STEFANO FAKE & THE FAKE FACTORY “LIQUID COLOURS” (digital version) – 2012 > today — An Immersive Art Installation

Liquid Colours (2012), created by Stefano Fake and The Fake Factory, is an immersive art installation in which spectators are enveloped by a continuous videoprojection of evolving chromatic fields and fluid forms. The work abandons fixed pictorial composition in favor of dynamic visual flux, producing an environment that is both sensorially overwhelming and aesthetically contemplative.

At its core, the installation functions as an expanded field of color: the projection surfaces dissolve the boundaries of the exhibition space, creating a seamless, immersive continuum. Within this continuum, abstract shapes emerge, transform, and dissolve, echoing organic processes such as flow, mutation, and metamorphosis. The resulting aesthetic experience situates the viewer within a living chromatic organism, one that resists stasis and instead privileges perpetual transformation.

From a phenomenological perspective, Liquid Colours emphasizes embodied perception. The spectator is not positioned as an external observer of an image but rather as a subject immersed in an atmospheric field of light and color. This aligns with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theorization of perception as situated, embodied, and inseparable from spatial experience. The spectator’s bodily presence within the projection environment is constitutive of the work, as perception itself becomes the site of aesthetic realization.

In terms of digital aesthetics, the installation foregrounds the generative capacity of video projection to produce continuous transformation. Unlike traditional visual art forms, which rely on permanence and materiality, Liquid Colour privileges ephemerality, flux, and immateriality. Here, color is not applied to a canvas but exists as light in motion, unfolding in real time across architectural space. The artwork thus destabilizes the distinction between object and environment, transforming exhibition space into an experiential landscape.

Ultimately, Liquid Colours exemplifies The Fake Factory’s broader artistic philosophy: to dissolve the boundaries between art and spectator, image and environment, physical presence and perceptual field.

The early 2000s marked the crystallization of immersive art as a distinct artistic practice, driven by advances in video projection, digital animation, and interactive technologies. While earlier 20th-century avant-gardes had experimented with spatial environments (e.g., environments of the 1960s, light art of the 1970s), the advent of high-resolution projection systems and computer-generated animation enabled artists to transform entire architectural spaces into dynamic, multisensory environments.

In contrast to traditional art forms, where the artwork is framed and external to the spectator, immersive art envelops the viewer, placing them inside the work. Walls, ceilings, and sometimes floors become projection surfaces, and digital animations introduce perpetual transformation into the experience. This results in a mode of art that is total, atmospheric, and experiential, often described as “stepping inside a painting” or “being absorbed into a visual and sonic world.”

Digital projection and animation allow for artworks that are not fixed but continually evolving. This emphasis on flux and impermanence contrasts with the material stability of painting or sculpture. By integrating architecture, sound, and light, immersive art collapses the boundaries between artistic disciplines, aligning with theories of the “expanded field” of art.

Artists such as Stefano Fake, founder of The Fake Factory, have been central to the development and popularization of immersive art.

Fake’s practice emphasized site-specific projection environments that transformed entire spaces into sensorial landscapes. His installations blurred distinctions between observer and participant, often positioning the audience as integral to the unfolding of the artwork. 

Immersive art, as pioneered by Stefano Fake and contemporaries, represents a decisive shift in artistic production and reception:

• From object-based art to experience-based art.
• From fixed materiality to dynamic digital flux.
• From passive spectatorship to active participation and co-creation.

It reflects broader cultural changes in the early 21st century: the rise of digital technologies, the growing emphasis on experiential culture, and the reconfiguration of art as an event rather than an object. Immersive art, born at the turn of the 21st century through the use of video projections and digital animation, has transformed the way we conceive artistic experience. Artists such as Stefano Fake played a foundational role in this innovation, not only pioneering the technical and aesthetic possibilities of immersive installations but also redefining the role of the spectator.