Synthetic media, generative algorithms and deepfakes are prompting the cultural sector to define authenticity with greater care. Can a digital representation remain connected to the presence of a person? That question stood at the centre of Verbier Festival TALKS 2025, whose announced speakers included Steve Roger, CEO of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and Cybel’Art founder Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu.
Capture rather than synthesis
Cybel’Art’s response follows its signature: “We Humanize Digital.” The point is not to declare a virtual image authentic by default. It is to document a real performance rather than construct an approximation of one. The icologram® protocol is based on volumetric capture of an artist. The resulting presence begins with that artist’s performance, movements and expressions in space.
This matters when compared with avatars generated from datasets. It does not mean that every technical step is free of AI tools; it identifies the representation’s starting point: a recorded performance, rather than simulated behaviour. Technology does not remove questions of context, consent and attribution. It makes careful treatment of them more important.
An immersive experience, not a replacement for a concert
Virtual Hall® demonstrates that orientation through an operational immersive format. For the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra’s twentieth anniversary, Cybel’Art proposed an experience based on volumetric capture of the ensemble, inviting audiences to take a viewpoint from within the orchestra. The aim is not to replace a concert hall with a screen or headset, but to explore another form of closeness to a performance.
The OSR Virtual Hall® project, developed with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, also credits Real Illusions. It offers a related reference point for considering how such experiences can support musical mediation. Further projects can be found in our work.
Making trust a creative concern
Verbier’s TALKS underline that music’s digital future cannot be reduced to a visual feat. Artists, institutions and audiences need to understand what was captured, by whom, and under what conditions a presence is being shown. That is also part of Cybel’Art’s role as an agency for amplified opportunities.
Here, Virtual Hall® refers to concrete immersive work. By contrast, the “verified digital humanity” ambition associated with the .icolo SA ecosystem is an announced direction; it should not be read as a claim that a certification or automated verification service is already available. “Can virtual be genuine?” is therefore not a final guarantee, but a useful test: put the artist and the work before simulation.
Editorial adaptation of the article by Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu, originally published on Substack on 7 July 2026. Read the original article on Substack