Cognitive Awareness is a project that merges visual art, live performance, and augmented reality to explore the impact of artificial intelligence on human identity and behavior. The work unfolds in three visual phases—submission, awareness, and liberation—portrayed through professional dancers posed on pedestals, encircled by red rings and lines that symbolize algorithmic control.

Each image is enhanced by augmented reality through the ARTIVIVE app, allowing the viewer to experience the work in motion, deepening the narrative and transforming a static image into an immersive, interactive encounter. This technological integration turns the artwork into a living experience, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital realms. Aesthetically, the project draws inspiration from the dramatic use of light and shadow seen in Caravaggio’s work, blending classical visual language with contemporary conceptual symbolism.

Cognitive Awareness was exhibited in Rome, in the evocative setting of the Antica Cartaria Latina on the historic Appian Way—an environment that further amplified the dialogue between past and future, substance and data, silence and movement. It stands as one of Alessandro Risuleo’s most emblematic and technologically advanced projects, reflecting his commitment to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression in the age of digital consciousness.