relate
every time with another human being,
he or she who made those images. The
work of art becomes the mediator of an
interpersonal relationship between me
and what today, from the Renaissance
onwards, we have learned to call as
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29
an artist. This distinction between art
and craft is historically determined;
there are many anecdotes that testify
it, Leonardo, for example, when he
delivered the first version of the Virgin
of the Rocks, the one exhibited in the
Louvre, was very angry to discover that
the friars of Milan paid him little more
than what they gave to the one we
would now call the craftsman to whom
they had commissioned the frame that
was to enclose his painting. “I am who
created the work”, he probably did not
say artist, but this is where the idea
comes that not all manual activities
are the same and therefore these
terms (beauty, artist, creative genius or
creator) are all terms that have come
to be determined historically. Below
this historical determinacy there is the
flesh, there is our intimate corporeal
nature which, although historically
modulated, determined and culturally
educated, in one way or another,
retains common roots which are the
ones we are interested in investigating.
To study the mechanisms underlying
the aesthetic experience, we turn
our attention to this object which is
precisely the brain; however, we must
frame the brain linked to the body,
the brain is not clear if we approach
it as a computer built on a biological
substrate. The brain does the fantastic
things it does and allows us to exist,
to experience the world only to the
extent that it is interfaced with the
world through the body. Not everyone
shares this vision, when many of my
colleagues decide to deal with art and
aesthetics as neuroscientists, they do
so from a perspective that, borrowing a
term from art history, we could define
as pure-visibilist; between the serious
and the facetious I say that we have
to fight visual imperialism. I mean,
more or less explicitly, that many of
my colleagues say that when we put
ourselves in front of a painting, we are
looking at an image, consequently if we
wanted to understand what happens in
our brain when we look at an image, we
should study the part of the brain. socalled
visual which is largely located in
the back of the brain.
I support and not only say it, 30 years
of results obtained in all sauces and
all over the world say it, this is a wrong
view of the functioning of the brain.
Observing the world and therefore
the objects we find in the world, in
particular those characteristic objects
that we have learned to recognize
as artistic artifacts and works of art,
triggers much more complex processes
than simply activating the visual part
of the brain. Observing the world not
only activates the visual part of the
brain, it also activates the emotional
part, the tactile part and the motor
part; therefore, we are all synaesthetic
when we face any object. By placing
ourselves in front of an object and
looking at it, we do not only exercise
a single sensory channel which is that
of vision; as we will see, the areas that
map tactile sensations are activated,
the parts of the brain that allow us to
experience emotions and the parts of
the brain that allow us to move our
body, that is the motor part of the
brain.
30 360 GRADI
In the last 30 years,
although we still know
very little about it, we
have made some
progress in our
knowledge of how the
brain works; one of the
things we have
understood is that the
motor system is not just
a machine designed to send impulses
to the muscles to make the different
parts of our body move. The same
neurons that guide my hand to grab a
glass are also activated when I stand
still and just look at that glass. They
transform the three-dimensional
characteristics of the object into the
motor pattern that I normally use to
interact with that object, for example,
if I want to grab it to drink; this they do
every time I look at this glass even
when I have no intention of taking it.
Other motor neurons (for example,
those that command my reaching
movement with the arm that I have to
stretch to take objects that are not
directly within reach) react to tactile
stimuli carried on my arm, respond to
visual stimuli that only move if they
move around my arm and sound stimuli
that occur in the vicinity of my arm.
Therefore, these tactile, visual and
auditory stimuli are mapped by motor
neurons which organize them, in some
way, providing a glue. The horizon of
my world, I do not say only, is also
constituted by the motor potentialities
that my body makes available to me; a
way of knowing the world that is what
Merleau Ponty has defined
“practognosia”, that is, a knowledge
that derives from the motor potential
of my body.
Among these motor
neurons, which are not
satisfied with producing
movements and which
also respond to sensory
stimuli, are mirror neurons. They are a
class of motor neurons that are
activated involuntarily both when an
individual performs a finalized action,
and when the same individual observes
the same finalized action performed by
any other subject. They were
discovered in 1992 by a group of
researchers from the University of
Parma (team coordinated by Giacomo
Rizzolatti and composed of Luciano
Fadiga, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio
Gallese). If I had to condense into an
expression what this process allows us
to do, to use a metaphor dear to
Vittorio Gallese, the mechanism that
these neurons realize is not very
dissimilar from what Dante, in Paradise,
attributes to a blessed soul. In
addressing Folco da Marseille, we are in
Paradise, therefore he is a disembodied
entity, Dante tells him: I am an earthly
creature in transit, if I were a blessed
soul like you and not burdened by this
earthly corporeality I would not need to
wait for you to ask me something to
guess how you immii, “If I guess how
you immii” (Cfr Paradiso IX, 81). Dante’s
linguistic creativity transforms you and
me into two verbs. Insight into another
is empathizing with the other, it is
somehow being aware, within certain
limits, of what is going through the
mind of another and what the other is
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31
feeling.
The term mirror neurons
is simply a metaphor: we
have no mirrors in our
heads, there is no
reflective surface in
these neurons. The same
neuron that allows me to perform an
action is also activated when I see that
action performed by someone else;
somehow it implicitly establishes an
interaction without my having to
concentrate or think complicated
thoughts, it makes me recognize in that
movement something with which I
resonate: it is a take or put, a move, a
hold, a breaking, etc. First discovered in
apes, this mirroring mechanism is even
more extensive in humans; it is not
limited to actions with a purpose and we
can see it being activated when we
perform actions on objects,
communicative actions, but also
movements apparently devoid of any
purpose. If you now saw me raise my
arm while I raise my arm, there are
thousands of neurons in your motor
brain that are firing at the same time
even if your arm is still; you are
simulating or rather your neurons are
behaving like when
you lift your arm. An
even more
interesting fact is
that this also
happens when we
imagine performing an action while
remaining still; if you imagine carrying
two cartons, of six bottles each, of
mineral water to the seventh floor of a
building, going up step by step, at the
end of this imaginative activity if I
measure your blood pressure and heart
rate you will have an increase in values
blood pressure and heart rate; this
happens in a similar way to when we
see particularly engaging films. Below,
we can have a demonstration of the
extraordinary power that images have,
not only when they are in motion, but
also when they are still images.
Observing the incredibly expressive
details traits of the Lamentation over
the Dead Christ by Niccolò dell’Arca or
the Memory of a pain or Portrait of
Santina Negri by Giuseppe Pellizza da
Volpedo, despite being static images
anyone who looks at this gesture, this
hand, the way in which this hand grabs
the arm of the chair, it is not simply the
registration of a three-dimensional
object with a certain color, it is an
image that gives us a sense of
movement; this sense of movement, in
turn, transmits emotions and makes us
attached.
Daniel Stern,
unfortunately passed
away a few years ago,
was a famous American
psychiatrist, one of
those people who
revolutionized the way we look at
children and an important protagonist
of Infant Research. One of his bestknown
books is “The Interpersonal
World of the Child”, published in 1985.
“The vital forms. Dynamic experience in
psychology, art, psychotherapy and
development” is the title of the last
32 360 GRADI
ook he wrote shortly before his death
and it is a book that he dedicates to a
concept he already talks about in 1985,
in that his first very successful book,
which is the concept of vital form. The
vital form is the emotional outline of
every movement. If my wife
comes home and closes the
door in a certain way and
throws the keys on the
dresser in the hall in a
certain way, I already know
what awaits me; I draw these
conclusions from the fact
that that way of moving a
part of her body, that way of walking in
the corridor, that prosody with which she
asks me if I’m at home, communicates
something about her affectivity and her
emotionality; she tells me something
that is perhaps not translatable with
words, as words are always tight in some
situations. Stern argued that there is a
temporal boundary or temporal profile of
the movement that marks its beginning,
its flow and its conclusion. This temporal
profile was masterfully made with wax
by Medardo Rosso, we see the snapshot
of the laugh that illuminates the face of
this little girl; if we turn her head, we
almost have the impression of her and
we are curious to see if we find that smile
in that face of her because the dynamics
of facial expressions are such that that
smile can appear and disappear. We turn
around and she is still there, her stillness
transmits a wealth of emotional content;
the hypothesis is that much of this
affective content passes through this
emotional prosody of movement.
Some researchers
have conducted an
experiment in
functional magnetic resonance by
making videos in which the subjects
saw communicative actions without
sound, therefore gentle, irritated or
angry gestures; the instruction given
to the subjects was simply to observe
these acts and in two different
conditions to say what was the
purpose of the action or what was the
affective tonality of the action. So, the
what: what is that gesture there?
Towards the how: how that gesture
was made, in a kind way, in a grumpy
way or in an angry way. What emerged
is that a portion of an anatomical
structure that is in the depth of our
brain is activated which is called the
Insula of Reil. It was named after a
Prussian doctor who went down in the
annals of medical history for treating
Goethe for kidney stones and who
died of typhus in the Battle of Leipzig
(October 16-19, 1813), also known as
the Battle of the nations. Reil was the
superintendent of Prussian field
hospitals and gave his name to this
deep structure for first describing it.
The insula, which has a fan-shaped
structure, very beautiful anatomically
to see, is a hinge between our internal
world and the world outside of us; that
is, between our feeling inside the
heartbeat, breathing, intestinal
motility and everything that moves
inside us and outside of us when some
things happen rather than others. A
specific part of this structure is
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33
activated when we factor in the how of
the action and this same area is
activated regardless of whether we
observe or execute the how of the
action; it is also activated not only if we
make the gentle gesture or the brusque
gesture, but also when we imagine that
we are performing that gesture in a
gentle or brusque way. You see how
again these mechanisms hold together
doing, seeing done, and imagining
doing.
So far, we have only talked about
actions, but this represents only the
tip, we have noticed over the years, of a
much larger iceberg: in other words, we
find these same mirroring mechanisms
similar also in the domain of emotions
and in the domain of sensations. Trying
to put together the tiles of this mosaic,
Vittorio Gallese proposed the model of
the “Embodied Simulation” which is a
model of perception and imagination;
part of our brain mechanisms that we
normally use to perform actions or to
experience emotions and sensations,
we also reuse them to map the actions,
emotions and sensations of others.
Embodied simulation represents a
format of representation: neurons
actually represent nothing are all
metaphors, neurons only fire action
potentials, neurons do not feel, do not
love, do not get angry, do not feel envy
or jealousy, do not have the sense of
beauty, all these are characteristics
that belong holistically to the owner
of those neurons. There are various
ways to represent the world, one of
which is language, but it is not the
only one; language is probably the last
way we invented to represent things.
If you want to explain to someone
how to get from your home to the
subway stop, this is the content, you
can communicate it in various ways;
you can explain it with gestures: “when
you get out of here turn left then
turn left again and when you arrive
at the traffic lights go straight ahead
and you will find the stop on your
right”. Or you can send him a Google
map with a text message or you can
explain it over the phone using only
words without making gestures. The
content is always the same, the format
in which you have represented that
particular content, such as going from
your home to the subway station, is
variable. Our mind has a variety of
representation formats, for many there
is only language, for many others,
including myself, it doesn’t. There are
much older representation formats that
are the first that develop when we are
small and over which, then, language
exercises its power of domination and
conditioning. We reuse our states or
mental processes in body format also
to attribute them to others: to others in
flesh and blood or to static images.
The dialogue between
human sciences and
neuroscience is not new;
without going too far in
time, in the period
between the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning
of the twentieth, many scholars of what
we now call the human sciences have
drawn relevant ideas for their studies
34 360 GRADI
and their reflections by comparing
themselves with contemporary
scientific thought, especially with
physiology and biology.
Guillaume-Benjamin-
Amand Duchenne de
Boulogne was a French
neurologist who, through
electrical stimulation of
the face with electrodes,
built an atlas of emotions
(1855), an atlas that
influenced Darwin’s work. Darwin’s real
best seller was “the Expression of
Emotions in Man and Animals” that he
published in 1872 where, among other
things, he wrote: “Facial expressions are
an essential component of human social
and emotional behavior”. It is good to
remember that the idea that the face is
the mirror of the soul is a concept that
is historically affirmed only starting
from humanism.
This dialogue was
particularly important in
the aesthetic field: from
this point of view the
figure of Aby Warburg is
paradigmatic. Aby
Warburg, founder as he
himself said of a science without a
name, as a good German to learn the
History of Art he went to Florence
where he met Darwin’s book; after
reading the book “The Expression of
Emotions in Man and Animals”, in his
diary he noted: “finally a book that
helps me”. In this book by Darwin,
Warburg, who wrote the famous essay
on the frescoes of Palazzo Schifa
noia, saw the
possibility of
broadening the
horizons of the
History of Art by
including the
transmission of
emotions and the
power of images
proper. According to Warburg, a theory
of artistic styles must be conceived as a
pragmatic science of expression; the
etymology of the word style is quite
significant, style derives from stilus,
that is the wooden stick with which one
wrote on the wax-coated tablets. You
see how even in a term whose
performative origin has been forgotten,
this performativity is always there, just
go and look for it. Empathy is a styleforming
power and therefore these
aspects in Warburg are fully connected,
so connected as to lead him to the
formulation of the idea of the formulas
of pathos (Pathosformeln), this basso
continuo, these postural attitudes that
re-emerge several times in the history
of art, from classical to Renaissance art
(for example, in the Ghirlandaio
frescoes in Santa Maria Novella). These
formulas of pathos are a variety of
body postures, gestures and actions
that exemplify the aesthetic side of
Einfühlung, of empathy as one of the
most creative sources of artistic style.
In Darwin’s book he found the role of
the central nervous system in directing
the unconscious execution of bodily
gestures expressing a given emotion.
He also found the role of habitual
practices in associating a given bodily
expression with a given emotional
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35
state, underlining the biological
usefulness of this association. Finally,
thanks to Darwin, Warburg discovered
the evolutionary need for the bodily
expression of emotions, transmitted in
the form of non-conscious memory. The
notion of imprint (Prägung) was used
by Warburg to characterize the survival
in the history of art of particular
gestures and body postures. The
drapery, the body movements, the hair
moved by the wind that characterize
the figures of Botticelli are not only and
exclusively the result of the conscious
mimetic reproduction of the classical
models, they are more significantly the
evidence of the survival of the human
imprints of expression
(Ausdrucksprägungen). In fact, Warburg,
who was not afraid to cross the fences
that separate different disciplines,
conceived the history of art as a means
of shedding light on the typically
human power of expression. By doing
so, he extended the methodological
frontiers of the study of art in a
completely new way, opening it to the
contributions of science. Also, from this
point of view, Warburg’s contribution
should today be carefully re-evaluated.
Aby Warburg was also a keen admirer
of Hildebrand, an omnivorous reader
who therefore ranged from Darwin to
his contemporary physiologists such as
Helmoltz, Hering, and Semon,
indifferent to the disciplinary barriers
that, unfortunately still today, often
prevent a dialogue between life
sciences and human Sciences. Warburg
conceived the history of art as a tool to
clarify the historical psychology of
human expression; according to him, it
is necessary to extend the
methodological frontiers of the study
of art so as to put the history of art
itself at the service of “a psychology of
human expression that has yet to be
written”. His notion of “patemic form of
expression” (Pathosformel) shows
extraordinary assonances with the
formal types described by Hildebrand.
For Warburg, certain bodily attitudes,
gestures, actions and postures
resurface several times throughout the
history of art precisely because they
exemplify the aesthetic act of empathy
as a creative power of style. In the
wake of Hildebrand, Warburg has
developed a theory of style as a
“pragmatic science of expression”
(pragmatische Ausdruckskunde).
Empathy plays on two tables, on the
table of the expression of the creation
of the artistic object and on that of
its reception. When we look at a face
to express joy, sadness or fear if we
record what happens on the surface
of our face, in particular if we go to
record the activity of our muscles
with electromyography, we see how
we all, some more or less, respond
unconsciously in a congruent way; if I
see someone laughing, the cheekbone
contracts a little, if I see someone
expressing a negative emotion, the
eyebrow muscle contracts a little. The
more empathic I am, the greater the
entity of this mechanism and, turning
everything around, we could argue
that the stronger this mechanism is,
the more empathic I am, applying the
scales for evaluating people’s empathic
skills.
36 360 GRADI
In recent decades, neuroscientific
research has shown a growing interest
in art and aesthetics. The crucial
point is not to use art to study the
functioning of the brain, it is to study
the brain-body system to understand
what makes us human and how. More
than Neuroesthetics, we should speak
of experimental aesthetics, where
the notion of “aesthetics” is declined
according to its original etymology:
Aisthesis, that is, multimodal
perception of the world through the
body. Thanks to the contributions
of cognitive neuroscience, we have
learned that human intelligence also at
the sub-personal level of description,
that is, at the level of description that
relates to neurons and brain areas,
is closely linked to the corporeality
located in the world of individuals.
This corporeality is not exclusively
reducible to a physical object with
extension and is fully realized in the
sphere of experience. The body is
always a living body (Leib) that acts
and experiences a world that resists
it. The concepts of being, feeling,
acting and knowing describe different
ways of our relationships with the
world. These modalities all share a
constitutive bodily root, in turn mapped
into distinct and specific modes of
functioning of brain circuits and neural
mechanisms. At the level of the brainbody
system, action, perception and
cognition share the same carnal root,
although they are differently organized
and connected at the functional level.
These recent acquisitions make it
possible to address the themes of art
and aesthetics from a new perspective,
that of an experimental aesthetic that
investigates the responses of the brain
and the body together.
Cognitive
neuroscience has
progressively
extended its field of
investigation to the
domain of artistic
creation, both in terms of music and
that of the visual arts. For reasons of
space, I will focus here only on the
latter. The term used to define this
approach is “Neuroesthetics”. This term
was originally coined by the
neuroscientist Semir Zeki, referring to
the study of the neural basis of the
ability to appreciate beauty and art.
Zeki has so far focused this approach
exclusively on the relationship
between aesthetics and vision. In any
aesthetic experience, according to Zeki,
the brain, like the artist, must eliminate
any inessential information from the
visual world in order to represent the
real character of an object. It would be
by virtue of this ability that artists,
according to Zeki, can be defined as
“natural scientists”, capable of evoking
an aesthetic response in the creative
brain. In 1994, the British
neuroscientist published a book
entitled “The neurology of kinetic art”,
written in collaboration with Matthew
Lamb, starting a series of studies aimed
at understanding the biological basis of
aesthetic experience, which in fact laid
the foundations of Neuroesthetics.
Scholars of the humanities, for their
part, have shown and, in large part,
continue to show great distrust,
360 GRADI
37
evaluating Neuroesthetics as an undue
interference or, at best, as an approach
with little or no heuristic value. I
believe that this reaction is premature
and fundamentally wrong, deriving on
the one hand from a lack of knowledge
of the potential and limits of the
neuroscientific approach, sometimes
combined with a corporate defense of
one’s own disciplinary fields. On the
other hand, the excessive
neurodeterminism often shown by the
neuroscientific approach to aesthetics
and art, ready to flatten and reduce the
concepts of beauty or aesthetic
pleasure exclusively to the
functionality of neurons contained in
specific brain regions, did not help. the
dialogue. Unfortunately, among many
lovers of the human sciences there
remains, as a sort of conditioned reflex,
the tendency to connect everything
that has to do with naturalization to a
mechanistic and innatistic perspective.
This is not the case. Epigenetics shows
not only how the environment is able
to condition the expression of genes,
but also how this modified gene
expression can be transmitted to
offspring. This demonstrates how the
various social constructions are in any
case attributable to biological
perspectives of naturalization. We
should get out of this dichotomous
perspective and finally accept the idea
already supported in the past, for
example by Helmuth Plessner, that man
is both naturally artificial and
artificially natural.
Neuroesthetics is
studied above all
through brain imaging techniques,
mainly through Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to
understand how the brain responds to
beauty. Particular sensory sequences
can be applied through which it is
possible to see which areas of the brain
are particularly stressed while the
subject is subjected to stimulation
(tactile, visual and acoustic stimuli are
presented or subjected to a specific
task). When the person performs these
tasks, his brain uses certain areas in a
particular way and we, through the
metabolic consumption that requires
an increase in oxygen, we can see what
these areas are. Resonance is a
frequently used technique because it
allows us to observe the brain and its
functions in vivo; it is not invasive, so
much so that it is also used regularly in
the clinic. In a typical experimental
setting, the subject is placed on the
resonance couch, he is made to wear
headphones to isolate him from the
resonance noise and
to transmit acoustic
stimuli and he is
made to wear a
viewer to send him,
through optical fiber
cables, of images
with specific timings. In most cases, the
subject is equipped with a button panel
that allows him to express a judgment
or perform a task, when he is inside the
38 360 GRADI
MRI. Once prepared, the subject is
inserted inside the tube, where there is
a magnetic field. Overlooking the
resonance room there is a console
room, where several computers are
active; in some of them the brain
activity is recorded by others, instead,
the stimulation is sent (for example,
the visual stimuli, simultaneously
recording the times of sending of the
stimuli). This is because, knowing when
the brain has been stimulated, we are
able to align brain activity with the
type of stimulation and therefore to
isolate those effects that interest us.
With this experimental methodology,
the group of prof. Rizzolatti conducted
a study which wanted to generate
a genuine experience of disgust in
subjects, placed in magnetic resonance,
making them inhale disgusting
odorants through a mask; later they
were shown video images in which,
among other things, they saw a man
who, after inhaling the contents of
a glass, made the typical expression
of disgust. In both situations, the
same part of the anterior insula was
activated, it was activated for my
disgust and it was activated even when
I saw the disgust of others. This has
somehow consolidated the idea that
emotion is something that happens
like a two-stroke engine: first there is
the inner feeling, what I feel which,
then, finds a bodily translation that
is externalized. When the idea of
subjectivity took hold in Humanism,
Petrarch fled the crowd because he did
not want his inner feelings to shine
through, being seen by others: “... I
can’t find another screen that escapes
me, from the manifest accorger de le
genti, because acts of dullness, from the
outside you can read like me inside the
forepart …”.
Recently, at the Niguarda
Hospital in Milan,
electrodes were implanted
for epileptic patients
waiting to undergo surgery
aimed at ablation of the
diseased part of the brain
that cannot be treated with
drugs; stimulating a particular region of
the brain with these electrodes
produces laughter and joy and, by
recording from the same electrodes,
this same region is activated even
when these same people see someone
laughing. This is an empirical
demonstration of what many
theoretically had already guessed. Max
Scheler, philosopher of the current of
phenomenology, already at the
beginning of the twentieth century
argued that affective and emotional
states are not mere qualities of
subjective experience, something that
occurs exclusively in my interiority, but
are given in expressive phenomena
that is, they are
expressed in
gestures and bodily
actions and because
of this they become
visible to others. In
the second part of
Robert Musil’s Man without Qualities,
you can read some pages that I find of
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39
an extraordinary modernity on what
emotions are. This is why we only
genuinely recognize emotion after it has
been shaped by the world, we don’t
know what we feel before our actions
have made a decision. This also leads us
to say that the two aspects are probably
two sides of the same coin, the same
brain structures that are activated when
I express the emotion are also those that
are activated when I experience that
emotion or see it try to somebody else.
We live in a world populated by images
made by us, probably from the time
when the planet was trodden not yet by
the Sapiens, but by the Neanderthals;
moreover, today we live in an age in
which we are bombarded daily and
massively by images. There are those
who speak of fetishism of images and
it is no coincidence that Freud spoke
of scopophilia (from scopeo which
means to look), he speaks of Schaulust,
therefore the desire to look with
curiosity, which he attributed to a sexual
perversion (Tre essays on sexual theory,
1905) when this morbid curiosity of
the gaze is mainly concentrated on the
body and in particular on one part of
the body, the genital one. Freud also
maintained that our curiosity to look
at other objects, such as works of art,
is a sublimation of this instinct. Not
only that and he added: up to a certain
point, touching is indispensable for the
attainment of the sexual goal, the same
thing is true for seeing. An activity is
seeing, in the final analysis, which is
derived from touching, so you can see
how this synesthetic idea of a tactile
vision, of a prehensile eye is already
rooted in Freud; language testifies to
it every day when we say: “I have laid
my gaze on…”, we attribute to the eye
properties that are not those of the
eye, that is of an optical instrument
but are those of the hand.
We go to the
museums, we
queue in the sun
and pay the ticket
to contemplate, as in this photo by a
contemporary German artist Thomas
Struth, artistic objects. The simulation
somehow frees itself from the
inhibitions and becomes an imitation
of what the image transmits to us;
today more and more often in
museums we see scenes like this, here
we are at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, this is the Night Watch
and, hopefully, visitors are
documenting themselves on the first
work, perhaps, to observe it. Imagine,
however, what a man of the
nineteenth century could understand
of an image like this in which
Schaulust’s object, of desire, curiosity
and craving not only to look but
to capture the
image, is realized
by turning away
from it; because in
reality each of
these ladies does
not want an image of Hillary Clinton
but she wants an image of herself
together with Hillary Clinton and,
therefore, to take her selfie they turn
their backs on her.
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In 2007 Vittorio
Gallese and David
Freedberg, art
historian of
Columbia University,
published an essay that dictated the
agenda of the studies that the authors
then developed in the following years
(Motion, Emotion and Empathy in
Aesthetic Experience). This is a matter
that concerns scientific research
relating to the relationship between
the sphere of brain functions and the
use of the work of art. The authors state
that research on
mirror neurons
has shown
that
even the
observation of
static images of
actions
stimulates the act of simulation in the
observer’s brain. This interesting
statement shifts our attention to
another question. Even when faced
with a static image (for example a
photograph or any work of art), the
process I have just talked about is
triggered, producing an empathic
reaction in the observer. As Freedberg
and Gallese say referring to Goya’s
work “Disasters of War” (it is the title of
a series of 82 etchings): “(...) the
physical reactions of the observers seem
to be located precisely in the parts of the
body threatened, oppressed, blocked or
destabilized in the representation.
Furthermore, physical empathy easily
turns into a feeling of emotional
empathy for the ways in which the body
is damaged or mutilated (...)”. The user
of the image (through mirror neurons
and embodied simulation) when, for
example, is placed in front of a bloody
image will have
an
empathic
reaction,
including a
physical one,
which will
produce an
emotional reaction (emotion, from the
Latin emovēre, that is to bring out,
move). In the light of the research of
recent years, the perceptual
consequences in the context of the use
of works of art and images would all be
enclosed in this brain system and
would cause substantially empathic
and emotional outcomes (i.e., from the
inside to the outside). In this sense, the
perception of the image would be
linked to a mechanism that we could
consider pre-linguistic, pre-cultural
and, in fact, totally automatic. Our
aesthetic experience would be the
result of a precise autonomous and, in
part, involuntary physiological and
biological device. Although obviously
socio-culturally modulated, these
mechanisms are universal. A crucial
element of our aesthetic experience,
therefore, is the activation of embodied
(embodied) mechanisms which include
the simulation of gestures, emotions,
somatic sensations transmitted by the
image and which
constitute the content of
the image.Another
interesting aspect related
to the images was
observed by von
Hildebrand at the end of
the nineteenth century.
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41
This aspect, more linked to the style of
the image and its artistic quality, that is
to the unconscious simulation in the
user, represents the resonance in the
observer of the artistic gesture used to
create the work of art. A study, also of
magnetic resonance, has shown that
the simulation of the movement I get it
not only when you show me the film of
a hand grabbing a bottle, but also when
I see a photograph that statically shows
me the final consequence of the action.
In another work by Mado Proverbio di
Bicocca in Milan, it has been shown that
the more dynamic
the static image
describes the action,
the greater the
activation in the
motor brain of the
observer; the more
dynamic the action taken in a static
image, the stronger the stimulation of
the motor simulation in the viewer.
Gallese and Freedberg hypothesized
that, even when the work of art has no
content directly and analogically
mappable in terms of actions, emotions
or sensations, as it lacks a recognizable
formal content (think of a work by Lucio
Fontana or by Jackson Pollock), the
artist’s gestures in the production of
the artwork induce the empathic
involvement of the observer, activating
in simulation mode the motor program
that corresponds to the gesture evoked
in the artistic stroke or sign. The signs
on the painting or sculpture are the
visible traces, the consequences of the
motor acts carried out by the artist in
the creation of the work. And it is by
virtue of this reason that they are able
to activate the related motor
representations in the observer’s
brain. As I stated earlier, aesthetic
experience is a mediated form of
intersubjectivity. Gallese’s group
conducted an interesting study using
Ugo Mulas’ famous
service that
captures Lucio
Fontana in his
atelier. The gesture
and the
consequence of the gesture are
therefore studied, that is the spatial
concept of one of his famous cuts. The
images of Fontana’s works were
shown alternating with images in
which the dynamic components were
reduced, replacing the cut with a line
of the same length and thickness, but
erasing the shadow that gives the
sense of depth. The recording of the
motor activity of the brain of the
participants in the experiment was
carried out with a 128-channel highdensity
electroencephalograph. Only
when Fontana’s cuts were seen but
not when the control stimuli were
shown, the motor part of their
brain was
activated. This was
seen in all subjects,
both in those who
turned out to know
Lucio Fontana and knew that those
were works of art, and in those who
had never heard of him and who,
often, took the stimulus of control for
42 360 GRADI
the ‘original artwork and the original
artwork for the control stimulus.
Therefore, a resonance and motor
simulation mechanism were found in
all of them, net of what they more or
less knew about the artistic quality of
the images.
The same
researchers have
replicated the same
results using the
works of an
exponent of abstract expressionism,
Franz Kline; in these works, the
dynamism is given by the materiality of
the brushstroke, by the dripping of the
color, by the dripping, by the trace left
by the brush. Kline’s works were shown
alternating with control stimuli in
which all these dynamic categories had
been removed, while maintaining the
Gestalt complexity of the stimulus.
Here too the simulation of the gesture
was detected, obviously this is not all
as what is in the experience, we feel in
front of these works is a common
element that we cannot pretend that it
does not exist if we want to speak in a
way holistic of what an aesthetic
experience is in front of an image.
I conclude by presenting a study,
again by the Gallese group, where, this
time, the expression of the face that
expresses pain was taken into account;
Six works from the Renaissance to the
Baroque were selected that expressed
alternating pain, in a random sequence,
with faces instead with a neutral
expression. Obviously, the real works
of art are not these but they are simply
the cut-out face; so, I don’t pretend
to argue that these experiments fully
explain why we like Caravaggio, as
Caravaggio is the whole work. As I
said earlier it seems literally that
we are looking through the keyhole,
here we focus on a particular aspect
of the work: the face, the part that
communicates an emotion, the pain.
They are all faces of martyrs alternating
with a face that shows no emotion.
We arrived at these 12 stimuli starting
from 100, shown to a very large sample
of people and those who all recognized
were chosen either as expressing pain
or as not expressing any emotion:
therefore, pain towards a neutral
stimulus.
I am interested in taking a step further
than what I have told you about so far;
so far, I have described an automatic
mechanism probably modulated by
many cultural factors of my personal
history that is activated when I put
myself in front of an image, in the
specific case that is activated when
that image is an image hanging on
the museum. I asked myself another
question, when after having seen and
emphasized with that image someone
asks me to give an explicit aesthetic
evaluation; for example, the question
may be: how artistically beautiful this
image looks to me and do I have to rate
it on a scale from 0 to 10.
When I express an aesthetic judgment,
according to many starting from
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43
Kant, I must somehow silence all
these mechanisms of emotional and
empathic involvement; this is because
I no longer have to do with what that
image moves in my body but I only
have to give an aesthetic judgment.
Therefore, to do this I have to abstract
from the body dimension, using a
much colder tool from a cognitive
point of view and much more abstract.
When I make an abstract judgment
in terms of the artistic beauty of that
image, do these bodily mechanisms
play a role or not? To verify this, the
researchers of Vittorio Gallese’s group
presented these images alternately
and the subjects saw them in two
different experimental conditions:
in one block they saw them keeping
the facial muscles relaxed and, in
another block, actively contracting the
corrugator muscle, then assuming a
facial posture similar to that depicted
in the face expressing pain. The results
obtained showed that the aesthetic
assessment of the faces observed was
significantly higher when given while
the subjects actively contracted the
corrugator muscle, but this was only
true for faces expressing pain and not
for neutral faces. When, on the other
hand, the subjects gave an aesthetic
judgment with a relaxed face, they saw
equally artistically beautiful the faces
that expressed pain and the faces that
expressed no emotion.
Obviously, it would be excessive to
argue that Kant was wrong, but these
data suggest that aesthetic judgment is
not as detached as it seems, although
we must contextualize the result to
this particular category of stimuli.
The aesthetic experience took place
in a laboratory and not in a museum,
above all the work was not shown
in its entirety but only the face;
made all these due clarifications,
the data seems to me however very
interesting. It tells us how, even when
we are called to deliberate an explicit
aesthetic judgment, that game of
free imagination which Kant speaks
of in the Critique is not absent; since
imagination is one of the products
of simulation activity, these two
dimensions of my experience in front
of the artwork are not as separate
as most people still believe today.
Reproducing the expression of pain
depicted in the observed painted
face significantly influences the
explicit aesthetic evaluation of the
same face; in addition, an equally
interesting correlation was found with
the magnitude of this correlation. The
people who gave the highest aesthetic
judgment to faces that expressed pain
when contracting their muscles were
those who were most familiar with the
art and had the most empathic traits.
Here I leave it to your imagination to
determine if seeing art and going to
museums makes us more empathic
or if, when we are more empathic,
we are more likely to have a greater
attendance of museums. In science it
is almost never possible to establish
a cause-and-effect relationship, we
consider ourselves extremely lucky
when we can establish a significant
correlation as in this case.
44 360 GRADI
Conclusions
I hope I have explained it in an
understandable way, but the
complexity of the theme of images,
aesthetics, feelings aroused by images
and the power of images requires a
very complex approach, certainly not
reducible to a simplistic neuronal
translation of the concepts involved;
the work of art mediates the motor
and affective resonance that arises
between the artist and the user,
becomes the privileged mediator.
The sensorimotor aspects of the
processing of the artistic stimulus by
the observer represent the most direct
and automatic level of processing that
allows the user to feel the work in a
bodily and embodied way; obviously
we are talking about one of the many
dimensions that we collect under
this linguistic label of aesthetic
experience. What I wrote about in this
article is only one aspect of course
but it is an unavoidable aspect; the
observer’s sensorimotor and affective
involvement also seems to influence
the explicit aesthetic judgment.
Therefore, the embodied simulation,
as a model of perception and
imagination, generates in my opinion
this characteristic quality of seeing
“as if” which plays an important role
in our aesthetic experience of the
image, in particular of the images that
today we catalog as works of art. art.
As such it is an important ingredient
in our ability to appreciate images. I
also hope to have convinced you of the
importance of another point: if at all
perspectives from which we face the
problem of what art is, what artistic
images are, why we look at them and
why we like them we also add the
perspective angle, the point of view,
the keyhole of looking at these issues
from the perspective of the brain,
this can help us rediscover the role
of the body in that immediate form
of intersubjectivity which is artistic
creative expression.
Beyond the specificity of the different
aesthetic forms, however, I think that
the fruition of all forms of fiction share
common aspects that can be usefully
investigated by asking questions
directly to the brain-body system. The
feeling of bodily involvement aroused
by paintings, sculptures, architectural
forms, literary narrative fictions,
cinematic arts or, even, by frequenting
virtual worlds increases our emotional
responses to those same media. A form
of emotional knowledge constitutes
a fundamental ingredient of our
aesthetic experience. The theory of
Embodied Simulation aims to capture
these aspects and is relevant to define
the aesthetic experience in at least two
ways:
• The first, thanks to the bodily
feelings aroused by the works
of art with which we relate
by means of the mirroring
mechanisms that they evoke.
In this way the embodied
simulation generates that
particular “as-if” seeing that
plays a fundamental role in the
aesthetic experience.
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45
• The second, by virtue of the
embodied memories and
imaginative associations that the
works of art awaken in those who
contemplate them.
Then there is a further aspect that
characterizes the embodied simulation
when it is activated by our immersion
with the world of fiction of art,
compared to when it is aroused by
situations of everyday life. In fact,
while we contemplate a work of art
or immerse ourselves in a virtual
world, we temporarily suspend our
relationship with the world, releasing
energies that, paradoxically, can be
experienced more vividly than in
the more prosaic everyday reality.
According to this perspective, the
aesthetic experience of works of art
and the experience of virtual worlds
can be interpreted not only or not so
much in the terms originally proposed
by Coleridge of a cognitive suspension
of disbelief, but as a form of “liberated
embodied simulation “. In looking
at a painting, in reading a novel, in
attending a play or in a film, or in
immersing ourselves in a virtual world,
the embodied simulation is relieved
of the burden of modeling our current
presence in the “real” world. We
look at the forms of symbolic-artistic
expression from a safe distance by
virtue of which our openness to the
world is amplified. When we direct our
attention to the world of art or virtual
worlds, we can fully use our simulation
resources, defusing our defenses.
Our pleasure in art is, therefore, also
probably guided by the sense of secure
intimacy experienced during the
empathic relationship with the world of
art.
Creativity, aesthetic experience and
virtual experience can represent
the moment of suspension, the gap
between actuality and potential that
triggers the possibility of becoming
what you are and allows you to
conceive the world as an infinite series
of possibilities that refer to other
possibilities. Seeing the invisible, a
feature that unites art and science,
means filling a void, striving for what
is not but can be, what, in a word, is
desire. This suggests, as Girard has
guessed in other ways, that art has its
roots in rituality linked to the sense of
the sacred, in the irrepressible human
tendency to fill that void that at the
same time terrifies us and constitutes
the background and the objective. of
our impulses and our projections.
Through the gap between actuality and
potential produced by artistic creation,
both when it becomes cosmogonic,
producing new worlds by reassorting
the elements that characterize the
“visible”, and when, thanks to narrative
fiction or the use of virtual worlds, it
creates apparent duplications of real,
man is forced to suspend his grip on
the world, releasing energies hitherto
unavailable, putting them at the service
of a new ontology that finally, perhaps,
can reveal who he is. More than a
suspension of disbelief, the aesthetic
experience aroused by artistic
production can be read as a “liberated
simulation”. Why does a film, novel
46 360 GRADI
or virtual world potentially excite us
more than a real-life scene that we can
similarly be spectators of? Perhaps
also because in the artistic and virtual
“fiction” our inherence in the narrated
action is totally free from direct
personal involvement. We are free to
love, hate, feel terror, doing it from
a safe distance. This safety distance
that makes mimesis “cathartic” can
put our natural openness to the world
into play in a more totalizing way. A
further factor of amplification of this
liberated simulation is constituted in
certain forms of artistic expression,
such as theater, dance, music, cinema
and virtual worlds, by sharing with
other individuals who, like us, are free
from the obligations of supervising
potentially fatal intrusiveness of the
outside world, totally abandoning
oneself to a full and unconditional
experience of aisthesis. After all,
enjoying art means getting rid of the
world to find it more fully.
Thanks to the expression of artistic
creativity, the human being acquires
the ability to shape material objects,
giving them a meaning that they
would not have in nature per se. This
meaning is the result of the action
with which the artist spreads colors
on a canvas or transforms a block of
marble into a “David” or the “Rape of
Proserpina”. Today neuroscience has
the potential to illuminate, albeit from
a different perspective, the aesthetic
nature of the human condition and
its natural creative propensity, even
before addressing the specific theme
of art and becoming Neuroesthetics.
We thus have the opportunity to enrich
our notion of artistic creativity and
its fruition, multiplying the levels of
description, trying to understand how
artistic objects, rather than being a
gift from the gods, are actually the
paradigmatic expression of our human
nature.
From a certain point of
view, art is superior to
science. With less
expensive tools from an
economic point of view
and with a synthesis
capacity that is probably unattainable
by science, artistic intuitions make us
understand a lot of human nature,
often much more than the objectifying
orientation typical of the scientific
approach. Being human means
becoming capable of questioning who
we are. Artistic creativity has always
expressed this ability in the highest
form. Some fear that addressing these
issues with the prosaic arsenal of
science could somehow diminish, if not
even destroy the magic that invades us
when we contemplate a work of art. If I
shared this concern, I would devote my
time to something else. On the
contrary, it is precisely the belief that
the neuroscientific perspective allows
a further enhancement of the
distinctive and extraordinary
dimension of art and aesthetic
experience that convinces me that we
are moving in a direction potentially
pregnant with interesting results for
anyone interested in better understand
who we are. I conclude with a quote
from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg who
wrote these words that sound more
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47
and more prophetic, current and
familiar to me every day: “our body is
halfway between our soul and the
outside world, reflecting the effects of
both”.
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HAZELNUT
KINGDOM
A brand new location, with a Mediterranean style.
Elegant meeting place with many opportunities
for socializing.
Written by OEMA.
Images by JARLA CAPALINI.
56 360 GRADI
’S
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57
HAZELNUT’S
KINGDOM
Hazelnut’s Kingdom is not yet in Second Life Destinations since
there are some parts that need to be finished. However, it is an
enchantment already.
It is an articulated
destination, created
with care and
meticulousness
by an undisputed
professional in the
field of “landscaping”:
Andy Warhol.
As it often happens, seeing the beautiful
photographs that virtual travelers of
Second Life post on Flickr, I came across
one in particular that caught my attention.
It was a beautiful Mediterranean landscape
perched on a hill. As an Italian,
I’m naturally drawn to this type of vegetation
and architectural style, so I
didn’t miss the opportunity to visit the
destination in question.
Hazelnut’s Kingdom occupies three
A beautiful Mediterranean landscape perched
on a hill that offers multiple opportunities for
entertainment and fun.
58 360 GRADI
You can visit
on foot, flying is
not allowed.
regions, one of which is
navigable by water. It is
an articulated destination,
created with care
and meticulousness by
an undisputed professional
in the field of “landscaping”:
Andy Warhlol
(terry.fotherington).
Who doesn’t know Frogmore,
for example? Andy
Warhlol has a great experience
in the realization
of destinations that have
become an essential reference
in the scenario of
the most beautiful photographic
regions in Second
Life.
Hazelnut’s Kingdom’s
peculiarity is that, apart
from being an enchanting
destination, it also offers
various entertainment
opportunities for all those
who love this type of
landscape.
You should note that the
creator of Hazelnut’s is
not also the owner. It is
a work done on the commission
of Noubeil (noubeil.alpha).
Therefore,
the management of the
destination is the responsibility
of the latter to
whom one must refer in
case of need.
Hazelnut’s Kingdom has
its inworld group, whose
membership costs 1000
L$. In the description of
the group, we can find valuable
information about
the purpose of the destination
and the proposed
activities:
“Welcome to Hazelnut’s
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59
I recommend accepting the region’s light settings
for the best experience.
In different points of the regions we can
find signs indicating the main attractions.
Kingdom!
It’s a place of pleasure and nature.
That’s why we thank you
for your trust, and we will do
everything to satisfy your stay.
Hazelnut’s Kingdom is an area located
on the Noubeillane estate,
which means in Occitan “the house
of hazelnuts.” Occitan is still
spoken in the south of France,
and the spirit of a mountainous
region inspires our domain in the
Aegean Pyrenees.”
The aspect that fascinates me
the most is that it is not a flat
destination: I appreciate the
differences in height, the mountains
alternating with flat areas
that make the landscape varied
and believable. The way the decorative
objects have been placed
denotes an understanding
of the common-sense rules that
allow for a destination’s realism.
Flying is not allowed, which
could be a good thing because
it induces visitors to explore on
foot precisely as they would in
reality. Some of the houses are
also rented out, so the limited
flying also finds its raison d’etre
in need not to disturb the tenants.
Talking with the owner, I learned
that some areas are still to
be created, so we will have the
opportunity to appreciate newly
landscaped corners in the coming
months as well.
Hazelnut’s Kingdom is not (yet)
in Second Life Destinations, so
it’s a scoop we reserve for our
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eaders.
References
Teleport
Flickr Group
Inworld Group
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MEDITERRANEO-OC
TELEPORT
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SLICE OF H
An enchanting winter destination that will
soon be renewed in its spring version.
IN S
Written by SERENA DOMENICI
Images by JARLA CAPALINI.
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ECOND LIFE
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The creator is Luane (luane.meo) who has created a
charming winter setting with a naturalistic style.
SLICE OF HEAVEN
IN SECOND LIFE
Winter
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SEASONALITY
SLICE OF HEAVEN will close in a few days. We suggest the reader
to hurry up and enjoy for a while longer the winter climate that
Luane wanted to give us. The winter style will soon be replaced
by the spring one.
Luane Meo has been giving visitors for
years now beautiful locations perfect
for photography and entertainment in
general.
The aspect of Second
Life that I have always
found wonderful is
the possibility to
travel and visit places
borrowed from the real
world and virtually
reproduced in small
masterpieces. Sites can
masterfully combine
the concrete with the
imaginary: a significant
art form - this - that
deserves to be known
by a wider audience of
virtual users.
I had been missing
from Second Life for
three years, and I must
say that I found this
beauty intact, this
constant search for
perfection on the part
of people who devote
their time to creating
very suggestive spaces.
My interest will focus
on this aspect that will
never cease to amaze
me pleasantly from
this point of view.
I will speak only of
what will succeed in
capturing my curiosity,
arousing emotions,
and satisfying my
aesthetic sense; it will
be precisely this that I
will like to share with
you readers.
My journey began in
this movie location:
Slice of Heaven.
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I happened upon it by
chance, assuming chance
can exist, and assuming
it makes sense to talk
about chance in Second
Life, where everything is
random but at the same
time everything is driven
by a fierce determinism.
I found myself in a white
winter landscape, with
a lot of snow falling and
pleasant background
music that was the frame.
Don’t imagine a place full
of objects, and so on: it
was a place bare, lonely,
cloaked in mystery,
desolate in its way, and
perhaps that was what
made it special.
A long path lined with
trees laden with snow,
due to the season,
houses, but you can also
find stores, restaurants,
and a small church at the
top of a hill where you
can gather in prayer or
look for a little peace.
Even an icy lookout
where you can skate
admiring the landscape
lit by many small
lights created a warm
atmosphere, despite the
scenario whitewashed by
snow.
Is that all?
No, because more than a
place, this is a feeling, a
place where destinies or
loneliness can cross.
You can experience the
path that leads to the
houses as a place of life
or “death”: people can
write many plots, many
stories, as the writer
does on a sheet of
white paper like snow!
Satisfying loves that
never blossomed love
that ended, lovers who
meet in secret, words
spoken, whispered or
only imagined, dreams,
silences, muffled
sounds like the snow
that falls silent on the
village and hearts...
But it could also be the
place of a family that
loves to share its space
with friends.
And I, too, carried away
by the wind of fantasy,
found myself imagining
in a dreamlike
dimension, “seeing”
myself reached in
that solitary place by
an old lover of mine,
who came to warm my
hands and my heart.
And to whisper to me
that time - at least here
- can also be stopped,
rewinding the film of
life to recover the lost
moments, sublimating
them in an immutable
and eternal present like
the winter all around,
eternally waiting to be
defeated by the flame
of love.
The owner and creator
of this beautiful place is:
LuaneMeo.
References
Teleport to Slice of
Heaven
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LADMILLA MEDIER
Ladmilla Medier,
ART
Head Column
“Art does not reflect what is seen, rather it makes the
hidden visible.”
(Paul Klee)
I don’t think that there is an absolute definition of
Art. Still, this short, famous quote represents the
path that I will propose in this section dedicated
to Art: together we will know the artists active
in Second Life and their works, we will discover
the study, the conceptual elaboration, and the
artistic technique that gave rise to the creations;
each of us will be able to listen to the whispering
stories, awaken dormant memories and provide our
interpretation, find the essence that goes beyond
the visible.
I am sure it will be a fascinating journey!
Ladmilla
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CHERRY M
Well-known artist whose works are characterized
by a strong visual and emotional impact.
A
Written by LADMILLA MEDIER
IImages by LADMILLA MEDIER
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RTIST
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CHERRY MANGA
SENSITIVENESS, TORMENT, DARK
PERFECTIONISM
“I hav
person lov
Cherry Manga is a well
known artist working
in Second Life from
long time, she always
created and still creates
impressive installations
that have a strong visual
impact and the power
to hit the observer
emotionally.
The love for nature and for
the Japanese culture made
her choose her nice virtual
name:
When I created my Second
Life account it was the
season of cherries, as I
love this fruit and I was
eating some when was
registering, I chose the
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NESS AND
e a very simple life, I am a wild
ing more Nature than human
kind”
name Cherry; the last
name had to be chosen
from a list, so I decided on
Manga and thought that
Cherry Manga could be a
good name for someone
loving Japanese culture.
She is a sensitive,
tormented, dark and
perfectionist soul as she
loves to define herself,
and her artworks show
well her temperament.
Cherry had artistic
experiences and
performances in Real
life also, despite her shy
attitude that makes her
prefer situations where
she does not have to
meet the public:
I have a very simple
life, I am a wild person
loving more Nature than
human kind, that is the
reason cause it is easier
for me to create in virtual
worlds where I do not
have to meet physically
the audience... however
I worked for a theater,
made several creations
LANDING POINT
for Real Life, did a real
live performance in 2017
with “FrancoGrid” for “Le
Hublot” in “Nice” but all
that was not comfortable
for a shy person like me.
Cherry had enough
artistic experiences in
Real and Second Life
so she can have a clear
idea of the possible
differences that can be in
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creating in these worlds;
what she thinks is very
interesting and I am in
complete agreement with
her:
There is no difference, the
computer is the medium,
the tool; movies or music
are also virtual, we cannot
touch them, we do not have
to place them in a category,
Art is art, wherever it is.
As we can see in the
creations of every true
artist, also her artworks
are free from conditioning
or standards, she puts
herself in them, her soul
and experiences:
Almost everything I create
is autobiographical,
sometimes it is more or
less evident, sometimes
is hidden; in the two past
installations is very evident
cause “Endometriosis”
is a disease I suffer
from, “Monsters” is an
installation about the
monsters I met in my life,
starting from the fears of
my childhood to the social
pressure I still experiment
each day.
Also the theme of
Human condition is very
important in most of my
creations; regarding the
actual pandemic I think
it is a natural response
to overpopulation, I
am not frightened by
the possibility to die or
lose my close relatives,
I am frightened by the
politics, by the lobbies
that are caging us in a
dystopic condition, the
future will be darker than
a pandemic. Regarding
the women condition in
particular, we have a lot
of work to do for changing
the patriarchal system,
but I must admit this is
not my main fight, and I
do not talk so much about
it in my creations.
MONSTERS
“Monsters” is an
interactive installation
that Cherry created in
a very interesting and
impressive way; when
you are at the landing
point do not miss to
activate Advanced
lightning model, to
set your Sounds on,
your Audio stream off
and to accept the Void
experience pop-up, all
that will let your avatar
animate and let you have
an immersive experience
that I will not describe
here, so you will be
surprised and will enjoy
at the best; be curious,
touch things, read local
chat, listen to the sounds
and move around.
What are those monsters?
Each one of us can find
our own monsters that
can live inside us or
torment us from the
outside, we can choose
to feed them or fight for
escaping; Cherry gives
us the best explanation
about that with her own
words:
They are the monsters
I met in my life, there
is the primal fear: “the
wolf in the wood”, there
are the ghosts or the
strange things you could
experiment when you
were a child, but also the
monsters you can meet
when adult: rape, suicide,
social pressure, domestic
violence... Why they trap
us? Because it takes time
to understand our own
fears, our weakness, and
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turn them into strenght; we
can experience the same
things many times before
recognizing the patterns and
knowing how to improve
ourselves.
Let yourself be involved in
this experience: meet the
Monsters, face their thorny
or giant shapes, walk on
narrow bridges suspended
above the void, run into
tunnels, enter mysterious
rooms, be lost in troubled
waters and enjoy the games
of lights and shadows…
you will be captivated and
impressed, but I do not need
to tell more, just go and
experience all that.
MONSTERS
THE GALLERY
Cherry has an amazing
Gallery in ADreNalin, a
Second Life region; it is an
evocative location built
with moving lines and
cubes, the color is mainly
black and white with some
tones of very soft colors,
this interesting architecture
fits perfectly Cherry’s art:
her mesh and animesh
creations, in fact, look very
vivid and living.
You can buy her art
there, some very
beautiful works are even
free or sold for a single
Linden, that shows the
great generosity of this
artist.
The style of this artist
is evolving, she likes
always to try something
new while remaining
focused on the themes
that she prefers and that
characterize her art:
I am evolving and
experimenting, but still
creating scenes almost
always dark and/or
poetic. At the moment
I am working on mixed
media and 3D printing
models for making glass
dome sculptures.
We look forward to
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enjoy her future new
creations.
Thank you Cherry for your
Art!
References
Monsters
Gallery
ADreNalin
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MONSTERS
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MONSTERS
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MONSTERS
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MONSTERS
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MONSTERS
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ADRENALIN - LANDING
POINT
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GALLERY - GLUED
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GALLERY - THE PLANT
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GALLERY - SISTERS
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GALLERY - ENDOMETRIOSIS
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GALLERY - VR WOMAN NO
ESCAPE FROM THE GRID MAN
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GALLERY - AVOIR LA MAIN
VERTE A FLEUR DE PEAU -
PAPILLON...
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VAN LOOPEN
Van Loopen,
MUSIC
Head Column
If I were not an architect in life, I would probably be a
musician.
I think in music.
I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.
Since 2009 in Second Life, I try to share this emotion
with others.
As editor and music consultant for 360 GRADI, I would
like to shed light on an often underestimated world, but
which is instead one of the main activities in the “second
life.”
The message in music arrives more efficiently at its
destination, touching the most intimate and personal
chords, without the need for other intermediaries in
communication.
In the variegated musical world of Second Life, I will
deal with emerging artists and those who are now well
established and often do not know each other well
enough.
I take advantage of this space to give some point of
reference in the music scene of Second Life because
“people consume music as if it were a handkerchief for
the nose.”
(Zucchero)
Van
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DORIAN KA
LIVE
Dorian is an Italian
singer who has been
known and appreciated
for years.
Written by VAN LOOPEN.
Images by JARLA CAPALINI
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SINGER
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DORIAN KASH
LIVE SINGER
Dorian Kash is one of those
performers/singers who where
you put him can be a guarantee
of success very naturally, with a
very wide repertoire.
Dear 360GRADI’s friends, in this
issue I will talk about an Italian
artist. The time has come, and I
can’t put it off any longer because
even the “bel paese” offers
its essential contribution to the
Essellian community of male
and female live singers.
The first characteristic I have
always noticed is that few remain
active overtime in the
physiological alternation of new
voices and historical ones, new
performers who, however, after
a while, disappear from the scene.
And this is a pity.
Perhaps this is due to the use
that we Italians habitually make
of SL. I mean, even in the music
industry (excluding DJs who are
much more constant and present),
we do our best not as a
real job but as a pure pastime,
obviously leaving out the aspect
of commitment and appointment.
Among the Italian male singers,
who have a reasonably constant
presence, I will talk today about
Dorian Kash.
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Technically he has a
voice with a strong and
warm tone, with an
innate intonation, and at
the same time manages
to create intimate
introspection in the
listener.
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I chose to start with him
because, after a period
of inactivity (the first
for him), he has recently
returned to tread the SL
lands’ stages, more motivated
than before.
And his return is an added
value for everyone,
Italian or not.
Each artist has precise
and well-defined prerogatives.
Some choose to
perform exclusively in
Italian lands, others go
beyond their borders, but
all have very different
characteristics that distinguish
them.
Dorian Kash is one of
those performers/singers
who, wherever you put
him, can be a guarantee
of success very naturally,
with an extensive repertoire.
Technically he has a
strong and warm voice,
with natural intonation,
and at the same time, he
can create intimate introspection
in the listener.
Singing is a hobby for
him, and as with all the
other hobbies he has in
RL, he puts attention to
detail and commitment to
preparation. This aspect
talks about his personality
and sensibility. But
then again, from someone
who loves to be in the
clouds, flying touring planes
and skydiving, what
can you expect if not careful
preparation in things
to manage even that
little bit of madness?
His vocal approach indicates
his repertoire and
musical preferences:
musical introspection of
Italian songs, interpretations
of international
songs between jazz, and
the bubbly American musicals.
Each evening is a musical
journey through the most
beautiful international
songs known and niche Italian.
He has fun and entertains, no
doubt about it.
From the interview he granted
us, we learn interesting
things about his personality.
It’s up to you to discover
them.
Van: Dorian, as is our practice,
we ask the artist to describe
himself to make him
better, also known in his personal
aspects. Tell us about
your origin, where you live,
hobbies, work, etc.
Dorian: Well, I am of Ligurian
origin; I come from Lerici, an
enchanting little village on
the sea between the inlets of
the Gulf of La Spezia. In front
of me is Portovenere, the gateway
to the Cinque Terre: in
short, I’m a man of the sea, a
heritage I cherish. As often
happens, however, for the
various cases of life, I found
myself living for years now
in Trento, between mountains
and snow, surrounded
no longer this time by saltiness
and anchovies, but by
the Dolomites and shin, my
other passion! Laughs! Snow
then now and lots of skiing,
when I could, one of my
favorite sports along with
martial arts, skydiving, and
piloting tourist planes. As
far as my job is concerned,
after having stopped being
a musician, after twenty ye-
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ars, between trios, duets,
bands, and work in the
studio, I now work in a
local company’s customs
office. This exciting job
leaves me time to play
the music that entered
my life as a child in the
form of a piano and has
never left.
Van: Do you remember
the first time you sang in
SL and how it happened?
Dorian: Yes, of course, it’s
a very fond memory. I had
my first night in a popular
Italian land, “Zero Moda”
at Miss Erya’s: it was extraordinary
and exciting.
I would have never thought
to get excited singing
in front of a screen, even
after many concerts and
nights in RL. I must say
that the emotion was
there, and even now, it is
always present in all my
sets. I will never stop putting
myself out there and
looking for an audience’s
excitement, even on SL.
It just so happened that
I met someone who took
me to a karaoke bar; I
never thought there was
such a thing as karaoke
on SL. People spurred
me to sing, and so, after
trying to understand
what the technical requirements
were, I began
to attend that land. I had
discovered how to have
fun with singing again. I
was then convinced to
do the first night I mentioned
earlier, by a girl,
Stupenda Flux, who put
body and soul into getting
me to pursue a singing
career in SL. So she
agreed with Erya, and
everything was born!
Van: In the panorama of
Italian singers in SL, you
have occupied an essential
space for a long
time. Is this success a
goal for you, a stimulus,
or are you not interested
in gaining consensus?
Dorian: Let’s be clear,
receiving approval is
beautiful, the applause
and the “bravo” are the
stimuli and the nourishment
of that fundamental
part of an artist
that is his narcissism.
The desire to give oneself
and be listened to
by the audience is a
more potent drug than
any other, but consensus,
when it is true, has
nothing to do with its
frantic search. The more
you chase it, the further
away it gets. The only
way to be accepted by
people is to be me, true:
certainly with the desire
to amaze, but in the end
giving myself without
EVER trying to please,
but rather opening my
soul and trying to interpret
with my heart in my
hand, naked. Then what
I feel when I sing I realize
that it comes! And
that’s when the magic
happens, whether the
audience is 100 people
or 3. All this is true for
me; I can only speak on
my behalf without thinking
of expressing who
knows what truth if not
my own.
Van: Is SL a game for
you, an opportunity to
express your talent, or
something else?
Dorian: SL, for me, has
been and is a very emotionally
involved world.
I can’t see it as a game,
but as an opportunity,
for those who want to
express themselves. Singing
in SL has allowed
me to perform pieces
that I have always loved
and that I could never
perform in RL for one
thing or another. Perhaps
yes, in that respect, it is
an opportunity.
Van: What message do
you want to convey to
others through your interpretations?
Dorian: None!!! No, I
don’t presume to give
a message—anything
more than a pleasant
hour in the company of
others. The only excep-
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tion is when I sing for
charity at the fundraiser
in favor of IKSDP Harambee
Project Gwassi Kenya
by Lorella and Lotrec and
for research against Sla
at the event Harvey by
Electra: I think this is a
way not only to send a
message of brotherhood
and love, acceptance and
participation but being
able, along with other
various artists, to change
the real lives of people
starting from a project
carried out in a virtual
world is something that
fills the heart that allows
you to achieve something
concrete and rewarding.
Van: I have known you for
many years in SL and, as
far as I have been able to
ascertain, your favorite
interpretation, thanks to
your warm voice, always
in tune and decisive, seems
to be the genre of
American Musicals, with
references to Ella Fitzgerald
and Frank Sinatra,
even if you pass from
Jazz music to Italian songwriting
with extreme
ease. So I ask you, what
is your musical influence
and knowledge in RL? Did
you do specific studies, or
did you start as a hobby?
Dorian: You hit the nail
on the head! Jazz and
swing are my musical
loves. American music
from the ‘20s on has
always fascinated me,
even before blues and
spirituals. Singing Sinatra
is lovely for me, even
if it is unreachable, but
playing with the anticipations,
returns, syncopations,
and accents of
swing with the voice is
fun. Here I have to open a
parenthesis: my classical
music studies, thanks to
the study of piano, made
me know the great music
from which everything
comes! Everything is
there! People can find
Puccini’s melody in the
great Neapolitan music
up to the traditional styles
of Italian music, especially
songwriting. We
have masterpieces in the
so-called light music that
is incredible, beautiful
poems. I think of lyrics by
singer-songwriters such
as Fossati, Dalla, De Andrè,
and De Gregori Venditti,
how many would be
worth mentioning. Finally,
the Italian Jazz trend
from Rossana Casale to
Nicola Arigliano, passing
by Sergio Cammarere and
Fabio Concato, absolute
geniuses that I love unconditionally.
Van: Would you like to
sing together with other
established singers in SL?
If so, with whom?
Dorian: Yes, I would love
to sing with anyone who
wants to! I would also
love to do a USA FOR
AFRICA type of project -
that would be cool and
interesting. As well as
bringing around repertoires
of three or four
singers: I know there is
the possibility of singing
together, but I honestly
never understood how
(technically streaming, I
mean).
Van: What is your favorite
song and why?
Dorian: O Mamma Mia,
this is the question of
the century! There are
so many masterpieces of
Italian music that deserve
mention. Still, suppose
I have to look inside. In
that case, I can tell that
the song I would have
liked to write is “when I
will be able to love” by
Giorgio Gaber: the reason
lies in the beautiful simplicity
and ability to synthesis
a text that makes
you fall in love immediately!
How he was able to
explain love in this song
is a rare gem.
Van: As already mentioned,
you mostly perform
in the Italian community.
Have you ever thought
of making yourself even
better known to the other
SL communities as well?
Which stage would you
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prefer?
Dorian: Yes, I am attracted
to sing in other
communities, and for
some time, I have done
so in American, Australian,
and Argentinean
lands, where I had built
up a repertoire of tango,
another genre that fascinates
me and that still
accompanies me in my
evenings. Unfortunately,
Italian singers abroad are
tied to clichés that condition
their repertoire, so I
found myself once again
singing pieces that I didn’t
feel were mine and
therefore pleasing rather
than exciting, and this is
not for me. Never say never
anyway.
Van: Dorian, while thanking
you for your availability,
I’m going to open
a little personal joke. I
admire your eclecticism
of private interests, including
flying in RL touring
planes and skydiving. I’m
curious when you’re in
command of your aircraft,
do you sing happily in the
cockpit, as I would sing in
the shower?
Dorian: Absolutely yes,
when I’m alone though,
because if I’m taking someone
for pleasure, I’m
a serious and professional
pilot...but alone...I go
wild!! And land with no
voice!
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LISTEN DORIAN KASH
WHILE SINGING
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MISOINDITE ROMANO
Misoindite Romano,
FASHION
Head Column
I’ll make a short presentation of myself without wanting
to bore anyone.
I thank Oema and Van for giving me this space in their
Magazine.
Misoindite Romano, Miso for everyone (or almost), a
model I think since always, I’ve never done anything but
modeling and fashion show.
Many people smile about this work in SL, unaware that
a world of people and linden is going around on this
activity. Stylists and agencies of various nationalities
would not exist if there were no models or bloggers.
I have 12 years of Second Life behind me, a lot of
passion, and accurate work on my personality and my
avatar, which I try to represent in the best way.
My task will be to keep you informed, perhaps making
you want to accompany me in the field of fashion in SL.
Miso
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VALENTINA E
DESIG
Written by OEMA.
Images by JARLA CAPALINI.
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NER
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VALENTINA
E.
Valentina E, is a well-known brand
in the Second Life fashion scene. The
store is frequented by, among others,
the Italian community.
I discovered Valentina E.’s
store just a few months ago at
an event where participating
brands were putting a garment
on sale for the price of L$60.
I also remember the garment
I bought and the feeling of
unusual familiarity when I first
landed at Valentina’s store.
Maybe it’s because the name is
Italian, or perhaps it’s because
the store’s style and the clothes
on offer “fit like a glove” my
needs for class and originality,
Valentina Evangelista’s store is
one of the ones I visit the most.
So I decided to interview her
on the occasion of releasing
this issue of 360GRADI and
getting to know her better.
Among other things, Valentina
Evangelista is also very much
appreciated by Jarla Capalini,
the magazine’s photographer
and head of the photography
department.
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Valentina E. is an original
brand that knows how to
present its own unique style.
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I noticed that the store
is very well known and
appreciated by the Italian
community, maybe
because of the brand
name. However, Valentina
is not Italian, so English is
the preferred language if
you want to communicate
with her.
Let’s see how to make her
acquaintance.
Oema: How long you
create clothes for Second
Life, and how have you
started? (did you already
know the software you
use for creating?)
Valentina Evangelista:
I’ve been making mesh
clothes in Second Life for
about ten years. I had a
few friends working fulltime
as content creators
in SL, and the idea
seemed very appealing.
I’d spent most of my
working life in the field
of visual presentation,
so design wasn’t new to
me. However, my skill
set didn’t include any of
the programs required
to model, texture, and
animate mesh. With a
bit of direction from my
before mentioned design
friends, I began teaching
myself how to create
Second Life clothing.
This was a painfully slow
process filled with a lot
of trial and error. My
early creations are pretty
hilarious to look back on,
but I am proud of myself
for sticking with it and
getting to the point that
I now love wearing my
own designs. That said,
education never ends
with content creation.
There are always ways to
improve, and I still want
to do so much more and
learn.
Second Life is such a
wonderful platform for
design. If you’re willing
to put in the time and
effort, the opportunities
are endless. It’s one of
the reasons, so many of
us love SL.
Oema: Your style is
unique, and as several
people tell about your
brand, you are original,
and you don’t copy
from anyone. Do you
find inspiration in RL
magazines or others?
Valentina Evangelista:
I’ve tried to find a bit of
a niche in the SL market
and, most importantly,
to make things I want
to wear. I am definitely
inspired by real-life
designers, pop culture,
etc., but also by the holes
in my SL wardrobe. If you
can’t find what you want
to wear, you just have to
make it!
All fashion and art
are derivative and
collaborative somehow,
but you always make
something your own
when you go from an
idea in your head to the
final product. Sometimes
I surprise myself when
I start to make one
thing and end up with
something completely
different!
Oema: You make clothes
by yourself, or is there
someone else you want
to mention about your
brand?
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Valentina Evangelista:
Valentina E. is a onewoman
show, which is
why I am not always able
to offer as many sizes
and options as I’d like.
I do everything from
designing, modeling,
texturing, rigging,
packaging, promoting,
and customer service.
I’m fortunate that I do
have one person helping
my brand in a significant
way. Lori Matthews has
been shooting my ads for
some time now and does
such an excellent job
showcasing my designs.
She’s such a talented
photographer and has a
fantastic sense of style. I
can send her anything to
shoot, and she’ll take it to
the next level.
Oema: What suggestions
would you give to
someone who wants to
start making clothes in
SL? You would suggest
joining some specific
course, learning following
youtube video tutorials,
or other?
Valentina Evangelista:
If you’re willing to put
in the time and the
work, you can learn how
to create high-quality
content for Second Life.
It’s not something you
can do overnight, but
everything is out there if
it’s something you want
to pursue.
Many fantastic paid
courses will teach you
character creation, mesh
modeling, etc. Paying
for formal instruction
will likely increase the
speed at which you
learn. However, that’s
not the only route. I
am pretty much selftaught
via Youtube and
various other free, online
tutorials. There are also
loads of inworld creator
groups and discussion
boards on the Second
Life website that are very
helpful.
Regarding programs, you
can spend thousands of
dollars buying amazing
software for all aspects
of mesh creation, but you
don’t need to. Blender is
a free program that will
cover much of what you
need to do, and there
are plenty of tutorials
available. That should
be the starting point for
most people.
If you decide to dive
into content creation for
Second Life, I wish you
the very best of success
with your efforts. It is
lots of work, but it’s lots
of fun as well. The world
is at your feet, and your
imagination can take you
anywhere.
References
Valentina E. Store
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JARLA CAPALINI
Jarla Capalini,
PHOTOGRAPHY
Head Column
Writing with light, from the Greek φῶς, φωτός, “light” and
γραϕία, “writing”, this is “photography”.
Now I know that talking about photography in Second
Life will surely make purists curl their noses or smile at
the most benevolent professionals and enthusiasts. Still,
once there were film and exposure meter, then came
digital cameras and files today. We also use phones to take
pictures, and thanks (maybe) to them, photography is now
within everyone’s reach.
Here then is that a “viewer,” with all its peculiarities
techniques can become a perfect means to “write” with the
virtual “light” the encounter between the subject and the
eye of the photographer, from which a new possible vision
is born.
The imagination of reality, albeit virtual.
This one we will do in our journey among the
photographers of Second Life: we will talk about
technique, composition, inspiration and
passion, hoping to convince skeptics that our images,
although depicting a world of pixels,
can rightly be considered “photography.”
Jarla
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SADYCAT
LITTLEPAW
SadyCat is a blogger, blogger manager and successful
photographer.
Written by JARLA CAPALINI.
Images by SADYCAT.
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BLOGGER
SADYCAT
SadyCat Littlepaws has been working
in the Second Life fashion industry for
several years and is one of the most
trusted bloggers in the virtual world.
SadyCat Littlepaws has been
working in Second Life fashion
industry for several years
and she is one of the most
accredited bloggers of the
virtual world. Photography for
fashion is her daily bread and
we want to try to snatch some
secrets from her. Of course, she
is more than this so let’s meet
her and have a little chat.
Jarla: How was your start in
second life?
Sady: A real life friend pestered
me every day for 2 weeks until
one night when I couldn’t sleep,
I gave it a try. That was in Nov
2006 and I’ve been here ever
since. She didn’t last six months.
(chuckles)
Jarla: When did you get into
photography and what attracted
you.
Sady: I think my love for
photography came from real life.
I used to take tons of pictures in
RL, even photo shoots with my
friends and this was well before
the days of Instagram and other
social media.
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As a blogger manager she has the
difficult task of selecting the best
bloggers.
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Jarla: Have you blogged
about both decor
and fashion, do they
technically have points
in common or are they
two completely different
things?
Sady: I have blogged
both. I was told I should
really focus on one genre
for the longest time and
I wanted to prove I could
do both. And I did, but
I got to the point that
I couldn’t keep up the
pace. Blogging decor
is very different and
in my opinion, more
challenging. It takes a lot
longer, that’s for sure.
Jarla: What made you
choose to dedicate
yourself only to fashion
... apart from the passion
that every woman has for
clothes?
Sady: I just didn’t have
the time to create the
decor scenes anymore.
I still love doing decor
and will create scenes for
my fashion shots, but to
give decor the attention
it deserves...well, I just
don’t have that kinda
time. Plus, I hate tearing
down my scenes. (smiles)
Jarla: It seems that the
way of doing the fashion
blogger has changed in
recent years, now all is
more about photography
and not about writing.
“ I’ve been
involved in both
furniture and
fashion”
SadyCat
What do you think about
it?
Sady: I think fashion has
always been more of a
visual industry. When
bloggers write, some
talk about their lives...
some talk about the
items. To be fair, I think
talking about the items
and fashion is really the
way to go, but I struggle
with that. I honestly
don’t know that more
than a handful of people
actually read my blog.
Jarla: When there is a
new release, how do you
organize all the work to
get to the shot?
Each shot is different. I
get ideas when I see the
item(s), but sometimes a
shot takes on a life of its
own. I tend to jot down
my ideas on post it notes
and I have hot pink flags
framing my monitor.
Sometimes I’ll sit on an
idea for months.
Jarla: How much do you
work on your photos after
saving the shot?
Sady: It depends on what
I’m going for, but I do like
the play with the lighting
and getting a clear shot
of what I’m trying to
showcase.
Jarla: Are you always
satisfied with the result
you get?
Sady: I’d like to say that
I never publish a photo
that I’m not happy with,
but there are times that
time is of the essence and
I need to get ‘something’
published. I am happy
with most of my photos,
but every once in a while,
I do one and I’m just like...
ugh, hate it. Of course,
it’s those photos that
everyone seems to love.
LOL
Jarla: How important is a
well-made avatar for the
success of a photo?
Sady: In my opinion,
it’s imperative. I’m not
a good enough photo
editor to make a system
avi look fantastic in
Photoshop. I don’t draw
anything. The most I do is
enhance things to being
focus. I’m not a magician.
Jarla: A fashion photo
must obviously highlight
the creation for which it
is made, but according
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to you what is the thing
or things that catch the
public’s attention?
Sady: Lighting and colour
choices make a huge
difference, next is the
pose. You can showcase
a top if your arms are full
of flowers and food. You
can’t showcase a skin if
you’re covered in tattoos
and heavy cosmetics. You
can’t properly showcase
a skirt if you’re sitting
down.
Jarla: How important is
the artistic element in a
fashion photo?
Sady: The better the
photo, the more people
will want to look at it. At
the same time, I think its
important for brands to
have different types of
bloggers. For instance,
a brand like Vinyl or
Blueberry...they make
clothes that look great
on everyone, but the
individual style is going
to give viewers ideas. So,
its good to have some
dark/gothic like artists
on their teams to show
how their items can be
versatile. You got your
sex kittens and your
urban girls and your
basic girls (this is not an
insult btw). The more
versatile your team,
the more versatility
gets showcased and
can appeal to a bigger
audience.
Jarla: Speaking of
brands… Besides being
a blogger, you are also
a blogger manager for
major brands in SL, I
guess you also select the
bloggers: what are the
requirements they must
have as photographers?
Sady: The number
one thing I look for is
exposure. People get
sooo mad about this, but
the truth is... the whole
point of having bloggers
is to have the products
seen by as many people
as possible. Blogging is
advertising. So, obviously,
I’m looking for polished
photographers with as
much reach as possible.
Like it or not, blogging is
a numbers game. We’re
not just handing out free
products. We agree to
give you these items if
you agree to promote
them. It’s that simple.
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Jarla: Would you like
to share one of your
“secret” about SL
photography with us?
Sady: I don’t know that I
have a secret, per se. I get
inspired by others and
experiment a lot. If you
look at my Flickr, you’ll
see that I’m all over the
place.
Jarla: Your “best” flaw?
Sady: Uhm... I have
so many. I’m not sure
which is the “best”. I
guess I’d say that my
experimentation has
kept me from a lot of
teams, because I lack a
consistent look. However,
I’m not ever going to stop
trying new things. Not
sure if that’s a flaw, really.
“I don’t know if I
have a secret. I get
inspired by others and
experiment a lot”
SadyCat
References
Flickr
Blog
Instagram
Facebook
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A special thanks
Special thanks to our loyal readers who
put the magazine kiosk on their land:
Lee Olsen
LUNDY ART GALLERY
Tia Rungray
STRUKTURO
-Ñïéü- (nieuwenhove)
NOIR’WEN CITY
Dixmix source
DixMix Art Gallery
Anelie Abeyante
La Maison d’Aneli
Ilyra Chardin (ilyra.chardin)
Emergent Gallery
LIV (ragingbellls)
Raging Graphix Gallery
Michiel Bechir
Michiel Bechir Gallery at Embrace
Michiel Art Cafe
Hermes Kondor
Viktor Savior de Grataine (viktorsavior)
SHINY (narayanraja)
Bohemio Love
Jaz (Jessamine2108)
Art Promotion
Camp Italia
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CHOSEN ON
SL PHOTO
“inside me ”
MIna Arcana
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FLICKR
GRAPHERS
Editor’s Choice.
Gorgeous
photographs
seen on
360 GRADI
Magazine’s Flickr
group.
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Lilith
Geordie
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Anto Haiku
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Santra
Seranno
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Alba
Silverfall
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Elaine
Lectar
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ROXANNE
MISS V
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ERROR 404 -
NOT BOUND
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AshleyAlyson Yexil
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Lidiane
Miller
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Santra
Seranno
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Lilith
Geordie
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ROXANNE
MISS V.
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Lidiane
Millerll
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Santra
Seranno
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Lidiane
Miller
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Santra
Seranno
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Mina Arcana
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Thanks for reading,
we hope you enjoyed
this issue.
Copyrighted. All rights
reserved.
We are not affiliated to
Linden Lab.
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360 GRADI Magazine,
write to:
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