Cinema has always been a vehicle of stories and emotions, an art form that goes beyond a simple projection of moving images. It offers a complete experience that calls into play all the senses and which in recent years is not only becoming more and more engaging and immersive, but is also adapting to a new digital tool: the metaverse. This fusion between the cinematic world and virtual immersion is inevitably redefining the way we experience and appreciate cinematic works. A pioneer in this journey is the Turin National Cinema Museum, which is leading the way in integrating cinema into the metaverse.
The metaverse, often associated with virtual worlds and augmented reality, offers cinema new possibilities for involvement and interaction. It is no longer about simply sitting in a dark room watching a film, as its evolution has made it possible to completely immerse yourself in fantastic worlds, interact with characters and experience emotions more intensely.
The Turin Cinema Museum has thus embraced this new frontier by landing in the metaverse and presented its virtual spaces on The Nemesis, the entertainment platform offering innovative virtual reality experiences. Through virtual exhibitions and interactive events, the museum is bringing cinema into digital worlds, making its rich collection accessible and promoting film culture in an innovative way. This approach not only reaches a global audience, but also introduces new forms of artistic expression and participation. Cinema in the metaverse becomes a collaborative experience, where viewers can share and discuss their experiences in real time, going beyond the passivity of the traditional observer.
The preservation of cinematic history takes on a central role in this context. For this reason the Turin Cinema Museum is committed to digitizing historical archives, ensuring that cinematic works from the past are accessible to future generations both through traditional cinema and the metaverse.
In this new chapter of the cinematographic experience, where the metaverse proves to be fertile ground for innovation and creativity, the Turin Cinema Museum wants to demonstrate how the convergence between cinema and the metaverse is not just a step towards the future, but an opportunity to open new horizons in the world of cinematographic art.
Here's what Domenico De Gaetano, director, of the National Cinema Museum of Turin thinks about it:
How do you think the metaverse is influencing the cinematic experience?
As observers of new cultural practices linked to the use of audiovisual content, we note a considerable but still evolving impact of the metaverse on the cinematographic experience and probably still to be measured in a systematic way. With interaction mechanics very close to those of gaming, and a language related to cinema, the metaverse can be an opportunity to extend the viewer's experience in relation to audiovisual content, for example to increase the rate of community engagement by launching a film title with "phygital" marketing strategies. Furthermore, it can be a perimeter of exchange, meeting and co-creation of value by creatives from the broadest sectors, opening new paths to the creator economy.
   Â
How are new cinematographic experiences structured?
The Museum's perspective is to "musealise" the recent experiences and practices of enjoying cinema and cinematographic culture. Similarly to what happened with virtual reality, to which since 2021 the Museum, in collaboration with RAI Cinema, has dedicated two rooms with continuous programming of cinematographic content and more. For the metaverse, the process is similar: questioning the language and culturally mediating the visitor's experience. The objective is to offer the visitor a satisfying experience whether he is an expert user or has no experience of embodiment in virtual environments with virtual representations, the so-called "avatars". Obviously, as a cultural institution, we cannot lose sight of our mission of enhancing cultural heritage and, in this sense, we are interested in hosting the "edutainment" potential that the metaverse offers.
What contribution do these new technologies make to the Turin Cinema Museum?
We are attentive to the possibilities that new technologies, with a focus on immersive ones, offer for preservation. These can have interesting uses not as the digitalisation of memorabilia and the many physical assets we hold. Immersive technologies can also be used to simulate particularly complex restoration interventions, but it is not certain that they are right for us and our vast heritage. This is why our posture must not translate into excessive and uncritical technophilia or enthusiasm, but rather adopt innovative techniques only if they are actually functional.