Teatro Barocco Italiano. Paradigmi della Scena e della Memoria Culturale

Acronym: SCAENAE

Description

The SCAENAE project was conceived with the aim of documenting, studying, enhancing, and disseminating the artistic and cultural heritage of Italian Baroque theatre, with a particular focus on scenography, stage machinery, and the evolution of Italian opera. This theatrical tradition, which was exported throughout Europe, played a central role in shaping modern stage aesthetics and scenographic techniques.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, the project integrates expertise from architecture, performing arts, semantic modeling, virtual and augmented reality, with the goal of creating an advanced knowledge model. This model will enable the digital reconstruction of Baroque theatres, stage sets, and now-lost scenic mechanisms, offering an innovative resource for research and dissemination.

Objectives and Methodology

The project develops along two main directions:

1. Creation of a knowledge model:  an integrated database that collects and structures information from historical sources, drawings, librettos, and digital archives.
2. Community inclusion and participation: through a collaborative digital platform that allows users to interact with 3D reconstructions and scientific content.

The research units involved, including CNR ISPC, Sapienza University of Rome, and IUAV University of Venice, collaborate in integrating Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM), semantic modeling, and interactive simulations to provide immersive access to historical data.

Expected results

• A digital archive of Baroque theatre with a philological cataloging of sources.
• Virtual reconstructions of Baroque theatres and scenography in augmented and virtual reality.
• An international glossary of 17th-century performing arts terminology.
• An interoperable information system, accessible to both the scientific community and the general public.

SCAENAE si inserisce nelle iniziative per la digitalizzazione e la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale, con un impatto significativo non solo per la ricerca accademica, ma anche per la divulgazione e la fruizione del teatro barocco attraverso nuove tecnologie.