Synthetic avatars, deepfakes and generative tools make one question more urgent: how can a digital image retain a meaningful connection to a human presence? At Cybel’Art, technology matters when it supports an encounter with a real artist rather than trying to replace one. That is the thread running through We Humanize Digital. and our work as an agency for amplified opportunities.
Preserving a gesture, not simulating its author
Created in 2019, the icologram® protocol brings together volumetric capture, augmented reality and distribution to give a digital form to a real person’s presence. Its purpose is not to manufacture a generated performance. It starts with a gesture, expression and performance captured with the artist. A digital record does not thereby become a replacement for the person or for the context in which the work was made.
Projects involving Philippe Entremont, Henri Dès and John Howe point to different artistic practices and audiences. They share a question: how can a work or performance continue through immersive media without removing the author who gives it meaning? The icologram® area introduces this work at the meeting point of art, volumetric practice and augmented reality.
An immersive stage in service of performers
Virtual Hall® applies the same attention to the symphonic concert. Its first public trials with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) began in January 2025; its EMS presentation belongs to 2026. The project credits must remain visible: the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) and Real Illusions.
The immersive experience conveys an orchestral performance and the space around it; it is not intended to substitute an avatar for that performance. What is operational here is an immersive concert experience. The announced vision is to explore new ways of bringing audiences closer to musical performance, without suggesting universal availability or making promises about what virtual media can replace. Further work can be found in our work.
Digital tools, human responsibilities
In current references, the .icolo strand is named .icolo SA. It brings together icologram®, icolocard® and icolocoin® around an intention: to consider rights and value for holographic content. That direction does not, by itself, guarantee control, revenue or the long-term future of a digital presence. It instead calls for clear choices by creators and their partners.
Humanizing digital is not about rejecting emerging technologies. It is about deciding when they support a work, a relationship and a performance—and when they risk reducing them to appearance.
Editorial adaptation of the article by Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu, originally published on Substack on 30 June 2026. Read the original article on Substack